Assassin's Base

After spending a week observing the gunwoman and inspecting her property, I learned a good bit about her. Firstly, her name: Alice. She was about 14 years old (I was 16), she spent a lot of her time away from the house killing people, and when she was at home she spent most of her time using a computer. She had conversations with other criminals like her, and she often went to a black screen with white text. I thought she was hacking.

From what I managed to gather about her and what her life was like, she was an assassin. Most of her conversations were about jobs she was conducting and seeking. Her most common discussant was Eric. Alice was part of a guild, and this was her leader. This partially explained why she was going after me. Eric wanted to receive my katana, because he heard about my father’s murders: how the only evidence he ever left behind was that they were killed by a katana. He wanted to meet him and learn how he managed to reach his targets and get out so easily. There’s a reason he was referred to as the Shinigami, or God of Death in English.

I also figured out why he had Alice try to steal my katana. Eric wanted to analyze the blade to see what made it function: what made it so much stronger and more dangerous than any sword that could exist in modern day. More than that, he wanted to use it as ransom: force my father to confront Eric directly and let him see the legend himself. That’s what Alice meant when she said that she needed my katana. She worked for Eric and did her absolute best on any job he gave to her, but she clearly didn’t like it. Given what skills she had as an assassin, Eric wouldn’t have allowed her to stop serving him and would have done everything he could to keep her under his control. She wanted to render herself obsolete so that Eric would no longer have a reason to have her as a servant.

And that’s everything I managed to learn about her, as far as who she was. I learned many more mundane things about her such as free time usage and fashion styles, but those don’t matter nearly as much. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any files related to my father.

A few of you may be wondering why I didn’t just simply confront her and interrogate her directly. But the problem is that she would have immediately recognized me and allowed Eric to know more about me. It was very likely, but there was no guarantee that she would know about my father. She never made any references to him when she said she needed my katana. So if she didn’t know what I was talking about when asking directly about him, then the only way to get information from her would be to explain my katana, allowing her to instantly know who I was. She could then tell Eric even more about me, and my unknown profile would have been exposed to him. And I couldn’t eliminate her in order to force her to remain silent. I was opposed to killing Alice when I first met her, but now that she was a potential asset to me, killing her was an absolute no. Even if she ultimately didn’t know about my father, she was by far the closest link to him I could find.

But here’s what I could have done. I could have stalked her to see exactly where she was going in order to track down her boss. After a few more days, Alice received an order from Eric to return to their HQ for an inspection of her performance. This was my first chance to go follow her to find where her boss was located. She put on all her equipment, and then she left out the door. I grabbed my katana and pistol and followed her from a distance.

In order to stalk somebody, you must minimize your own visibility as much as possible whilst also keeping yourself just barely capable of seeing where they’re going. And in my case especially, I also had to hide from the general public so that would not all direct their attention to me. It was rather easy to do during the first half of my pursuit. I mostly kept behind cover until Alice got out of sight, then I would dash over to her spot and repeat the process. I was fortunate enough to have Alice seldom be around passerby citizens. It made sense; Alice most likely didn’t want to attract attention to herself either.

However about halfway through, the terrain was getting to become disruptive to observing her. Alice was taking a very unorthodox route to her destination, actively avoiding dense city areas and going through shadowed, concealed parts whenever she had to. At this point, we were both traveling through a vacant hillside with only a few trees to occupy the location. The wavy altitude made it so that I couldn’t see her for nearly as long as I could before. I decided to perch myself into a tree, both for height advantage and leaf cover, in order to properly observe her route to her destination. It was much easier to observe where she was going this way. But the problem was that it made me immobile as I watched Alice move. This meant that the distance between us gradually got bigger and bigger, making it more likely in the future that I would lose her. Eventually, the risk got too big, and I had to get out of the tree and dash towards her. We finally left the field, and it was back to stalking her for the usual way.

