Balance (34 page)

Michael
finds
a broken-
out window
on the backside of the
building
providing
entry
to the second floor
. 
Securing a rope to the roof, he c
limb
s
in
without a sound
.

S
urvey
ing
the int
erior,
t
he second floor
mezzanine
spans the
width
of the building covering half its length.
 
L
arge wo
oden crates,
stacked in rows
,
run
the length of
the building.  Walking carefully, looking for indication of new traffic, Michael works his way to the far side.  Opening a window
overlooking
the
meeting spot
, he checks for
sign
s
of activity.  Al
l
is quiet
.

He taps his ear
,
turn
ing
on his communication bud.
 
“Destination accessed
.
” He
whispers
.

“Affirmative, orders firm
.
” responds the only vo
ice in the world
he
trusts
.

Just over t
en
-
hours
to exchange
, the waiting begins.
With
his
sniper
position
established, Michael moves to a more protected
corner
among the rafters
to listen for activity.

Five hours from exchange
,
Michael hears movement,
new
arrivals, competition
.
Two men
stand
ground level
at the
point of engagement
, turning circles, surveying the
surrounding
buildings. 
W
atching from his concealed location,
he
knows they’
re looking for vantage points. 
T
he
two
depart
the yard
headed away
.
Michael
can hear them
re
locating
in
adjacent buildings. 
E
xpecting company
, he
t
ook
the least favorable
spot
still usable as a sniper
post
, hoping any other participants
would
pick the
superior
positions.

One hour from exchange
,
three more
agents show up
,
taking
crossfire
positions
at ground level
. 
Unmoving,
Michael listens.  The
agents
on the ground must be
low-level
enforcement;
bark
ing
at each other
across the yard
, n
ot real bright bulbs.

H
alf-hour
from exchange, Michael taps his ear bud
, two time
s
quickly
. 

Rena answers
,
“
C
ompany?”

One tap
.

“Positions?”

Michael taps
the bud three times fast, pauses,
followed by two longer taps.

Rena relays, “Three guns on the ground, two
snipers
?”

Michael taps once
.

Exchange
.

Michael waits until he hears the first car approach before
descending from his hiding spot
.  He taps his bud …
two taps, pause, two taps.

Rena replies “Parties arriving,
proceeding to
post
?
”

One tap
.

“Orders firm
.
”

Moving
i
nto position next to the window
,
Michael
peeks
out
.  The first
arrival, a black town
car
parked
at t
he far end of the
exchange area
,
facing away
,
engin
e running. 
He
assumes t
he father,
the primary. 

One long tap
.

“First party has arrived.  Orders firm
.
”

Michael h
ears a second vehicle approach.
H
e can
only
make out the front of a large truck
,
stopping
almost directly below
his
window
.

Two
long
taps
.

“Second party has arrived.  Orders firm
.
”

D
oors open on both vehicles.  Two
men
exit
the truck.
A
single
male
steps out of
the car from the
front driver
’
s side
, the primary
.

Two taps.

“The exchange has started.
”

Michael realizes
Rena
has
not given directive
s
on the orders.

Two quick taps

No reply.

The
primary
walks to the back of the car
and waits
.  One of the
hostiles
turns and signals to the truck.  A third door
opens
and
someone climbs out, a small body, a girl no more than twelve.  She runs to her father,
who catches
and
re
directs her
in
to the car.

Two taps.

“Michael, orders
.”
Rena pauses
,
“Terminate primary
.
”

Michael
whispers,
“What? Terminate primary?  Repeat.”

“Affirmative
… Terminate primary
.
”

“The girl is clear, we don’t have to…”

“Michael, this is important
.
”

He hears it;
one of their secret co
de
d phrases, ‘this is important’,
dire
circumstance
s
, one of us is in danger.
  Without hesitation, he fires.  Clea
n
shot, straight through the
forehead
, the father
goes
down. 
He
reloads so fast, neither of the visible
hostiles
has a chance
to move.  The second shot downs one
. 
Reloading again, t
he third shot
,
kills
the
other
before he
can get
behind the truck
.

Michael can
hear the ground based gunmen shouting,
confusion,
they think there are multiple snipers.
  He
taps his bud, “Orders on secondary?”

“W
ithdrawal, no extraction
.
”

Shaking
his head,
Michael understands … this is the test,
a paradox; he
canno
t leave the girl here
, and he can’t
take her to the pick-up. 

One tap
.

Rena
looks around the room, finding
Takada
watches
her
keenly
.  She makes
no
indication of what she knows is happening.  Michael confirmed the order. 
That’s all Takada needs to know. 
What was
lost to everyone, but her,
Michael is going to make sure
when he withdrawals, the only person alive in the shipyard
will be the
girl
.

Michael has
seconds t
o make this happen before they’
re on him.  He fires two shots into the hood of the truck, rendering it useless.  One
round
left, he reloads and leave
s
h
is
post
.  By now, his location
compromised.  He runs to the edge
of the balcony, just in time to see the first of two hostile
s
run into the building.  Michael hits him in stride with his last shot, sending the second
retreating
out
side
.

Dropping the rifle,
Michael leaps from the balcony
to the stacks of crates running in rows down the length of the building. 
Bounding
, flipping
,
and rolling
from crate to crate
,
he co
vers the length of the building
across the top of the crates
in seconds.  Reaching the end, he
jump
s to the ground, then
doubles back
along the inside wall toward the hostile
.

The
man
re-enters
cautiously, turns and l
ook
s
down
along
the wall to the
far end
.  A
knife
buries itself deep in his
throat
, cutting off his
cries of warning
.

Michael
passes
the
fallen body
at
full sprint,
disengaging the knife
in stride
.  S
till following the interior wall back under the mezzanine,
he
expec
ts at least two of the ground
-stationed
gunmen
to investigate the last rifle shot.
Reaching behind his back, he removes the switchblade-glaive.
 
As expected
, t
wo gunmen
enter the building
single file
ahead of him
.
Spinning
his body to
build
power
, he d
epresses the release
and
launches
the
glaive
.
 
It expands mid-flight, hitting the front gunmen in the center of his chest w
ith so much force he falls
,
screaming
,
into the man behind him
.

The second
gun
man, disoriented, untangles himself
from his fallen comrade
.
Barely c
ollecting himself, he’s
shot point-
blank
as Michael reaches the doorway
.

Removing
the glaive
from the
body
,
Michael
collapses
and reattaches it to his
harness
.  Glancing out the
entry
,
he
locates
the third
gunmen
across the yard
.