Free Major (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 5) by Jonathan P. Brazee Page B

attempting to cross the street and continued along on the near side.  The Bianchi was small and powerful for its size, but it was designed for close-in self-defense.  Even at 20 meters across the street, it was not that accurate.
    Ryck decided that as he reached the open door of a music store a few meters ahead, he was going to enter it and rush to a back entrance, but the men never gave him a chance.  One of them raised his handgun and fired while his companion started to pull a rifle up from behind him.
    Ryck was moving before most of this could register.  He lunged forward as he pulled out his Bianchi and fired at the man with the handgun.  His opponent missed Ryck—Ryck did not miss him, his relatively slow, but powerful boost-assist round smashing through the man’s chest.
    Ryck didn’t give him another thought as the second man, the one with the rifle leveled his weapon at him and began to fire, undoubtedly intending to swing a line of hypervelocity darts from above and through Ryck.  As a Marine, Ryck had been taught to target each round, but other services taught gunners use their automatic weapons to sweep lines of rounds across a target.
    The rifleman opened up, his initial rounds impacting above Ryck and to his right as Ryck swung his Bianchi to aim at him and broke into a run, yelling at the top of his voice.  He fired once and missed, but with the round impacting on the wall beside of rifleman, coupled with Ryck’s madman rush, the man flinched, sending his line of darts into the ground, missing Ryck by centimeters.  Panic took over his face as he tried to bring his rifle back up for another swipe, but it was too late.  Ryck was already halfway across the road, and his next measured shot took the man high in the chest, almost severing his neck from his torso. 
    Ryck ran the last few steps to the two men, his eyes scanning for any more attackers.  He heard a scream from the woman who had been window-shopping and the general rumble as people came out of shops and restaurants to see what had happened.
    Above him, a holo drone hovered over the street, its recording light steadily flashing.  From start to finish, less than ten seconds had elapsed, and all of it had been recorded.
    With his heart pounding, he stepped over the dead rifleman, trying unsuccessfully to keep his shoes out of the pooling blood.  He backed up against the wall there where he was protected from at least that one direction.
    He didn’t bother to put the Bianchi in his pocket as the sirens of a police sled sounded from down the street. 
    The woman who had screamed had stopped, but she was obviously in shock at what she had witnessed.  Ryck reached up to the brim of his cover and tipped it to the woman and then gave her a nod as if nothing had happened. 
    Then he simply waited for the police to arrive. 

Chapter 11
     
    Ryck watched the recording one more time.  He was surprisingly detached as he watched with a critical eye both his and his assailants’ actions.  The News 5 drone provided a good vantage and a pretty clear view of what had happened, better than the security drones or building-mounted cams.  A tiny tickle in the recesses of his mind wondered if the News 5 drone had just happened to be in the right spot at the right time, or if the station had some prior knowledge of what was going to happen.
    The two would-be assassins had messed up pretty badly.  They’d had Ryck in their sights for a good twenty seconds before Ryck got close enough to realize something was wrong.  The rifleman should have engaged Ryck then instead of waiting.  The two men compounded the situation by moving forward to get a closer shot.
    The choice of weapons was wrong, too.  Why send a man with a handgun at all?  And why a hypervelocity rifle?  A simple chemical sniper rifle would have been a better choice, maybe with the hypervelocity rifle as a backup.  One shot, one kill, and Ryck would probably be in a body bag awaiting