Finally, we arrived at the countryside. Instead of having multiple farmhouses swarming the place (although there were a few of them), this area was filled with what looked like a neighborhood. There was no cover at this point. But the good news was that I could easily distance myself from Alice here without losing track of her. She walked into the neighborhood-type area, and I immediately followed her when she disappeared. I hid at the edge of a nearby forest, and I could easily tell that this place was not a neighborhood. Most of the “homes” were in very fine condition, but nobody seemed to occupy them. There were no cars in any of the driveways, and the interiors of most of the houses were very hard to see into. Alice was even comfortable enough to walk in the open.

She kept walking towards what looked like an industrial tower, and then into it. This had to be the place. I was certain this was where her headquarters were. If I could get inside and observe their intelligence, I would be able to confirm whether or not they had anything to do with my father. But even though I refused to believe that I was incorrect, I had to make sure that this was her guild’s actual base.

I couldn’t go into the tower and follow Alice without overextending, so I had to come up with how to infiltrate it. At the very least, this base was immobile by virtue of it being a series of planted buildings. This meant that I had plenty of time to observe its structure and functions in order to work around them. It also allowed me to freely choose when to engage it for my spying. I decided that it was best to observe what I could from my current perch and then go back to Alice’s house. It was roughly 3 hours before night time, so I could easily observe it from a distance and then return after seeing both its day and night setups. I predicted that the base would alter its defensive setup to account for the difference in environment (lighting, patrol units, etc.). Additionally, waiting until night time would have given me excellent cover as I returned home to Alice’s house.

I stayed in my perch for those hours observing the overall structure of the location. Sometimes I would see somebody come out into the open. I only saw 2 people tops at a time. Sometimes they would pull out a radio and speak into it. They were clearly sentry guards. The first 3 houses had their interiors clearly visible without any major obstructions. Of course, they weren’t filled with anything major, or so it appeared, but I believed they could be hiding materials inside which people could view passing by. Night came, and the scenery of the place changed immediately. The tower had spotlights coming from its top, like those which would patrol a prison. The guards came into view much more frequently, and they took more thorough searches of the location, sometimes pulling out flashlights and binoculars.

After about half an hour, Alice exited the building, walked casually past the guards who waved goodbye to her, and started to return home. I followed her and returned to her home with her. When we both arrived, Alice unpacked a piece of paper containing instructions for an assassin mission. It was a contract, and it said the following.

“To boss’s chosen assassin,

I order you to kill my enemy: Keith Stevens.

This man is a wealthy bartender who owns the Jackson Pub.

He constantly gets drunk and has never treated me with respect.

I want him dead because he tried to rape my girlfriend in a drunken fit.

Law enforcement hasn’t done anything to enact justice onto him.

Therefore I demand that you destroy this man.

You will of course receive your just payment of $1200 for this.

Kill him by shooting him in the liver.

It does not matter whether you are discrete or upfront.

Your reward is forfeit if you deny this contract.

I look forward to seeing the deed done.

Andrew Flanders”

On the back of the contract was a series of contact information for both himself and the target, and one of the paper’s corners was stained with a drop of blood, as if it was a stamp on a letter. There was also a series of blank spaces with what looked like filing information. Alice nodded at the message and shoved it into a supply satchel. She then walked over to a calendar, marked off one of the days and then moved to her bedroom, commenting to herself that she knew that the day would be long and she might never get the chance again to sleep. I took interest in this and decided to follow Alice that day in order to view her assassination style. I myself rested as well and awaited the next morning to prepare for my infiltration.

Before I give you any information on what my plan was for infiltrating the building, it’s important that I tell you how I prepared my equipment and appearance. I am a Japanese 17 (then 16) year old boy. Due to a genetic birth defect from my grandfather, I have blue eyes and long snow-white hair. Because of this, I had one of the most distinct appearances in the world. Despite what some of you may believe, this is not an inherent stealth hazard. While an enemy could potentially tell their allies what to look for if they spotted me, the rest of the enemies would have to spot me in the first place in order to capitalize on that advantage. Just in terms of visible stealth, my distinct appearance hardly has any effect on my stealth abilities. In fact, it often allows me to camouflage myself against white surfaces, such as the sides of buildings. It was, however, a horrible liability if I wished to disguise myself. Granted, this wasn’t much of an issue either, since I would have a hard time blending in with the guild no matter what I would look like. This was especially true because of the scarce quantity of assassins present there. It clearly wasn’t barren, but there was a low enough density to allow them to easily identify each other. If I wanted to enter and exit that building without interference, I had to hide myself from them as well as I could.

