Asazi hit the button and the little watched glowed green for a few seconds, illuminating it's display that read 11:56. The motor of the last squad car that was to be in the area faded away as it left the vicinity, causing Asazi's heart to quicken a bit; the time is near, she thought excitedly.
"We're, according to schedule, clear of the police," she said softly. They were supposed to be gone ten minutes ago, she thought.
"Sounds good," came Warren's rejoinder. She heard him sigh and knew that his blood was probably beginning to pump. Asazi, back in the tree in which she had started in, glanced around the area with her scope, looking for any signs of the gangs that were to fight. There were none and she sighed, leaning back on the tree.
Fatigue crossed her mind but she fought it off, blinking her eyes in attempt to chase away the lethargy. Things were quiet and that's typically how she liked them but right now, she was ready for the operation to start so it would end sooner. Patience Asazi, she told herself; can't fight if you don't have a clear mind and are fluttering with emotions.
She frowned and opened her eyes, immediately seeing movement along the building that was to the left of Warren's structure. She was about to tell Warren when his voice came onto her headset, saying, "I've a lot of people showing up on the opposite end of Palmed Sands. They're moving along the sides of the buildings in the shadows; I can only see them with my scope."
"I've got multiple targets too," Asazi replied sternly. "Looks like things are about to get bloody." She started to go back over the plan with Warren, "Remember, do nothing to give yourself away; again, we wait until they've killed each other off, then we take the scraps that are left. Got it?"
"Yeah; these guys are pulling out knives and shit; guns and everything."
Asazi zoomed in with her scope and saw that the targets that were visible to her were arming themselves too; only they weren't just arming themselves…they were pulling out an armory of weaponry. Holy shit…that's a lot o' stuff… Asazi readied her silences PP7, slipping it into her back; then she grabbed four extra sniper rifle clips and started, slowly, climbing down the tree. In a few seconds all she had left was a little five-foot drop to the ground. Holding the rifle in one hand and the spare clips, she fell from the tree and immediately got on her stomach, hoping she hadn't been seen.
The tree provided good darkness and there were no streetlamps nearby, so she had good cover. She readied the rifle and brought the scope to her eye, switching it to infrared; she wanted to know how many people were on this side of Palmed Sands Street. What her scope revealed nearly shocked her; "Shit, Warren, these guys are up to something."
"Yeah, so are these ones; didn't X say something about the fight being a no-firearm fight?" Asazi thought for a moment replied, "Yes I think so; problem is, the guy down here are arming themselves with assault rifles and machetes. And one of them has the bazooka that fired at us the other night."
"Oh," came his voice, then, "…uh…that sucks because…" He sounded like he was thinking out loud so Asazi didn't say anything, just let him think; it must've just hit him cause he suddenly said, "The people on your side are going to send a few people forward along the building I'm in!"
Asazi tried to think what that meant but…, "Umm, so?"
"So that the people that they leave behind can back them up; I can't see down there without the scope so there's no way that gang #2 wouldn't be able to see that their enemies have heavy-duty backup. Uh oh, hold on a sec." While she waited, Asazi realized he was right, especially after six guys that had machetes and knives sprinted to the other side of the street, hiding behind Warren's building. What kind of gang are we dealing with, Asazi questioned but she quickly forgot about it when Warren spoke again.
"Asazi, there's a sniper in the building kitty-corner to me. I can't tell whose side he's on but I'm guessing he's for gang #2."
Asazi frowned, and then said, "How high is he?" Warren sighed a reply, "About eight stories; he's way too far up there for me to risk sniping him; I'd have one shot and after that everyone would know where I was."
Asazi's frown thickened with intensity and she said, when she thought a solution, "Isn't that why X rigged the building to blow? Give yourself away and I'll tell you when—," she stopped when she realized the flaw that she'd sense earlier. How is X supposed to know when to blow the building? Then another question hit her; why is the other building wired to blow up? There. She had found the flaw(s) in the plan. Something wasn't right; either X was up to something or things were going haywire, greatly against the plan. "We have to act Warren, we have to do something."
There was no answer, no sound from him. Damn! She used to scope to count how many people were in gang #1. Six heading to the intersection and eleven hiding behind the building; her rifle had ten bullets… Slowly a plan formed into motion; I take out the eleven waiting to back the others up and then I'll go for the sniper while Warren waits until there is nobody else left except for those that survived… It could get even worse but it was their best option.
"Warren, I'm taking out the eleven people back here and you just wait in the dark, okay?" Asazi waited but there was no answer; she couldn't even hear his rhythmic breathing…Oh God, don't let him die, she thought, surprising herself… Am I in love with him, she asked herself, and then thought, no; it's just that without him I'm alone in Miami and I need a partner to back me up…so…I'm lonely…
With a renewed determination not to let Warren die, Asazi rolled to her left and got to her feet in the shadows. Using the scope for a second to see where they were, she ran to her right about thirty yards, getting ever so close to a road; if a car came, she'd be seen but that didn't matter. She hit the dirt and brought the rifle up to a firing position; with her scope, she saw that only one person was looking her direction; she couldn't tell if it was because he saw her or if he was just glancing around… The figure tried to get another's attention and the two of them looked her way; their mistake, she thought as she squeezed the trigger once, then moved ever so slightly, to aim at the other. The two were down in less than a second of excellent accuracy.
