A Ghost's End

Two hundred meters away, only a reticle between me and my target. All it takes is one motion and that target is gone.

I must have been real deep in my thoughts, because I forgot that Nick was radioing in through our comms. "You better not be fucking sleeping, prick." he said in his usual colorful way. "Shut up." I responded without thinking. As much as I do tolerate the guy, he can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes. "Get your shit together would you? You have a visual on me?" I focused myself, and scanned the area with my scope.

I scanned along the wall to see if Nick had reached the stronghold. Low and behold, he was waiting in the west side of the stronghold, just hugging the wall to avoid being spotted by the sentries along the walls. Though, I don't know how he could avoid getting spotted, flipping me off the entire time.

"Stop fucking around and get to work already." I said impatiently. He responded with a snarky laugh. "You and I both know you enjoy the work, uptight bastard."

I didn't want to admit it and give him the satisfaction, but he wasn't wrong, I enjoyed what we did. But at the end of the day it's a job someone has to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Nick looked around and became confused judging by the way he's scratching his head like a frustrated kid. "See any way in?" he asked.

I scanned along the wall and other than the main gate blocked by a checkpoint and exposed in the light, the only other way in is a small and very old sewage tunnel further along the west side.

"There's a sewage system further along the wall from your position." I responded. He grunted. "This place is old. Can't you find any openings or something?" he protested. "Stop bitchin already, and swim." I said strictly. Nick let out a disapproving groan. "This better be damn worth it." he said irritatingly. His suffering provided me with a few minutes of entertainment as I waited for him to make it inside.

Luckily, these bastards never bothered to leave men by that crack in their defense. I mean, lucky us right? After a few more minutes of grunts, groans, and the occasional profanity from Nick, he finally made it inside, seemingly in one piece. I could only barely spot him amongst the many enemies surrounding that area. As he got out of the sewage, he immediately began to wipe and scrape whatever is left of sewage crap on him. "After swimming through shit, I deserve a raise." Nick said. "Did your mother ever teach you manners?" I asked genuinely, contrary to my normal tone.

"Nah, she taught me to curse whenever I see fit. Which is nearly every fucking time with this job." He said, seemingly proud of the fact. "Then let's quit the chatter and get it done." I said and we both maintained radio silence for the most part and commenced our mission.

Nick began to move through the camp, with me keeping an eye on his immediate surroundings. It amazes me, that all the time we have worked together, contrary to his usual behavior, he dispatches his enemies with quick and silent efficient methods, if not a little bit overkill. I called out targets for him to take out, and each target I mark, one more enemy dies with his last sight being the sight of Nick's skull mask and his blood rushing down their neck. It's a wonder how none noticed enemy blood, which baffled me with Nick's abilities on the field. I have asked him about this previously but I only got a laugh and a "That's a funny thing." as a response from the bastard.

Before I knew it, half of the hostiles in the west side had gone down to half, and not a single soul knows better. "Don't get too excited now." I reminded Nick before he could kill any more. "You're no fun." he pouted. "The point is to go unnoticed, so I think they'll notice if a good amount of their men are dead."

"Hey a lot of the men I killed were asleep, they won't be expecting them to answer for a while." I sighed in slight annoyance at his sarcasm and humor. The man almost never takes anything seriously. "Your mother teach you to be this uptight?" he asked out of nowhere but seemingly genuine for once in his life.

"She taught me how to focus on what's important and to be strong." I responded. "Looks like someone was loved as a child." I let out a soft chuckle. "I wouldn't exactly say that."

Before we got into our conversation, I noticed a patrol going in Nick's direction. "You got hostiles incoming at your six, Nick." he turned and took cover by a few of their supply boxes. "You did hide the bodies didn't you?" he gave me a few seconds of silence and an unsure pause. "Nick?" I asked again.

"Calm your shit, I hid what was necessary." he answered, annoyed. "Where did you hide them?" I asked. "You really don't wanna know." he answered cryptically.

As much as I needed him to be straight with me it wasn't important we needed to deal with the patrol. I aimed my sights on the patrol, counting at least four in the group. They were nearing one of the tents that had been set up for sleeping quarters, which is also where a few of the dead bodies were. I saw Nick following close behind them, with his knife ready in his hand, I knew all he needed was my signal.

I trained my crosshair on the leading man, slowed my breathing, took a deep breath, aimed then fired my shot....headshot. Before the others could scramble and alert others, Nick had stabbed and slit the throats of the two at the back of the patrol, in time to kick the third down and finish him off. "Nice shot." Nick said, which was probably the only compliment I ever heard from him.

"Hide the bodies and move on, before I make another one." He chuckled at my response. "It's one kill ya prick. What's gonna--?" "I shoot anymore I'll give away our while operation. Or did you forget guns and bullets make a lot of noise." he only mumbled, obviously annoyed at my scolding. "Don't lie, you're itching to pull that trigger a few more times, fucking show-off."

We remained silent once again as he hid the bodies and hustled towards the main building. He was right though, I wanted to shoot some more, I was enjoying this. And now, I was hoping that I’d get to have more fun.