Short Stories

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“About 6 feet tall, glasses, gray hair, square jaw, blue eyes, bent nose, left handed.”
“Affirmative. Target description correct. Engage when ready.”
“Affirmative. Target approaching car. Wind estimate?”
“About 2 mph, 90 degrees.”
“2 mph, 90 degrees. Thank you.”
They were laying on a small rise over looking a small set of houses. The sniper had his rifle snug to his shoulder and cheek resting in his favorite spot. With a light breeze and just a few clouds, the warm spring day was a pleasant one. But it was about to turn into the last warm spring day for someone over two hundred yards away.
The sniper had been hired to “neutralize” a traitor. Today’s target had sold drawings of top-secret locations to “foreign interests” as the sniper’s employers had phrased it.
“We know that he has made a few enemies of some rather violent people, so that will cover you well enough. Just be careful.”
“So far so good” was the sniper’s relpy.
“We know he has a house in the country with a few neighbors. We don’t think these neighbors have anything to do with his ‘side job’, so this should be easy.”
“Security?”
“Almost none. One unarmed security officer makes the rounds to make sure the gates are still latched. Each round takes about 2 hours.”
“Layout?”
“Four houses in a small semi-circle, his is the second from the North. Small rises in medium grass about two hundred yards out. State Road 4 about three hundred yards to the West. Plenty of site-seers park their vehicles at the side of the road to take a short walk in the woods. Nearest other neighbor is about five files due south.”
“Six thousand.”
“Four”
“Use my car and gun.”
“Five.”
“Call the next number on your list.”
“Hey, that’s not fair. You heard what happened to the next number.”
“It’s not my fault. Six or nothing.”
“Two down and four after.”
“I’ll be back within a week for the rest.”
“The briefcase will be waiting beside the door on your way out. Good day.”
The light went out on the other side of the glass leaving the sniper to wonder exactly who he was dealing with. He had been accosted a year ago by two agents who asked him to ‘help’ them. After doing research on his first target, he was convinced they were on the level.
“Are you going to shoot today or what?” asked the spotter.
“Don’t get you garters in a bind. I want a clean shot.” Replied the sniper.
“You can’t get much cleaner than that.” Said the spotter impatiently.
“Look, I agreed to take you along and teach you the details, but if you keep bothering me than I will just send you home.” Said the sniper. And not only did he mean it, but the spotter knew he meant it.
BOOOM! The .50 caliber rifle roared to life and then was silent.
“Left breast pocket button,” the sniper said.
“Affirmative. Target down,” came the spotter’s reply.
“Let’s hope this makes others think twice before selling out,” said the sniper.
“Yeah, it’s a shame that money can make such monsters out of people. Especially people that should know better. Let’s go home.”
After changing their clothes in the woods, the two men got in the car and drove away leisurely.
During the drive to pickup the rest of the money, the two men talked about their childhoods, music, history, and anything else that crossed their minds.
As they pulled up to the train station, the sniper said: “I’ll get the bag, you watch the car.”
“Alright. But why can’t I ever get the money?” whined the spotter.
“Leader’s prerogative,” was the sniper’s smiling reply.
Later, at the meeting point where the two men had met earlier that week, the younger of the two got out and walked across the street into the parking lot.
“See you next time,” he called to the sniper.
“Next time don’t be so impatient,” the sniper called back with a grin.
With that, the sniper drove away.
He didn’t even know the real name of his young spotter, only that he had been asked if he would be willing to train a younger sniper.
“I guess I can. Tell me about him,” he said to the glass.
“He’s an orphan. Parents left him outside a church somewhere between nine at night and seven the next morning,” the answer came back over the speaker. “He shows great potential, but he needs to see how it should be done. He still has the Hollywood image stuck in his mind.”
“Most people do,” he replied. “I wish I had a dime for every time I heard some one say that a sniper has a cool job.”
The voice behind the glass laughed, “And they usually think that he has the best equipment and drives a fancy car.”
“I guess I can train a newbie,” the sniper said. “How do you want to arrange the meeting?”
“He will be waiting for you at the corner of Fifth and Meridian,” said the voice behind the glass. “Next Thursday. We will give him a description of your car and your name is Mack to him.
“I’ll be there. What is his name to me,” asked ‘Mack’?
“Just call him ‘Tommy’.”

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