Chapter Five. A Shot in the Dark

As the last echoes of gunfire faded into the distance, the shooting range fell quiet, Except for the occasional clatter of spent casings being swept up. At this point the night had fully enveloped the sky and a beautiful bright full moon hung in the night sky, casting long shadows across the rows of targets. Shooter after shooter began to pack up their gear, exchanging nods and words of camaraderie as they made their way towards the exit. The air was tinged with the smell of gunpowder and satisfaction, a reminder of an evening well spent. With tired but contented smiles, James and Kelly headed for the bar for the perfect ending to a perfect night.

The bar hummed with the low murmur of conversation, punctuated by the occasional clink of glasses and laughter. Soft jazz music played in the background, adding to the ambiance. The air was heavy with the scent of whiskey and cigar smoke as patrons leaned against the polished wooden bar or nestled into worn leather booths. In one corner, a group of friends toasted to another week survived, while at the bar, Kelly nursed a drink, lost in thought.

James arrived with a bottle of wine and a chuckle escaped his lips when he saw the almost empty glass he had poured for Kelly only moments ago.

"You've never had this much nor drank this fast before." He commented setting the wine on the bar table.

"I haven't tasted any since the war. To be honest nothing tastes quite right since then. Everything tastes like flavorless muck." She blurted casually, unaware of how heavy those words sounded in James ears. He stared at her worriedly while she chugged down the remnants of the glass, then he proceeded to lighten the mood with his finding.

"Well you're in luck, I fished out the best of best tonight." He showed her the brand of wine and a nostalgic smile tugged on her lips.

"Prescott Wine." She winced at the name, unable to hide the edge in her voice. The name Prescott was a painful reminder of a beautiful past they had lost, and James felt so stupid for bringing that up. But Kelly was quick to switch moods, brightening the atmosphere with a beautiful smile.

"Be a darling and pour me some." She purred playfully handing the glass to him.

"Are you sure? You're working early tomorrow." She sneered at him with a stubborn glare forcing him to concede quickly.

"Alright, Just one drink and we call it a night." He said, pouring the drink out.

She proposed a toast while James settled into the bar seat.

"To what?" He asked, unsure of anything worthy to toast to. All life had brought him and Kelly since the war were darker and darker days.

"To being alive." Kelly smiled, Sincerely this time. With a warm smile he responded to her toast.

"To being alive." Their glasses clicked, and they went down on the fine wine. James began with slow sips while Kelly chugged the entire thing down, ignoring the strong burning sensation that came with the wine. At this point, James had to ask.

"What's bothering you?, You've been quite distant all evening. We both know the answer doesn't lie at the end of this bottle."

"I wouldn't know if I didn't look." She humored.

"Very funny." James responded. " But seriously Kell, what troubles you?" She exhaled tiredly, slouching onto the bar table.

"Remember the attack that happened earlier today?" James nodded and she continued. "I can't help feeling that it was only a draft heralding a great storm to come. This is the same gut-wrenching feeling I felt some days before the war. Something chaotic is about to happen, I can feel it."

"The people who attacked you, who are they?"

"Mercenaries, mere amateurs. But that's the part that bugs me. Whoever hired them knows the value of the drive, yet he hired amateurs to retrieve it."

"What drive?" He questioned sharply as his brows furrowed in confusion.

"The one I took from you, when I found you at Blue Valley. Do you know anything about it? How to break the encryption? Or at least what the hell is in it?" The lethargy in her voice was gone in a second and her questions came pitched, almost hysterical, her eyes lit with curiosity.

"N...no." He stuttered. Disappointed, Kelly heaved a resigned sigh.

"I don't get it. Why would Fortune leave us a puzzle box to solve, with no leads or clues whatsoever."

"Maybe it wasn't a puzzle he wanted solved. Maybe there's nothing in that drive." James suggested in a fruitless attempt to get her mind off it, clearly discomforted by the mention of the drive but Kelly who was on the verge loosing her sobriety couldn't sense his discomfort and went on anyway.

"Nah, I know Fortune. He has a way of always making things complicated and dramatic, besides the fact that someone out there is plotting to lay hands on it makes me certain there is something in it."

"Maybe it was just a distraction for something else they were after." He tried again, to get her off the topic but to no avail.

"That's what I thought before, but they attacked without knowledge that I would be there. Their intent was clearly to kill Nancy and retrieve the drive. Unbeknownst to them I was there to thwart that plan. Unless somehow they knew that I was there and played it out to seem like they were unaware. But that brings us to my dilemma, why hire amateurs. If they knew I would be there, whether to retrieve the drive or distract me, their plan might have fallen through had they hired high profile assassins."

"Alright Kell, that's enough thinking for one night." James stated sternly, getting to his feet.

"It's past midnight already, I'm gonna take you home for a sweet good night's sleep." She slumped tiredly unto the table unwilling to move.

"Is that what I sound like?" She groaned.

"Yup, pretty much, except you have this scary fiery look in your eyes when you say it."

"Fine, I'll heed. I'm tired anyway." She got to her feet with James' help. But things quickly went south when he staggered. He felt it again, like a fire burning through his chest and a stabbing pain at the back of his throat. Unable to draw in breaths, he coughed hard and painfully, throwing Kelly into a complete state of alarm.

"James?" She called in concern and immediately fetched a glass of water for him. Sensing the liquid that touched his palm, he threw it behind him quickly, balling it into a fist before she returned with a glass of water. She guided the glass to his mouth, making him gulp down the whole content.

"Are you okay?" She asked in trepidation as his cough calmed into laboured, rasp breathing.

"I'm fine. I promise." He assured shakily.

"Are you sure?"

