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The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 5:51am On Nov 12, 2016
The Hunter is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Adeyemi Ohis

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Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by dexzzy(f): 9:37am On Nov 12, 2016
*spreads mat*

I think am gonna like it here..... ....
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 12:18am On Dec 03, 2016
CHAPTER ONE

It was August, cold and wet in Yankari, a miserable dawn following a miserable night. Rain whistled through the trees and collected on the humps of stone that jutted out of the earth; low overhead, angry clouds hurtled by. Now and then the wind would rush through the gaps between the trees and blow the rain like gunsmoke. It was the day before hunting season.

Desmond Dele Alli had placed himself just off the last climb that led up to Kalban hill, that flat splurge of tabletop high in the reserve, and he sat in perfect silence and stillness against an old baobab, the rifle across his knees. This was Desmond's first gift: the gift of stillness. He acquired It naturally from some inner pool where stress never reached. Back in Sierra Leone, he was something of a legend for the nearly animal like way he could will his body reactions down, stiller than death.

The cold fought through his jeans and under his down vest and began to creep up his spine, like a sly scaly insect. He gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to let them chatter. From time to time he would feel the sting of an old wound. He simply instructed his brain to ignore the haunting pains. He was beyond will. He was in some other place.

He was earning Buck.

Desmond would tell you, if you were one of the few people he talked to - Old Sam Terunga, the divisional police chief or maybe John Ahmed, the park ranger or Dr. Obika the therapist- you can't just shoot an animal. Shooting is the easy part. Any city hunter can just leave camp, grab a drink and wait for a doe to come prancing by, close enough to touch and then put out the muzzle of his cheap rifle and squeeze the trigger with a jerk and blow out a quarter of her guts and find her three villages away, bled out, her eyes still somehow beaming dumb pain.

You earned an animal, Desmond would tell you, by letting whatever was happening to the animal happen to you and for however long. Fair was fair, after all.

Through the trees, he could see the clearing 150 yards ahead. A trail ran through it, and at dawn and twilight, the animals would surely filter through it, one by one, a deer and his harem. Desmond had seen twelve, three deers, even a giant stag, and their ladies.

But he came for Buck. Old Buck, scarred and beat up, with the many years Of an adventure behind him. Buck would be alone too. Buck didn't have a harem and didn't need one anymore. One year, Buck had a prong of antler shot off by one lucky from a neighbouring hamlet and looked out of a balance for a whole season. Buck had limped another year because Sam Terunga, not as graceful as he once was, had wavered with his Winchester and put a .55 softpoint into Buck's haunches. It was too much gun for a normal deer but Buck still survived.

Buck was tough, Desmond knew and that was the kindest word he had for anybody, living or dead.

Desmond was in his sixteenth hour of waiting. He had sat all night in the cold and when the rain resumed his at 4am, he still sat. He was so cold and wet that he was hardly alive and now and again a picture of him shooting it out in the jungles of Sierra Leone would come up before his eyes but always, he'd shake It off, keeping himself set on what lay ahead 150 yards.

Then he saw something. But it was only a doe and her fawn and in their lazy, confident and carefree animal way, they came down the trail, moving on down to graze in the lower forest where a lucky hunter would surely kill them.

Desmond just sat there, next to his tree, waiting.
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 12:22am On Dec 03, 2016
Dr Obika swallowed, trying to read the mystery in Colonel Grant's eyes. But as always, Grant sat there, arms folded with a fierce scowl masking her soft features, radiating power and impatience and somehow scaring everyone in the room. Grant was a small lady physically but the position she held made everyone blind to her stature. It was true that being the Director General of the Department of State Security was no small business. But the darkness deep inside the eyes of the Iron Lady were fear inspiring.

It was late. Outside the rain drummed on the tin roof of the Paragon. A stench of rusting metal, old leather, dust and stale beer hung in the room. The Paragon was a guesthouse located in a strategic position on the outskirts of Bauchi.

The planners sat in front of the darkened room; the brutish Kingsley Etoro, a scary bull of a man, sat across the table; and that was all, such a tiny team for the immense task ahead of them.

