The Eleven

by Adrian Popa

  "Adam, I see you, and ignoring my calls like that is disrespectful, I understand if you're comfortable up on that house, it does have a nice slant, enough for your cover, and what a fitting number, 1".

  I almost break a sweat, what, he's watching me?. I quickly look back and use my sniper's scope to try and find out where he could possibly be watching me from. I see no signs of him, but how. I turn back, still no one. Another call comes through my cell phone. I answer it.

  "Adam, I see your doing well, how is it going with protecting Dumont?"

  . He wants me to play the nice guy, in that case, I will kindly oblige to this asshole as long as he explains himself. "Yes, guy hasn't shown up, maybe he's scared"

  "Maybe, or maybe he caught wind"

  Wait, is he suggesting what I think he's suggesting. "Just saying, you never know what will happen, but whatever does, I have faith in you". He hangs up. Well, looks like even he doesn't know what's happening, guess that's the extent of information he's got, or maybe it's just all he's giving to me. Either way, this charade has run long enough, I better call Rat to see if he knows where this guy is. Just as I'm about to press the last digit, I see something move in the corner of my eyes. I quickly aim my sniper at the direction I saw movement and bingo. There he is, a suspicious figure darting his eyes at every corner and direction. Yup, this guys gotta be him. Well I can't be certain, so I'll just pan things out. I keep my scope on him, following his every movement. He pulls something out of his pocket. If it's a gun I will kick back and enjoy his misery. But to my demise he took out what looks to be, a remote. A remote? At that moment I receive a text message, I look at it. Same private sender, John , It reads

  "Haylin Smith, that's your little bomb technician down there, take him out quick, if you don't, Dumont isn't the only thing flying sky high tonight".

  If what John says is true, then I better get to work quick, but, if he does have his switch out, does that mean, he set the bombs up ahead of time, and I never noticed. I aim my sniper rifle towards his head, and stable it. As I get a clear path to his head, my finger presses the trigger, the sound of my sniper rings in the streets and the direction would have surely given my position. But in this situation, it didn't matter, he already knew. Just as I pressed the trigger he moved his head back dodging my bullet. I quickly re aim, and once I get a clear path, he runs down the street. Too fast, I put my sniper back in my harness and chase him down through the roof systems. He runs quickly from house to house not looking back. He knows I'm chasing him down, he even saw through my stealth. He surely isn't an amateur. He stops for a second and looks up to the roof I land on. He points his remote towards the building I'm standing on, and presses the red button on the middle. At that moment, a bomb went off, right beneath me, luckily I was able to escape back to my previous roof. Lucky sure is right, that guy baited me. It was a trap, and he's gonna bring me around town while blowing it in the process, I better just face him head on. He points his remote to my currently situated building, I quickly jump off to grapple onto the building opposite of mines, and he presses his button just as I'm about to jump off, this time the explosion pushes me back and I fail my grapple and tumble onto the streets. I take little to no damage, but that was exactly what he wanted. Because to him, this must all be a little mind game. I quickly pick myself up. He hasn't budged and I face him from a distance. My hands are already ready to draw out my Blue bird or Vendetta while he has his hand out on his remote. He stands there looking back at me, expressionless under his mask. As I draw out my guns and prepare to off him, he does something bold. He points his remote directly beneath my feet. And presses the button. I instinctively tumbled forward the moment his finger pressed down and somehow dodge the bomb that was underneath me. A hole now in the ground shows that this guy, didn't just plant bombs on buildings. The whole place must be rigged. I quickly point my Vendetta at him and fire but much to my dismay when he dodges it and begins sprinting, Of course detonating a bomb before him to cover my field of vision. This guy thinks he can play games with me huh, well ill show this Haylin Smith what happens when you play games with dangerous stakes, the one who plays the most, is the one who loses.

  I chase Haylin down. I reach a narrow path way, where I last saw him turn into, I don't see him, but I see a lot of buildings, and ground. I hear a short ticking sound underneath me, I tumble out of the way and an explosion occurs behind me. I never noticed it at first, but these bombs, they tick before they explode. Even underground, the ticking is rather loud, and at first maybe it was the loud ringing in my ears that blocked it or if I ignored it at first, but I can work with this. I can predict his next bomb strikes with this. This will work. The only problem, is where he is now. I walk down the pathway, and hear another ticking. I dodge it, then abruptly after another ticking, I dodge it, then quickly another tick, I dodge it again. The ticking has ceased, dodging consecutively like that put a strain on me, but I quickly shrug it off. This guy has to be on a roof, to be able to time out those attacks, he should have a high view of me. I continue to walk on the pathway, and as I hear the ticking noise, I grapple my way onto a nearby building roof. As I reach the top I hear another ticking, I switch roofs. He stops. He knows that I know that he's hiding on roofs, he can't afford to blow them all up. Now which one is it. I listen in carefully, and I hear a shuffling noise, following by a man swiftly climbing down a roof and dashing down the pathway, I jump down quickly and follow him, Vendetta in hand, and fire. He runs in a mixed fashion, swaying from left to right, and sometimes looking back. I take out my Blue bird and begin mixing up my line of fire. I eventually hit him on the shoulder. He falls forward. I stop, did I get him? He gets up like nothing happened, I didn't notice him take them out, but he's got two guns out now and he's wearing Kevlar. This is what I'm talking about, a gun fight. Bring it on. We both fire and run to opposite directions, taking cover behind buildings. I pull out my hand occasionally to fire at his spot, and I hear bullets hitting mine. I knew that I couldn't win against Kevlar, but my grenades could fix that. I continue firing and so does he, and in the line of fire I lob a grenade to him. The firing from his side stops and I hear him running. I quickly switch magazines and run as well, we both meet in the middle of the path way during our little sprint, and both tumble to our new hiding spot, and exchange fire. This is getting nowhere with his Kevlar. I'm just wasting bullets, I lob another grenade, and this time I run out. Bad choice. He had already moved out of his hiding spot when I threw the grenade, predicting my move, and expected me to come out. He had his gun pointed at me and fired I was able to roll out of the way but the bullet slightly hit my shoulder. Blood dripped down my arm, and onto the pavement. Heh, alright then, you asked for it. I charged towards Haylin, putting my Bluebird back in its holster but taking out my knife in its position, time for some close combat.

