Chapter 3

John crouched on a small hill, hidden behind a small bush. He was examining the residence of Team black. It had taken him few days to track them down, but it had been relatively easy. The team was used to wage war, not to be hunted. They lacked the required paranoia.

Oh, they had the perimeter set up and proper guards. But that was just sign of the lack of paranoia. Truly paranoid would not have set up such visible sign of someone who didn't want visitors. Not to mention the fact that they were new in the neighborhood and had attracted some attention by their visible display.

John paused. It could also be a decoy. But perhaps too convoluted and cruel waste of men from the leader of Team Black, who was said to be a man of integrity. Relative integrity, of course, they were mercenaries after all.

He didn't have any other leads right now, and decoy or not he was fairly sure he could survive an ambush. His odds were quite near even if it was ambush, and approaching unity of this was their real base. The only complication was that he needed the leader alive. The only man from all this trash who had even seen the employer.

John knew for a fact that Team Black employed themselves only directly to the person who asked them, face to face.

The leader was tough cookie, but still only a cookie. John would crush him like one, given enough time and peace. Then he could finish this infernal mission. He had been working on this for months now, and it was wearing him down. He was losing his peak. No man had been designed to work on top performance for months at a time. John knew he would need at least several months of vacation before he could even start training again.

Not to mention another mission. This mission would certainly cost his employer a lot of cash. In fact, it already had.

Momentarily, his thoughts strayed to Marie and he considered her. She was interesting and clearly not perfectly Norm herself. Even before the soldier had made any visible moment, John had seen her ready herself for violence. She had somehow sensed that he was going to shoot her. Even John hadn't known before the first twitch of a muscle, but she had reacted in advance.

And she seemed to be puzzled by him, and this in turn puzzled him. She was hesitant, apparently lost when she was in contact with him. With everyone else she was in command and sure of herself, even when threatened with gun. Was it because she knew he wasn't completely human? She had seen that right away...

John mentally slapped himself. His thoughts were straying once again.

He was losing his peak. He would have to finish this mission, and soon.

He turned his attention to the warehouse that was potential trap. He could conceivably be killed in that house - if he was mortal, but it didn't concern John. A normal human being would have been nervous, or at least contemplated about his potential death. But like John had said to Marie, he was human only partially.

His biggest problem was that he wasn't sure if he could even die. He wasn't too anxious to find out, however. It didn't seem like the gain of information would be worth the price.

He watched the skyline, the last vestige of light disappearing behind the horizon. Lack of light did not bother him, because of the additional faculties he had, but it would hinder the opponents. He had placed some explosive charges in the main power supplies and they would render the whole block dark. It would attract undue attention, but it would still be approximately four minutes before any police or repair crew would appear in such remote part of the town.

If they were quicker than usual.

John looked over his weapons. He had chosen for this mission a H&K G36C with drum as a clip, holding 100 bullets. It should be more than enough. He also carried his two trusty SOCOM's in their holsters, and a customized pistol crossbow for quiet kills. He had momentarily toyed with the idea of having one additional weapon, but discarded the thought. There is such thing as excessive firepower and caution.

He hoisted a bag of radio controlled explosives, and disappeared in to the darkness.

He took notice of the sentries positions and planted bombs near every stationary sentry, and also in their barracks. He also put small charges near almost every window, and several vehicles. Finally satisfied, John took the remote control and a small pistol crossbow from the bag. He hoisted the G36C over his shoulder and cocked the the customized crossbow quickly and smoothly, apparently not hindered by the extremely stiff pull of the string.

While he didn't usually employ such varied arsenal of weapons, it was necessary because he had approx. twenty soldiers that he needed to eliminate completely and he couldn't watch his back all the time. He needed the get them all on first try. The task was huge, and could conceivably considered impossible for one man to accomplish.

John didn't even pause consider the impossibility of his task, he attached seven bolts to his right wrist where he could access them quickly, and put one on the well lubed rail. He knew the pistol type crossbow wasn't the most deadly model around, but it was accurate to the distance he needed it to be. Most importantly, it was completely silent, and much cheaper than gas powered needlers. And more importantly, untraceable.

He timed the steps of the sentries and dropped the first one with a bolt to the head, the sentry didn't even know what to think as the aluminum bolt entered his brain.

Seven, twenty one.

He crept over the the body of the guard, and dragged him in to the shadow, not bothering to hide him completely. He also spotted a service knife in the sentry's belongings, and took it. He would need it later on and this would save him trouble of cleaning his own knife after use. He would save some ten seconds in that. He cocked the bow and waited, another sentry approached.

The sentry dropped dead due what was going in to his mind at the time.

Six, twenty.

John crept towards the generator, knowing that there was a sentry of three men. Killing another moving sentry as he passed by the soldier. He didn't even pause to check the kill, from that distance he couldn't miss.

Five, nineteen.

He knew there was one more moving sentry to be taken care of before he could concentrate on the stationary ones. He paused at the corner where the final sentry should be appearing any second now. When after several seconds, the man didn't appear a uncertainty gripped John's soul.

Had he missed something?

He risked glance behind the corner and saw the soldier fighting to lit his cigarette. John silently cursed the soldier's filthy habit, and ended it for him. He had lost the ten seconds he had gained.

Four, eighteen.

No extra bolts to spare for the outside guards. Shit. He should have planned better. Now at the site, he wanted personally to take out the sentries at the distant stations as well, but he had no bolts for it. He could use his guns, but he didn't want to generate any additional noise. Besides, the thought was unfeasible. It would take too long, and the team inside would be alerted.

John glanced his clock, he had spent four minutes and had four dead. He had counted as .7 deaths per minute as his target, which meant 23 minutes time left, and approximately twenty minutes until he'd trigger the explosives. John made a small wager with himself. Hundred says that he'd have to use the G36 within ten minutes from the starting time, which would mean he'd have to use the bombs sooner than planned.

He paused to drop the third generator guard while the two were looking away. He quickly loaded the crossbow and practically ran behind the two before they noticed anything. He violently rammed the first guards' knife to the temple of the left guard, and fired the bolt at his mate at the same time. They both crumbled with minimal noise.

Two, fifteen.

John didn't stay to admire his handiwork, before the both even touched ground he was already going back where he came. He ran quietly to the service end that the third guard had been guarding and cocked his crossbow with his second to last bolt.

He entered through the unlocked door and crept up the grilled stairs, and shot the guard standing on the platform. He grabbed the man before he hit the metal, and lowered him down quietly. He planted a small fragment bomb in place with a thin wire, the explosion would alert him if anyone would approach him behind.

One, fourteen.

He left the small crossbow next to the corpse with the remaining bolt. It had cost him some twenty dollars including the modifications and was considered toy by most, even though it was slightly modified for greater pull. He had taken down seven armed soldiers with it with minimal noise. For twenty dollars, it was a bargain. Of course, anyone without his supernatural aim wouldn't find it quite as useful.