Repeated Orders

"Hey boss," Steve called out as they hunched further down behind the makeshift barrier as bullets flew past overhead.

"Yeah Steve?" David yelled back to his second in command over the chatter of the machine guns.

"How long have we been chasing this guy?" Steve popped up for a brief second and laid down a spray of bullets.

"Boogieman Bates," David said with suppressed anger, "that man is a ghost. Each time I get close, he slips away. And it usually takes me years to find him again." David returned some of the incoming fire; screams from the other side of the room confirmed the hits. "I can guarantee that he is gone by now. He is always one step ahead of me."

David could hear the other men on the team talking about the same thing. David thought back to when he had first been assigned to take care of Bates. All he had was a grainy surveillance photo, and a cock sure attitude of one that had never failed.

That attitude and picture had landed him in the hospital for three weeks with a bullet wound in his leg. Bates had gotten away.

The next time, he was more cautious and methodical in his hunt. David still only narrowly escaped being blown up in a carefully laid trap.

David sighed in frustration. Killing Brody Bates was his one ongoing failure. He still had the original kill order tucked into his wallet.



From: Office of General Command
To: Captain David Cole
Attn: Brody Bates

Captain Cole; you are ordered to eliminate the terrorist known as Brody Bates. Methodology is to your discretion. Further intelligence provided by Commander Hayes.




David pulled out the order from time to time and tried to put himself in Bates's shoes. Tried to think as he would think; tried to get a few steps ahead of him.

David sighed and shook his head. It was near impossible to think like a psychopath like Bates.

Steve broke into David's musings, "so what are we going to do boss?"

"After we eliminate these, then the hunt begins again," David said.