  He pulls out his knife as well, putting away both of his guns. I swipe once diagonally and he blocks it mid way with his knife. I then bring my gun up to his face, I can't blow his chest off, but his face is fine. He then grabs my wrist with his free hand and stops me from bringing it up. I move back while giving a swipe, followed by a block by him. We make our distance. I charge again, this time putting my gun away, if this is how it is, then so be it. I do a fake stab with my knife, he doesn't fall for it, and counters me, but I block by grabbing his wrist. We both keep our distance again. This time I start off with a punch to his face, he blocks it with ease, I then do a small turn and raise my right foot against his face, with his arm intervening, I then do a little turn from the recoil and do the same with my left foot, only for it to be blocked. I swing my knife again, with him blocking it mid way, and throw a punch, he blocks it as well. It seems like a while has passed, this pattern of attacks continues, this match seems too drawn out, he's playing defensive, but why, he clearly has enough skills to at least attempt to kill me.

  The battle stays drawn out, we both grow tired, and then it hit me. We were standing quite a distance apart, and he takes ou
t his remote. He points it to the floor beneath me. No, this can't end this abruptly. All the strength I have is sapping away from me, he baited me yet again, he just wanted me to be tired so he could do this, of course, why didn't I think of it. Heh, looks like I need a lot more brushing up to do. At that moment I hear a gun shot, and a bullet hits Haylin. He quickly takes cover, and a volley of bullets intrude on him. I take this moment to gather my strength and take out my Blue bird. Someone was helping me, but I couldn't see who. I take cover and wait. Everything is quiet. Fires from both sides have disappeared. Looks like a third member has joined this game. I look to see where Haylin was hiding, he wasn't firing. I take this chance to take out a grenade. As I prepare to throw it to his hiding spot, Haylin pops up with his remote on hand pointing towards me. I can hear words escape from under his mask.

  "Game over"

  He presses the button at the same moment as I throw my grenade. It all happened in slow motion. The explosion propelled my body as I attempted to tumble my way out of it, but I feel every part of me taking damage as I was caught in it, I see my grenade in the air, its course heading for Haylin who was about to run out of there, I see my bullet that I had fired to intercept his line of escape. And then it all went black.

  Chapter 5

  I hear the distant voices of two people. Where am I?.

  "Look, I don't know what's going on either but we better keep an eye out"

  "An eye out, well you and him can do that, I don't have time for this"

  I slowly open my eyes fighting back the fatigue. I see two figures sitting in a chair. One of them has a laptop. I appear to be in a sort of medical room. I look around, a drawer and a flower on top, with a window towards my left with a curtain over it.

  "Look, he's awake"

  The two figures sitting in the chair look towards me, I recognize one of them. It was Rat, he was on his laptop, typing away. Probably some informant business. Keeping wary that the person beside him doesn't take a look. The person beside him, I did not know, she had her brown hair tied up behind her and had hazelnut eyes. She had the face of a normal person. And she had an assault rifle on her lap. She was doing light maintenance while talking to Rat. Rat speaks to me while looking at his laptop.

  "Hey Adam, tough night yesterday, almost got blown to bits, luckily we were there to save you"

  Not funny .

  "Anyway, this is Jane a local guns man in the area, just strolled along Dumont one day and found a stray dog"

  "Hey, I'm Jane, nice to make an acquaintance"

  . Great so I'm here in who knows where with Rat and a gunner. I ask either of them

  "So, where the hell am I"

  Rat responds "My emergency room". Wait, what?.

  "Rat, you have an emergency room?"

  "Well yea, why not"

  Well it's rat I guess he can do what he wants. I ask again.

  "So, what exactly did happen last night"

  Jane responds "Well I was out in the neighborhood last night, just about to head out and take out some small fry and get my worth, when I heard these huge explosions out of nowhere, 'course I can't ignore them, so I rush to the vicinity and find two ass holes blowing up the place". I add

  "One ass hole, I was trying to stop that bomber, didn't know he was actually good"

  Jane continued "Well, I didn't plan on it either but from the looks of it you were fighting a losing battle, luckily I had called up Rat for some backup". I turn to Rat.

