Chapter 15

Washington DC

Pov Theo

“…And I finally got a tenant that ain’t a negro or a junkie.” I finish telling what’s going on with me to my buddies.

“Oh yeah, what’s his like” Bob asks me.

“She. And dunno. Haven’t talked much to the broad. Probably some runaway from a wealthy family seeing she paid three months ahead in cash and her clothes are pretty fancy”

“She hot?” Freddie asks.

“She’s like fifteen or something dude.” I answer. But I know these motherfuckers don’t care about age. They are identical twins and equally ugly and disgusting. I don’t get why boss keeps them on our payroll. They are embarrassment to our race.

“That’s just a number and I was never really good with those!” Freddie yells with a grin. That dude has never been good with anything other than his right hand.

“You think she got more money? Maybe we should tell the boss. We just spent ten grand to the weapon shipment and are running pretty low until we find a buyer for them” Bob says. He has a point. He has always been the smarter of the two when Freddie is the crueler one.

“No idea. I’ll go through her stuff when she is out and see” I say. It’s not an honorable way to make money to steel from your own race but in order for us to rise up, sacrifices must be made.

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Pov Calla

Could they not discuss that right next door, I wonder. The walls are already as thin as paper so I could hear them without all the yelling. And I didn’t understand half what they said. What on earth is a negro? Dunno? Or a broad? Isn’t that the same thing as wide? And am I hot? What is that supposed to mean? And what does my age has to do with my temperature?

But the thing I did understand was the weapon shipment. Must be fate. Something that is inevitably predetermined. Well I don’t believe in that nonsense but I don’t believe in coincidences either. I was just thinking that I’ll wait for an opportunity to present itself and now it did.

Well, no point dwelling on it. I’ll take what I can get. My respectable landlord Theo said that he will go through my stuff when I’m away but I have other plans.

My apartment is on the second floor so it is not hard to climb down from the window. I land on the dirty asphalt courtyard and see if there is anyone around. The apartment complex is U-shaped building with three floors. It’s made of red bricks and by the looks of it, there isn’t much variation about the apartment sizes.

The courtyard is dirty, there are trash cans at the edge of it, by the road. They haven’t been emptied in a while, evident in the trash bags that are thrown next to them as the cans are full.

There are some people walking on the street and couple in the courtyard. They look sick. Some of them are smiling like idiots while others are shaking and scratching their arms. I hope whatever ails them isn’t contagious.

I see three motorcycles parked by the side of the door to the building. There are three doors to the building. Mine is on the right, if looked from the road. There is one opposite of the road and one opposite of my door, on the left side if looked from the road.

The motorcycles are parked by my door, and I walk to them. Few days ago when coming back from the city I saw Theo and his friends leaving with the bikes so I know they belong to them.

I place a tracker to each of them and head towards the wall where I climbed down. The brick wall is relatively easy to scale up as there is a gap between the bricks to offer a grip. I climb back to my apartment and open the pad.

I confirm that the trackers are sending a signal, and I choose the option to record the routes. The range of the trackers is about 30 kilometers if one were to believe the information presented in the software so I hope it will be enough.

I doubt they keep the weaponry in their apartment as it’s anything but secure and they mentioned a boss so they probably have a hideout somewhere.

Now that I have nothing to do, I take some cash and put it in my pocket and decide to hide the rest of the cash, ID’s and three of the phones. I pull the bed out of the alcove, trying to do it silently. I make a cut with my knife to the bed’s side, on the side that’ll be against the wall and take some of the stuffing out.

I put the items in the backbag which I bought before I crossed the sea and I put the backbag inside the bed. I push the bed back to its place. Pleased with the hiding place, I start applying oil to my knife and suppressor, now that my gun is good to go.

I decide that I go buy some clothes today for tomorrow’s operation.

....

I yawn as I open my eyes. Today is the day. Operation ‘Iwantasniperrifle’ is a go. I have thought it over and over again, and decided that I just want the sniper for now. I will not try to track the people who shows up, I’ll just rob then.

