THE NEXT TWO DAYS

Part Ten

CHAPTER TEN
   He could have shut down all networks before attacking the three men waiting for him but he wanted their employers to know what happened to them, to know who they were dealing with. Maybe they did not understand he was a trained killer. He could see them through Flight 10. They were waiting for him to be caught in their trap and they were clearly amateurs which was one thing he found difficult to understand about humans. Each one sent had believed he was the one to put him down. The last ones had the numbers, they could have made the fight difficult if they had shot at his car’s tires but they did not. Somehow he knew why.
    The company had no value for human life and they really knew who to recruit. They recruited those with twisted mind, people that got high in seeing their victim’s fear. To them, killing a human was like a hunt. The longer the hunt, the more the excitement. It wouldn’t have been difficult to convince such people to take a gun and kill someone. It was like they were getting paid to do what they love. This company must have a lot of them and they didn’t care if they died as long as the battles would delay him. He just knew they would be sending more amateurs who didn't know the first thing about combat and he would keep killing them. He wouldn't be able to focus and function well if the three people drinking and waiting by the dead body of the driver they killed, were left to continue breathing. They were his new puzzle. Also, he wouldn’t be satisfied if the company did not watch and see what he would do to them. He was going to kill them and make sure those watching would know he was aware they’ve been watching him. Maybe he too was twisted somehow. In fact he was already twisted from birth. People like him were already dangerous without any training. There was something else that was disturbing. Though most of the assassins sent to kill him were amateurs, the planning was too good. He had tried using Cindy’s line as a distraction not knowing they were already ahead of him. But somehow, he was having the feeling that it was just an individual. 
Cindy had started the car again and they had just passed the flyover.
“Stop the car” he said expecting Cindy to ask questions but surprisingly she stopped the car without any objection.
From the front seat, he opened the big bag on the passenger seat and brought out another case. It contained his personally upgraded Barrett M82. He immediately started mounting it.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Have you ever heard of TrackingPoint?”
“No.”
“This is a Barrett M82 George and I remodeled to work like TrackingPoint. It helps with target.”
“I don’t know why I’m even asking” she replied.
He wished he could explain to her that with his sniper rifle, he could hit a target at 1,000 yards without missing. But that would take a lot of energy and time.
“Let’s go Cindy” he said bringing out a small bag.
“Are they watching us now?” she asked.
He could hear the fear in her voice. That almost made him change his mind about letting them see what he was capable of but he could not, reason being he needed the high it gave him. He just hoped Cindy didn’t get to see all the twisted sides of him.
“Yes, but not for long” he answered walking towards the fly over, after wearing his sniper rifle.
She followed him closely without him giving her a convincing speech, which was also surprising.
“Please tell me I’m not climbing this” she said when they got to the left wall of the flyover.
“No. I am. You stay here.”
With that, he brought out his carabiner, his climbing tool which was already hooked to a long rope to aid his climbing down. He was on top of the flyover in less than a minute, his already loaded Barrett at his back. He did not want them to quickly pick up on what he was going to do.  He was relieved no car was on the flyover.
It was not difficult to find his targets because he was already connected to flight 10. He was grateful the area was cultivated, there were no trees blocking his view. Few houses were sparsely constructed. The first tree he could see with the enhanced lens of his sniper scope, was exactly where the excited men were waiting. He could now see the driver’s body with his sniper scope. He rotated the sniper scope to confirm there were no hidden traps. Although, Flight 10 had already confirmed that, he wanted to be double sure Cindy was safe on the ground. As he rotated back to sight his targets, he saw the large bird that was monitoring them, it was about 200 yards from his position while his targets were just 800 yards from his position. He magnified the scope to 5x as he turned his focus. After balancing his point of aim and impact, he released three shots. Only the third man died expressing shock. The other two had died without knowing what hit them. He immediately adjusted his scope to be directed to the bird. He pulled his face away from his sniper and looked at the direction of the bird, then he fired.
He was back on the ground in less than a minute.
“They are dead Cindy” he said after wrapping the rope and putting almost everything back in his small bag.
She did not reply which was unusual but she was crying. He pulled her to him while thinking of what to say.
“They will be coming for us now. We need to move Cindy” he said missing George all over again.
George would have known what to say.
                 One of the basic courses he studied during his special training was hacking. Although he was already good at it before studying how to do it. He and George had developed a software like Airtrack as their project. They tested it by infiltrating into all the Network providers and shut it down. It took three to four hours before the network providers could restore network. He was all set to do it again. But this time he knew it would not take time to get the networks back because that person like him would make sure he solved the puzzle. He could not tell if he was better than him but he had a feeling he would lose to the hacker.
They walked back to the car but this time, he took the driver’s seat. He picked his tool box and clicked the last button needed to activate the shutdown. The computer started a ten seconds count down after which it gave a green circle signaling a success. To confirm if it worked, he brought out the phone with Cindy’s SIM card, switched it on and waited. The only thing he saw was Emergency call. He switched it off.
“Belt up Cindy, we must disappear now” he said igniting the car.
     Her silence was disturbing. She had entered the front seat and just watched him operate his tool. He would do anything to make her chatty again, and he preferred it a thousand times to her silence.
“Jason why are we not going back to Benin?” she asked after a long silence.
They had just passed Ramat Park.
“I told you I’m moving over to plan B. We are going to Asaba” he said.
He felt terror as he mentioned plan B. Something told him to turn back and take the easier route.
“Jason your hand is shaking. I’m afraid to ask about who this plan B is. I never knew anything can scare you.”
He wanted to explain to her that they were going to meet a mad man who was more dangerous than him. They were going to meet someone who would shoot them at first sight before asking questions, then would deliver the final killing shot if not satisfied with the answers. But he could not find the exact words to say, so he kept quiet.
             The drive to Asaba took about one hour thirty minutes. He did not need to drive into the city because the man he was looking for, lived at the outskirts. He drove into a narrow lane that looked abandoned. After fifteen minutes, the road became hard to maneuver because of some thick shrubs. He had to stop the car. Cindy was still quiet.
“Cindy I’m sorry I have nothing to say to you. I promise we will talk if we come out of this place alive.”
There was no response. He turned to look at her, she was biting her fingers. He took hold of her right hand and turned her face to look at him. Their eyes met and he saw himself falling, his right hand on his own was already on her cheek. She felt soft to touch and he was feeling that fire again but this time it was not all over his body, it felt like tiny hot threads were being passed through his heart.
“I wish we could continue from where we ended and I really want to feel you again but there are so many things you need to know. I can’t break my promise to Mum a second time.”
“Promise you will explain everything.”
“Yes. I promise, but first we must leave here alive for me to do that. We are meeting a dangerous man. You must do anything I say without any question. Promise me you will do what I say.”
She did not respond but placed her right hand on the hand touching her cheek. By that act, the fire started spreading. His hands started moving down but he stopped abruptly, opened his door and came out. Cindy came out seconds later.
“Let’s go. Follow my steps and do as I do” he said battling to control his emotions.
She did not reply but complied. It took ten minutes’ walk before a house came into view. It was a green bungalow that looked uninhabited. There were so many untrimmed grasses that it was almost growing into the steps that led to the door. He knew there was a probability of him not being around but from the Intel on him, he should be around.
Suddenly he had a feeling of being watched but before he could figure out the location he heard a voice.
“You both have ten seconds to choose where I should shoot or I will decide.”
And he just knew he was the crazy one because no sane person would go to a crazy man’s house.
“Jason….” he heard Cindy’s trembling voice.
Before he could tell her to lie flat, he saw her turning to see the owner of the voice. He pulled her down immediately, same time a gun was fired.