On a small screen, four faces were been projected, glowing in the dark. Each represented a hundred other possibilities; these men had been discovered by the DSS and then winnowed to this sullen quartet. It was Obika's job to break them down psychologically for Colonel Ade Grant's final decision.

Each of the final four had a flaw, of course Dr. Obika pointed it out.

"Too egocentric," he said of one. "He spends too much. Never trust a soldier with a ten million naira ride. He will always expect special treatment. We need someone that has never been treated special."

As for Number 2, "Too smart. Brilliant, but always playing games. Always thinking ahead. Psychologically restless."

Of the third, "Wonderfully stupid. But slow. Exactly what we need as far as certain qualities are concerned. He's experienced and obedient as a dog. But too slow, just too slow."

"You've basically thrown out three options," said Colonel Grant. There was a serious tone in her voice. "I don't think the last one will make a difference."

Dr. Obika winced.

"Well," he finally said, "we have to find out."
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 2:17am On Dec 08, 2016
Nancydearie(f), oluwajt(m), Xionez(m), Maydfourth, Kaymercury(m), nastyd(m), Deztro(m), kingzic(m), Oyinprince, Kayemjay, Donkross1, Audreytimms, Jay542 Jagugu88li Twizzy30 Veekid SPDAZZY bot101 princewilla missuniverse Roseygold ahlajidanko yorhmienerd twinkle004 missmossy divepen1 yorubawoman iomoge02 edimahgurl Michelle55 Elize1 yusufibrahim Riog Sayocruz Chefremy Phemocheee Shigo20 justicextian Sotozo Chimacks crusherdaniels TONYE001 bibijay123 Oyimzy Costal Monsieurp peachyp sexyfire911 Olatex25 room089 noblet2 warfibabe rachealfst Mofy1 stanley010 mamindy Maggilove fidex Mhiz bobbydreofficial Ridwan1821. Leriebloom olashinle2016 Horlorlardaey Whizzdom ReuEl12 SheWrites ADECULATE girlhaley
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 3:11am On Dec 08, 2016
Kingsley hated Dr. Obika. He thought Obika was soft with his big head, scraggly beard and long sensitive fingers. Dr. Obika was fat and almost had tits. He hated the way the doctor tried to bring style into everything.

Kingsley was a nasty looking man with blank tiny eyes in his meaty face. He was erroneously strong, with a pain threshold that broke records. His specialty was getting things done, no matter what. He touched the Model 1100 shotgun in its custom holster beneath his left arm. In the long tube under the barrel there were six shells. Each shell held nine .32 caliber pellets. He could fire fifty bullets in less than three seconds. He made sure things were done with that.

"The details are impressive," Dr. Obika was saying. "He killed sixty two men. That is sixty two men hunted and taken under the most ferocious conditions. We must agree that's impressive."

There was a pause.

"I killed sixty two men in one afternoon," Kingsley said.

Kingsley and his camp had been stuck in a siege back in Borno. They were on a highland and in the last days, the insurgents threw waves of attacks at them.

"But all at once. With an M-60 machine gun," said Colonel Grant. "Trust me, I've read your file. Go ahead, Obika."

Obika was trembling. Kingsley could see. He still trembled when the Iron Lady addressed him directly atimes. Kingsley almost laughed. He smelled fear on the therapist. He loved the odor of it all.

But Obika pressed ahead. "This is none other than Sergeant Desmond Dele Alli, NA, retired. Popularly called 'Des the Hunter' He was Nigeria's second leading individual killer in the West African War. Gentlemen, I give you the great Nigerian sniper."
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by Nobody: 8:44am On Dec 08, 2016
Present Sir!

Tuhndhay Greg42, what your location? Report to this office sharp sharp
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by Nobody: 9:33am On Dec 08, 2016
Reporting for duty ma grin grin
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 12:35pm On Dec 08, 2016
Desmond loved their magic. When he had hunted men, there was no magic. For him, men usually gave themselves away kilometers before they moved into the killing zone.

But the deer, particularly the ancient Yankari stags, appearrd like ghosts, simply exploding out of the brushes, as if they were superior visitors from another planet. And they were superior in their way, Desmond knew : their senses so razor keen, everything focused on the next two minutes. That was their secret. They didn't think about the last two minutes, which had ceased entirely to exist in the second after they were experienced, had evaporated entirely. They only thought about the next two minutes. No past, no real future. There was only now.