Then with my brand new sniper I will stalk the safehouse like a wolf and then… I haven’t really decided that part yet but all in good time. I have other things to do now.

I slept on the floor, but this time I used the blanket as a mattress, because the floor looked dirty. Maybe I should clean this place a little bit when I have the time. Last time I cleaned something was in the forest town. That was about two or three months days ago. Time sure flies.

I slept in my underwear and the Omega training shirt. I put on the black college pants and the grey hoodie I bought yesterday. I bought a white t-shirt for my normal clothes so I leave the Omegas training shirt on.

Now that I’m dressed I walk to the fridge to grab a bite to eat. I open it and look what I have bought during my days here. Muffins, chocolate, a cake and some oranges. I take a muffin and an orange and start eating. Vitamins are important, hence the orange. I should really buy meat as it tastes sooo good but I wouldn’t know how to prepare it without a campfire.

After I’m ready and have checked that my gun works properly and the magazine is full with three spares with me, I head out. I open the door as silently as I can and close it behind me. I hid my stuff but I still don’t like the idea of Theo going in there when I’m not there.

I pluck a strand of hair from my head and place it to the doorway as I close the door. If someone opens the door, the hair will fall and I know someone has been inside. I doubt they would notice the hair when they enter.

I walk to the street and start looking for a taxi, and when I find one I say the name of the park I have previously scouted for this purpose. It’s a bit risky doing this in day time, but there will be more people for me to blend in, and the other guys won’t be so inclined to start shooting.

Sitting in the cab I ponder my options. Just now I decided that I won’t try to track the ones who show up there so I think I’ll do something else. They started the fight, so I’m going to declare a war.

Outside the cab the rundown neighborhood turns into well maintained streets and classy looking apartment buildings. The trash filled roadsides turns into flowerbeds and advertisement signs. The traffic increases the closer we get.

“45$ Miss.” the driver says.

I still have plenty of money, both euros and dollars. I pay the man with a few bills and walk towards the park. I don’t like US dollars as currency. All the bills are the same color.

When I was surveying the city few days ago, I found the go bag of Al-Aman in the train station. I didn’t take it with me but I chanced the locker it was in and changed the phone from there with a prepaid I bought here in the city.

The numbers on the phone were the same as the ones I got from Paris so I tossed it.

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I walk the esplanade in the park and enjoy the peacefulness around me. There are other people too but it’s not nearly as crowded as the streets. The well-kept grass and flowerbeds reminds me of the J.A.T.F. headquarters and by extension, Linda.

After I’m done with this I’ll give her a call. I have a plan how to avoid a trace but it needs some refining still.

As I’m walking towards the bench I decided on few days ago I spot something in the flowerbed.

I walk over to it and pluck the flower I noticed. A smile surfaces on my face as I look at the flower I share a name with. That was one of the highpoints of my life, no doubt. It was the moment when I was the happiest. It was the moment when my second chance began.

I place the flower behind my ear, still smiling, I walk to the bench and take a phone from my pocket.

I select the number I was never supposed to call, and call it.

*beep* *beep* *beep*

“Whiskey 2” A voice answers.

“Seven here. Fuck you”

*beep beep beep*

I hang up the phone.

I drop the phone to a trash can next to the bench and turn around.

This will also serve as a test can they track a phone that is on, but not calling. It will tell me little about their organization’s resources.

I start heading towards the buildings, according to my plan.

“Damn!” I accidently yell out loud.

I forgot to choose for which roof top I should go. I have checked and prepared the possibilities but didn’t choose. I have to do this quick and while walking.

So, they know this is a trap so they will place snipers on the roofs. I know that, so I should go to a roof where I have a shot to the snipers roof. Close enough that I can make the shot with my pistol. Or I hide on the snipers roof and take the fight to close range. Yeah, that’s better.

But still, which roof. They know, that I know that they know this is a trap. Or do they? Will they plant snipers on a roof that has a direct shot to the other roof?

And maybe they even know that I know, that they know that I know…

Am I over thinking it?

