Round Five Mafia Hit: Dead On

“They’re in practice now – maybe that will keep them occupied so they can spend a few minutes learning and not killing each other.”

Graff sighed and looked up from his reports. His many, many reports, all of which would get a classified seal until such a time as he could be held responsible for them. “Yeah. Maybe. Is someone watching them?”

“Dap is down there, looking through the one way.”

“Good.” Graff ran one hand over his chin, wondering if he should say more. “But I think part of the game for them now is doing this right under our noses and not getting caught.”

“The game? The Game is played with harmless guns in null G – this…this killing each other, that isn’t a game!”

“It is to them. And they’re getting very good at it; the only time they work together is to kill each other.”

*****

“You see that?” Emilio fired another superb shot at the frozen player and then looked around at the other members of his army. “Was that not good or what?”

“Yeah, amazing.” Someone replied, sounding far less enthused than Emilio.

The sharpshooter shrugged and went back to his practice whilst secretly wondering what this bunch of text book nerds would do without someone like him to pull them to victory in the battleroom.

****

“Looks like his ego has made him a liability to the team.” murmured the onlooker to his companion while they watched the eldest Salvaggio brother.

“Shame, I s'pose, he was sorta useful.” the other agreed, looking down at the shiv.; there was the faintest sheen of dull metal. The makeshift weapon was nearly unnoticeable at the best of times and virtually invisible amidst the chaos of the open practice.

“Let's go.” Timing their movement, the pair pushed off to collide with Emilio while several others were also near the unsuspecting member of Dragon Army.

****

Emilio gave the gun in his hand an adoring pat as yet another member of the bustling room found themselves frozen in place by his well aimed shots. Battleroom had a way of taking the stress off the recent events in his own army. Emilio wasn't thinking of buggers as he set his sights on another target but about the members of his team.

They'd never take him.

Here he felt invincible. It didn't matter that someone had died in the battleroom already; he'd been there for that. It was different; everyone knew Lynn deserved killing. No, the sneaky bastards responsible for so many deaths these past few days would not dare face him here.

****

And Emilio was correct. The force of several people knocking into him was nothing harmful in null g; it was just annoying. The sharp sting in his lower back; however, was a different matter. Emilio could only make a silent gasp in protest as the shiv was taken out and inserted several more times just to be certain that it did its job.

Flashsuits unfortunately weren't very heavy and were never meant to withstand being pierced with a physical weapon. The sharpshooter of Dragon Army floated lifelessly amongst his frozen targets while his killers bounced away.

****

Dap watched the young figures glide and maneuver through null g, thinking that he saw some very positive signs. They really seemed to be working together. Emilio was clearly a natural leader and was taking several soldiers under his wing, while others planned what looked like a complicated maneuver at the opposite end. They all came together in some sort of formation Dap hadn’t seen before, then burst apart again, leaving one soldier to drift. He tried to stifle his panic at seeing the lifeless figure – surely, he reasoned, this was just some sort of simulation. Surely a student had not just been murdered under his watch.

Dap stared another long moment before bolting down to the entrance, wondering along the way how he was going to explain this to Graff.