(2013) Shooter

by Jack Parker

  "What do we need to do?" What my question really was; are you going to kill us?

  I may have had the courage to speak, but my sentence quivered with an undertone of pure fear, and I was sure he'd picked up on it.

  "You will see, in a moment. But be assured that so long as you cooperate, you won't be harmed." He answered patiently. "Any other questions?"

  I took a chance on that one. "Who are you?"

  I figured that if he said he needed me to do something, he wouldn't kill me just yet.

  "Hopefully, your future employer." He smiled, and his eyes softened. "For now, call me Kendall."

  That might have been an alias, for all I really cared. What I had wanted was some clue as to why I had been brought here. But before I could meditate further on this one, he snapped two fingers at the Asiano man, and that one disappeared from my field of view for a moment. I dared not turn and look to see where he had gone. I did, however, look at the girl beside me, now that she wasn't flanked by any big, scary people.

  She looked like she was either going to throw up or run for it. Or both. She was shaking pretty violently, and her olive skin was paler than I'm sure it should have been.

  I had the sudden thought to reach out with my elbow and touch hers. I meant to reassure her. She glanced at me and back at the floor.

  Kendall had been watching. "If you run, Julia, the both of you will be shot." He whispered. "You will find in a moment that your fates are tied."

  He glanced back at me, a meaningful look in his eye, before a loud scuffling sound drew his attention behind me. I took the opportunity to whisper to Julia. "It's going to be fine. We just have to do what he says."

  It was a pretty shoddy attempt at reassurance, if I do say so myself, but I tried.

  Seemed to work, though. She stopped shaking as badly, and took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

  I just hoped that I was right.

  The scuffling noise got closer, and I was finally able to see what the source was. The Asian was dragging a chair along the floor.

  It had someone on it, bound, with a black hood over his head. The bag rustled, he was grunting something. He must have been gagged as well.

  Who the hell is that?

  Julia subconsciously scooted closer to me.

  I couldn't utter another word. What were we supposed to be doing? I didn't like the errant thoughts that bubbled up.

  Jason walked right up to the chair and took the hood off the man's head quickly.

  I saw his face, one I'd never seen before.

  Kendall walked up beside me, holding a gun, and I tried not to flinch when he put a hand on my shoulder. "I want you to kill this man."

  I'm not even sure I realized what I heard the first time. "You want me to…"

  "Take this man's life." He finished with a grim tone.

  I blinked several times. "I… I can't…just… kill someone!"

  I didn't ask why he wanted me to kill somebody. After all, nothing else about this made any sense, why would that?

  "Both of your lives depend on this. You can, and you will." His voice went frigid again, and something cold and metallic pressed into my right hand.

  A gun. To kill a faceless stranger in front of me.

  My heartbeat quickened. "I cant just kill him." I shook my head, as though that would make it all be over. I pleaded silently to all the people here. I can't do it. "Please."

  The Asian man slipped the hood off of the man's head.

  The man glanced around the room, terrified utterings periodically escaping the gag. He was shaking his head hysterically, and fighting his bonds with extreme effort. His face was red and veins stood out on his forehead. He looked like an older man.

  "Who is that?" I croaked lamely.

  "It doesn't matter." Kendall answered smoothly, and I felt my wrists fall free. I was still holding the gun.

  I raised my arm and looked at it for a moment, trying to come up with a way out… I could fight, couldn't I?

  No. I would be shot before I could do anything. I'd never even held a gun before. And the three in the corner looked like badasses.

  The pistol was custom, ivory handle etched with the image of a skull and crossbones. The barrel was longer than most, made for accuracy. Someone put a lot of love into this gun. Did they know what it was being used for?

  "Graecia. Do it."

  I stared away from he gun and met Julia's eyes. She was watching me with a mixture of horror, pity, and pleading.

  I met Keller's cool gaze and pleaded silently, shaking my head slowly. He shook his immaculately groomed head and nudged me toward the stranger.