And so when Buck materialized with the force of a sharp memory out of the trees, stunning Desmond with his beauty, he did not really surprise him.

Desmond had learned years back in tough places that surprise was dangerous. It made you jerk awkwardly upon the first moment of encounter and you gave away your edge.

So Desmond's first reaction to Buck was nothing that his body showed.

He was in the direction of the wind, so no odors would reach Buck's keen nostrils. Desmond had also washed yesterday with odorless soap; he'd hard dried his clothes; he'd washed his mouth with peroxide so no tang of toothpaste could hang in the forest air.

The animal's head twitched and turned, and unerringly turned to Desmond.

You can't see me, Desmond thought. I know how you operate. You can see motion, even a flick of it will send you scampering to safety; but you can't see pattern. Here I sit and you're looking at me and can't see me.

Desmond let the stag's gaze pass through him, then felt it slide away. This was the best part, the exciting fragility of it all, the flimsiness of the connections that brought deer and man togetger through the medium of the rifle, but only for a few seconds. Desmond knew that if the deer stayed, if the wind held, if his nerves held and if his luck held, he'd have Buck in his crosshairs.

He lifted the rifle.

It was an Accuracy international AWM, lovingly purchased by the Army Markmanship Team and presented to him as a retirement gift when he was invalidated out of the army in 2009. It had a fluted barrel for optimum velocity when he fired which he then sprayed so the whole piece had the appearance of lead alloy. The rifle was purely ugly. It fired .300 Winchester Magnums for bullets, and one of Desmond's own handloads rested in the chamber.

Desmond brought the rifle up in a smooth and practiced motion, perfected from years of repetition. Under slightly less adverse conditions he would chosen the prone, the stablest shooting position, but he was afraid that contact with the cold ground wound chill him and cause him to flinch. Instead, he drew his rifle up to his shoulder, notching his elbows inside his splayed knees, canting his shoulders, locking his arms under the rifle's ten pounds so that it was supported off bone, not muscle; he was building a bone bridge, running from the piece itself to the ground, anchoring it so that no whim of muscle fiber, no throb of heart or twich of pulse could deflect him at the last moment.

Desmond's eyes slid behind the scope, a Leupold 10x. The bold optics of the magnification, snatching every bit of light from the air, threw up Buck's head and shoulders ten times the size of life. Again the animal turned towards him, though this time he was projected against the intersection of the crosshairs.

With a thumb, Desmond quietly shut off the safety and settled in to shoot.

You are mine, Buck, he thought.

His heart seemed to thump a bit. Now he was trying to slip into into that calm pool of near nothingness where the little patch on the tip of his finger just took over as if on auto pilot, reading their rhythm, anticipating their direction.

Okay, Desmond thought, as he made the minute corrections and the cross hairs settled on Buck's spine as he nimbly licked the bark of a tree, okay now you are mine.

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Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by rachealfst(f): 5:43pm On Dec 08, 2016
ArrowAssassin1:
Nancydearie(f), oluwajt(m), Xionez(m), Maydfourth, Kaymercury(m), nastyd(m), Deztro(m), kingzic(m), Oyinprince, Kayemjay, Donkross1, Audreytimms, Jay542 Jagugu88li Twizzy30 Veekid SPDAZZY bot101 princewilla missuniverse Roseygold ahlajidanko yorhmienerd twinkle004 missmossy divepen1 yorubawoman iomoge02 edimahgurl Michelle55 Elize1 yusufibrahim Riog Sayocruz Chefremy Phemocheee Shigo20 justicextian Sotozo Chimacks crusherdaniels TONYE001 bibijay123 Oyimzy Costal Monsieurp peachyp sexyfire911 Olatex25 room089 noblet2 warfibabe rachealfst Mofy1 stanley010 mamindy Maggilove fidex Mhiz bobbydreofficial Ridwan1821. Leriebloom olashinle2016 Horlorlardaey Whizzdom ReuEl12 SheWrites ADECULATE girlhaley
Present, I'm here. Well done.
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by room089: 10:09pm On Dec 08, 2016
Uncle assasin I don show o! grin
But dis ya name dey fear me gan o!
Before I read you go first promise me say my life dey save for this ya thread o!

