The Perfect Shot (Book 3) ✓

12 - Unknown

Cleo

I didn't imagine the end of my encounter with Hannah would be a SWAT call. Now I get why Dax and Ralph were constantly bitching about these alarms coming in the most inconvenient times.

"What we have, boss?" I finally managed to get to the Police station and to start changing into my gear while listening to Max's explanations.

"We have an unknown shooter in the city center. We don't have a lot of information than a few shots were heard 20 minutes ago and that the Police on scene can't see who or from where is shooting. We don't know if it's just one person or a few...honestly, we have nothing. So, everyone, I want you to be very cautious when we get there. Cleo, you know, find a higher position and try to find what's happenings, Ralph will be with you as a spotter. Better to have more eyes up there. The rest of us will be on the ground trying to clear sector by sector the buildings and get the people to safety. Everybody hear that?" When all of us gave the confirmation, we got in our SWAT truck and drove to the city center.

Once there, I grabbed my sniper riffle and went to the highest building, Ralph was right behind me, watching my back. We got in position, me watching through my scope, while Ralph was lying next to be watching through the spotting scope and searching for our target. We heard a few shots, and both of us focused our search in the area where they came from.

"I can't see shit from here." Without waiting for him, I stood up and changed my location to the other side of the roof we were on. Once there, I finally had the visual I hoped for. "I had him, boys. One male, dark clothes, semi-automatic in hand."

"I have one here, too." What? I thought Ralph was going to follow me to my new location, but he stayed. And somehow saw another person of interest.

"What 'cha got, Ralph?"

"Male. Young one, gun, looks really uncomfortable, maybe scared."

"Okay, Max, what do you want us to do?" I waited to hear the instruction from our coms.

"Stand-by. We'll try to get them from here, watch our backs. Shoot only if necessary."

"Roger that." I stayed in my position watching the older man looking around, shooting his weapon at random places like he wasn't sure what to do, except that he didn't want people to get close to him.

I search for my teammates through my scope, and soon, I find two of them getting closer to my man. I guess the others were going to get Ralph's one. I was really hoping that they won't need help from above, because Ralph had his riffle with him, but it wasn't a sniper one, its range wasn't as long as mine and if he tried to help the chances where he'll make it worse.

"On position." I heard in my ears from a few of the men, then just when they were going to attack, I heard this specific sound that was engraved in my mind. A second later, my suspect  was lying on the floor with a bullet wound on his forehead.

"Fuck!" I started to look around, trying to pinpoint the building the shot came from, but I couldn't find a thing.

"What the hell... Cleo! I told you to stand-by!" Max was furious. I could hear the other team getting to the young man and restrain him while I was still searching for the bastard that decided to kill.

"C'mon, c'mon. Where are you?" I looked floor by floor, trying to see a position from where the shot could be made. "Bingo!" I saw a small window that was perfect. I stood up from my spot and started running to the place I suspected the other sniper was.

"It wasn't me, boss. We have another sniper. I'm going to his location..."

"Another sniper?! What the fuck! Wait, Cleo. Don't." I didn't listen to the instructions, I wanted to find who the shooter was, and the sooner I got to the place, the bigger the chance of catching him. "Ralph, where the hell are you? Go with Cleo. Right now!" I continued to run, and when I got to the entrance of the building, I looked around. There was no one here, I couldn't hear steps, or car... nothing...just the shouting of my teammates for me to wait for Ralph while he was trying to find me.

"Where the hell did you go, Cleo?" I finally gave him my coordinates, and soon I saw him running in my direction. "Never to this shit, Cleo. Never go somewhere alone, you hear me?" I knew why he was saying it, but I needed to get here as quick as possible. I wasn't suicidal, I stayed on the outside to wait for him, and that's what I told him when he got close to me.

"Like you see, I wait for you, dumbass. Stop talking, and let's check the building. I didn't see anyone leaving it. But that means shit. Could have others exits or the shooter could have left before I got here." Ralph just shook his head, disapproving, but didn't say anything else. We got inside and clear the floors one by one. When we got to the window, I thought it was used for the killing, and I found nothing there. There wasn't even dust on the floor. Everything was crystal clear, and that fact alone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Fuck! I don't like this, Ralph." I looked trough the window and sure enough, perfect view for the man who was now lying on the ground, blood slowly pooling around him. EMT's were waiting close by to have the scene cleared by us before they could get to the victim.

"I don't see anything, Cleo..."

"And that's the problem. There's nothing here. This place is cleaner than a hospital and that fact alone is making me really worried who the fuck we are dealing with." I didn't like the idea of a rogue sniper walking on our streets and shooting at people left and right."

"You sure he was here? He could got the shot from another place..."

"Then why the hell this place is this clean while the whole building isn't? This right here, it's intentional. And it speak for someone who knows what he's doing. I can bet we won't find anything, no fingerprints, no dust, not footprints, nothing."

"Why do you thing he or she was here? Why kill the man down there?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he was making sure the man won't speak to us, tell us why he was shooting, what he wanted, if he was working for someone...No idea." I didn't like the feel of it. Not knowing was driving me crazy, but right now, there was nothing left to do here, so Ralph and I went to our team to see what they found out from the young man.

"Anything?" I asked no one in particular, but Luke answered me.

"Nope. Nothing. He doesn't want to speak with anyone. He asked for his lawyer, and that was that. Are you sure there was another sniper here?"

"Of course, I'm sure. No one could make the shot if he wasn't using a sniper riffle. The distance was too big, plus I heard the bullet. You can't mistake the sound, nor the vapor trail as it flies through the air."

"Shit. This doesn't sound good."

"No,it doesn't."    

***This doesn't sound good, an unknown sniper in the town..Cleo isn't very happy about that fact.