Living Darkly I

The assassin was on the top of a building that looked down the intercostals waterway, he was in the shadows of a door that was slightly ajar. His view was unobstructed and his target was sitting in the clear. His rifle of choice for this operation was the Windrunner Model 50 a bolt action break down .50 caliber sniper rifle that was light and very accurate. He was close to 1200 meters away just a little under a mile and his target only had a moment to live even though he didn't realize it yet.

Darius Erbin, CEO of a giant mortgage scam company in South Florida sat on the back balcony of his intercostals water estate. He was very pleased with himself, the economy was taking huge hits but his firm was doing very well. It was a devious ploy his company had come up with, they dealt with sub-prime mortgages and the model they had developed was truly masterful.

Mortgages were bought and sold every day, his company chose sub-prime or high risk mortgages they always chose people who only had ten years or less left on the loan. As soon as they purchased the note the scam began. The software the company used to track payments and record insurance and other fees automatically put the home owner in late status and the foreclosure process started almost instantly. The forbearance program they had was just an extension of the same scam and was only in place due to legal pressure, it was just more money in the company coffers and was never applied to any loans.

The real beauty of the scam is that the legal fees for the foreclosure weren't even paid by his company they would sell blocks of these mortgages to investors and then use the proceeds to "protect" the investor's assets. It had taken years of experience inside the mortgage industry to plan the details of this scam and the inside circle of the Board of Directors were the only ones who truly understood the details and they also made the money, two former Congressmen saw that legislation stayed in place that helped the company skirt many finance regulations and oversight from SOX was almost a joke.

Darius was a large man, in his early sixties with iron gray hair, his eyes were cold and people found this very uncomfortable when speaking to him both he and his brother shared the soulless eyes which they inherited it from their father. He wasn't as physically fit as he once was but he was still an imposing presence he only recently got glasses and these were only for reading. He was now enjoying his ritual brandy on the balcony, the sun wouldn't set for another thirty minutes or so and it was his favorite time of day.

He began to raise the glass to his lips when the .50 caliber round struck him just above the bridge of the nose. The speed and size of the round tore the entire top of his head off, blood from severed arteries sprayed up into the air. And his dead body jerked several times as it attempted to cling to a life already gone. It slide slowly to floor blood now collecting in a pool at the top of the corpse.

The assassin examined the results of the shot only long enough to confirm the target was dead, he didn't smile didn't take any time to listen for sirens didn't pause for anything. He quickly broke the rifle down and stowed it in its carrying case. With five minutes he was on the street below, no sirens could be heard yet. He walked across the street to the bus stop and within two minutes he was on a bus headed to Delray Beach.

If anyone saw him they would have forgotten him instantly, average height, average build, brownish blonde hair wearing non-descript clothes and pulling a non-descript case that look like a computer. As he sat on the bus feeling if any eyes were on him he allowed himself a small grin of satisfaction the target had been disposed of nicely. His next target would go just as easily he was sure.