Just for chapter one you don kill 62 people for one afternoon, haba! Na so blood sweet you reach?

The court is now in your ball!
Oya come and guarantee my safety!
Or else I'll rather vote for Buhari again in 2019 than read your work! grin
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by girlhaley(f): 10:43pm On Dec 08, 2016
Present sire......Greg,I sight u
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 7:44am On Dec 09, 2016
room089:
Uncle assasin I don show o! grin
But dis ya name dey fear me gan o!
Before I read you go first promise me say my life dey save for this ya thread o!

Just for chapter one you don kill 62 people for one afternoon, haba! No so blood sweet you reach?

The court is now in your ball!
Oya come and guarantee my safety!
Or else I'll rather vote for Buhari again in 2019 than read your work! grin

dat Buhari part got me. Lolz
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by room089: 7:51am On Dec 09, 2016
ArrowAssassin1:


dat Buhari part got me. Lolz

Nice story line you've got there. I think its grand style is being properly executed. Good luck!
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by yorhmienerd(m): 9:33am On Dec 09, 2016
Perfect! Perfect! Perfect!
Ride on OP,
PS: I'm alergic to not updating frequenty, fire on
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by bot101(m): 4:10am On Dec 10, 2016
Here following
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 9:28am On Dec 10, 2016
Going to update
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by Nobody: 7:03pm On Dec 11, 2016
To think I mistakenly unfollowed this thread!

Op, we need updates
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by costal(m): 8:18pm On Dec 11, 2016
ArrowAssassin1:
Nancydearie(f), oluwajt(m), Xionez(m), Maydfourth, Kaymercury(m), nastyd(m), Deztro(m), kingzic(m), Oyinprince, Kayemjay, Donkross1, Audreytimms, Jay542 Jagugu88li Twizzy30 Veekid SPDAZZY bot101 princewilla missuniverse Roseygold ahlajidanko yorhmienerd twinkle004 missmossy divepen1 yorubawoman iomoge02 edimahgurl Michelle55 Elize1 yusufibrahim Riog Sayocruz Chefremy Phemocheee Shigo20 justicextian Sotozo Chimacks crusherdaniels TONYE001 bibijay123 Oyimzy Costal Monsieurp peachyp sexyfire911 Olatex25 room089 noblet2 warfibabe rachealfst Mofy1 stanley010 mamindy Maggilove fidex Mhiz bobbydreofficial Ridwan1821. Leriebloom olashinle2016 Horlorlardaey Whizzdom ReuEl12 SheWrites ADECULATE girlhaley
I'm here sir btw nice job boss
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by rachealfst(f): 10:08pm On Dec 11, 2016
ArrowAssassin1:
Nancydearie(f), oluwajt(m), Xionez(m), Maydfourth, Kaymercury(m), nastyd(m), Deztro(m), kingzic(m), Oyinprince, Kayemjay, Donkross1, Audreytimms, Jay542 Jagugu88li Twizzy30 Veekid SPDAZZY bot101 princewilla missuniverse Roseygold ahlajidanko yorhmienerd twinkle004 missmossy divepen1 yorubawoman iomoge02 edimahgurl Michelle55 Elize1 yusufibrahim Riog Sayocruz Chefremy Phemocheee Shigo20 justicextian Sotozo Chimacks crusherdaniels TONYE001 bibijay123 Oyimzy Costal Monsieurp peachyp sexyfire911 Olatex25 room089 noblet2 warfibabe rachealfst Mofy1 stanley010 mamindy Maggilove fidex Mhiz bobbydreofficial Ridwan1821. Leriebloom olashinle2016 Horlorlardaey Whizzdom ReuEl12 SheWrites ADECULATE girlhaley
Present, well done. More inspiration....

1 Like

Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by Nobody: 10:55pm On Dec 11, 2016
Space booked
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by missuniverse(f): 11:03pm On Dec 11, 2016
Following... Diligently Following
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 9:35am On Dec 12, 2016
On the screen, the four faces vanished; and then Desmond's young face suddenly appeared.

