Long Range | Teen Ink

Long Range

May 19, 2013
By Marrsy24 BRONZE, Argyle, Texas
Marrsy24 BRONZE, Argyle, Texas
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Every man dies, not every man truly lives.


He stopped and looked up to the sky. He was still headed south toward the target in a small town in East Somalia, just below the Horn of Africa. The man had no name; those who had to speak to him simply called him Eagle Eye… for obvious reasons. He was the top long distance elimination operative in the Northern Hemisphere. He was employed by the UN to take out anyone who needed to be, like drug lords, dictators, terrorists, etc. Looking at him, you would find out nothing. His race was impossible to tell, and his face was one you would forget as soon as you saw it. He had chestnut skin and light brown hair. His eyes were a light hazel. He was of normal stature, about 5 foot 11, with a lean body that did not look like much, but could kill a man before the victim knew what he was up against.

His brow was deeply grooved. Eagle Eye (Eagle for short) had the look of a man who had seen death and sorrow. As a child he had always dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps and joining the army. He had always considered his dad a hero because of the ultimate sacrifice that he had laid down for his country and for his friends that were fighting alongside him. Eagle Eye knew that to be the best, he had to do work for it. He graduated at the top of his class in a high school that he has never spoken the name of since he left. Evaluated by a General Parshina, his skill immediately stood out. He was sent to a Special Forces camp in Alaska. There he learned everything that a man could know about strategy and tactical killing. Nothing was out of order, everything he did was premeditated.

That brings us to now, driving across a corrupt, war-stained country on his way to assassinate the most brutal leader since Hitler and also the most infamous man on the continent. This man was Kamal Trakanos, he was the leader and master planner of the largest weapon dealing operation in Africa. The base of the operation was centered at the village Trakan, as the natives call it, that Eagle Eye was heading to. This was going to be a clean mission. He had orders for three of his contacts to be placed in the village to give visual conformation on the target and the weapons cache that they were to confiscate after the assassination. Fox, Simms, and Colt had been staying in the village for three months now getting ready for the “K-day”. Eagle Eye had been there twice each month to plan out the exact execution. This was the day, he would arrive at a forest three miles south of the village and hide the truck, take his rifle from under the passenger seat, and run to a large hill overlooking the village. The tribes who had inhabited the area before called the hill Eye of the Gods; because you could see the entire valley from the top. Eagle Eye thought that the name was very appropriate.

Something was not right. He had gone over the plan a thousand times in his head and everything was planned to the minutest detail. He had escape routes from five different directions. They had two backup plans with included worst case scenario. He could not figure it out, something was not right in his head. He was having doubts. What did it mean? He never doubted, he had done things like this a thousand times. It was drilled in to his subconscious. A conscience was starting to develop in the back of his mind.

Thoughts were running through is head faster than he could process them, he felt the numbness of shock settle over him. That’s when he saw it, a bump in the road. A normal person even with well-trained eyes could not have spotted it. This was a different case entirely. It was about 50 yards in front of truck. It was no normal rut in a typical African back road. The ground was too new around it, the shape was too definite. He knew immediately that it was a land mine, waiting for its unsuspecting prey to roll right into its jaws of death. The truck had a specially made chaises that was designed to withstand explosions, but not at point bank range. Eagle yanked the wheel as hard as could to avoid the impending doom that he was closing in on at an unrestrained speed with nowhere to go. The front tires missed the deadly speed bump by inches. The left back tire slammed into it with crushing force. The entire earth erupted in a ball of orange and brown. The trucks back end came up 15 feet above the cab until it was straight up in the air. Metal and sparks flew in every direction as it barrel rolled at an angle off the road and into a ditch.

The incinerated truck with was nothing more than the remnants of its former self. The driver dragged himself out of the smoking cab with the rifle strapped to his back. In awe, he looked at his unscathed body. It was a miracle his life was still intact, let alone his body. Someone was watching out for him, he knew it. Who could it be? His life and been handed to someone in the past two minutes and they decided to give it back. What was the purpose? He had an idea. This is what had been clawing at the back of his mind. He started his five mile run to the destination.

Two days before K-day, he had been on a plane from the United States to Africa. Dressed as a business man and with the demeanor of a timid writer, he had boarded and sat next to a young woman. She had long, sandy hair and a small mouth with an incessant smile implanted on it. Her green eyes sparkled as she turned to greet him, and her round face glowed as though she had just heard that she death sentence lifted.

As the plane took off, the woman pulled out a black book that Eagle recognized as a Bible of the Christian faith. It was his job to study religions and such, after all. He sighed as the thought s of a longs flight came over him as he watched her open it. He knew that her not “ministering” to him were slim. To his surprise, she did not ask any questions or start shoving pamphlets in his face. She just started reading and taking notes over various parts of the strange book.

As the flight went on the young woman started to tear up. Eagle was astounded to see this. She kept reading and the tears came more vigorously and with more passion until finally the lady was balling with all the gusto she could possibly muster. Still, he remained silent and watched with increasing interest. Before long the sobs subsided and became smiles, and even laughs. The woman was actually laughing now. It was extremely perplexing to the silent killer.

Seven hours into the voyage, the girl dozed off to his left. The Bible lay open on her lap in the book called Psalms. Curiosity is not a good trait in his business, but he had to know what type of words could cause such emotions. He read the first few chapters, and was about to give up when he saw a mark in the book of Matthew. Eagle flipped and stared reading with indifference, but as he progressed he read more deeply. He was so intrigued that he could not rip his eyes from the book. He read through Matthew, then Mark, then Luke, and finally John. By the time he was finished the woman was awake. The assassin had placed the book back on her lap, and was now thinking over what his life had been like.

He remembered this encounter and ran though it many times as he approached the hill. He was so conflicted and, for once in his life, scared. He assembled his rifle and sat in his place. Fox called on the radio ten minutes later with confirmation that the target was moving into place. Eagle Eye took his place and looked through the scope. He saw the man he had been tracking for months in his cross-hairs. He zoomed in and got a look at his face he was smoking outside of a building on the south-side of the town. Eagle started to doubt, could he really take another man’s life after all he had done and what he had experienced 48 hours ago. He knew that this wasn’t what he was meant to do, there was a better plan, there had to be. The gun started to tremble as he was fighting through the conflicting. He heard a scream in his ear, “Now, take the shot!” He focused in and squeezed off the last round of his life.


The author's comments:
This piece was a short story I wrote my freshman year as a project. I liked the story and I hope you do too.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.