Geist didn’t have a plan of his own to take down Hardin. He had the germ of an idea, maybe. The guy didn’t like to get his own hands dirty, clearly. It was a bad job to let some pack of amateurs do the hard part and just reap the rewards. Not against the rules, mind. Just frowned upon, unless you did it with exceptional style or hypnotism or something like that, although gimmicks were also generally considered gauche at best and a major risk of exposure at worst. He had once known an assassin who used as the basis of his contracts a series of stage magic old standards. All well and good, until you run out of the good ones. There’s only so many “saw-a-lady-in-half”s you can pull before you have to start resorting to embarrassing gags like “pulling a Black Mamba out of a hat,” which bring the whole tone of the profession down. The Astounding Malvolio hadn’t lasted long after that…
fiction
A Twisted Game of Cat and Cat: Chapter Three
Geist shrugged and continued setting up the rifle, a safe distance back from the window pane that the black protrusion of the barrel wouldn’t be noticed from below.
“Who-” he said, and then the window cracked and a bullet impacted in the wall beside his head. He was on the ground in an instant, diving to pull Ellie down as well and rolling out of view of the window.
“He’s seen us,” he gasped to her. He risked a peep out at the crowd. They were none the wiser. The sharp crack of the glass had obviously been buried under the noise of the crowd. Small caliber bullet, went through clean as a whistle. You had to admire the craftsmanship…
A Twisted Game of Cat and Cat: Chapter One
The name of the dead man was Maximilian Bradley. Not that he knew he was dead yet. The blinking green name stood out on the black screen like a neon sign over a dive bar. Underneath it was a number with too many zeroes at the end of it. Geist had heard of Bradley, of course. Who hadn’t? He sipped the honey-coloured liquor from his glass and contemplated. This was a chance to make history. Of course, if his name showed up anywhere in the history books it would be curtains for him.
The Write Stuff 