Leap of Faith
At times like this I think I should reconsider my life. For less than a second at least, because otherwise, how would I enjoy the wind in my face and the beautiful sight of the Mediterranean licking the coast of Tartessos? Of course, the fact that I’m falling off one of the Palace’s towers might have had some influence on my decision, were I to make one.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have accepted this job. There was something shady, but let’s be honest: in my line of work, something HAS to be shady. It may be the murky tavern I invariably end up doing business in, or the unhealthy individual that proposes the aforementioned business. And as often as not, the business itself will be of a doubtful nature.
Such is a life for the likes of me.
But I digress. The business at hand was shady, yes, but it was oh so tempting. Infiltrating the Royal Palace of Tartessos and… retrieving a very specific item. Come to think of it, I know what smelled fishy: the details. The man who proposed the job knew too many of those details; usually I have to work them out myself. Mind you, they all checked out, and that appeased me some, but damn, I should have fully trusted my instincts.
Luckily I’m not stupid. Not yet, I think. I disregarded his infiltration scheme completely. I could confirm the secret passage was indeed where he claimed it would be, but I preferred to work my own way in. Okay, yes, disguising myself as a courtesan opened all the doors I needed, but right now I wish I was wearing something more substantial. Some pockets would be helpful, for instance.
Oh well.
Things went wrong when I met the first automaton guard. I’ve never liked those, and discovering that Tartessos had them was a real surprise. The brutes are built with really simple brains: they can follow the most basic of orders, and that’s it. The problem is when they’re not given specific orders… So if one of them thinks you’re suspicious for any reason, it will pursue you. And if any others see it coming for you, they’ll follow suit.
I guess it was the case. Someone at the palace considered that the old adage of “hidden in plain sight” was true. Big surprise, morons: it is not. An expert purveyor of fine goods like me is not fooled by those ruses. But someone with my looks and attire carrying the case… I suppose the damned automaton didn’t like it. Ah, had it been a human, I would have distracted him. Or her. But no. Just my luck.
And of course, I had none of my grenades with me. Everybody knows fighting the automatons is useless. Well, that’s an assumption and I know it is false, but under my circumstances there wasn’t much I could do when they started chasing me. So fleeing it was.
I didn’t foresee fleeing turning into flying.
But then, there was little else I could do: I just ran out of space. And don’t think I didn’t know it: I always do my homework before a mission. But the bloody machines corralled me.
Do you know what else is false? That the best professionals among us work alone. That’s bullshit: your best bet is a team you can rely on, people you trust who can bring different assets in.
So, I just hope Ahmed has been watching and brings his damned ornithopter in right this very moment. Or my future is going to be… brief.
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This is my accompanying entry for the Weekly Writing Exercise: April 10–16, 2017 at the Writer’s Discussion Group on Google+. I am responsible for creating the prompts for the Exercise, so I don’t take part, but I still like to write a story each week.
I had the idea for this story quite early, but the one for the previous week wasn’t ready, so I put it in the back burner. Last night I finally put it down on paper, and had fun while doing it.