  "Do it." Sinclaire added from somewhere off to my side.

  I felt all eyes on me as I waged a mental war with myself.

  I not only held my own life in my hands, but those of two others as well. And the enormity of the 'task at hand' truly set in.

  Could I become a killer?

  Even to save my own life? Someone else's?

  Would I? Was it truly worth it?

  If I don't, they'll just kill all of us. Surely there wasn't any need for everyone to die?

  But I'm being told to commit murder.

  And how did I know that this wasn't all a sick game and they weren't just going to shoot me in the back after I did the deed?

  One hot tear rolled down my cheek, and I watched the helpless stranger ahead of me.

  "I can't just kill someone." I was on the very verge of a hysterical crying fit, my self-control hanging by a thread.

  Kendall snapped his fingers, and two of the black-suited figures sauntered over and grabbed Julia and dragged her away from me. He snapped again, and the last figure, the female, came over and shuffled to a stop right behind me.

  I heard a barely discernible 'click', and chilled metal pressed against the nape of my neck.

  I froze.

  Another click, farther off, and my eyes danced over to Julia, who stood with another gun against her temple.

  She looked closer to hysteria than I was, and silently mouthed just one word.

  "Please."

  I glanced away. My palms were sweating, and my hands were shaking. I felt as though I would vomit. Or scream.

  Either way.

  The gun on my neck pressed harder. And I suppose when someone's going to blow your brains out; you have a sort of moment of clarity.

  It's shoot or be shot, and I'm responsible for Julia, as well.

  I wish Constance were here. She would know what to do.

  Granted, though, now I admit that Con would probably have been just as scared as I was.

  My moment of perfect clarity ended with one final thought.

  If I do this, there is no going back.

  My hand slowly… oh, so slowly, inched upward until the gun barrel was parallel to the stranger's forehead. It jittered and jumped with my shaking hand. I fought back tears.

  Try as I might, I couldn't aim that weapon.

  The man's frantic muttering got louder, his eyes wide with terror.

  He was looking at his death, in the form of a short, skinny, frightened fifteen-year-old girl.

  He shook his head insistently; his intended words clear to me. "Don't kill me!" he called in my mind.

  My mental answer was simple. "I have to."

  Kendall's hand closed in an iron grip around my wrist, holding it steady. He spoke in a calm, patient voice. "Now all you have to do is pull the trigger. And you can go home."

  The stranger stopped his muttering, and now just stared at me with blank, glassed over eyes. Tears flowed freely down my face unchecked.

  "Just squeeze. Then it's all over."

  I willed my finger to move.

  It happened so fast.

  The gun went off with a roaring retort; the stranger's head snapped back, surprise etched all over his features. Kendall's grip released from my wrist.

  I dropped the gun to the ground, and it clattered, the sound ringing in my mind.

  I saw the st
ranger's body and behind him, the sprayed evidence of the bullet that had killed him. After that, I couldn't look anymore.

  I turned away and dropped to my knees; my legs turned to jelly and I couldn't hold myself up. My hands covered my mouth; holding in the scream that threatened to force it's way out. I'd hunched over and sobbed for over a minute before a pair of hands dragged me up to my feet.

  My hands fell to my side and I met Kendall's eyes. He was grinning.

  The recollection ended as quickly as it had come on, and I returned to Kendall's office, in the armchair.

  He was wearing a considerably different expression now. Rueful.

  "It was never right to put a gun in a child's hand and force them to kill."

  No shit, Sherlock.

  "And though it will never make up for what I've done, I'm sorry, Graecia."

  I only had one question, and it had been one I wanted the answer to for a long time. It took me a moment to find my voice.

  "Why me? Why Julia?"

  Kendall took e deep breath and smiled a little sadly at me.

  "Who better than a ward of the state, someone with no known relatives, aside from your sister, and you are the exception in that; and someone intelligent, competent, and right at the perfect age to be molded? That's why you were… chosen."

  "How would you even know…?"

