Revelation 8

After I don’t know how long (since time in and out of the city was so different) I was actually an expert at something. In my case, I had a knack at being a sniper. When I got assigned my first mission, I got a sort of buzz, I was proud of accomplishing something like this, something new, something major. Fortunately, I didn’t let this feeling get out of hand, since I did keep in mind that this place wasn’t, you know, legit.

So my first assignment was to kill this guy in Egypt, an agent for something called the SCP Foundation (apparently one of the Panopticon’s biggest enemies). When me and my team walked out of the office, one of the Doors appeared in the middle of the floor—our transport.

When we went through, we found ourselves on a rooftop in Cairo. Our handler had us spread to different corners, all facing the same market square below, crouched down of course to reduce visibility. The SCP man was expected to show up and deliver sensitive information to a contact at a stand selling clothes and jewelry. That contact, of course, was one of ours.

The information pertained to illegal activities that the Panopticon was involved with, and also proof that the Panopticon actually existed in the first place. He thought the info was going to get to the White House and other world governments. He was wrong.

The job was simple enough: I was to take out the SCP agent just after he handed over the data, then my partner would use his semi-automatic and just unload it into the crowd to make it seem like a random terrorist attack, given recent unrest.

My target came into view. I aimed. I shook. In training, it was all simulated; the practice targets seemed real, but they weren’t. I could see the strings controlling their movements, and their skin was shiny and smooth plastic.

But these were real people. This guy and others in the crowd were alive like me, with their own hopes and goals, like me, and with their own fears and frustrations, like me. And they had families.

I couldn’t do it.

“What are you waiting for?” the handler started to ask.

A tiny moth flew into my field of vision, and I was startled, which caused me to accidentally kick a pebble into the air, ricocheting off the TV antenna nearby and severing a wire holding it up. The whole apparatus then tipped over and almost landed on me; I got out of the way just in time, accidentally firing in the process.

The target was hit square between the eyes. My partner did his part and the mission was completed.

I knew why it happened, but I didn’t know why She was helping me ingratiate myself with this organization. I supposed it was because we were on the same “side” now.

We shortly returned to HQ.