Flash Fiction: The Target

With aplomb Sean threw himself into the work he was doing. He did not really like the job but it has to be done, he was new in this position because he had been a naughty boy in his last job and had to be reposted.

Sean didn’t mind really, he just fit in with any situation that he came across. He was a glower – meaning he glowed anywhere.  It was because of his Irish charm, people warmed to him, they did not find him boorish like some lawyers can be seen to be. No he was not a talker or a jabber, he got the job done.

In this new place he was told to protect the prey, no matter how tough his fellow colleagues were, the prey was precious. Sean was pragmatic and knew the score. He knew he had to be switched on and looking over his shoulder. As always there would be people about to step in his way and try and trip him up. For reasons he could not fathom, some people just had it in for lawyers, possibly did not realise their potential.  But was Sean just a lawyer?

It was a mercurial situation to be in, people thinking you were something you aren’t and trying to be something else, like a white man pretending to be a black man playing a white man just like Robert Downey Jr did in the movie Tropic Thunder. What a talent it took to play many parts.

But it’s all just a job to Sean, he has his orders and he was not going to let anyone down this time. It was his dynasty to complete this job. He came from a family of lawyers and protectors.

Yes he had taken advantage in his previous role but greed can do that to you sometimes. Who wouldn’t try and take a few million pounds when it was being thrown at you. But he did not want the money for himself, he was trying to rescue some of his colleagues who had been captured at gun point and had a bounty on their head. And a few million pounds would have helped them

.

He was found out and had to give the money back, but thankfully after explaining why he was doing it, the money was paid and his colleagues were released and safe back at home.  He was assured that it would have happened anyway even if he hadn’t of put up a petition for them.  We all need to look after our own. 

So even though what Sean did was for a good reason, he was still disciplined. And he was given the new job to prove his trust, his worth and his commitment to the cause.  Sean thought he was trustworthy, and had he not shown loyalty to his colleagues? Ok, ok, he tried to steal so maybe he did need to prove himself again.

Sean threw himself into the new job with abandon, he needed to prove people right this time, show he cared and was committed.

An email just arrived into Sean’s inbox telling him to go to the agreed place. So Sean left the building he was currently in and went to the agreed place. He walked slowly, this was going to be a tough job, he had to be positioned right, needed to get the target in his eyes and not let them disappear.

Sean got to agreed place, went up to the roof and positioned himself setting his gun down. He lay on the ground, got himself and his gun in the correct place and waited.

They were told it would happen at 3pm that day when the President was making his speech and it was Sean’s job to take out the target, he wasn’t sure what they looked like, no one did, as the tip off about the assassination was anonymous. But most killers have the same look especially in their eyes, the look of determination. But Sean was also scared he would get the wrong person and also wondered if how real the tip off was and would the hit of the President actually take place. It wouldn’t be the first time that the information they had received was wrong, in attempt to distract the Secret Service, the FBI and the CIA.

Sean remembered another time when they had received a tip off that a bomb was going to go off in the middle of  Times Square, and all the services were there and the area was cleared at the time they were given, but the bomb never went off. Well it didn’t go of in Times Square, but a bomb did go off, at the Pentagon.  No one had cleared the Pentagon, no one had secured the area and a lot of people had died that day. Some information they are given cannot be trusted but they have to follow every lead and tip offs that they get.

The time was coming, it was 2.55 and the crowd was a big one, so many people and Sean could not find anyone who stood out. Well anyone who stood out more than anyone else anyway.

Sean’s eye skirted around and finally he saw him, he was standing in the crowd with a clear view of where the President will be. The President arrived on the stage and Sean kept his eyes locked on his target to see when he would pull the trigger.

Sean made sure he was in the right position and his fun was pointed at the target.  He had his finger on the trigger ready to shoot. His target moved and Sean thought this is it, it’s time, so before his target could aim and shoot at the President, Sean went for his shot. He had just pulled the trigger when something sharp got him right on the neck and again in the head. Sean had been shot at. Thoughts were running through his head in his final moments, when did I become the target?