snakes

The night sky was a matte black canvas that stretched across the sky, and the stars were tiny pinpricks of light that dotted the skyscape. The Thames rustled quietly against its banks. A lone silhouette ran along the side of the river, nothing but a shadow against the mix of Victorian buildings, and the newer, more modern buildings. The scroll of paper was clutched under an arm, and the man streaked across the moonlit road and into the shadows that clung to the base of the buildings like wet black cotton.

The man’s eyes darted left, and right, and then focused on a particular section of the building. The shadow seemed to writhe, and another man detached himself from the paintwork. The gravelly voice of the second man grated, like nails on a blackboard. “Do you have it? You know what happens if you steal the counterfeit… again.” A bead of cold sweat dribbled down the first man’s face. He knew what the Cobra was capable of. And he knew the authority that the Cobra’s right hand man, viper, and his snakes held. Heck. If they wanted, they could control all the politically important people in the country. The gleaming scar on his wrist shone in the moonlight, reminding him of the bite of the Cobra, a hot iron branded repeatedly onto the exact same spot, with the two pointed and barbed ends puncturing, and exciting the subcutaneous nerves, the most painful method of torture. He had endured it for twenty times a day. Now he was a snake, one of the most influential people in the crime scene, and he had the real Mona Lisa under his arm. Viper snatched the painting from him, and examined it with a specially designed light sensitive scanner. There was a pregnant pause as the Viper stared obsessively at the painting. Then, he rolled it up, and pressed a wad of hundred dollar bills into the first man’s hand, then, clutching the ancient paper, he disappeared into the shadows again.
















Chapter 1
That was two nights ago. The snake wound itself around the woody stem in the mansion garden, a harmless grass snake, and a tiny one at that. Harper, the first man, crept through the bushes, gingerly lifting up the snake, and set it on the ground gently. The blue black tongue flickered in and out of the snake’s mouth as the sinuous body began its peculiar advancing two-step. Harper pressed a button on his watch, and watched as the button popped out into a string, with the main metal piece as a handle. Ready, he slipped noiselessly around the corner. The guard was asleep and snoring peacefully. Harper gave a small sigh of relief, and then tensed, as the guard snorted and stirred. Harper pulled the string tight, and waited. The guard tossed in his chair a few times, then continued snoring peacefully. He walked around the corner, and stepped through the massive wrought iron doors. The corridor was pitching black, with nothing, not a soul in sight. Harper stepped forward, his heart pounding, and waited. There was the almost inaudible hum of a projector somewhere. He reached back into his pocket and scooped out a generous amount of chalk dust out. He aimed, and then curved his arm in an arc, hurling the chalk dust into the air. There was a tiny explosion of dust, and then Harper dusted the chalk off his hands, stepped back, took a short run forward, and then leaped acrobatically into the air. His golden auburn hair nearly touched the tiny beams of lasers that crisscrossed the room. He landed in the “crane” style, fingers and legs barely touching the beams. He flipped again, weaving through the laser beams perfectly, as though he had been trained to do so. Then, there was the sparkling gem in the middle of the room. CCTVs swiveled, pivoted, and a robot sentry stood outside the door. Harper looked it over. The model was extremely new, and he hadn’t had the time to figure out where the off button was. He drew out a spike, a glistening metal piece, capable for use as both a weapon and a hacking device. He slowly unplugged the robot from its charging cradle, and then as it started to power up, he jammed the spike into the back socket. The robot juddered, jerked, then, with a soft mechanical whine, it shut down. When it rebooted, there would be absolutely no trace of the code that had been injected into it, or the last five minutes of the recording for the day. He had to act fast. He ran in, stuck the spike into the control panel, and then watched as the system began to shut down. Before it did, however, he ran in, grabbed the jewels, and yanked the spike out, and ran.

The snake looked surreptitiously around, and then crept forward. Robotic sentries, and a few guard dogs… the owner of the safe was extremely cautious, and who could blame him? All the spate of burglaries, and not heavily protect your belongings? That was insane. But he had a task ahead of him, and he would not be stopped. Raising a tiny pistol, he brought it to bear, in the cross-armed style taught to him in the SAS. The robot sentry moved into the tiny sight, and then he fired. The micro bullet slashed through the titanium vanadium alloy like hot knife into warm butter. The robot collapsed. The man did the calculations. If each robot was programmed to overlap their rounds by 10 seconds… that meant he only had a few seconds to drag their downed companion into the darkened side alley before the rest noticed. Not that it mattered anyway. He was a specialist in stealth and would not alert them. He dragged the robot away. There was nothing but the rustling of the grass while the seamlessly smooth metal glided over it. There was a small window near the edge of the building, and it was through this window that the man climbed through. There were several well painted portraits on the wall, each with an ominous pair of emerald green eyes. The man sweated beads of cold sweat as the pairs of eyes seemed to bore down on him. He crept down the hallway, and raised the pistol to the snoring guard’s head. With a muffled bang, the guard’s grey matter splattered all over the table. The neat bullet hole smoked as the tiny bullet exited. The man lit a cigarette he found in the man’s pocket, and then puffed the smoke out in a glowing ember. The cigarette butt glowed, a tiny orange luminance in the darkness of the room. Then, the ash grey smoke wafted out in front of him. Nothing. No lasers, no booby traps. Unbelievable. The man strolled forward, pistol in hand. Then, the lights lit up the entire area. At the same time, the man felt a string press on his leg. A trip mine. He heard a soft electronic beep. Damn. Time primed. And by the sound of the quickening beeps, he only had 5 more seconds before the thing blew, and took half the building with it. he gently removed his foot from the mine, and leaned down if he was wrong, his life would end right here, right now. He pulled at the waist pouch, and then removed a small cutter. He then started and clipped the yellow wire. Much to his relief, the tiny mine stopped beeping, and then gave a tiny hiss, as the circuit overloaded. So long as he didn’t touch the tripwire, then he would be safe. Slowly, he threaded his way through the maze of wires

Reviews

[The_Dreamer]

A lovely story! Suspense was done very well, it kept me gripped till the end.

One thing though, is that in the last paragraph, "The snake looked surreptitiously around, and then crept forward" it was not really clear who the 'snake' referred to. It might be a good idea to add some names here...or maybe you have another plan in mind?

[Undying Glory]

vivid and gripping work. i would suggest though that this be a book or something, if you're planning on putting chapters. on the whole good job