With that said, here’s how I equipped myself for the infiltration. I was taking my katana and pistol; that much was without any question. As for apparel (at least as pertaining to stealth), I had my standard wear: a pair of noise boots much like Alice’s, long, tight fitting gauntlets so I could touch things more freely without leaving fingerprints, a satchel in order to carry miscellaneous items I either would also carry or would find, and a white half mask with white see through cloth covering the eyeholes. You see, while it’s true my appearance wasn’t massively important to the mission, the mask would allow me to keep my face hidden so that the enemies would not be able to report my appearance to the common people. If they saw me in that mask, I could easily reset my anonymity by cutting and/or dying my hair. Faces are not nearly as malleable in this regard, so the mask gave me an edge in that respect. It had a more important advantage as well: combatant unpredictability. If I were to have to battle, the mask would make it vastly harder for anybody to read my face when I was battling them. Those 2 reasons are why I equipped it. As you may have guessed, I was also wearing it when I encountered Alice both times, as well as during the police brawl. I took miscellaneous supplies with me as well in order to provide utility if I needed it. I took lockpicks, a knife (a lot of pros over a sword. Just trust me), some rope, a flashlight, a hook, binoculars and 2 smoke grenades.

I then proceeded out of Alice’s house and back to the perch from which I was observing their setup before. Upon arriving, it was slightly before noon. Since I had a feeling for how the guards would patrol the area, I decided to orbit the compound’s perimeter from a distance in order to see what kind of movement route would be optimal for me to go through. Using my binoculars, I managed to observe the location’s outline. Its buildings were spaced out in moderate density. The tower was relatively well guarded by the aforementioned beacons and sentries, and the regions between the houses’ sides were occupied occasionally by a patrol unit. But for the most part, they were safe. All the guards were within the compound itself; I couldn’t see anybody outside of its boundaries. None of the guards appeared to go directly inside of the buildings as part of their patrol. Some did, but the frequency was very low, so I deduced that it was random.

My plan was moderately complex. I was going to inspect each building and break into the ones which I felt would have the best chance of containing important information. The tower was the most obvious candidate, but I planned to infiltrate it last in order to more fluidly transition from buildings, and because it was going to be the hardest building to move freely in. Simple idea, complex steps.

After observing the guards one more time in order to make sure their movements didn’t deviate from yesterday’s, I had a firm thought on what their patrol patterns were. I looked for a good angle at which to approach the compound and started my infiltration. I began at one of the corner buildings and took a close look inside of any openings like windows to look for distinguishing materials, like electronic equipment or archaic office files. The first building did in fact have both of those. I went to the best entrance out of the guards’ sights, double checked to see if they were present to see me, picked the opening and entered. I went over to the files and started to inspect them. Unfortunately, none of them had anything to do with my father, so I had to go. I peeked slightly above the window from inside to see if the guards were looking at my location. They weren’t, so I swiftly went out and relocked the door.

I repeated my steps for each of the houses I found important. If I couldn’t find any good signs of it being a candidate for housing evidence of them knowing about him, I skipped right past it, marked it as low priority to return to, and moved to the next house. I planned to visit them on my way out if none of the good candidates had what I needed.

Eventually, I came to a building near the main tower. It was filled with supplies much like the first building I broke into: computer equipment, filing cabinets, etc. However, the supplies were much neater and denser than the original house. I instantly decided that it was my best candidate. I looked around for an opening, analyzed my surroundings to make sure the guards couldn’t see me and infiltrated just like the other houses.

