Hitman: True Silent Assassin

[Heisenberg]

@Olipro

• It’s a leap of logic that she could so expertly drive a knife into Caruso without a struggle or being caught.

Not a big leap.

@Olipro

• Why kill Caruso herself and not seek safety? Especially with Ether behind her.

Time. She has now seen evidence that Caruso had her DNA, and she knows there’s only one reason he would need that. She also knows he’s being secretive with his intentions for the virus; it’s not a stretch to think she would conclude he had perfected the virus to work well enough to try to take her out as his first target. Her only hope would be to stop him before he could. Even if she left the grounds and waited for Ether to deal with Caruso themselves, she would still be at risk if he released the virus into the world, as it would seek her out even after the fact. The idea would be that in imminent fear for her life, she took him out before he could act, and it just turned out she was too late. And it’s not like she could go to Ether with it, she just burned her evidence, and that’s not even my doing, she actually does that in-game, despite it being what Ether would need to conclude Caruso shouldn’t be part of the project anymore. So she’s clearly planning to take a different option in the eyes of whoever learns that.

@Olipro

• If she is going to kill Caruso, why a knife of all things? Statistically, women more commonly use poison.

Statistically, yes, but poison takes too long and is uncertain when someone will consume it. 47’s an expert, he can do it easily - right moment, right amount - but it wouldn’t be reliable enough for her purposes. More pragmatically, because using the knife lets you put it in her room to look like she set it there with the intent to dispose of it later but died before she could.

@Olipro

• Say she does do all of this, what is her end-game? Caruso’s death will inevitably be investigated by authorities. Obviously Ether aren’t behind all this because you orchestrated it so there’s no “Ether would cover it up for her” because they aren’t in the loop.

Ether put DeSantis on the project to begin with for the express purpose of replacing Caruso; they already strongly suspected it was gonna have to happen, so they’re already prepared to cover up anything unfortunate that happens to him. Add in the fact that Providence directly starts investigating it and you know they’d be able to sideline the normal investigators.

@Olipro

• I will walk back the justification for motive: If you could fabricate evidence that Caruso cornered her in flagrante delicto and she stabbed him in self-defence, there would be something there. But you can’t. So there isn’t.

Doesn’t have to be. DeSantis knows they’re building a weapon that kills based on DNA, knows the guy who built it hates her, and now knows he had her DNA. That’s all the motive she needed. Remember, they are both dying in this scenario; the idea is that DeSantis killed Caruso and had a plan to get away with it, but died from the virus before she could, which is why their deaths were found out about in the first place. The whole reason there’s an investigation of that magnitude is that they both died and all the evidence I’ve carefully left will indicate that they killed each other, DeSantis out of fear and Caruso out of hate, and anything that doesn’t add up to what DeSantis thought she was going to do to get away with it can be chalked up to her dying before she could do whatever she was planning next.

And in the end, it’s really just Providence that needs to be deceived by all of this, at least long enough to not suspect anything beyond two coworkers killing each other over personal dislike, until the Constant opens that vault in New York.

At the risk of kicking an anthill, anything to say about the other two scenarios?

[THAT]

Put them in a trash compactor then return it to the rental company. It’s a victimless crime.

[Olipro]

@Heisenberg

will indicate that they killed each other

DeSantis killing Caruso in the way you’ve setup doesn’t pass the sniff test - there are too many variables that make it plausibly a frame job. Her own death works just fine because she never should have entered the lab without PPE.

@Heisenberg

in the end, it’s really just Providence that needs to be deceived by all of this

If you want to grant yourself license to easier requirements, that’s your choice. I’m assuming the most stringent; not only will Ether be involved, but competent authorities of that country will also be notified and they will also conduct an investigation. Consequently, the death of any target needs to be airtight in the sense that their demise is seemingly cut and dried.

@Heisenberg

At the risk of kicking an anthill, anything to say about the other two scenarios?

I have no problem with the other two scenarios so I’ll instead offer why I agree with them:

Mumbai becomes the Kashmirian’s problem - though killing the Maelstrom lacks motive, since he’s a wanted serial killer who also did just kill two people, he’s an easy mark to pin the final death upon.

