Take Over

“I'll give you a minute of mercy. Leave now, or I'll make you regret it," Viper said with a stern look.

The men threw cold stares at me, but I smirked.

“I didn't waste hours watching this warehouse just to come in and walk away. So, I will take the other option,” I said and brought out my gun.

With loud pops, the bulbs fitted to the ceiling bursted and the room was cloaked in darkness within seconds. They murmured. Their feet shuffled against the wooden floor. I waited for the gunfire but none came. I rolled over to my right and I heard the shuffles of feet as a reaction. Who would dare to fire when they couldn't even see their target? But my best guess was that they were still in shock… and maybe I was right. After a few seconds of total darkness, loud gunshots erupted and I could see flashes of bright orange flying around with each round they fired from their automatic rifles. I took cover behind a stack of crates.

Was this a risky move I took? Yes.

Was it worth it? I couldn't tell. Which was the more reason I wanted to end it before I changed my mind.

I heard one body drop, then another and then one more. Two more fell and a flash of white light shined into the room from the entrance I walked through. I smiled.

I hopped up from my cover and turned, taking advantage of the light. I counted five men and The Viper behind them.

My partner fired without fear while he approached. He was a six feet shooting monster, dressed in complete armour and a metallic helmet that covered his whole face. Hart was better at using the hot metals than I was, that very skill I envied so much, not that I was that bad; I just wasn't that good. He had so much precision that he could pin a fly to the wall with a bullet, a feat I haven't even dreamed of achieving yet.

I fired at one of the men that was directly covering the Viper. He was being distracted by my partner and he didn't even see the shot coming. It sank into the left part of his temple and he dropped to the floor.

Three men remained, I counted as the light ran across their faces. I slid behind Hart and he did his thing. All I had to do was count three and the room was silent, except for the slow retracting footsteps. Viper was left alone.

I stepped out from behind Hart and clapped. He chuckled and winked at me.

“Yeah, yeah, don't feel so big now,” I said as I stood side by side with him.

“Who are you?” Victor Morales said, pointing his gun at us. Hart hadn't let down his guard either, his rifle was still pointed out.

“Who sent you?” The Viper asked again.

“I told you before, Mr Victor Morales, I am here for answers,” I said, approaching him.

Hart shot me a look, and I knew he was asking me to be cautious, but I ignored it.

“Why don't you drop the weapon?” I tossed my handgun away, “and we will talk like human beings, and not like killing machines.”

He chuckled, “I don't know who sent you, but they made a good pick.”

He lowered his gun but raised it again in a blink. His finger pressed on the trigger before I could react, I heard a bang, but the bullet didn't fire. Victor stepped back screaming, his gun clattered to the ground and he clutched his arm, which was dripping with a thick scarlet fluid.

I turned to Hart, he was on the ground, clutching his right arm and grunting. He saved my life again.

I walked towards Victor, “So can we have that talk now?” I asked.

“What is it you want?”

“Some months ago, a man was targeted in his own house and brutally killed. And what was his crime? I found out he had an interest in you and what you do, but I couldn't get the rest of the story. That is where my curiosity was piqued.”

“I have no idea who you're talking about.”

“I expected that. I mean, who would remember the person they meant to kill? I wouldn't remember these men whom my partner shot today. I didn't even take note of their faces. It would be an unnecessary waste of memory space,” I said and gave him a smile, but that smile was short lived.

I waited to hear him speak or give a reaction, but he was busy staring at his wound. It annoyed me even more.

“His name was Greg Montgomery. He was a journalist who was concerned about New Haven, in a good way, but he was silenced before new year's eve,” he raised his head with a look of shock, “Rings a bell?” I tilted my head.

He winced, and then smiled. “He was becoming a nuisance. No one cared about his job or who he was, until he started the trouble.”

“What happened to him?” I asked, like I didn't already know what ensued that day.

He glanced at his wound again, “The man started prying at my warehouses for a reason and even pried into my business networks. I had no idea who he was and why he did it, my only guess was that a competition latched him onto me like a parasite to bring me down. Well, I wasn't very disturbed about that. I always have my way of getting rid of competition.”

“Your way of getting rid of competition is to kill, obviously.”

“I didn't kill him,” he said without blinking.

“Lies. You were there that night.”

“I was, because I was meant to. I was to make sure the job was done, but it wasn't my order. The journalist has crossed a line he wasn't supposed to.”

I raised my brows, “Whose order was it then?” I asked, focusing my eyes on him.

His eyes darted away from mine. He stared for a while and then he closed his eyes.

He bit his lips and released them, “You think I'm the heart of this chaos? I'm barely at the foot.”

“Well, then tell me who the heart is.”

“It is…” he paused and stared in the same direction again — behind me — before he continued.

“The RainMaker,” he said with a low menacing voice like the person he had just mentioned was in the room with us. A loud rumble of thunder broke through the silence of the room after he mentioned the name.

“Who is this Rainmaker?” I asked, making an air quote.

The Viper reached for his boots, about to draw out something, but a shot stopped him. There was silence.

Deep in his forehead, there was a dark red hollow, his eyes hung open with utmost shock, and his body, frozen, fell limply to the floor.

I turned around and I found Hart blowing the nozzle of his rifle.

“Seriously?” I yelled, flinging my hands to the air.

“He could've been drawing out a weapon. I was just looking out for you.”

I sighed and walked to where my gun was. I picked it up and secured it in its place, before I stormed away. As I walked back into the drizzling rain outside the warehouse, I couldn't take the name Viper had mentioned out of my mind.

Who the hell was “The Rainmaker"?