She heard somebody yell and through the scope the nine that were left had hit the ground and were looking around for sniper positions. She pulled the trigger again, then again, and again… In another ten seconds, there were two of them left and they were just barely in sight. Asazi fired the last bullet in her clip and one of the two left stopped moving.
She ejected the clip and installed a new one and as she looked back towards the target, she saw, through the scope, that the last guy had the RPG and was aiming right at her. SHIT, Asazi thought as she scrambled to her feet; the bazooka fired and she was running and…
The explosion catapulted her away, the metal of the sniper rifle singing her hands and she dropped it. Asazi hit the ground hard and headfirst, the wind knocked out of her and the rifle way back where she had been. She blacked for a few seconds and when she came to, she knew she had a concussion…as she slowly got to her feet she heard the POOFT of another missile firing her way; no doubt she was visible thanks to the explosion of the last rocket. She started running, slipping the PP7 into her front to protect her from losing it.
BOOM! Her feet were lifted from the ground as she flew and suddenly she felt weightless. She frowned and, when she landed, she landed on her feet and rolled, then popped right back up. Asazi started walking her toward her target, then stopped and realized what she could do. Smiling coldly, she pulled the PP7 out and aimed at the area that she thought the bazooka was firing from. There was a suddenly flash of light and her gun aimed at it in the split second it was there and fired. Asazi heard somebody cry out in pain as she dodged the explosive projectile. It had worked…in a sense. She slipped the PP7 down the back of her pants, so it was invisible to anyone she came in contact with.
In the light of one of the few streetlights left, she could see the intersection. The six people from the gang she had just sniped were now looking both ways, thinking that they were surrounded. In a sense they were but not like they thought it.
Asazi walked back to her sniper rifle and picked it up. Part of her headset had been melted and it wasn't working so she took it off and threw it away. She simply walked back to her tree, using the shadows like a path and then took aim at the building that had the sniper in it. Around ten stories, she thought as she started hunting for the enemy. She found him in less than a few seconds and started to take aim; he was firing down but not at the gangs…at Warren! A spark erupted from something behind the sniper and some glass next to him broke. Warren was still alive! He was shooting back!
Asazi pulled the trigger twice, the first time sending a bullet into and through the sharpshooter's chest, the second severing his head from the rest of the body. The corpse fell through the open window down the ten stories and hit the pavement with a splat; Asazi brought the rifle down to the two gangs that were fighting. There were three guys left, two of them circling their opponent; Asazi shook her head and fired three quick shots, ending all their wretched lives.
It was then, after it was over, that she heard the sirens. They weren't close but they couldn't have been more than four blocks away. Asazi cursed and started running towards the building that Warren was in, thinking, Have to get him out before the cops get here. Just as she reached the window he had crawled in, a door opened and he stumbled out, his rifle in his hands and his right side covered in blood from the ribs down.
He looked at her and she started to rush to him, to help him but he raised the rifle at her; she stopped immediately. "Drop it," he said, gesturing to her shooter. She gently tossed it aside, too in shock to know what was going on. "Warren, what—''
"Shut the fuck up," he snapped, then wincing as his side shot up in pain. Still, he kept a clear head and said, "You know, I really didn't want things to go like that…but do you know the price that's on your head? Five million dollars, Asazi…that's a hell of a lot of money for one kill. I thought I loved you but when I agreed to take you out, I realized things wouldn't have worked out anyway. You have issues, bitch, and just because you're a good fucker in bed don't mean I can live with those issues. Hell no."
Asazi's eyes had a salty shield as she looked at with tear-blurred vision. "But—but I was happy with you, I thought you were too and—''
"Oh, I was, until I was called about the bounty on your head. Five mother fu—,'' he stopped when she started sprinting away. He cursed and tried to move the rifle to aim at her but the hit he had taken in his chest. He yelled a few curses and tried to chase after her but he fell on the ground, the gun clattering away.
Asazi stopped running and slowly turned around, tears streaking down her soft face. There were too many things going through her mind as she slowly pulled the PP7 from behind her and took aim; Warren looked up at her and started chattering, trying to get out of the hole he had just gotten into but…it was no avail.
Asazi pulled the trigger once, then twice, then emptied the clip into Warren's body. She then tossed the gun away, it landing next to his cadaver and she started walking away, towards the softball field. Then she started jogging…then started running…too overwhelmed with the pain of betrayal…
She barely avoided the police as they flooded the area. The explosions of the RPG had attracted them and Asazi wondered if—there was a huge explosion and Asazi felt it in the car as she drove away from the scene; in the rearview mirror she saw that the two buildings that had been wired were now completely and utterly annihilated…
Her head ached with pain from crashing on the ground and her eyes couldn't stop shedding their tears…