Free Moonlight Warriors: A Tale of Two Hit Men by Joseph Rogers Page B

silhouetted by the light coming in from the living room.”
    A bullet smashed into the wall about a foot over their heads, spraying some plaster onto them.
    “He’s moved into a better position.  I was hoping to wait him out, but I’ll have to take action before he gets us.”  Walter raised himself up onto one knee. “Stay down behind this counter, and I’ll see if I can hit him.  You’d better cover your ears, dear.  My gun does not have a silencer.”
    As Fatima did so, Walker used the counter to brace his arm, estimating the best angle with which to return fire.  In rapid succession, he fired six shots, changing the angle slightly with each shot in order to maximize his chances of hitting a target whom he could not see.
    The explosion of gunfire resounded through the kitchen.  Fatima was glad that she had taken his advice to cover her ears.
    Walter lowered himself to a sitting position on the floor.  He reloaded his gun.
    “The little red dot is no longer panning around the kitchen,” Fatima said.  “You might have hit him, Walter.”
    “I was very lucky if I did.  The odds are that I missed him.  I certainly got his attention, though.”
    “Why isn’t he still using his laser sight?”
    “He’s playing possum out there.  He wants us to think that he went away or that he was hit by my shots.  As soon as we stand up, he’d take us out.”
    “What can we do?”
    “I’m going to give him another surprise.”  Walter crawled toward the back door.
    “Be careful, Walter.”
    “Don’t worry.  Stay down.”
    He opened the door just wide enough for him to crawl outside.  Walter left the door ajar in case he had to make a hasty retreat back into the house.  Hoping that the shrubbery would keep him concealed, he slowly went forward.
    The sniper could have anticipated this move that I’m making, Walter realized as he crept toward the corner of the house.  At least I know this yard better than he does.
    Walter peered around the corner toward the trees on the common ground beyond his property.  He spotted the dark form of a man with a rifle positioned between a split tree trunk.
    Walter crouched on one knee and took aim, steadying his gun arm with his other arm.  It goes against my grain to shoot a man without shouting a warning, but in this case, I’ll make an exception.  I’m outgunned by a professional assassin; normal police procedure would get me killed here.
    Just as Walter was about to fire, the laser scope on the assassin’s rifle came on and the red beam swung toward Walter.  He’s seen me!  In a moment of terror, Walter fired two quick rounds, then fell straight back and rolled against the house.
    Mud was kicked up as bullets struck the spot where Walter had been a second earlier.  Walter glanced back toward the kitchen door twenty feet away.  He calculated that the sniper only needed to move about ten feet to get the angle for a clear shot at him.
    Then Walter heard the sirens of police cars.  They’re still many blocks away, and I don’t have time to get inside.  Flattening himself on his stomach, he readied to fire from a prone position.  He waited several breathless seconds, but the sniper did not appear.
    A car door slammed, and an engine hastily started.  Walter jumped up and hurried around the corner to see a car pulling away from the curb. 
    Although it was almost certainly the sniper’s car, Walter couldn’t be positive so he did not fire at it.  By firing blindly through the kitchen window, he had taken a slight chance of hitting an innocent pedestrian.  Now, he and Fatima were no longer in any immediate danger so there was no longer any justification for taking such a chance.  It would have been a very long shot anyway.
    Walter walked out to the front lawn to wait for the police.  One of my neighbors must have heard the shots that I fired from the kitchen.  If they hadn’t called the police, I might be dead now.
    Two police cruisers arrived almost