Chapter 2 - The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
My body moved before my conscious mind even had time to process the lethal threat.
I dove backward into the cabin just as a high-caliber sniper bullet shattered the wooden doorframe where my heart had been.
Wood splinters rained down on my face as I rolled behind a heavy cast-iron woodstove for cover.
The shooter was positioned in the tree line approximately two hundred yards away, armed with a suppressed thermal rifle.
I knew he would hold his position and wait for me to make a desperate run into the open snow.
I grabbed a broken piece of a mirror from the floor and angled it toward the shattered doorway.
The reflection showed the faint outline of a man dressed in white winter camouflage creeping slowly toward the cabin.
He was moving with tactical precision, clearly trained to confirm his kills up close.
I needed to level the playing field before he trapped me inside this wooden box.
I quickly ripped a loose floorboard from the ground and propped my extra sweater against it to mimic a human silhouette.
I silently climbed into the dark, dusty rafters of the cabin ceiling and waited like a spider in a web.
The crunching of snow grew louder until the mercenary finally stepped through the broken doorway.
He aimed his rifle at the decoy sweater and fired two rapid shots into the fabric.
I dropped from the ceiling rafters silently and landed squarely on his shoulders.
I wrapped my arm around his neck and applied a flawless blood choke until his body went completely limp on the floor.
I quickly stripped him of his insulated tactical jacket, his heavy gloves, and his waterproof boots.
I searched his pockets and pulled out a high-frequency satellite radio blinking with an incoming transmission.
May you like
I pressed the receive button and heard Dominic’s panicked voice echo through the small speaker.
Dominic asked if the target was eliminated because he had just found my ceramic knife missing from my closet back home.
