The Shooter

    "Alright Freddie, we think we finally have a location nailed down for Mr. Glen. I know we've sent you out on a few wild goose chases in the past, but this tip comes from one of our best sources. You want another shot at him or not?"    "Sure Mike, I'll shoot the bastard. I could care less about that little turd. His ass is mine."

    Mike was right, Mr. Glen was an elusive target. We've been trying to nail him for ever it seems. I had a good feeling this time though. He was dead meat, I just knew it.

    I checked out my equipment, and headed for the car with the address Mike gave me. This would be a tough one for sure, right in the middle of the city. Mr. Glen never traveled without ten or more security people. And those were just the ones you could spot. I've heard he kept as many as fifteen around him most the time. To bad for him though, I'm the best there is at what I do, that's why I got the assignment.

    I had three hours to burn before I had to be set up, so I did two drive by's a half an hour apart to check out the angles. I didn't want to be too obvious in case Mr. G's security was already in place. I would have liked to have had a few days to set this up, but we would never get that kind of drop on someone as careful as he was.

    I wonder what Mr. G's story is anyway. He has to know his life style makes him a target. Everyone want's to shoot the prick. Mr. Invisible my ass. I'm gonna shoot him for sure, and if I get the chance, I'll shoot him three or four times just to make sure the job is done right.

    From the two quick passes I made, I saw a great spot. It might cost me a few hundred, but my expenses are covered. This shoot was worth more than a normal one anyway, so I wouldn't care if I had to cover it out of pocket. I parked my car in a parking garage about ten blocks away, grabbed my shit and headed towards the bull's-eye.

    The building across from my shoot zone covered the entire block. They just happened to be doing a little repair work on the building today, so there was a motorized scaffold hanging from cables and pulleys from the top of the building. It was almost lunch time, and if I know my construction workers, they wouldn't miss lunch for anything. They were closer to the bottom than the top of the building, so they lowered the scaffold to the sidewalk at lunch time. I had a wallet full of ID cards for these occasions, and flashed my OSHA card at them and told them I wanted to inspect their scaffold. The minute you mention OSHA around a work site, the workers are more than willing to co-operate in order to try to evade some ungodly fine for some stupid ass thing they didn't even know about.

    The workers disappeared, another thing that happens a lot when OSHA is around, and I had free use of the scaffold. And it didn't cost me a dime. I immediately ran it up and down a few times to check the speed. It was too slow, I would never make a clean getaway. Lucky for me, about five stories up, I spotted an open window. I parked the scaffold one floor below the open window. I put on one of the sweaty hard hats and strapped on a tool belt that was laying there. With my disguise complete, I was good to go.

    A few minutes went by, it was almost time. My bag lay at my feet within easy reach. I had a tape measure out and was pretending I was checking a few things when one of the security grunts spotted me and yelled up at me.

    "Hey, what you doin' up there boy?"

    I yelled back to him. "What the hells it look like I'm doing, I'm holding a union meeting, and no one showed up! I'm working you dumb ass! Get the hell outside that construction tape. It says right on it, 'Caution, Danger, do not enter.' I might drop one of these damaged chunks of Italian Marble on that nice shiny bald head of yours, the reflection is blinding me as it is!"

    "It would be the last dam thing you dropped boy! Why ain't you eatin' lunch?"

    "Because I'm the boss asshole, and we don't get to eat lunch! I'm checkin' to make sure my men don't fuck up one of these two hundred dollar paper weights. Now get the hell out of that roped off area before I call the cops."

    He took a real long look at me as I turned back to what I was doing, mumbled something, and then walked down to the end of the block. I was getting excited, I always did just before the shooting started. I could see the other side of the street perfectly reflected in the window in front of me. I had my bag opened and my shooter positioned so I could grab it fast when Mr. G made his appearance. I got down on my knees and pretended to be working so I would be close to my piece...

    I saw the door across the street open and five suits came out looking at every moving thing in sight, but still blocked the door. Five security suits, I could spot them a mile away. A car pulled up to the curb, the five men separated, two to the left, three to the right, and out walked the target.

    I told you I was the best didn't I? I had my shooter out and fired off a shot before they even spotted me. And then two more... I got my extra shots, just like I said I would. Before they could react, I mashed the up button on the scaffold. In seconds it was high enough for me to grab the sill of the open window, pull myself in and disappear like a puff of smoke in the wind.

    A few hours later, I walked into Mikes office with a shit ass grin on my face. He looked at me...

    "Your kidding, you finally got him? No way!"

    "Bet your sweet ass I did! Shot the bastard three times I did!" I had my piece hanging around my neck. I opened the camera and threw him the film. "I might get the Pulitzer for that one, nobody, but nobody gets Mr. G on film... " Did I mention that I was the best?