The One-Seven

Chapter 34: Deadshot

This inside of Legends was like just about any other VFW bar Percy had been in. Old photographs of men and woman from all over the globe, fighting on any number of continents. Old flags, scarred with the effects of battles or trophies from various theaters of combat.

There were only a handful of patrons in the bar, not unexpected given that it was barely past noon, but that served Percy just fine. He grabbed a table in the corner of the room, but near enough to the door that Ogami would see him as he came in. Percy had only been seated long enough to order a pair of draft beers from the host before Ogami walked through the door. A tall Black man, a few inches taller than Percy himself and built like a house, Ogami cut an impressive figure. The sun shone off of his bald head, and his dark brown eyes met Percy's before he made a beeline for him.

Ogami had been in the teams with Percy, though he had been running with a different team than Percy. But, they had worked together a handful of times, and Percy knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from helping, in spite of his own reservations about Percy.

"Thanks for meeting with me, Ogami," said Percy meaningfully, only to receive a mild grunt in response. Percy bit back an exasperated sigh. He wasn't surprised by the response. Percy had garnered a reputation after the botched mission in Biyalya. His entire team had been very publicly executed, but Percy had somehow managed to worm his way out.

The only survivor.

There had been a lot of questions about what happened, and while Percy had been eventually cleared, his reputation had been stained forever. Percy couldn't blame the other teams. Had he been in their shoes, had watched as an entire team save for one man had been publicly murdered, he would have had his suspicions as well.

But he needed answers. Knowing that Ogami wasn't going to be feeling very talkative, Percy reached into his pocket and withdrew the bullet that had been shot at him the previous night.

"I'm investigating an ongoing murder spree," explained Percy rolling the bullet onto the table. "I have three bodies so far. Each one has had their brains blown to pieces with one of these. Each shot, seemingly more improbable or impossible than the last. Was hoping maybe you'd be able to give me something on whoever would shoot something like this."

Ogami was staring at the bullet, his eyes wide. Reaching down he wrapped his long fingers around the bullet and brought it up to his eyes to investigate it further.

"Damn," he muttered, "Was hoping I'd never have to another one of these damn things again,"

"You've seen these before?" Asked Percy, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

Ogami nodded, his face solemn, "Yeah...yeah I recognize this." He sighed and rolled the bullet back to Percy, "And unfortunately, I know damn well who it is you're looking for."

"And?" Prompted Percy,

"Goes by the name Deadshot. No idea what his actual name is, but he calls himself the best marksman in the world. Always hits his target, never misses, regardless of how difficult the shot."

Percy, who had since brought his notepad out wrote down a quick series of notes. "You said you ran into him before?"

"Back in '08," said Ogami, "We were pulling a defector out of North Rhelasia. We thought we had gotten out clean, right up until that smug son of a bitch rolled up on us." His fists clenched tightly as his jaw locked,

"You remember Connolly?"

"Yeah," nodded Percy, "Came out of the same BUD/S class. He was good people,"

"He was," agreed Ogami, "Up until that bastard shot clean through him to kill the defector. We didn't even know what had happened. One minute, we were bunkered down in this building on the outskirts of the DMZ waiting for our pickup, the next thing we know Connolly's bleeding out on the floor and the defector's head looked like he'd spent a night with Gallagher."