POV: Bromine, the fourth
Date: February 17, 1995
Time: 12:00 PM

I guess I should pay better attention to the map when I'm trying to not get lost. At least I figured that out after my tires blew out in the middle of the desert. On one hand, this sucks. It totally sucks, cause I'm in the desert, waiting for these guys to fix my car and it's really hot out and there's nothing in this town. If you can even call it a town. On the other hand, at least my tires exploded in the desert, and not on some mountain road or in a forest or city. Here, you go off the road, you drift through sand for a while. No trees, no buildings, no people, and no cliffs.

Well, there was one people, actually. The guy whose tires blew right before mine did. That's a little awkward, but I didn't hit him or his car, so it's only awkward. When awkward is the worst thing in your day, it's a pretty good day. Now the two of us are walking into the convenience store across from the garage, and boy do we look complete opposites. I look like I've spent my whole life in a smoke box, and he looks like he's spent his whole life in the oval office. And I don't mean as a politician.

If he starts talking into his wrist and a red dot appears, I'm out of here. It's not even a question.

The door closed behind us, and I gotta say I was surprised to see him wander to the back and grab a drink like a normal person. I ended up there too, and the man's gone straight for a brand I haven't even seen before. Does he like live in the desert, or is he just adventurous. A man in a black suit and tie, with his eyes covered by the kind of shades that mean business, and he's adventurous? I don't think of myself as a skeptic, but today I am one.

I pointed at his drink. "You even know what that is?"

He held it up to look at it before answering, like he wasn't even sure what he'd taken. He cleared his throat, then shook his head. "I don't read labels."

Nice. You've convinced me. I'm gonna try one too. I opened the glass door and took out an identical bottle to the one he took. I gave him a shrug. "I got nothing better to do."

The bottle shattered in my hand, spilling pop and glass all over me. I'm sure I wasn't holding it too tight or anything, cause I was just holding it by the top, and it was the bottom that exploded. That and the glass door next to me also shattered. I know for a fact I didn't do that.

I gotta give it to this guy. Whatever he does for a living, his reaction time is on point. He grabbed me and physically moved me behind the nearest shelf. The cashier up front screamed, and it sounded like she was ducking and hiding as well. Well, that settles it, I think. Somebody's shooting at us. Why? I ain't got a clue. I bet it's got something to do with mister agent man.

Speaking of, he gave me a quick pat on the shoulder, sorta like just saying I was fine, and then leaped across the isle to take cover behind the next shelf. I thought it was kinda overdone, but there was another loud crash and several more bottles behind the broken glass door exploded into pieces. I guess that means it was necessary.

I called across to him. "You good, man?"

He checked himself over, and then nodded. I'm glad he wasn't hit, but I kinda meant if he was like a foreign spy or something. If that's an American sniper out there just gunning for a Bosnian agent, I don't want to get in the way. Wish they'd have better aim, though. They almost snapped me. I expect better from my country.

The guy reached into his suit, and for a second I thought he was taking a gun out, but then I saw it was a deck of cards. I don't think that's going to help a lot, and I told him as much. "Unless you can call in reinforcements with that, you probably want something else, right?"

He shook his head. "Not really." What's that supposed to mean? He took out four cards and looked them over, then looked back to me. "What do you think? Can a sniper resist this?"

I think I know what he's got in mind, and I do have to wonder. I have to be truthful. "I know I wouldn't be able to."

As I suspected, he takes one of the cards and holds it out just enough that anyone shooting at us from across the street should be able to see it. Not even a second, and it's shot out of his hand. With aim like that, I'm shocked they didn't nail him the first time. I mean, it's awesome, but I think this counts as playing with fire. Gunfire, in fact. I think there's a saying about that.

I looked over to where that card was sitting on the floor, and I noticed something... well, frankly, I don't think it's normal. Snipers shooting into convenience stores ain't normal, but within that I think this is even less normal. There wasn't even a hole in the card.

"Dude, that card even get hit? The bullet didn't go through it."

It took a moment, and he spent most of that moment looking at the three cards he was still holding. He opened his hand, just holding one finger away from the cards, and the other one flew into his hand and took its place beside the others. Now that was a magic trick. I'm starting to really wonder what this guy does for a living.

"Hmm... I doubt she'll go for it again."

Yeah. I know I would have gone for it the first time too, but even I wouldn't waste another shot on a five of diamonds. Hold up. "She?"

"Yeah, she. What?"

I guess he knows who it is? He's dealt with this sniper before? "Just wasn't expecting a woman sniper. What's her deal with you?"

"How am I supposed to know that? I've never been shot at before." If you ask me, it looked like he realized that was wrong right after he said it, and he corrected himself too, so I think I'm right about that. "With normal bullets, anyway." I'm not even gonna ask.

"Wait, so if this is your first time being shot at, how do you know her?"

"Uhh... I don't?"

"Then how do you know it's a woman?"

"With aim like that? The first shot was a warning. The second shot was off, because I threw her off and she didn't have time to hit a moving target without killing it. She's not trying to kill us, it's mostly intimidation, so it's a mercenary or bounty hunter who's supposed to capture, not kill."

That's a little weird, but I follow. Sure. He's wearing a suit, so he must know more than I do. "And bounty hunters are all women?"

"No, almost all of them are men. But most of the women who are bounty hunters are snipers."

"How's that?"

"Less personal. Women have more difficulty killing up close, both physically and emotionally. Distance between them and their target helps them get over that. That she bothered to adjust so suddenly in order not to kill me, and then reacted so quickly to the card, tells me she's more emotionally unstable than usual. She's pregnant. Next question."

I don't know that I would have made every leap of logic there, but the way he said it makes me assume he's right. If that snipers actually a man, I'll be surprised now, and it's all this guy's fault. Okay, but the sniper's a woman, how does knowing this help? "So uh... does that mean we'll be okay? Or is it worse?"

"It means she'll be easier to beat once I get up close."

Ah, I see. He's gonna hit a girl.