Benjamin H.

To the everyday person, being a foreign diplomat sounds like a confusing and hard job. But, in Rick’s case, he is more than just a diplomat, he is an American spy and mercenary. He was assigned to Russia to kill the Secretary of War of Russia. The reason is because Russia and America are going to war over cyber and missile attacks to the US on its west coast and the government believed it would shatter the nation to lose a man of power.

It was three hours before the military parade in Moscow that Rick woke up to start his mission. The parade was scheduled to start at 8:30 in the morning which was perfect for his situation because it gave him darkness to prepare. He got out of bed and put a worn out t-shirt, a leather jacket, and jeans on. Making sure his gloves were in the backpack, he picked it up and slung it over his back, grabbed his phone, and walked out the door. As he was going down the stairs, he sent a text to his headquarters telling them he was on his way and needed the coordinates.

“En route to the site.”

“Your coordinates are 55.7480, 37.6239.”

He put the coordinates into Maps and found it was an apartment building a short distance from the main road from the Kremlin where Secretary of War Gustav and the military parade would be coming through. So, he hailed a taxi and had it take him “home” to the building. When he got there, he paid the taxi and got out. The streets were already lined with security and guard rails to keep civilians out. So, not trying to draw attention to himself or the fact that he is from the country they were about to go to war with, he casually walked up to the door, picked the lock very quickly in order to make it look like he was using a key, and let himself in. Just to be sure, when he got to the third floor, he looked out the stairwell window to make sure no one was following him. Then, he continued up to the eighth floor and out onto the roof. At this point it was starting to get light outside. It was cold and breezy up there, but he could see a lot of Moscow and across the Moskva River towards the Kremlin itself. It was a very nice complex with all of its colors and statues and designs, but he didn't get caught up, because he has things to do. First, he got out the two bars, bagels, and jelly spread he brought to eat before the event. When he was done, he packed up his trash so as to not leave any evidence. Then, he put his gloves on and got to work. He pulled the three pieces of light metal out of the bag and started attaching them to each other. Then, he pulled out a little stand and fastened it to the bottom of the front piece. He pulled out a scope and slid it into place on the middle section. Finally, he pulled out a little box and magazine, and loaded six rounds of sniper bullets into, and inserted it into the sniper. He was now ready to execute his mission.

He sat back and texted the headquarters again. 

“In place and all set up. About to review escape route and then scope out surroundings.”

A solid five minutes went by and Rick thought he had lost connection with them, but then he received a text back.

“Understood. Good luck.”

He put his phone back in the backpack and pulled out a sheet of paper and reviewed the plan after he assassinated the Secretary. It read: 

Once assassination is complete, complete all of these following tasks as swiftly as possible. 

Pack up gun and leave no evidence behind. Pour spirits over the area you were to remove any evidence of your presence. Then head down the stairwell and into the crowd. Once in, act as normal as possible. Make your way to the abandoned U.S. airbase about twenty minutes out from your spot. Once there, show fake id you have as a helicopter pilot to them and use reason of the assassination to fly. Once in a helicopter, disable tracking and fly away as quickly as possible. If executed correctly, you should be going to the site of the death. But, once out of site (over Kremlin), change course and head Northwest sharp until you see a very small airport with a black private jet. Land the helicopter and get out of Russia as quickly as possible. The flight crew should respond to the code, “Gamma rays on a sunday morning” with “are far worse than coffee on Saturday”. If not, something has gone wrong. We hope all goes well and we will see you back on American soil.

Once Rick was finished reading the instructions he got the binoculars out of the bag and looked at the front gates of the Kremlin, where the Secretary was getting in his car. The parade started in twenty minutes, and the perfect time for Rick to take the shot was just a minute and a half after the cars started their journey around Moscow. So, he sat back and rested his body while he waited for it to start.

The air was filled with cool temperatures and the city buzz, but when the Russian anthem started playing, all else fled at its presence. It was so loud it jarred at Rick’s consciousness even though he was on high alert. He quickly popped up and looked through the binoculars. He spotted his target sitting on top of the back seat of a car, parading out of the Kremlin and onto dangerous ground. Rick made sure everything was in the bag besides his sniper and readied his shot. Just as the man was in perfect position to be killed, a big helicopter flew right over where Rick was positioned. It scared the crap out of him that he accidentally fired a shot. When he noticed that no one could hear it over the helicopter and his silencer, he aimed and took another quick shot, grazing the man’s neck. Alls of a sudden, the guards and military became on high alert. Rich packed the sniper up faster then he ever trained and rushed downstairs, leaving the bottle of spirits and his gloves in a big puddle on the rooftop. When he walked out the front doors, the whole city was in panic, which was perfect cover for him. He held the backpack tight and ran in the direction he needed to, along with thousands of other screaming civilians. After about fifteen minutes, he was mostly alone and  nearing the air base. He grabbed the id out of his bag and presented it to the officer upon arrival. Saying the words, “I have been called to fly a helicopter in search for the Secretary’s killer.” Because he was in such a frenzy with the news, he let Rick in quickly without any trouble. Rick found a helicopter that was gassed up and had ammunition stocked up and got in. No one questioned him because the other pilot were scrambling to get flight suits to fly, but as soon as Rick was in the helicopter. The CIA shut the power grid down to half of Moscow, which delayed them. He turned the helicopter on and disabled the tracking device near the floor. Then, he took off for the airport. On his flight, he encountered no interference and landed safely at the airport. He landed the helicopter and grabbed the extra pistol in the center in case of emergency just in case the Russians had intercepted his plane. He put the pistol in his waistband and hopped out. When he got to the plane, he started the code, and the crew finished it. So he got on the plane and finally relaxed, knowing he was going home. 

Before the plane even took off, Rick was asleep, dead tired from all of the stress from the past hour. When he woke up, he was at gate A8 at Dulles International Airport.