Fuck it. I’ll just go to the first roof as that has the best visibility to the phone and the best escape route I found. They have to place at least one man there.

I’ll go with that. Operation ‘Ireallywantasniperrifle’ is active now.

Shit is about to get real.

I enter the eight storey building and go to the elevator.

The building is some kind of office building. I’m in the elevator with a girl that looks to be just a few years older than me. She is dressed in a pant suit, probably some kind of secretary.

We listen to the calming elevator music as I’m screwing the suppressor to my gun.

“It’s a good weather, isn’t?” I open the traditional small talk.

“y-yeah” She answers with a meek voice. Is she shy or isn’t the small talk culture part of America. I think she is just shy. She actually kind of cute. Cute? Huh. Is this what it means whether one is ugly or beautiful? I feel like I got some insight to the workings of regular people.

I eye her figure as the elevator comes to a stop.

“we-well, this is m-me” She says.

“Have a good day” I say to her with my best smile.

I really have gotten better with social interactions.

The doors close and the elevator keeps going.

I re-check once again my magazine and that I have a bullet in the chamber.

The elevator comes to a stop on the eighth floor and I step out.

I go to the maintenance door that I picked open two days ago. It seems nobody noticed it so I don’t have to do it again.

As I walk through the door, I rip the piece of tape that held the deadbolt in place so that the door locks after me. That way the ones who come to this roof don’t know for sure is there somebody here.

Though now I realize that I did the same thing to two other roofs. If men enter those, they will presume that I’m on that roof.

But that is a good thing, as then they would be wary of their own roof rather than to cover their friends.

I get to the roof through another door that can be opened without a key from the inside.

I glance towards the trashcan and I can see there is nobody there yet. I hide behind a ventilation shaft so that I still have vision to the park. Normal people would need binoculars or a scope to do this but I am fine without them.

I look at the people in the park, trying to see if anyone has an earpiece, or is acting strange in some other way.

Perhaps I overestimated myself as I cannot be sure if I see an earpiece or an earring.

*click**screech*

The door is slowly opened and I make sure I’m not visible. The roof is as big as a basketball field. There are couple of ventilation shaft sticking out of it, and I’m hiding behind one of them.

I hear the steps of two men on the roof. The other is walking towards the edge and the other is checking the roof.

The man who went to the edge speaks to his radio:

“Sierra 1 in place.” and from his earpiece I hear muffled sounds but I manage to comprehend what I heard.

I heard that Sierra two and three was also in place.

So, three snipers. Probably two men teams also. The other one checks the surrounding and becomes the spotter after that? That is how I would plan it.

But they responded quickly to the call. I guess it makes sense that a secret organization has teams on standby in the capitol of United States.

And their resources must be comparable to the federal agencies in the States at least, if not to the intelligence agencies, seeing how fast the phone was traced.

The man with the radio lays to his stomach by the sound of it and places something on the roof. The rifle probably. The other man’s steps are coming closer to my hiding place.

I will need to do this quickly and without allowing them to fire.

*step*

Couple of meters away.

*step*

I ready my knife and pistol.

*Step*

I can see the barrel of an assault rifle now.

*Step*

With the knife in my right hand I stab his right hand wrist when it comes to my view, severing his tendons and preventing him to pull the trigger, and with my left hand I aim at his head from a downward angle and fire.

“bam” The suppressed shot is heard.

The other man was sure to hear that so I drop my knife, pivot on my left leg and shoot the sniper who just turned his head to my direction, aiming with both arms. The bullet impacts the laying man to the head, killing him instantly.

I don’t stay to admire my handy work as I rush to the sniper rifle. I take it and check the roofs I have scouted earlier.

There is two men on the other and only one on the other.

The distance to the closer one is 200 meters and the farther one 500 meter. So basically, nothing for a sniper.

They have yet to notice what happened here so I act fast.

The sniper rifle in my hands is a model I’m familiar with, so I know there are five bullets in a magazine.

*BAM* I shoot the one holding the rifle of the two man team.

