“Seriously?” I demanded as I walked in and yet another folder was handed to me. “I just got back from a job!” I snapped.
Seven shrugged. “Sorry, X, but you’re the only one here. One’s on vacation, Six and Nine are out on assignments, Five’s got the flu, Two’s got a cold, Four’s working deep cover, I’m here holding down the fort, Three hasn’t gotten here yet, and Eight…well, you know,” she told me.
I nodded solemnly as I accepted the file, opening the folder to show the picture of a guy in sleazy clothes like the ones you’d expect a gangster to wear. To me, though, it’s just another job, another target. The ten of us make up the Organization, a group of mercenaries that can be hired to do anything if the price is high enough. Each of us has a specialty. One’s our intelligence specialist, able to hack into any computer in five minutes, Two is our stealth infiltrator, Six and Nine both work together on a protection detail, Five is our close combat expert, Seven does all the office work, but she is still deadly, Three is our heavy weaponry and explosives expert, Four works all the undercover jobs, then there’s Eight and I. Eight used to be our all-around guy, helping us out on any job we need help with, but he was killed when he got reckless while helping Three. He messed up the wiring on an explosive set up to kill a foreign dignitary, killing himself. I’m technically known as ‘Ten’, but I just go with ‘X’, since it’s the Roman numeral for 10, and the first letter of my first name. I work all the assassination assignments, be it by sniper rifle or up close, I can pull anything off without a trace. If you know of a person who died and they never found the killer, that was probably me. I’m also known as the last resort, as I’m basically the combined skills of the entire team.
“So where can I find him, or will I have to find out myself?” I asked Seven as I studied my target’s face and description.
She smiled and flipped the page. “For the head of a local cartel, he has a very routine schedule,” she told me as I read his schedule and personal information. When I saw where he’d be, I glared at her.
“You know I don’t kill in churches,” I snapped at her, brushing a hand against the cross hanging around my neck, the only clue to my unknown past.
She rolled her eyes. “I know that, moron. If you’d look further, you’d see that he has a meeting that cuts into that time to take action against another cartel. That’s when you take him.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “I thought One was on vacation?” I asked her.
She smiled innocently. “I may have called in a favor,” she said.
I chuckled and studied his schedule closely, as well as a diagram of the meeting room and an entire block around it. “This guy isn’t too bad,” I muttered. “One of the walls is a window, but the only building I can shoot from is almost impossible to get to him from, so I’d have to be in the building, or find an impossible shot.”
A boat… I thought to myself when I saw how close it is to the docks, practically across the street. The tide’s high today, and I’d just need a good driver…
“Tell Three to meet me at the boat,” I told Seven as I walked to my office. I entered a passcode into a keypad on the desk, and moments later the top lifted to reveal a wide array of weapons, from the most advanced in sniper rifles to a garrote. I grabbed the rifle, a pistol, some knives, and a set of boat keys. For some of the trickier jobs, I use the boat to get the perfect position, and Three’s almost always the driver. It has a hidden bedroom under the deck, perfect to shoot from since it’s almost impossible to see into.
“I just notified Three, he’s on his way,” Seven told me as I grabbed my helmet and walked out.
I nodded as I climbed onto my bike, a Ducati Panigale R. I had it there already because I was returning from a job in one of the more-expensive districts in the city.
I had my sniper rifle slung across my back in a case, separated into several pieces, as I drove toward the correct docks, where Three was waiting on the boat.
“What took you so long?” he asked me as I parked the bike and tossed him the keys.
“I was making sure I wasn’t being tailed,” I replied. He just laughed as we set off from the docks. I climbed into the lower room as Three drove the boat to the correct area.
“We’re getting close,” Three told me as we continued to the correct position.
“Thanks,” I replied, assembling my rifle and opening the door, setting up the scope. The sun was almost directly overhead, so there was very little glare on the window I had shoot through, as well as on my scope. I adjusted for the waves that rocked the boat, and focused the scope on the window, where I could see my target waiting by himself. The windows were most likely bulletproof, though, so I had to make sure my shots were perfect: one to strike the window and weaken it, another to punch a hole in the glass, and another to take him down. The problem, though, was that they’d have to all hit the same exact spot in less than a second, or else it would alert him and he’d take cover, ruining the mission.
“Keep the boat as stable as possible,” I told Three as I loaded the most powerful ammunition I use and took aim at the target, making sure that I had the proper settings.
“Shot one,” I whispered to Three as I took my first shot, making the glass flex and crack quite a bit. “Shot two,” I added, making a hole in the glass a second later. “Shot three,” I finished, shooting my target in the head before he could even react.
“That must be a record,” Three muttered as he pulled out his fishing pole.
I rolled my eyes as I swapped mine out as well and hid my rifle, picking up a pole as well. “Well, let’s at least catch some lunch while we’re out here,” I told him as we moved to a different position. I used a monocular to make sure nobody had entered the room as he got us out of position.
“It’s too bad you can’t shoot the fish, or we’d have a full cooler,” Three muttered as he ended up catching five fish, and I got none.
I rolled my eyes and skinned the fish as he took us back to the docks. “Job done, and we've also got lunch,” Three told Seven on his sat phone, untraceable as he took the fish in his truck and I got on my bike, on our way back from just another assignment.
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