  "I have personal access to psychological evaluations and social worker's reports." Kendall answered smoothly.

  That made sense. I didn't ask how Kendall got a hold of items like that, as he could get anything he really wanted, no questions asked. "What about Daisuke?"

  "Same situation." He sighed. "Though he was younger, only thirteen. Julia was fourteen, I think."

  Daisuke was my age, making Julia the youngest of us.

  He continued. "You three were the only ones with the nerve to do it."

  "I was too much of a coward to die." I spat, suddenly disgusted with myself.

  "Then it was the instinct to survive."

  "How many of us were there?" I asked, my throat suddenly dry.

  "Twelve. Nine of them… didn't make the cut." Kendall looked away from me. "I think that's the only regret that I have in my life."

  I shuddered, feeling the gun barrel on the back of my neck again, like a phantom limb.

  The same thing that had happened to Julia and I had happened to Daisuke and nine others. The only difference was that the nine other kids hadn't made it. And the man responsible for that was right here in front of me, had been there for fourteen years.

  Why wasn't I pissed off?

  "Daisuke said that you recognized your assailant?" Kendall interrupted my thoughts.

  "Yes." I answered very simply, not feeling like talking much.

  "Who was it?"

  "The guy I was supposed to do my next job with."

  Kendall started. "Reno Carson?"

  "I s'pose. I wasn't given any real information." I shrugged.

  "Of course you weren't…" he looked past me, through the office door, obviously deep in thought. I didn't intrude on his mental stimulation time.

  After a few moments, his cold eyes snapped back to me. "I don't like what I'm thinking."

  "What are you thinking?" I asked apprehensively, knowing that I probably wouldn't like what he was thinking, either.

  He took a deep breath. "Based on the fact that the perpetrator was the person that you had been assigned to work with next, tells me that there was a plot."

  I'd already gathered that much myself. If there's a hit, there's always a plot.

  "I believe that I was misled in who exactly the intended target in that hit was."

  "Ah." My tired brain absorbed the meaning that was there and obvious the entire time.

  "Meaning that you are the one marked for death, Graecia."

  Thought so. That really sucks.

  "So someone's put out a contract on me. I wonder who? And why?" I asked nobody in particular.

  "Who, indeed?" Kendall mused to himself.

  "I shook the first, but it's only a matter of time before I go missing and never turn up." I said in a flat monotone, not moving.

  "You seem calm."

  I smiled. I was calm, as there wasn't any reason to be upset. "The way I see it, I have three options, really. I can run, I can curl up and die, or I can go and find out who wants me dead and take care of the problem."

  Kendall grinned at me, a rare expression. "What's it going to be?"

  "Well, I've gone thirty years already, no sense in getting taken out now, is there?" a wry grin stretched over my battered face as I stretched my aching body and looked him right in the eye.

  Kendall blinked. "Thir… well, that's right. Happy birthday, Graecia."

  This was a novel moment. I'd caught Kendall off guard. Holy crap.

  "Yeah, happy fucking birthday to me." I muttered crossly.

  "Well, birthday or no birthday, I'll supply you with anything you might need."

  Well, that's nice of him. "Thank you."

  "And I'm going to tell you that I have no idea what's going on. But I think I can point you in the right direction."

  A lead? That's awesome. "Which way?"

  Kendall was writing something. When he finished, he handed it to me. "A colleague of mine. Talk to her, see what she knows."

  I grimaced. "Is that who I'm thinking of?"

  "I think so." Kendall actually smiled at me, a first. Well, this was just a night of firsts, eh?

  "I'm not exactly her biggest fan." I grumbled.

  Kendall chuckled to himself. "In all fairness, you've only met Sinclaire once, and I daresay that it wasn't in the most friendly of places."

  "Even so?"

  "So, where are we going?" Daisuke popped his head into the office and grinned toothily at me.

  "I am going to see Sinclaire." I answered succinctly, turning to look at him.

  "You mean, we're going." He corrected me.