  "You do home calls?"

  He responds "Well, every now and then, and besides I still owe Jane one, so we are even now". Rat owing someone, damn, this Jane girl must be powerful, or at least resourceful to get someone like Rat in gratitude. I see no sources of any weapons in the room I'm in, the drawer looks like it's just there for decoration. Rat wouldn't keep emergency weapons in here, would he?. Jane continues.

  "So, you were just about to get blown up when Rat decided to blast lead into the guys shoulder"

  Rat adds "Yeah, did some backlogging and, Haylin Smith, turns out to be pretty powerful, and surprisingly sane". Jane finishes,

  "So, after Rat here blasted him I made my move and went down to get you"

  I ask "Went down?". She retorts,

  "You think you're the only one who can get on roofs?"

  She continues "So, you were in the process of getting blown up, I blasted a few rounds on Haylin, and he jolts out of there, Rat couldn't gun him down either, so he got away"Damn, Haylin got away, I don't feel safe with him running the streets, especially after yesterday. I ask Rat and Jane

  "What's my condition, am I good to hunt this guy again?"

  Jane talks with excitement "Yeah, that's the spirit, let's get this guy good and make him pay". Rat jumps in

  "You were hit, but you should be fine, just don't strain yourself or go crazy, I'm busy today so good luck"

  Jane stops Rat " Aw come-on Rat, you sure you don't want to help us hunt Haylin"

  "Yeah, I'm fine, you guys do that, I got my own work, and if I find anything, I'll tell you"

  "Alright, see ya later Rat"

  Rat stands up and leaves the room. I ask Jane "So what's our battle strategy?"

  "Well, right now we know that he is sufficient in combat, both melee and using bombs, and he has good instincts, I suggest one of us fight him up close while the other surprises him"

  "Well after yesterday, I got a bullet to pick with him, but I'm gonna take in Rats suggestion and play it safe by playing it safe if that's alright with you"

  "Yeah no problem, its fine, the only thing left is, where he is"

  "We don't know that yet?"

  "That's what Rat's finding out, patience, we have time to burn, just rest up and wait till Rat calls, and be prepared, I hope you have a good eye, and a good caliber".

  "Looks like the game has just begun, right, Adam"

  The fumes of the nearby factory fill the air. The clanking of two men are heard as they walk down the abandoned warehouse. The steps echo throughout the building, the two men are making no worry of the noise they are creating. One of the men hold up two pistols, and inquires

  "Tonight's my turn, maybe I might find a fun enough guy like you did"

  The other man holding up a remote responds "It was all a stroke of luck, honestly, but man at least he seemed like he knew what he was doing"

  "Well, Haylin, I hope you wish me luck, I want some fun as well"

  "Well, maybe he might come back to Dumont, in that case I might have to blow him up"

  "Please Haylin, of course he won't be back there, but the cops might be, maybe he would stroll down Copper lane and I can fight him"

  "Hah, then lets bet, who ever can blow his head off first wins"

  "Hah your on Haylin".

  The loud clanking of the two mans stop as they exit the factory.

  "So Jane, what's your history with Rat?"

  "Rat and I go way back h-"

  A sudden ring alerts us. Jane takes out her phone and answers it. "Uh huh, alright, be right there". I ask in wonder "Give me the four one one"

  "Rat seen a guy with a similar outfit as Haylin, the same mask and coat, it must be him, we gotta check it out"

  "Alright, let's do this"

  "Remember, you're not supposed to be out doing any extreme stunts, just relax"

  "Yeah, I know, but no promises, this guys gonna go down, so where is he?"

  "Rat says at Copper Lane"

  "Copper Lane huh, well let's get moving"

  We pack our things and head out, tonight, I sure in hell am not letting him go this time, this time, he is going to get what he deserves. This guy could do more damage than last time, and if I don't do anything about it, then I won't be able to sleep at night, this isn't a matter of revenge, I have something that needs to be done, something that needs to be ridden. Jane turns to me and says

  "Hey, I understand that you're supposed to be some hit man but seriously, it doesn't hurt to have a partner every once in a while you know"
<
br />   "Yeah, I know"

  I know, but, the line of work I do, I couldn't possibly bare losing a life I care about, no, I can't get any innocents involved in this, as much as I hate to, I have to, at least for now accept Jane and Rats help, it's the least I can do considering they saved my lives. But for now, I give them my gratitude, honestly, what have I been doing, trying to act as some kind of white knight of Courtlyn, it's pathetic to think that I'm some kind of super hero saving the lives of many, hah, but the thrill of the job just isn't the same with a partner, perhaps, just maybe, I'm addicted to this adrenaline rush. It's a shame, sometimes at night even I forget why I signed myself up to do this. I'm doing something dangerous but at the same time, I have grown to love doing what I do, of course I don't like killing but it's just the sudden burst of rush that gets me , maybe I've grown to be a monster, rather than a hero. I'll save this for another time, but for the mean time, I do know for certain, that if I don't end Haylin, than my life isn't the only that will be affected.