Chapter 6 - Hit Man

Kai Jefferson lay prone and motionless across the rear sofa bed in the back of a late model Chevy van while he maintained a steady heartbeat and shallow breathing cycle to steady the barrel of the NSRT05 out the slightly cracked rear passenger side window as he waited for his target. The van had been converted to appear - from the outside – a 70’s model conversion van that was on its last legs. In reality, the van was in excellent shape with the entire law enforcement engine and performance upgrades, along with, the intelligence production operations equipment enhancements standard with any Domestic Reconnaissance and Intelligence Vehicle for Emergency Responses (DRIVER).

Through the 1000 times optical, digitally enhanced scope, Kai kept the cross-hairs aimed at a spot exactly 5 foot 6 inches above the ground at the entrance to Club Atlas in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC. It was 11:30 and the clientele was beginning to arrive. Kai knew that there would be a rush at the door from 12:00 AM until 12:45 AM that would provide for a long line to slow anyone from going into the club – which would improve the accuracy of a clean shot at the door. Across the lens of the scope and one of the two plasma monitors on the wall of the van above the command console walked numerous beautiful and elite 20 to 30 year olds as they arrived as couples or in groups to and stopped at the door to present their IDs.

The two doormen were burly Greek – Italian looking men in dark suits with blatantly displayed ear bud wires running behind their ears and down their neck while nicely clipped to the lapels of their jackets to the Motorola walkie-talkies on their waist. The receiver in the van was tuned to the club’s security frequency so that Kai could listen into reports from inside the club and all of the perimeter entrances. Most of the chatter tonight has been focused on one of the assistant managers, Joe, who had gone home last night with a bar regular that the security staff referred to as butt-face. Joe came in to work tonight with his head hung low in embarrassment about 5 hours ago and the doorman won’t stop hazing him. Adding a fan to the fire, Butt-face had shown up at 9:30 almost an hour and a half before the next patron walked in to the late night club. Club Atlas was a place for the beautiful and Butt-face noticeably stood out of the crowd. It had been difficult not to laugh at the wit of the folks on Atlas channels 2 and 4, but Kai was a professional.

Kai was brought into SMA via the U.S. Marine Corps. Kai had been trained as an elite Marine Recon sniper and had been deployed in the global war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt – always on highly classified high priority target operations. While in the Corps, Kai spent the last four years of his service under the direct command of the CIA. Upon retirement, the CIA had expected him to cross-over as everyone with his clearance and skills does, but Kai declined and accepted a job with a global private security firm – at the direction of the SMA. Kai was quickly swept up into the domestic intelligence division to lead tactical surveillance and assault operations. Kai’s exposure to DNI and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) technologies had opened up hidden talents and skills that Kai had rarely tapped before. Kai earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering before entering the Corps and later obtained two Master’s degree in Computer Science and Applied Physics while working for SMA.

Kai had support in this theater of operations. Two SMA agents were employed at Club Atlas as off-duty DC police officers to work the back doors on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights giving Kai the reassurance that his target would not enter the building from any other access point.

This Friday was looking like every other Friday this year – busy. Club Atlas had become one of the hottest clubs in DC, and according to the local club authority, clubchair.com, “Friday was the night to be seen at Atlas”. DJ Jam-Don - a local celebrity and frequent DC radio guest – drew the crowd in like moths to a flame. Tonight’s beat was pounding out the door as it opened and closed with each arriving and departing patron.

It wouldn’t be long before she arrived, Kai knew. She had parked up the street and out of the line of sight over 45 minutes ago and walked halfway to the club before turning into a three story apartment building on the same side of Q Street as Atlas. This was her regular routine before partying at Atlas on Friday nights – she always made a first stop at this area’s most reliable coke dealer, Dexter Sazilis.

Dexter’s apartment was on the third floor and street side which made the continuing surveillance easy. The SMA agents assigned to tail the target had positioned themselves outside of Dexter’s apartment and were inconspicuously directing a microwave beam projector at the exterior walls of the third floor apartment to maintain an audio and video record of the target’s conversations and interactions. Computer enhanced images of the microwave interpretations of the bodies inside the apartment walls displayed inside Kai’s van on the second monitor at the command console. Our target was negotiating a better deal for her eight-ball in Dexter’s bedroom. Every sound and motion was captured for the surveillance team to see – sanctioned pornography in the minds of many of the agents. As the clock neared 11:45, the two had finished their hard and fast-paced love making and were redressing. Both stopped to inhale a long line of cocaine that was cut on the bedside table. Dexter must have been satisfied, because she got her eight-ball for for free instead of the one hundred and fifty dollars the rest of his clients paid. He was now trying to hurry her along to the club, as he was expecting some other visitors. In fact, Dexter’s apartment would be visited by no less than 30 percent of Club Atlas’s patrons tonight. A fact that we would mention to the DEA in a couple of weeks after our operation was complete.

[TARGET IS EXITING THE BUILDING] was broadcast over the comm.

The microwave image was changed to a night scope video stream of the target as she strolled towards the club and Kai’s sights. Kai noted that the balance between the barrel choke and stock had been significantly improved with the NSRT05 model. With his right eye focused on the cross-hairs of the scope while his left eye was trained down the length of the blue alloy cylinder that extended out from his grip through the open van window to the door of club Atlas.
Sarah Simpson walked down the Q street sidewalk past the growing line of club-goers to the front of the line and directly into the cross-hairs of Kai’s scope. With a steady and slow squeeze of his right index finger Kai pulled the trigger and scored a direct hit. A burst of energy discharged from the nano-sonic radar technology (NSRT) weapon and struck Sarah square in the back of the head – she didn’t feel a thing.

In less than a half of a second the return beam was received by the NSRT and a frequency reading had been locked. Sarah’s brain waves were projecting at an accelerated rate and therefore much higher frequency that the reference frequency that had been established as her baseline on record. Tonight’s shot proved to be exceptionally important to operations as Sarah’s current frequency was well out of bounds from the baseline and everyone’s receivers would need to be re-programmed to be able to monitor her while she was partying tonight.