Last week

Lani sat in her room upstairs in Michaels house, the lights were off, her laptop dimmed, the sounds on her videos low, she could see much from either window. She sat away from them. She was relatively sleepless, mostly due to being more aware than she let on.

The basement he wont let me in. Unexplained bruises. Acting like he only sees me as his housekeeper and friend.

She saw through much of him, and knew his secrets.

One of the dogs darted upstairs and let out a soft bark. Intruder. The dog was facing Lani, which meant that the danger was outside. The dogs had been taught only to intercept or attack people who attack Michael or Lani directly. Anything else, they were to detect and announce quietly, much like having a silent alarm.

Quickly understanding all the cues, Lani grabbed her MP3 player with an external speaker and cranked the volume on the angriest playlist she could find while navigating quickly. Placing the music next to a window, she immediately grabbed a bag from under her recliner and yanked out her kit. A minimalist plate carrier, a gun belt with a USP9 Compact, and a helmet with a ballistic mask.

Pulling on her cover-alls and quickly putting on her kit, being careful not to let the buckles snap loudly, she made little adjustments to tighten the fit.

Once it was all on, she grabbed one last thing; an AS VAL, one of the hardest guns to get in a gun control nation such as germany, but made simple when you can take it from a dead dealer. Loaded with subsonic 9x39mm, and equipped with a holographic sight that had been paired with a three power magnifier, this folding rifle from the late soviet union could punch body armor in near silence. In Lani’s hands, this weapon could maintain a one inch group beyond 100 meters.

Once she had her tools, she made a quick dash downstairs and opened the cupboard under the sink. Opening a hideaway panel, she slipped through and crawled through a space into a tunnel network. Once there, it was a quick sprint till she was near a hidden sewer entry. For a normal athlete, this 150 meter dash would have been time consuming and leave a person exhausted. For lani, it was a brief moment covered in a few long strides.

Moments later, she emerged from an exit door in the ground under dense brush. Once out of the bush, she began crawling low, occasionally listening for movements. After about twenty minutes of scouring the landscape, she found all seven of the intruders.

The terrain was uneven at best, while covered in foliage and long grass in big patches. Sitting halfway up a hill was a team of observers watching the house. Professionals

One lay sleeping under a naturally fallen log. The others lay paired together while watching their assigned sectors. All approaches were covered. Some of them were lying on their backs so as to avoid getting tunnel vision and hyperfocusing on just one spot.

From the look of it, they had minimal gear in regards to weapons. Some of them had MP5’s under them. A couple of them had G36’s, while one of them had an M60 general purpose machinegun that looked to have come out of a museum. The gunner was positioned to do damage to the house and an SUV that might come home with a precious driver. Lani knew that she had to take their lives, and their equipment.

As predicted, one of them had a directional microphone pointed at the house. Lani heard one mumble something about ‘some bitch’ listening to ‘loud shit.’ Another man had a radio, connected to a helmet headset to minimize noise getting out.

Lani decided that the radio and machinegunner had to go first. She slowly crawled her way to a higher point. It was midnight, she had until five in the morning before the sun would rise, but expected them to possibly pack up and leave their spot for another hiding point by four. She had until then to eliminate them and dispose of them and their potential extraction vehicle while recovering and stashing any equipment worth taking.

She reached her vantage point by 1245. She was ready to start placing shots. The first landed through the radio operators headset. A short moment from the shot smashing its way through the earpieces and mashing his cerebellum into the upper portion of his skull, he slumped his head down and bled into the grass.

The machine gunner turned his head towards the radioman as he heard the faint sound of the first shot landing. Before he could fully realize what was happening, a round tore through his eye and left him laying his head next to his weapon.

The assistant gunner awoke to the blood spattering along his face. He tried to sit up to grab the gun, even to make any kind of noise with it, a shot placed in his shoulder ended that plan. A followup shot landing in his forehead kept him from getting any other brilliant ideas.

The others began to talk to each other, trying to convey that they were taking fire. The three who were awake each caught rounds in their necks and heads, two shots per man. This left Lani with the sleepy boy under the tree.

Lani watched for a moment, confirming that he was indeed still asleep. She quietly walked over, slinging her weapon. As she approached, his eyes slowly opened. It was far too late. Lani unsheathed the knife in his kit and calmly inserted it through his teeth into the back of his throat.

Once the last one was dead, she dumped the bodies into the van where their footprints had originated from. The weapons and ammo, she recovered it all and stashed it away in the house. By the time she was done, it was only 0330.