UGLY RELIGION
Chapter 00 : PROLOGUE
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It was an easy mission, as missions went.

Well, at least, he’d certainly had harder ones. His orders ranged dramatically – from borrowing a handkerchief from a street vendor to making sure a world leader arrived in a certain plane with a certain number of people on a delayed flight. He had the skill, the training, the ability, to foil terrorist plots and assassinate hindrances to his cause.

But you know, he didn’t get that type of assignment very often.

He looked at the paper, amused. This time the order was quite common, an order he’d received plenty of times while still in training.

Make contact. Standby.

He might have been given a title, or sometimes just an address, and he could work from there. In this case, he needed only to make his presence known. No promises, no information given, no friendship, just contact. Delightfully easy.

But not as easy as you would presume. There was an art to it, after all.

He hummed and turned on the stove. When it was red hot he took a pair of tongs and burned the order, disguised as an overdue fine from the library. When the paper was burnt to a crisp he carefully carried it to an ashtray and crumbled the ashes. The ashtray housed one or two neglected cigarette stubs, leaning dejectedly against its crystalline side.

He lived alone. He didn’t smoke.

Smirking, he downed his coffee and left the house.

He was just that good.