Sarah - The Last Man but One

From last time ...

And then she thought of Jake. And then she thought of The Kid. And then she remembered all the way back to Jerry's father. Plenty of time, Kid. Plenty of time.

And now ...

"Are you sure about this, Mackey? Really SURE?"

A hurt look came over Mackey's face.

"It's not that I doubt you, Mackey, or Two Feathers for that matter, but we've never done one like this, before. We've always done them at their stops or at places of habit, but somewhere we know they're going to be. We just don't KNOW that he's going to be here."

"You're right, Sarah. He's been changing up his routine, and we don't REALLY know that he's gonna be here - but he HAS been each Tuesday for the last month and a half. He takes different roads to get here but he does come here and he comes here last. That girl he's seein' is all he's got on his mind, today. He can't WAIT to get here."

Sarah and Mackey were in a warehouse window three floors up and two blocks away from the little run down hotel that their target was, hopefully, going to visit. They could see the entire front of the hotel from their vantage point - all three stories.

"When he gets here, the car will park in front. He'll get out and go in the hotel and his men will either go to the gin mill next door or they'll stay on the sidewalk pitching quarters. Either way, he goes in alone."

"And they always get the same room?"

"Yeah. Second floor, corner room on the right. They'll get in the room, turn on the light, he'll walk over to the window, raise the shade and then raise the window. When he raises that window, you'll have the perfect shot."

"I'm gonna take a test shot."

"What's your target?"

"The strip of brick next to the window - dead center - even with the top of the lower half of the window."

Mackey looked into his spotting scope.

"Okay ... that strip is five bricks wide. Take your shot."

Sarah sat the bipod legs on the windowsill and sat down on the floor. She looked into her scope, raised her bipod legs a little, looked into her scope again, and then gave the silencer a final check to make sure it was tight.

She sighted her target.

"Okay, Mackey ... call it."

Mackey looked into his spotting scope.

"No breeze ... no correction ... you're good."

Sarah's rifle coughed.

"Adjust your scope a click to the left. You hit the outside brick. Right level - just a bit outside."

Sarah adjusted her scope and chambered another round. Her rifle coughed again.

"Bullseye. Geez we coulda used you on Guadacanal."

"It's okay, Mackey. I hear you guys did okay without me."

"Yeah, I guess we did. Besides, we had Jake, and Jake was the best there ever was."

"You don't talk about ..."

"Hold it! There's a car comin' down the street. It's him. Okay .. get ready."

The car pulled to a stop in front of the hotel and four men got out. One went into the hotel while the other three went in the tavern next door.

"Okay, Sarah. Get ready.

Sarah chambered another round.

"Still no breeze ... no correction ... there's the light ... there's the shade ... he's all yours ..."

Sarah's rifle coughed. The target disappeared. The light went out and a shrill scream drifted to them through the early evening air.

The last man was down. The last, that is, but one. Giamatti. As they packed their gear, all Sarah could think of was Giamatti. Just one more. One more guy. Giamatti. I saved you for last. Giamatti. I'm coming to get you, Fatboy.