VIKTOR

It was almost impossible to see her. She knew that was the way it should be. It was how she had been field trained by Master Li.

Wearing a full body camouflage suit specially designed for the Costa Rican jungle where she now found herself, Razr had been hiding in place near the target for almost two days. Exposed skin was coated in dappled greens, light browns and the occasional black slash that she had expertly applied from the kit just after leaving the entry point a dozen kilometres away. 

Water was in a camel pack attached with web gear, a small tube running up over the left shoulder stopping just short of her lips. If she needed food, squeeze-it tubes with high carbs were clipped to the waist belt. Her footwear was not the customary boot but rather a more durable, high-tech version of the slip on in the shape of a human foot that was so popular with marathon runners these days. For this particular situation, that was her choice and Master Li had approved. 

A lightweight communication helmet, although mostly hot and uncomfortable in the oppressive jungle humidity, contained a high frequency, auto-encrypted, speech activated mike and satellite enabled micro-transmitter to keep in touch with Command several thousand kilometres away. As she had been instructed, Razr had kept radio silence ever since she had rappelled from the helo at the drop.

Slung across her chest was a customised Exocet crossbow, the selected weapon for this target. Master Li, himself an expert in crossbow technology and unique adaptations for this type of hunting, had chosen wisely. Lightweight, compact and with perfectly blended camo, the carbon fibre recurve designed bow was fully cocked with safety on. Firing a four hundred grain arrow silently at one hundred sixteen metres per second, the crossbow was a truly lethal weapon. Sitting atop the bow was a small laser optic scope mated with a side by side laser direction finder. 

Under the demanding tutoring of Master Li, for months Razr had practised over and over again until she and the bow had merged into one deadly unit. Now virtually invisible near the edge of the jungle, without thinking she touched the bow and gently stroked its stock as if it were the thigh of an anxious lover. Focus, thought Razr, keep your focus on the task. Damn, that was a stupid mistake that could have exposed me to anyone in the cottage who may be looking into the jungle at that moment and seen the slight shift in the leaves.

Viktor Ramirez was her unsuspecting target. Chosen for her by the Great Father himself, Razr did not know, nor did she care, why this man had been selected as her prey. 

Great Father and Master Li were her family. Ever since that day eight years ago when Master Li had approached her when she was working the street for that tweaker Graham. Master Li had been gentle and polite, wanting nothing from her that night except for some time to talk privately. He said that he had been watching her for a couple of weeks, learning her habits and routines. He remarked on her interactions with the customers and for a fourteen-year-old, he had observed that she had a calmness and maturity beyond her young years. 

They arranged to meet several times more to talk but he paid her the rate so that Graham would not suspect.

Master Li offered her a place in a secretive organisation he called The Family. It was a group, he promised, where she would be safe, educated and taken care of by both himself and someone he called the Great Father. They would not abuse her. They would not sell her to others. They would not cut her like someone had apparently done with a blade on the neck and cheek near her left ear. Interestingly, Master Li had never asked her name but yet he seemed to know many details about her family and how she had come about the facial scars. 

He knew about the soldiers coming to her home in the middle of the night a long time ago and dragging her mother, father, sister and brother out into the street, viciously beating and killing them. She had crept out of the house and hidden in the stable under a pile of hay and was not discovered. In a terrifying, horrible instant, she became an orphan. Not long after, Graham had come upon her begging and befriended her. Soon she was one of his best-producing girls in Old Town. Men were instantly drawn to her waif-like features and Eurasian heritage. Graham sold her services for a high dollar and used her himself whenever he felt the need. And that was often.

Razr told Master Li that she would join The Family but she had one condition that she hoped he could meet. She wanted Graham out of her life forever. Master Li nodded and promised her that he would take care of it. Two days later, Graham’s body was discovered by the police, lying in a large pool of dried blood with deep blade marks on his left cheek and neck. His heart had been expertly cut out and left to dry and shrivel beside him. Yes, it was violent, but Razr knew it had to be done. With this one act, her trust in Master Li deepened.

They travelled by Land Rover for several days deep into the countryside and then switched to a small pack horse caravan moving even deeper into the southern mountains. They moved at night and rested by day, hidden in caves and old river beds. Just after dawn on the third day, the caravan arrived at a large, well-concealed encampment. It was here that she met the Great Father for the first time. 

The Great Father reminded her instantly of pictures she had seen on the state television of a bearded man who had lived and fought in the mountains of Cuba for many years. The Great Father welcomed her warmly and offered richly creamed tea and a bowl of fresh fruit. It was then that he noticed her scars. After several moments of silence as he considered the scarring, the Great Father told her that from now on, she would be known to him and all members of The Family as Razr. 

He did not mean it as a punishment, he said, but rather as an always reminder of the horrible things that some men choose to do to those that are unable or unwilling to stop them. She was fine with the name. She had been so eager to ask the Great Father so many things about…

There was sudden movement at the rear door of the cabin. At first, two heavily armed guards emerged and carefully scanned the small yard and the surrounding jungle edge. Apparently satisfied, the taller fat one waved a quick hand into the doorway and Viktor Ramirez strolled casually out. 

He was lighting up a cigarette and chatting to a beautiful woman who appeared behind him in the doorway. Ramirez sent his guards to the corners of the dwelling while he continued to stand smoking and talking back toward the woman. They were laughing. Razr could not hear their words. Nor did she care. She was here for one reason. To kill him for the Great Father and Master Li.

As she had practised so many times with Master Li, Razr slowly, in tiny degrees of movement, shifted the bow up on its sling toward her right cheek and shoulder. The shifting into firing position was so slow and finely practised, that no one at the house would have noticed.

Razr flicked on the scope with her right thumb and settled her eye into the rubber ring. Slowly she moved the bow until Ramirez’s head was centred in the softly illuminated crosshairs. The laser confirmed the target at forty-seven metres. In practice with Master Li, she had become accurate at this distance and even slightly further, one hundred percent of the time. To Razr here in the Costa Rican jungle, this was just another one of those times. 

Razr steadied her breathing, noiselessly snicked off the safety and put soft pressure on the trigger. A deep cleansing breath. Crosshairs evenly centred on the side of Ramirez’s head, just in front of the left ear as he turned once again toward his woman. A slow, firm squeeze. And release.

In an instant, Ramirez’s head sprouted a spray of red and the end of a dappled green feathered dart appeared suddenly three centimetres to the left of the ear. He crumpled and fell, the burning cigarette unbelievably still firmly in his mouth. 

As she had trained for so many times, Razr took advantage of the next few seconds of shock by the woman and the bodyguards, slipping backwards and down into a crouch, re-positioning the bow across her chest and moving cat-like off into the lush cover of the jungle.

She had to be at the primary egress point before dark. A heavily mufflered Apache helo running dark would appear and take her home. Successfully evading the ground radar systems of several countries along the return route was something that the aircrew had practised many times in the weeks before Razr was dropped into the jungle.

Three quick clicks and two short on her mike to monitoring ears thousands of kilometres away told them it was done and she was heading for the rendezvous with the helo. Razr would soon be heading home to the Family, Master Li and her Great Father.

First Published: On January 12, 2015. At the UK e-zine website www.close2thebone.co.uk . This version has been edited slightly from the original published story.

The Backstory: I continue to be fascinated with complex personalities and the motivations for their real life actions. When writing ‘Viktor’, my original intention was to make Razr a continuing character in several stories titled ‘The Prey Series’. To date, only this Razr story has been published although others have been written. 

Legal Rights. ‘Viktor’ is the intellectual property of the author, Don Herald. No part of this story may be reproduced in any format without the written permission of the author.