I finally managed to get into the main room with the files and started to browse them. The first file I found was an assassination contract like the one Alice had. It was not what I was looking for, but since Alice attempted to kill me mistaking me for my father, it seemed like the files containing assassination contracts would be the most likely to have anything to do with him. I chose another random spot in the room to browse through. The files appeared well organized, so if I could find any distinguishing traits for a certain section, I could narrow my search to that location and become more likely to find information on my father. The next contract I found was an old contract and had already been completed. I kept searching. Another contract came up. It was years old, and it was for somebody whom my father did kill. I was getting closer. I kept searching through the files for 2 hours, but none of them directly referenced my father in any way at all. I eventually saw a guard walk near the building. Ultimately he went past me, but I wasn’t going to take any risks yet. I had to hide from the guards. I quickly resorted the files back to their original position, slipped out of the building and ran back to Alice’s house.

Unfortunately, none of the files were directly involved with my father at all. Not even one mentioned what the guild knew about or had to do with him. However, I considered my infiltration to be a small success in finding out about him, because I noticed information in those documents that indicated that the guild and he were affiliated with each other.

Each contract was laid out much like the one Alice had. The front is a blank space to write a message in the format of a letter. Sometimes it would directly address a particular assassin, but most of the contracts I found were free contracts generically addressed to whoever took up the job. The back, as I said, has a blood stamp for the sender’s signature, as well as contract information for both the sender, to cite for enforcement of payment, and the target in order to track him or her down to kill. Finally, and most importantly, there was a space for evaluation on how the assassination went. I managed to learn that Eric would personally rate how an assassin did based on a standardized grading system. The highest regular grade is A, and the lowest is F.

This grading system is how I found out that they were involved with my father. You see, there’s a special rank when A isn’t enough to describe the assassin’s performance. It’s a grade that I physically saw on the documents: S. In video games, S is most commonly used to denote top ranking performance. I assumed just from looking at it that that’s what it meant, and there was even a data legend confirming my assumption.

There were 9 contracts with names I recognized since my father told me about them: that he killed them. All of them were marked as successful kills. 2 of them were marked as A rank kills, and the remaining 7 were marked as S rank. What’s more is that there were only 4 other S rank contracts from what I had observed; none of them were connected to the same name. If my father was telling the truth about having killed those men and women, and I found strong evidence that his kills were not only real, but directly connected to a guild who would have some sort of link with him, my belief that they would know about what happened to him was now absolute. The people of this guild were the most likely to know what happened to him, as well as if he was still alive. I wanted to know the truth. At this point, I already was gaining information at a good speed and had just enough information to fully commit to focusing on the guild for the remaining information. It was simply a matter of acknowledging my achievements so far and making progress from there.

In the end, I had to rest. I returned home to Alice’s house. I decided that it was safe to determine whether or not Alice was still active. Plus, I wanted to take a closer look at her contract to confirm how it compared to the ones I had examined. This wouldn’t be like last time. I was now perfectly familiar with the terrain and could easily plan how to navigate the location. I also just got out of infiltrating past 6 vigilant guards. She was sleeping in her bed as usual, and the contract was still in her supply satchel. I could just barely see the contract from within, but I could clearly make it out, which is why I can tell you now what it said. I managed to get away from Alice without rousing her. But before I left the room, Alice let out a sleep talk that filled me with dread and paranoia.

“Good night… Yuuto…”

I instantly got out of her house as fast as I could without alerting her and chose to sleep in a nearby wormwood bush cluster. As I was lying down to sleep, I thought to myself if Alice saw me as I was infiltrating her room. Her head didn’t move at all, and she still seemed like she was sleeping. But that’s not what made my blood run cold. Yuuto is my father’s name. How could she know such a thing? My father was extremely protective of his identity and encouraged me to do the same and even more than he did. None of the documents I had observed had his name in it either. Nothing about his identity was in any of the documents I had observed anywhere, and the first building had a log of assassins, in which Alice’s name was present as well. It even specified whether the assassin was a guild member or a freelancer. I could not believe that the guild knew my father, let alone who he was. And when I thought about it, they probably didn’t. But this child knew who he was, or at the very least, his name: the component of his identity which he was most protective of.

I didn’t understand what was going on or how this could be true. But I did know that within a single day, I had obtained more than enough information to establish that the guild was my target in order to connect to my father. I had to come up with a plan, but I didn’t have time to think of what to do next. I decided to wait until tomorrow before I advanced any further. Once again, I lied down, relaxed, and tried to sleep for the next day.