Hope dies in the end.

“Bennie?” I faintly heard my name being called. I shook myself from the daydream I was in turning my head slightly to look at my partner. “What?” I asked. She threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes. “Were you not listening that whole time?!” My friend and partner Ivana was the chatty type. She was a blond hair blue eyed Russian who was so beautiful that she thought everyone around her hung on her every word. Which to be fair most did. I on the other hand had been her friend for a long time so I no longer fell under that spell. She had been talking about her night and how boring the guy was she had met up with. What was the name she called him? Jim…Joe…Jude… Her friend was still looking at her expectantly. “Of course, I heard you…you had a boring night with a guy you met up with.” Ivana crossed her arms. “What was his name?” I smirked. “You got me there.” I turned back to the reason I was here as I heard her huff. I looked through my scope watching the people on the ground move through their daily lives. There was a man standing in the alley between two building barely in my line of sight selling something to a woman holding the hand of a little girl with pigtails and a pink flowery dress. There was a man sitting against a building playing guitar. While prostitutes milled around nearby. The people, buildings and streets looked far different then the pictures and videos I was shown in school. In the pictures I had seen the people looked more colorful, happy. The buildings were in better shape and the streets were far cleaner. But after the bombings of the country’s financial centers, before I was born, everything had changed. The gap between wealthy and poor grew exponentially. It was a simultaneous coordinated attack by hackers and a militia. The hackers hit the data centers digitally and the militia bombed the buildings with the back up paper copies of all financial transactions. You see the government had passed laws forcing all companies to submit transactions made of any amount to central hubs so the government could keep better track of all money in the country. The laws never received any support until several terrorist attacks happened on weak financial institutes compromising the financial structure. The government thought they could best secure all this information. Which in turn gave them far more power over the people. A lot of people didn’t seem to mind though because it thought it made them more secure. And it worked for a while but as most things go in history people got greedy and started using the information in the wrong way. Once this redistribution attack as they called it happened the rich banded together pressuring the government. The attack had back fired. The government embarrassed and disgraced caved to them. The rich began privatizing everything. From the military and police force to hospitals and schools. The common citizen had to pay for everything now. There were no government hand outs anymore. You got what you paid for. In school, the more you paid the more thorough the child’s education was. Same for hospitals. The government was still allowed to have a standing army, but it was now used more for the security of the borders and a show of force. The police changed the most. Now if you wanted the police out you had to pay. The rich tried to make it look fair so whom ever the guilt party was had to pay the majority of the fee. It was no longer a fight between races but the haves and have nots. A lot had changed in the past thirty years.

“What is with you today?” Ivana asked her. “What do you mean?” I scanned the sidewalk watching the people. “I don’t know you seem…distracted.” I shrugged. “Nothing wrong just thinking.” Ivana smiled. “Dangerous for a pretty girl like you. Men will be too intimidated if they think you can think for yourself.” She laughed, I smiled. The radio came alive then. “Hub one. Hub two.” I taped my earpiece control opening the line. “Hub two, go ahead.” “Hub two target insight walking towards corner. Two minutes out. Wearing gray suit, white shirt, dark blue tie, carrying black briefcase.” “Hub two copy, gray suit, white shirt, dark blue tie, carrying black briefcase.” “Affirmative, Hub two.” I shifted in the chair I sat in to get a little more comfortable. I was set back from the window in a dark room with my rifle rested on the table in front of me. This way no one could see my profile and no light coming in the window would fall on me. I sighted on the corner. Ivana stood behind me with binoculars. The man in the gray suit rounded the corner at a brisk walk. The average person walks about three to four miles and hour. The distant from the corner to the building was approximately two hundred feet. Two…three minutes tops till he reaches the building. “Shame.” Ivana said. “He’s good looking.” I stayed silent. Concentrating on my breathing. It wasn’t a long shot. I was maybe a thousand feet from the building and approximately fifty to sixty feet above the street but there were a lot of by standers and I’m only getting paid for one kill. No collateral. Collateral is unprofessional in my opinion. “They want it directly in front of the brothel. Apparently, he frequents this place. I guess they think a member of the free speech press being killed in front of this place will tarnish his reputation and send a message.” Ivana said. She likes to get to know our targets. I do not. It makes it a little easier when I’m contemplating life later. “Thirty seconds.” Ivana said. I breath out slowly. I switch the safety off. Breath in. “Ten seconds.” Ivana whispers. Breath out. I place my finger on the trigger. He’s in front of the building. “You’re clear.” Ivana whispers. I breath in and hold. I wait for a few seconds so no one is behind him. I press the trigger and red mist paints the sidewalk.

“Control to CSU20.” Came over the radio. I sighed. “I haven’t even had my coffee yet.” I said sitting alone in my crime scene van. This morning is not starting off well. First the dryer didn’t dry my clothes all the way. Then I forgot I used the last of the coffee yesterday. Then I stepped in the mess Shaggy left on the floor because I got up late. Now barely five minutes on the job and already got a run. “Arrrgh…” I tried taking a calming breath. “CSU20, go ahead control.” “Detective requesting you to scene at 25th and Cathedral ST. check your laptop for further information.” “CSU20 clear, in route. Approximate twenty minutes out.” I checked my laptop. “Oh, another person shot big surprise. I am going to need a coffee first and possibly a donut.”

The scene was like most other scenes I’ve pulled up on. I got out coffee in hand and opened the side door lifting my kit out and slinging it over my shoulder. Seems like this thing keeps getting heavier. I closed the door looking around for the detective. He waved me over. “Hey Annie.” He said as I approached him. “Hey Mike, what we got?” He pointed to two victims. “White male late thirties shot in the chest. According to the coroner directly though the heart.” He looked down at this note pad. “He was a member of the free speech press. I’m guessing he wrote the wrong story.” He said shaking his head. “The shot came from a third-floor window in that apartment building over there. We already have someone up there collecting evidence. I need you to process these bodies.” I looked to the second victim still covered in a yellow tarp that he did not mention. The profile underneath seemed small. “So there were two shots and two victims?” I just asked to clarify. Mike shook his head. “No. Only one shot. This victim was standing directly behind him.” He lifted the yellow tarp for her to see. I covered my mouth to stop the gasp coming. There laid a small little girl with pigtails and a hole in her chest, blood staining the flowery pink dress she had on. “The angle of the shot was just right to hit both.” He said replacing the tarp. “It’s a damn shame. I’ll let you get to it.” He walked off talking to another officer. I felt sick to my stomach. I’ll start with the man first trying to prepare myself. I searched his whole person for any belongings putting them in evidence bags. Once finished with him I moved to the child. I still wasn’t prepared. How could someone do this? Here I am complaining about the little things going wrong this morning. Like my life has been so bad. I searched the girl, but she had nothing on her until I noticed her tiny hand clinched around something. I pulled her fingers apart to find her holding a beautiful heart shaped locket with an inscription saying Hope.

Lee Peck

6/28/2021