"Who Wants to Live Forever"
Rebecca had been eyeing one particular target for some minutes. David had pointed him out earlier that day as a person of interest, but gave strict instructions not to shoot until ordered. Rebecca obeyed seemingly without question and continued to watch the man through her scope as he sat in the shade of a large olive tree.
Jean and Rico, in another foxhole some meters away, had been in constant radio contact. The Prime Minister forwarded his specific instructions to observe the operations of this hive without drawing the attentions of the French government.
"Why are we sitting here watching," Rebecca questioned. "We should be shooting. For six days, all we've done is watch and wait."
"We don't want to draw attention to ourselves," David explained. "That's why we are hiding out in these foxholes."
"If these people disappeared, how would that be a bad thing?"
"For us, it would not be bad," David said. "For the Italian government, if we were discovered to have been here and shot these men, it would be an international incident and possibly lead to escalation."
Rebecca remained quiet and motionless for a few minutes, still watching her target.
"I wouldn't mind," she said without emotion. David turned to stare at her.
"Have you any idea what you are saying?"
Rebecca nodded behind her scope.
"Who wants to live forever?" she asked. "I would rather die in battle than in my sleep."
David sat in complete shock. This was truly a first for his cyborg…for any cyborg. This was dangerous territory Rebecca just crossed into. While it was expected that some free will would be retained, the idea of openly expressing the desire for armed combat above and beyond assassinations and search and destroy missions was simply beyond the Pale. The Agency tried to prevent open war by conducting these shadow operations and targeted killings. Rebecca, by her own admission, just advocated such an open war.
"Does that bother you?"
Rebecca's words shocked David back into the here and now.
"If my thoughts and actions concern you," Rebecca pressed, "please let me know, and I will be your killer doll instead."
David's jaw hung slack. He had absolutely no response to anything Rebecca had just said.
"Incoming," she said.
In the valley below, the man she had been watching stood and greeted another group who just arrived. The radio came alive with Jean's voice.
"We have unidentified persons entering the compound. Three men and one woman."
David returned his attention to the radio.
"Copy, three men and one woman. Instructions are to continue observation."
Rebecca caressed the trigger of her weapon. Her will demanded squeezing the round off, her "conditioning" restrained her. David, in a sidelong glance, saw her trigger finger "itch". He laid his hand on her shoulder and gave it a slight comforting squeeze. Reassured, Rebecca relaxed her hold on the trigger and moved her hand to steady the butt-stock against her shoulder.
By mid afternoon, the summer sun blazed overhead and both foxhole occupants were drenched in sweat. The camouflage that concealed them trapped their body heat and turned their hole into a sauna. Rebecca pulled on the tube from her CamelBak™ to slake her thirst. David drained one of his many canteens then offered to refill Rebecca's water bladder. The radio came back to life.
"We have word from the Prime Minister," Jean said. "He has the unofficial authorization from the French President to carry out our primary mission. Terminate all targets with extreme prejudice."
Rebecca smiled with sadistic pleasure at the command to open fire. She gently squeezed the M1903's trigger and watched her primary target's head explode like a watermelon. Her sensitive ears could make out the muffled sound of Rico's suppressed SVD as she chose her targets of opportunity. Chambering a second round, Rebecca zeroed in on the woman she found hiding behind a parked car. The body slumped forward with the impact of the round penetrating her neck.
Rico's advantage in ammunition capacity and semi-auto fire evened out against Rebecca's supreme accuracy. Jean had to remind Rico several times that one round per target was all that was necessary. Rebecca simply took her time lining her target's heads into her crosshairs. David was awed and slightly frightened at Rebecca's skill with her weapon. Rebecca's ever present slasher smile unnerved David to no end. He had to wonder if he had, unwittingly, chosen just the right name for his gun girl.
"I trained to use a semi-auto at both close and medium distance," Rebecca explained spontaneously, as her fifth round found home. "It taught me to be very precise in when and how I shoot."
Rebecca slid another five round stripper clip into her M1903 and threw the bolt home. The last of the compound defenders met his end firing blindly into the hills opposite of the two fratello.
"Let's go make sure," Jean radioed.
David gathered his weapon, a relic of the Second World War. He had been the butt of many jokes for choosing the PPSh-41 until he proved them all wrong with the sheer weight of lead and surprising lack of jamming the crude, ancient weapon produced. Locking a box magazine into place, he threw open the bolt and slouched out of the hole.
Rebecca fixed the bayonet on her SKS in place and followed David out of the hole.
Jean and Rico approached the compound from the north-east while David and Rebecca approached from the south-west. Linking up in the courtyard, the four of them began a thorough sweep of the interior.
Meeting back up in the courtyard after the sun had set, Jean, Rico and David reported no contacts. Rebecca approached from the deepening shadows within the house a few minutes later, the SKS bayonet dripping with blood.
"One last target, hiding in the wine cellar," she said flatly. "Terminated."
Her eyes, though dull, reflected a glint of satisfaction while a trace of a smile remained on her lips.
"Let's go home," Jean said.
A/N: I hope I made up for my faux pas with the M1903 by introducing the PPSh. Pronounced peh-peh-shah, this was the weapon that won back Stalingrad in 1943 for the Soviets. The title "Who Wants to Live Forever" is performed by Queen.