"I am Okay."

"James...?" She pressed further making him snap.

"I said I'm fine!" He yelled frustratedly but quickly realized what he'd done.

"Shit!" He muttered in remorse as Kelly took a step back from him.

"I'm s..." He tried to apologise but Kelly cut him short. At this point, all eyes in the bar were on them. But contrary to James' thoughts, she wasn't in the least perturbed by his outburst. If anything, it steeled her resolve to get the truth out of him.

"James," she called assertively and with all manner of severity. He looked at her remorsefully, his eyes a whirlpool of emotions.

"Show me your hand." She commanded sternly, gulping at her own words.

Reluctantly, James stretched out his hand to her, unballing his fist and revealing a hand ensanguined with dark red blood. The blood he had coughed up in the spree. Her breath hitched as the air crackled with tension, frustration following right after the fear that ceased her and she just had to ask.

"How long? How long has this been happening to you?"

"I... It began right after I was released from the hospital. It started with a little dizziness and a burning pain in my chest, at first I thought it was just the cold, but it got worse quickly, spinning into this sporadic coughing spree and intense pain."

"Right after the hospital! that was over three months ago. Why the hell didn't you tell me all this time." Her eyes blazed with righteous anger, fist clenched and brows furrowed in frustration.

"I tried to but I couldn't make you worry more than you already did."

"Don't give me that." She snapped, feeling betrayed. "We've been through so much together for you to hide something this big from me. You're dying slowly and you kept this quiet from me."

"Kel.." He tried to reach her but she stepped away from him sharply, hurt and betrayed.

"You didn't even try to seek any medical attention at least behind my back, you were just okay with punishing yourself. " Unable to defend himself he recoiled in guilt as Kelly lashed out.

"Or this was what you wanted." She laughed. A gesture that juxtaposed the overwhelming sense of hurt that choked her. James eyes widened, horrified by the direction this was heading to.

"Ever since you came out of coma, you've had this look in your eyes." She explained terrifyingly calm. "Like you desperately yearned for death. Though not to the point of actively chosing suicide, but subconsciously that has been your greatest desire."

"Stop..." James uttered horrified by her very words. But she spoke the truth, A truth that tore through his sanity, that he had battled with every single day, trying to deny.

"Tell me I'm wrong James." She said to him, wishing down to earth that her deduction was completely off. Although she knew she wasn't. Her intuition had never been wrong, but this time she desperately wanted to be wrong. All he had to do was say she was wrong.

But he was a broken mess, all he did was stutter, unable to get the words out.

Realizing he had nothing to say, a tear escaped her eyes running down her cheek and the next words that came out of her mouth broke him completely.

"I'm done."

"Kel please, Let me explain." He stretched to hold her desperately but she wouldn't let him.

"I can't do this again." She cried. "I can't watch you die too. I watched Ng die in your arms you know. She was like a sister to me. And I watched Elvis die too." She twisted the glacial ring on her finger and she remembered so vividly how Elvis placed it there right before he sacrificed his life in the war.

"I can't watch you die too. I just can't." She broke and the amount of guilt that inundated James made him quiver.

Suddenly Kelly grew quiet, her face twisted in realization.

"A distraction..." She muttered thoughtfuly, her voice barely above a whisper and James' gaze became curious. Puzzled by her sudden change in demeanor.

She knew then what this was—a carefully orchestrated plan to divert her attention to the drive. The attack on Nancy's office was just a ruse, a means to lure her into a false sense of security. The mercenary who had dismissed her as not the priority had lied, manipulating her focus to keep her distracted, thereby dulling her sense of perception. Whoever orchestrated this was fully aware of her capabilities and guided her just to this point. They weren't just after the drive, they were after her.

A chill ran down her spine as the pieces fell into place. They knew her strengths, her weaknesses, and they had exploited them to lead her to this moment.

She glanced up sharply out the windows, her senses hightened to the threat she had perceived.

But it was too late, the bullet had left the sniper and paved its way through to its target with an elegant and precise swivel. It tore through the windows with deadly precision, whooshing past James and burying itself in Kelly.

Time seemed to slow as Kelly felt the impact, a searing pain ripping through her body. She staggered backward, instinctively reaching for James, who caught her before she hit the ground.In that moment, as blood pooled around her, Kelly's world narrowed to the agony coursing through her veins. She looked up at James, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and resignation.

Chaos sets into the bar, as panic sweeps through the room like wildfire. While customers and bartenders alike ran around seeking shelter, James watched her transfixed, eyes widened in shock. And while in his arms bleeding out, his trauma engulfed him.

"I...I'm sorry," she gasped, her voice barely a whisper as darkness crept into the edges of her vision.

His shock quickly transcended into sheer rage evident in the swift change in the colour of his eyes. The crimson in his eyes was afire and as if responding to his rage, every piece glassware in the bar, ranging from wine bottles to glass windows shattered into a thousand pieces, like bulbs exposed to high sound frequency, sending a second wave of chaos through the bar.

The assassin who took a shot at Kelly from a vantage point over nine hundred meters away, aimed for his next target.

"Target one confirmed eliminated. Proceeding to target two." He said into his coms with a voice void of emotion. He aimed at James who was crouched over Kelly trying his very best to keep her alive. As his finger reached the trigger, James turned his gaze to him swiftly and precisely, pointing him out from the thicket of trees and vastness of buildings that perfectly concealed his location. But James glared at him with eyes akin to the devil, and a face void of morality or compassion. The assassin grew numb, completely enfeebled in terror. And for the first time in his life, he knew the same fear as a weak soul who stood before the devil.

"Stand down," came a voice from the coms. "Target two is still of use to us."