A quick death

I think nicotine is very quick to kill.

There are plenty of substances that, if correctly administered intravenously, will kill somebody. The problem I think you're going to run into here is the scenario you've set up. To bump into somebody and accomplish an injection, the assassin isn't going to manage an IV injection; getting a needle into a vein takes time and skill, as well as a degree of cooperation from the person receiving the injection. That means whatever the assassin is doing is more likely to penetrate a layer of skin (either an intradermal or subcutaneous injection) or the muscle (an intramuscular injection). The body processes everything that goes into skin, fat or muscle slower than it does when it's injected directly into the bloodstream.

Your 2-3 minute window then becomes an issue. Insulin OD can take up to an hour to cause a coma in a healthy person, much less death. The high-end barbiturates, tranqs, and narcotics will also not act within that time frame if injected SQ, ID, or IM, and the amount of any of those you would need to kill a person is highly variable, making them a poor choice. Potassium Chloride is what is used for lethal injection, but again, it's used IV. It stops the heart.

Botulinum neurotoxin is the most poisonous substance known. But even it has to be administered in a specific method to cause death. By injection it treats over 50 pathological conditions. If inhaled, 0.001 mg of it is fatal.

My suggestion would be to not worry about the specific chemical in the assassin's device, but rather focus on the suspense of the scene and its administration. Or give the chemical a nickname and say something like it's "a lethal blend of favorites." If the scene is scary or adventurous enough to enthrall your reader, they won't be worried about just what was in that needle.

Best of luck,
Tux

Tetrodotoxin is another possibility, It is highly toxic, can be administered by injection but even then is not going to kill your target in a few minutes.

Tucker is right. Just bumping into someone and injecting something probably won't hit a vein and kill quickly. Even cyanide and botulinum would be trouble as casually as that. Tucker's idea of a favorite mix is one wat. Another way would be a massive overdose of barbiturate or heroin. Intravenously would be better, but even in muscle a large dose could kill, and either could make the victim lose consciousness pretty quickly.

What about curare? IIRC the tribes who used it had different strengths -- a two tree potency meant the monkey would drop after it had swung through two trees*

I mean technically it isn't a poison, but a muscle relaxant. If however your muscles relax so much you can't breathe....



*Then again it was a long time ago I read that so I could be talking out of my arse

ETA apparently I wasn't talking out of my arse. This time.

The strength of a batch of curare can be tested in a number of ways — for example, by counting the number of times a frog can jump after being pricked, or how many trees a monkey can leap to after being hit. One-tree curare is very potent; three-tree curare can be used to take down live animals to be kept in captivity.

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Ricin.

It was actually used by the Soviets in the late 70s (look up "umbrella assassination" for full details, it's a great story and might give you some real-world ideas).

Drachen Jager said:

Ricin.

It was actually used by the Soviets in the late 70s (look up "umbrella assassination" for full details, it's a great story and might give you some real-world ideas).

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+1. I thought of the umbrella assasination too. Real spy craft, quite a remarkable story.

melindamusil said:

+1. I thought of the umbrella assasination too. Real spy craft, quite a remarkable story.

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But not quick -- it took him 3 days to die. IIRC it took a while for any symptoms to show up too.

Mr Flibble said:

But not quick -- it took him 3 days to die. IIRC it took a while for any symptoms to show up too.

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It took that long because they used a miniscule amount. They wanted the poison to be untraceable (it wasn't in the end).

Ricin is also nice because it's easy to make if you have a good chemistry set, a bit of knowledge, and a green thumb.

Hm, even with a bigger dose it would seem it would take a while (Not a chemist so I could be wrong)

Death from ricin poisoning could take place within 36 to 72 hours of exposure, depending on the route of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, or injection) and the dose received.

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ETA it is fatal because it inhibits protein synthesis. That won't be apparent after a couple of minutes.

Mr Flibble said:

Hm, even with a bigger dose it would seem it would take a while (Not a chemist so I could be wrong)

ETA it is fatal because it inhibits protein synthesis. That won't be apparent after a couple of minutes.

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Yeah, I thought it was faster. Apparently it takes a few hours for symptoms to appear.

In that case you want Cyanide. That kills within a few minutes (6-8 is the best info I could find).

Have you ever thought that, should you want to murder someone, the best place to find the information is from a group of writers?

Drachen Jager said:

It took that long because they used a miniscule amount. They wanted the poison to be untraceable (it wasn't in the end).

Ricin is also nice because it's easy to make if you have a good chemistry set, a bit of knowledge, and a green thumb.

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Y'know, you could even go with a different poison and use the same delivery system. I think cyanide is pretty fast acting - I know that's the one that is typically used in suicide pills.

Drachen Jager said:

Have you ever thought that, should you want to murder someone, the best place to find the information is from a group of writers?

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Yes, but the discussions seldom come around of how to avoid detection. It isn't surprising, because writers often are well read and intelligent.

I'm not a doctor, but iirc, injecting straight water into your system has the potential to kill you. Because our blood is somewhat mixed with salts, the sudden rush of straight water would be absorbed by the blood cells and burst, which can cause blockages to the kidneys and cause renal failure and or stroke and death. Not sure how many CC's of water would be required though.. definitely no less than 30 for an extreme effect.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned injecting 'air' yet. It would require a careful injection into an artery to kill in your 2 minute window. It would probably require a large/not so subtle syringe though.

Simply put, the air when injected, creates an airpocket in the blood, which flows to the heart creating a blockage & causing a Heart Attack. It doesn't sound very spy-like but apparently any gas should work.

According to wikipedia's article on Air embolism;

The amount of arterial gas embolism that causes symptoms depends on location - 2 mL of air in the cerebral circulation can be fatal (stroke), while 0.5 mL of air into a coronary artery can cause cardiac arrest.

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Inject the same amount into another artery/vein and it's harmless. People could survived up to 9 syringes of air injected into their veins according to some google results I found. It would need to be very precise to work for your story.

What about a pure grade of heroin? I've heard stories about junkies dying with the needle still in their hands, apparently because the stuff they got was too high-grade and their systems couldn't handle it. It seems quick enough?

@Channy

Injecting water would take litres and litres to kill anyone. Not something you can conveniently do on a subway platform.

@Paramite Pie

The old "air bubble" trick isn't nearly as effective as it's shown in movies. It takes a big syringe filled with air pumped directly into a major vein to kill anyone. If you have your victim immobilized to the point where you can pick a vein, then you can kill them pretty much any way you choose. Even trained nurses with willing subjects sometimes miss the vein.

I know that I don't feel much when I have an IV injection (It might be because I was under extreme stress every time I got one) but is it possible that a skilled assassin could get one in if they were sitting next to a sleeping victim?

It might be a bit short of a time for someone to fall asleep at a subway platform, but what about while on the train?

kelliewallace said:

In my current wip, my mc plays an assassin and follows a target into a busy train station. He bumps into him and injects something into him .....

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DUUUDE IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT STOP RIGHT THERE.

I work at a train station. You wanna kill a man in 2 seconds, no fuss? You push him in front of an incoming train. It really is the most instant death ever!

(If he hits the express they won't even find a body...)

Treehouseman said:

DUUUDE IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT STOP RIGHT THERE.

I work at a train station. You wanna kill a man in 2 seconds, no fuss? You push him in front of an incoming train. It really is the most instant death ever!

(If he hits the express they won't even find a body...)

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It does sound like the simplest, most effective plan. Wear a hat to shield your face from the cameras, and slide to the back of the crowd as everyone else pushes forward to see what happened, and you're outta there.