I reload the bolt action mechanism.

*BAM*

I shoot the lonely sniper from the roof further away. He was already aiming at me so my bullet pierced his scope, and then his eye.

I reload the rifle.

*BAM*

I shoot the survivor of the two men team that took the weapon of my first victim and was about to take aim.

I reload the rifle.

“Sierra squad, did you get her?” Sounds from the radio of the dead man.

I could answer with the radio to him, but I won’t for two reasons.

One, he would know my position to be the same as one of his dead men.

And two, I want to identify the speaker.

I turn my rifle towards the park where people are looking panicked, but not running. Yet, anyway.

I call the phone I dropped to the dumpster and see how a man in a suit hesitates, before taking it and answering.

He is a black-haired man with a very average face.

“Did you get all three of them?” He asks me.

And that’s when my blood runs cold.

If I were him, and had three teams I would’ve asked did you got both of them.

Always hiding the existence of the last man in the off chance the opponent missed one.

There could be one sniper more!

I raise my head from the scope just in time to see a reflection of a scope on a roof on the opposite side of the park.

I roll to my left, barely avoiding the bullet that grazes my clothes. The bullet impacts the door of the roof behind me.

*BAM* the sound follows.

I take aim at the man. I didn’t even think about that roof so I’m not sure about the distance but something in the back of my head informs me that it took 2,5 seconds for the sound to come after the muzzle flash so the distance is 850 meters in this temperature. I correct my aim by lifting the crosshair of my scope one quarter of a centimeter above the sniper's head and fire.

*BAM*

I sigh in relief when I see the man turning into a fountain.

One bullet left, and I know who it’s for.

“Now I got them all.” I say to the phone and watch through the scope as the man’s face turns sullen.

“I was going to ask you were you the ones behind the kidnapping incident, but I guess your eagerness to kill me tells it all.”

“Wait 7xx! I had nothi..”*BAM*

He falls dead to the ground and now the civilians are like a panicked pack of animals, running to every direction.

This operation wasn’t to gain information so I shot him dead. They could have more ground teams nearby and they probably have, so I need to get out of here. This operation was to get me a sniper rifle and to strike back.

It’s war now.

I quickly rise up and check the pockets of the sniper. He has one more magazine for the sniper. I take it and rush to the guy I killed first. I take his assault rifle and the extra magazine he has on his belt and run to the door.

In the maintenance corridor there is black rectangular case. Probably what they used to bring the guns in as there are two more magazines for both weapons.

The sniper won’t fit in the case but as I’ve already used the same model in the past I take it apart from muscle memory and throw the assault rifle there as well. With the 1,2-meter-long case I head for the elevator.

I’m still in the maintenance corridor and the elevator machine is in front of me, while the elevator shaft opens below it. There are two elevators side by side, using the same shaft so I go to the one that I came up with.

From my shoulder bag, I take the gloves I have prepared for this and with my belt I tie the weapon case to my shoulder bag.

I jump to the elevator shaft and grab the wires.

I control my descent as I slide down. The thick leather gloves are starting to heat up from the friction but I bear with the pain.

My feet impact the elevator that has stopped at the ground level. The other elevator is coming down from above, so I jump and grab the wires that are coming down with it.

Like that, I descent to the bottom of the shaft. I use my knife to pry the doors open and enter the parking hall beneath the building.

All the spaces are full and there are even some people here but I pay no mind to them as the siren’s sounds are starting to get closer.

I walk to a wall where I had already screwed a ventilation hatch open. I slid in there with my stuff. I had to push the weapon case first, as it was a tight fit but I managed.

The length that I have to crawl through is only a few meters. I come to a maintenance corridor for the Washington metro system that runs parallel to the tracks. I turn right and start walking towards my apartment. I will surface when I’m far away from this place.

I wore my hood the whole time and played with the camera angles inside the building and the elevator so that my face cannot be seen.

Only the cute girl can recognize me but I decide to leave her alone.

Operation ‘IreallywantedasniperrifleandIgotit’ was successful.

Linda would be proud.