from an opera house

The opera was a dull roar above me, muffled orchestra shaking the dust from the rafters. I smiled a little at the thought of running around the basement of an opera house like some phantom. The roles we find ourselves playing for other people.

I checked the rifle for the tenth time and saw the readout blink a dull green, everything was still fine. The gun made me nervous, I was an expert with a lot of weapons but this new ordinance never seemed to feel right to me, something about the light plastic frame and the lack of recoil or sound. Made it seem less real when you blow the spine out of someone, killing shouldn't be easy and when you make it this simple it looses what little meaning it had to start with.

So the gun was fine and the vest was still snug beneath my jacket and suit, just another audience member, lost and confused, oh this rifle well you see I found it in the hallway.
The cymbals clashed above and the rolling drums sounded like heavenly thunder as I checked behind every pillar and chest, it was somewhere around here, if the gun was in the right place so was the detonator. There, under a dress and behind the stand, a cell phone with a red piece of tape on the back. Into my pocket and I started my way back up the stairs.

The smile was gone and all the sound around me condensed and faded away as the blood pounded in my ears for a long moment, adrenaline made my legs shake and all the old familiar feelings washed over me in a tingling wave.

A shadow passing down the stairs, I fell against a pillar and held my breath, a guard wearing a crisp black suit, a long white cord going from his ear to his belt, that radio was more dangerous than anything else he might have strapped to his person. A crackle and the guard put his finger into his ear,
"All clear, next update in ten."

When his finger came away with a pop of static I leaned out and pulled the trigger, the long shell popped into the air and the man fell backwards, a hot searing hole where his face used to be. I caught the shell with one hand and put it in the same pocket as the detonator. Ten minutes to get in position and push the button.

A bomb job usually means someone high up in power needs to be liquidated, an assasination can be spun by any faction of the parliment so there's no guarantee a clean kill will send the right message to the right people. So a little terrorism to spook everyone and then behind closed doors a shifting of players, and then another job for me a little while down the road.
It was perverse the way they played games with people lives, bullets instead of votes and suffering instead of debate.

I patted down the guard and removed his keys, I knew which one would quietly open the emergency exit. Up the stairs and through the stairwell, still no one in my way. Lucky me.
Breathing to steady my heart I leaned the gun against the wall and opened the door, the smell of an opera house washed over me. Velvet and mahogany, burboun and cologne. A woman was in the midst of a solo, I could have fired a shotgun and no one would have heard me, I walked down the hall and past the curtains that would lead me into the concert hall. A guard stepped in front of me, I didn't see him before.
"Sir, can you please..."

He didn't try to shoot me so he didn't suspect me of anything, my hand snapped out and he fell over dead, his throat collapsed, eyes rolling back into his head and a shudder that could twist bones from their socket. That is how you kill a man, no guns, no recoil-less future rifles, just the flat of my hand and deadly intent.

Now that the guard was on the ground I had to move fast, I turned and ran through the box office, the floor was a deep red wood and the walls were covered with posters for coming shows. A pair of guards saw my haste and moved to intercept me, I spun and ran past them both, a few shouts of alarm and I felt more than heard the bullet pass by my ear.
A hard shoulder against the doors and I was in the cold air of Russia in December. I looked at the white moon as it shined through the frozen sky, ice crystals forming a halo of yellow light. It was beautiful.
I pulled out the cell phone and pressed SEND.