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Posts: 703
Join Date: Oct 2008
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BIG BLUE in ‘The Patient Man’ Chapter 1.
Character Created by Neo Gonzales Story by Wayne Clayton
The chill of the morning air had little effect on the watcher in his lair. His suit protected him from its icy fingers, but even without it he had been well hardened to the whims of the weather here in this stretch of desert. The slowly rising sun began to spread its warmth and the earth reacted in kind as dust devils sprang up and began to play upon the land.
From the corner of his eye he saw the billowing cloud of a vehicle race across the surface. Moments later he had the target firmly in his sights and the whisper of the zoom lens buzzed as it brought into focus the dust covered Army Jeep. Already the sights interface had brought up the vehicles registration number and history, the green text flashing upon the image in his scope complete with distance and wind speed between him and it.
He slowly flexed each muscle within his body, loosing the limbs from the cold of night and then stretched his fingers one by one. His quarry was now rolling to a halt a little over 2 miles away. Well within striking distance of his trusted friend.
Through his scope he watched as three figures emerged from the Jeep. And with a brief flash the interface was once more filing through possibilities. The face recognition circled the features of each man, matching each distant contour of his face with the records of his employer’s data base.
Soon it had done its job and the names and status of the men blinked before his eye.
‘Target 1, General V. Layton. Chief of Special Personal Operations code name ‘Maverick Men’ Active.’
‘Target 2. Doctor Sam Orton. College Lecturer. Deceased’
“Interesting” he thought to him self as he watched the ‘dead man’ shift uneasily in the chill wind. At least when he killed him it would save on the paperwork the authorities would have to fill out. It briefly crossed his mind if the Doctor even knew how dead he was. Experience has taught him to read the body language of a man in order to gain the knowledge no database could provide, and it was clear that the Doctor was no military man. He was ill at ease with the situation he found him self in.
The General on the other hand was plainly a seasoned veteran. He looked at home in both the uniform and the desert. A born soldier, not unlike him self.
And finally the watcher focused on the third man.
‘Target 3. Error. Please identify target’
Although he had never seen the man dressed in red white and blue before he knew the name. And as he mouthed the words silently the name BIG BLUE flashed up under the image of mans face.
Thanks to the ‘FireFox’ interface his weapon was now merely an extension to himself. If he had wanted to he could simple think a man dead and it would be so. But there was no pleasure in that. No he still kept faith with the feel of a trigger under his finger. He felt some pride in tradition and even believed his victims would expect no less of him.
In his mind he now tagged each man and in his scope the crosshairs split into three and locked on to their targets. Another thought and the magazine fed three shells into the chamber of the gun. His mission brief was simple but ‘they’ had added spice to it by offering a special bonus for each man killed. Why he didn’t know, but it was not his place to argue, just to pull the trigger.
But ever the patient man the time was not right yet, he watched them as the General and the costumed man strode away from the Doctor, who still hung close to the jeep maybe fearful to loose contact with the manmade creation out here in the realms of raw nature, clearly a man born in the city.
He watched as the General spoke, following his lips he could almost hear the dry southern accent in his mind; each word crystal clear.
“Ok Blue I’m sure you remember the training drill so let’s get to it”
Blue nodded and turned drawing a line in the dirt with his foot to make his starting blocks. With a sweep of his hand the General flagged him off and Blue sprang forward. Back at the Jeep Sam watched in amazement as Blue took off in a cloud of dust, each step triggered a ball of dirt to explode up behind him together with the sound of a myriad of small detonations all going of at once and within seconds he was hitting the Ton.
As he headed out across the plain the air was suddenly filled with the tell tale sound of a sonic boom echoing across the desert. Sam watched as Blue began to swing across in a great arch before heading back towards them. He had never seen anything move so fast.
Out in the desert the watcher watched. His scope trained on the speeding target. He was wise to wait. Any man that could move at that speed must be something special. It occurred to him that he may well have other special abilities and so he recalled one of the bullets in the chamber and replaced it with a larger armour piecing explosive round. It was no good taking chances when faced with the unknown. He would only have one shot.
He breathed deeply and stroked the trigger. The long wait was almost over. As the speeding man zeroed in on the General and the Doctors position all three targets flashed red in his scope and his moment had come, all there was left to do was to squeeze the trigger.
With a hiss and a flash the guns chamber emptied itself of all three rounds without pausing, each one speeding towards their chosen victim out in the desert heat.
Now only fate would decide who would live or die at the hands of the Viper.
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, I had forgotten about the Viper. Wondered when we would get to see him in action too. Great job!
can't wait for more Wayne!