  "No… I don't." I glanced back at Kendall, who sat there, a curious expression on his face.

  "Oh. I see how it is." Daisuke pouted at me.

  I was confused, until Kendall saved me. "I presume that Daisuke is under the impression that he was going with you."

  "Oh, no. I'm going to see Sinclaire." It wasn't that I didn't want him there, but if someone was gunning for me, then he would likely end up as collateral damage.

  "I think it's a good idea for Daisuke to go with you, Graecia." Kendall commented, undermining any reasonable argument I might have had against it. I threw him a dirty look.

  Daisuke came in, clapping his palms together with a loud smack. "Good."

  When I looked back, he was smiling, and he winked at me. "Fine." I grumbled.

  "Yay." Dai leaned against the chair I was sitting in towering over me. I looked up and stuck my tongue out at him. "That's mature, Grace."

  "I know."

  Kendall cut in, most likely saving me from a witty retort on Daisuke's part. "What do you need?"

  I looked away from Daisuke and smiled. "Some cash. To get from A to B."

  "Done."

  "I believe that rifle's bigger than you are." Julia pointed out as we raided my closet for equipment.

  I was hefting a sniper rifle boombox-style over my shoulder, a bag of ammunition in different calibers in the other hand. "It probably is." I commented lightly.

  I handed over the bag and the rifle over to Daisuke; who took them without another word. I think Constance was helping him load things into the car. It was still amazing me that she was taking this so well.

  A thought came to me. "Hey, Julie?"

  "Heh?" she puffed, trying to push a steel footlocker out of the way. I scooted over to help her.

  "I have something to ask you."

  "Then spit it out." She said, not impatiently.

  "My sister's not safe. And I can't keep an eye on her. I wanted to ask you if you could…" I trailed off.

  Julia stopped pushing the trunk. When I looked up at her, she was
smiling at me. "You didn't even need to ask."

  I felt the huge, goofy grin spread over my face with the relief that was spreading.

  If Julia was looking out for her, then there was no need for me to worry.

  "In fact, I'll keep both." She continued.

  "I… thanks… I owe you."

  Julia shook her head. "Nah. I'll be paying you back for the rest of my life, as it is."

  And that was the end of the conversation, apparently, because she went back to her (failing) attempt to move the giant footlocker. And I tried to help, really I did, but it didn't move an inch, until Daisuke popped back in and sent it scooting four feet with a nonchalant kick.

  "Holy shit." I'd said.

  The four-wheel drive SUV bounced slightly with imperfections in the road, lulling me to sleep.

  Before we'd set out, Constance had bear-hugged me 'round the neck, and very nearly cried. She was less aware than the rest of us about the ramifications of what was going on, but she knew that I might not (probably wouldn't) come back. That much, Daisuke had apparently explained to her.

  I was still shitting my pants about how calm she was.

  Julia hugged me, much more gently, (thank god) and whispered in my ear, "You get killed, and so help me, I won't let you rest."

  When she let go, she flashed me the barest hint of a dangerous smile.

  "Don't worry about it." I grinned.

  "Alright, alright, let's go. Doesn't pay to hang around." Daisuke interjected, ushering me off to the passenger's side door. I'd given a jaunty little wave to my sister and my best friend, and we drove off.

  Now, the sun was peeking up over the horizon, staining the sky a deep pink. Fifteen minutes in the car had made me realize how tired I was.

  "Wake me up when we get there." I mumbled, unable to keep my eyes open any longer.

  I think it was a particularly violent bounce that roused me, but I woke slowly, looking around and yawning.

  I'd apparently slumped over, because I found that my head was on Daisuke's shoulder, and his arm was over my shoulders. But I didn't move.

  Don't judge me. It was warm right where I was.

  "Are we there, yet?" I grumbled.

  "Oh. Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Daisuke laughed softly. "Thank god you don't drool or snore."

  I rolled my eyes. "You didn't answer my question."

  "We have about an hour to go." I was pretty sure he sounded amused.