Gilded Cage is two unrelated and unfortunate accidents. Nothing would indicate the toilet didn’t fall though sheer bad luck. The electricity could have been tampered with, but, even if this is true and he was therefore assassinated, so many people want the guy dead that it’s certainly not evidence of a super-assassin like 47 doing it.

[Heisenberg]

@Olipro

DeSantis killing Caruso in the way you’ve setup doesn’t pass the sniff test - there are too many variables that make it plausibly a frame job. this

It doesn’t matter; the point is, there’s no evidence of 47, or any other person whatsoever even being on the grounds, let alone being the one who killed Caruso. There will be an inquiry into what Ether was doing when it’s discovered that DeSantis died of a viral infection of unknown origin in this scenario, and while I don’t know what Italian laws are on the matter, assuming Ether has to share at least the basics of what they’re doing with the authorities, it will be correctly assumed based on his work and his history that he created the strain that killed DeSantis, and there will be testimony from the mansion guards that Caruso hated DeSantis, kept samples of her DNA in his safe, and that DeSantis threw those samples into the fire (distractions of the guards during the moment you give her the samples takes care of them telling investigators who gave her those samples).

So with a legitimate concern that Caruso may be targeting her, the murder weapon found in her room, and her dying in close timetable to Caruso himself by the virus he was working on, authorities may not be fully convinced of DeSantis’s guilt, but the evidence that they will have access to, as well as motive for both targets, the only conclusion they’ll have other than leaving it unsolved will be to assume in the meantime that the two killed each other. With no one else being even close to a likely suspect, and certainly not an international contract killer, that’s all that needs to be achieved for this scenario. Not to mention that rumors will spread through the public consciousness and anyone not connected to Providence will be convinced that the two killed each other, so the world will still not know that it was a paid assassination.

@Olipro

Consequently, the death of any target needs to be airtight in the sense that their demise is seemingly cut and dried.

Now here, I’ll concede that my scenario perfectly meets the requirements of my own parameters of perfection, but I overlooked the fact that your own parameters set forth in your original post do require an absolute certainty of investigators that either no foul play happened, or that there’s no question as to who is the responsible party, and that 47 is not that party, but another NPC. My WoT scenario doesn’t meet that requirement in absolute terms, because it leaves the possibility of being left unsolved. I forgot that that was a particular condition you set forth, and so that scenario was a bad example under those terms.

So here’s another: using either a banana, the sedative gum, or a sedative put into his drink, make Orson pass out on Ambrose Island and take his key for the satellite uplink, then set the events in motion for Akka to want to speak to Crest in the ruins, making sure to distract the guards there beforehand long enough to open the valve on the gas canister there, and allow Akka to push Crest to his death, then light up and detonate herself, then when the guards are not looking (distract them if necessary), take the key Akka dropped and skedaddle. Will be chalked up to an accidental death from the two targets (might conclude Akka killed Crest but unlikely), and that Akka’s key was blown into the ocean, and that Orson misplaced his after passing out. IOI practically gift-wrapped that scenario for us, but most players likely wouldn’t bother leaving Orson only temporarily passed out to reduce suspicion and would just KO him as usual.

Or how about this one, I’ve talked about this one before: Showstopper. You use the gum, a syringe or a banana to sedate Helmut Kruger away from where any of the guards can see his body, go through the process of makeup and the runway, making sure not to encounter Novikov until afterward. Get a screwdriver and rig the power strip in the puddle in the yard outside the bar room, wait for Novikov to step in it and fry, then go up to meet Margolis. After the talk, take the lethal pills she gives you and spike her drink when she’s on the phone. When she drinks it and croaks, retrace your steps and return Kruger’s outfit to him, then leave. It will be determined that when Margolis learned Novikov had died in a terrible accident, she could bear the thought of living without him and committed suicide. Kruger will be assumed he passed out, maybe overheating, and that’s why he took his clothes off while not remembering it, and if it was a banana, he hit his head hard enough that he doesn’t remember moving around and undressing himself after initially falling, then passed out again after doing so. People who saw him on the runway and talking to Margolis, as well as heading to that spot where he’ll be found won’t know any better, and he’ll assume he didn’t remember any of it because of whatever caused him to go unconscious. Ends with a tragic tale for the power couple and one confused model.