Chapter 157: Chapter 157

It was still dark when they left, but they arrived at the place with the sun already greeting them warmly. But instead of walking on the trail made for trekking, Lucien noticed Anna took a turn by leaping off hurdle on the side of the walking path. There were no signs that said it was prohibited, so Lucien did not say anything. And even if he did, there was no assurance Anna would take his reminders, so Lucien did not say anything and just followed her lead.

He wanted to ask where they were going but knowing he might annoy Anna made him bite his tongue. He was aware he had to act like he wasn’t there. He was not invited in the first place. And he was aware Anna did not like baggage. He was there because he insisted. He can throw in some jokes once in a while, but Lucien also knew when to act like a ghost, quiet and wordless, yet around to assist her.

They arrived at a place in the mid of the small forest. By the look of their spot, no one would notice they were in here, even if hikers pass by. The walking trail was a few meters away, and below them, their position was higher from the path people would take to continue with the course. It is where Anna stopped and chose to be their spot, temporarily. Soon he saw Anna unpacking her backpack.

Binoculars. Then the things Anna started pulling out of it were things Lucien could not identify at first; until she was done assembling, he realized it was a sniper gun. Anna positioned herself behind the gun on its stand and started to adjust the lenses.

“I know I am not supposed to make a sound, but can I ask?” Lucien spoke after he positioned himself like Anna beside her looking at the direction in front of them. He was not sure where Anna was pointing her sight into. There was a vast land with so many establishments, buildings, and extensive infrastructures before their eyes.

“Uhuh,” Anna replied concisely.

“Why do you have this?” Lucien asked with his pointed mouth to the weapon.

“Because I need it…” Anna replied casually.

“Are you going to take him down today?” Lucien asked again.

“Jack hasn’t given me the information I needed,” Anna replied with her eyes still on the lens, adjusting the scope.

Her answer was enough to tell Lucien that she was not going to take the shot at Terrence Clayton’s head yet. So he paused and observed. He saw everything she did, but he noticed the gun was too short. He did not know much about guns yet, although he knew a little more now. This gun is too short for a long one. It did not seem enough to take a shot from the distance they had to the closest visible target. But then again, he did not know much about snipers.

Lucien paused again. Then he checked the gun closely.

“There is no magazine!” Lucien exclaimed but in a controlled voice.

“Uhu,” Anna hummed, still doing her thing.

“Is there a bullet in the chamber or something?” Lucien asked again.

“Nope,” Anna replied.

She was sure Lucien would not stop unless she answered, so she just made her responses short. But this time, she is almost getting used to his presence beside her that it would have been weirder for Brianna if he stayed quiet. She is almost convinced she has reached the ultimate level of being patient when she is beside this man, maybe because she cannot find the heart to hurt him. Even when he is asking too many questions, which Brianna would not bother answering, not even listening to such, but with Lucien, she is patiently answering all of them. Not to satisfy him, not to spare his life but to give herself the peace she wanted. Because she might feel guilty if she shoots this man to death.

“Here, have a look,” Anna moved from behind the sniper gun she was setting.

Brianna just needed the sniper gun to get a grip on her target. She did not bring the whole of it. And it wasn’t the gun she would use in case she gets the information she needs from Jack Foster. The one she brought with her today was an airsoft sniper gun, a Novsitsch SSG10 A3 airsoft sniper gun, with only a short barrel, bipod, and sniper scope. There was no butt pad, so the long gun wasn’t that long as usual, and there was no magazine, no ammo, too.

Lucien moved to look behind the sniper scope, and his eyes saw the target as soon as he peeked on it.

“Wow!” Lucien exclaimed. He moved his face a little to look in the same direction without the lens, but he couldn’t tell where to find the same face or anyone’s face in his naked eye. Too different when he looked only behind the scope, even with a single eye only. “He looks too close.”

Brianna reached for the binoculars and used them to look at her target.

“Jack said he will be in the same spot doing the same thing every morning for the next days of his stay before he attends an out of town campaign,” Anna stated as she looked at an old man, in his sixties, having his morning meal in his residential house, a mansion in the midst of the city. She also checked the positions of the politician’s security team. They looked snappy. She assumed they were also from the army. Terrence Clayton himself was from the Military. There is no doubt he would get his security people from well-trained military men.

“I hope Jack finds everything you need to know,” Lucien sincerely murmured with his eyes still staring at the target. “He looks so near although he is far from this spot, I have no doubt you can take him down as easy as having your pancake for breakfast,” he added.

“That’s right. But I have this crazy wish to take him down with my bare hands, so I might try to get as close as I can,” Anna replied casually. She stated her honest thoughts aloud.

“If he is the one behind my parents’ and grandparents’ death, he deserves to feel the pain of dying slowly, stabbed, and bled to death. If he is the one behind the training camps where I got trained along with the dead ones with their organs harvested to sell on the black market, he is not human to deserve death humanly. If he is selling weapons to the bandits, people against the government losing a lot of honest men in uniform, he deserves to be ripped off of his military uniform and die without mercy to avenge every father, mother, son, and daughter of families who lost their loved ones because of him.”

Lucien turned his head to look at Anna as she spoke with a firm but sad voice.

“I am so sorry you had to get through all of them,” he murmured as he noticed Anna took a deep breath as if she was calming herself although she wasn’t looking upset at all.

Brianna had to stop thinking about every reason to hate Terrence Clayton because she might not wait for Jack’s report and go on a rogue mission. She was almost certain Sam was telling the truth, but she just wanted to make sure she wasn’t fighting like a mad bull without aim.

“We can’t choose our fate. We can only be wise to be courageous enough to dare change it into what we want it to be. I can’t say I wish I were never trained, now that I can use my skills to avenge my parent’s death, but I wish they weren’t taken away from me too soon,” she uttered wryly.