I take a deep breath.
Fuck it.
26
I’m very fortunate to have some level of natural ability when it comes to what I do for a living. I've received a lot of training during my time in the military, but — and I say this with no ego at all — to get to the level that I operate on, you have to have some natural talent to begin with. It has to be in your blood.
I have two main strengths when it comes to shooting: speed and accuracy. If we lived in the Old West, I’d have been a quick draw champion — no doubt about that. Hand-to-eye co-ordination has always been something that’s come naturally to me. Which obviously has a positive effect on my level of accuracy.
You can train people to shoot the wings off a fly at a thousand yards and that’s great. But I can take one look at my target, instantly shoot from the hip and hit it — every single time. I don’t aim with my head. I aim with my eye. My brain then tells my hand to point at what my eye’s looking at and it does, like an instinct… a reflex. There’s no logical thought process involved. I just point and fire. And I never miss.
It’s quite a handy skill to have when you kill people for a living.
I look down one last time at Chambers. We lock eyes and time slows down around me. All noise disappears, leaving nothing except the two of us, staring at each other for what feels like a lifetime. I can see the panic in hers. She’ll be able to see the killer in mine.
I wink at her and take one last breath…
My left hand disappears behind my back, re-appearing a moment later and whipping my second Beretta around to aim at Pellaggio. I arc the swing of my arm out over the balcony as I do, and fire once. The bullet hits Gregovski in the center of his forehead, narrowly missing Chambers by a few inches. She screams as Gregovski shudders and falls heavily to the floor, a spray of blood catching her down her left side.
As confident as I was of making that shot, it’s always harder when there’s someone you care about in the way.
I save the sigh of relief for later. I know Chambers is okay, and there’s no time for celebrating.
I continue the swing, bringing my gun level with Pellaggio. But I hesitate. I can see his finger tensing on the trigger and, if I shoot him, it will likely cause him to twitch and get the shot off anyway. In a split second, I change my mind and drop my gun, racing toward Pellaggio as time resumes its normal speed. I can hear the launcher start to bleep as it acquires its target.
Goddammit, come on, Adrian — faster!
With gritted teeth, I approach him at full speed, jumping and aiming my right elbow at his head. I smash into him, catching him flush on his right temple at the exact moment he squeezes the trigger. He collapses to the floor, falling left with me on top of him.
But I’m too late…
The loud whoosh of the missile firing fills the building.
“No!” screams Chambers as she spears at the top of the stairs and starts running toward us along the gantry.
“Fuck!” I shout, punching the floor with frustration. But I shake my head. “No, this isn’t over!”
I’m Adrian Hell… I don’t fail, and I certainly don’t miss!
I scramble to my feet and lunge for the Remington sniper rifle that Pellaggio taunted me with earlier. The same rifle that put two bullets in my best friend. I pick it up and use it to smash the glass right in front of me. I quickly chamber a .300 round, drop to one knee, and line up my shot through the scope.
The Stinger missile is moving at around nine hundred miles an hour in a straight line. The bullet I’m about to fire will move at over twice that speed. The downside is, the range of my bullet is over half that of the Stinger, so the timeframe I have to work with is measured in split seconds at best.
I look through the scope and track the missile. It’s a very small target already, but I’m pretty sure that if I can just hit it, that’ll be enough to knock it off course at very least — or, ideally, detonate it early.
To my right, I hear Chambers approach me.
“Adrian, you could’ve shot me back there!” she says. “I can’t believe you would…”
She stops mid-sentence as she looks at me. I’ve not acknowledged her, but her silence tells me everything I need to know.
“Adrian, you can’t be serious?” she asks, seeing what I intend to do.
I don’t respond, focusing completely on this shot. Probably the biggest shot I’ve ever had to take — not wishing to add more pressure to myself or anything.
My whole body aches, and my arms are screaming as I try to hold the rifle steady. But this is it. I look through the scope at the missile, knowing that if I miss and it reaches the Jeremiah, the consequences will send shockwaves felt the world over.
I take a deep breath, and another, and then hold it. Everything around me fades away and I breathe out slowly, squeezing the trigger as the breath leaves my lungs. The sound of the shot echoes around the hollow interior of the building. I immediately throw the rifle down and look through the window. I feel Chambers’ hand on my shoulder. I reach up and grip it.
One… Two…
The missile explodes, and a small cloud of fire erupts briefly in the sky over the Bay. Seconds later, fireworks start flying, signaling the end of the service aboard the Jeremiah.
“Oh my God!” she shouts in both surprise and excitement. “You did it!”
I stand up slowly and look at her. A pulsating ache resonates around every inch of my body. My legs feel weak, and I can barely support my own body weight. She steps in close to me and throws her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. It hurts like hell, but it’s totally worth it.
I let out a heavy sigh. I’ve done it. After everything we’ve all been through over the past few days, in the space of a few seconds, it’s finally over. I step back from Chambers and turn to look at Pellaggio, just in time to see him running full speed toward me. I’m slow to react and just about manage to push Chambers away as he drops his head and spear-tackles me, sending us both crashing into her and to the floor.
“You sonofabitch!” he snarls. “You’ve ruined everything! I’ll kill you!”
He gets into a full mount position on top of me, resting on his knees, which are straddling my chest. He starts raining blow after blow down on me, connecting with my face and chest. I struggle to bring both my arms up to protect myself, writhing left and right with my body in an effort to evade the punches and look for an opportunity to escape. As I turn away from a big right hand, I steal a glance up and look behind me to see if Chambers is okay. I can see her lying on side a little away from us, not moving.
A punch catches me on my left cheekbone — punishment for getting distracted — and I feel myself almost lose consciousness, but another punch to my right cheek knocks the cobwebs away again. I look into his eyes, seeing the unbridled rage and fury burning behind them. He’s not going to stop, and I know I can’t take many more heavy punches.
I move my upper body to my left as much as I can, narrowly avoiding yet another powerful right hand. I catch his arm at the wrist and buck with my hips, using every ounce of strength I have left. It’s just enough to dislodge him and, using the arm I have a hold of for leverage, I manage to roll him off me to the left.
Seizing the opportunity, I struggle to my feet, standing up at roughly the same time he does. He comes at me again, but toe to toe in a straight-up fistfight, he’s got no chance against me, even in my current condition. Plus, he’s so far gone with his anger, he’s not thinking at all — he’s operating on pure hatred, and he’s going to be easy pickings for me.