“He’s twenty-four, on his second tour of Sierra Leone,” said Dr. Obika. “It’s August the first, 2007. He’s just officially killed his thirty-second and thirty-third men, the score is unofficially higher though."

The slide showed a raw young face, lean and sullen. The eyes were steely, the skin tight, the mouth was a cupid's bow, his jaw ended in a goatee. He looked mean, too, and very competent, without a lick of humor, with no patience for outsiders, with a willingness to fight anyone who pushed him too far. A rangers hat was pressed back on his head, revealing a thatch of crewcut. He wore rumpled utilities with ECOMOG inscribed on the pocket, and trapped proudly in the joint of his left arm so that it lay along the length of his forearm and was cupped in his hand at the trigger guard and combvwas a black, heavy-barreled rifle with a long telescopic sight.

Dr Obika looked at the boy on the screen before continuing. “Please note, he doesn't like being called Dele Alli. The former is his surname and he respects his father a lot even though he must only vaguely remeber him. Clement Dele Alli was an Inspector in the Nigerian Police Force, killed in the line of duty in 1992. Desmond was nine. His mother returned from to the family farm along the Okene-Kabba road , in Obajana in the Oworo district of Kogi, where she and her mother and Desmond managed a threadbare existence.

“Desmond, in many ways went on the path of a lone wolf. He became an orphan following the death of his mother. He turned to farming and hunting in a bid to survive. He quickly became a proficient hunter with a dane gun, and graduated, when he was a youth, to a lever-action deer gun. He was, from the very first time he fired a shot an exceedingly gifted rifleman.

“In 1999, having graduated from secondary school – Desmond turned down a scholarship and instead joined the Army, just in time for the West African War.

“He did a tour in 2003, as a recon patrol leader, doing a lot of dangerous work in the Kono diamond districts. In 2004 at the Athens Olympics, Desmond won bronze in the thousand-yard center-fire rifle category. It got him noticed. He returned to Sierra Leone in late 2006 to the ECOMOG Sniper platoon operating outside Koidu."

He clicked a button. The screen displayed a business card with a neat block of print under the silhouette of a telescopic rifle. The business card was their calling card, lleft in prominent places in the area where Desmond and his men were operating, usually in the left hand of corpses dropped by a single bullet in the chest. I believe the ECOMOG Sniper platoon was the most proficient unit of professional killers this country had ever sponsored, at least on an individual basis. In the seven years it operated during the West African War, it is said to have killed over one thousand seven hundred fifty enemy soldiers. Itself, it only counted forty-six men in its ranks over those years. A Ghanaian sergeant named Adams Mensah, with eighty-three confirmed kills, was highest; Desmond, three years later, was second, with his sixty two; but there were several other snipers who made their names then.

“As for Desmond, I’ll only sketch the high points. He evidently did a few jobs for a high profiled team put together by the ECOMOG in collabo with the CIA. So he is not unfamiliar with the operations of professional intelligence agencies. But his more common targets were rank-and-file RUF regulars operating in the area. They even had a huge reward out for Desmond, over 10,000 USD. But most astonishingly, he and his best friend and spotter, a lance corporal named , once ambushed an RUF battalion which was rushing toward an isolated Special Forces camp. The weather was bad, and the jungle was triple canopy, so air support or evacuation was impossible. It was out of range of artillery. A thousand men, heading toward twelve on a hilltop. But Desmond and his spotter Frank Bello were the only other friendly forces in the area. They tracked the RUF, and began taking out rebels one at a time over a forty-eight-hour stretch in the Koidu Valley. The battalion never reached the Special Forces camp and Desmond and his spotter made it out three days later. He killed over thirty men in that two-day adventure.”

Even Kingsley who tried never to be impressed, had to suck in some air.

“He can shoot a little,” he said.

The projector clicked.

A man swaddled in bandages lay in a hospital bed, leg locked in traction, face bleak, eyes hugely hollow.

“Desmond Dele Alli’s war came to an end on ninth December 2008. He was sliding down the top line of a hill on his way out when he was hit in the hip by a rifle bullet fired from over a thousand yards. His friend and spotter Frank Bello slid down the hill too to get him. The next bullet hit Donny in the chest, blew through to his spine. Desmond lay out there all morning with his dead friend in his arms, until they could call in artillery on the suspected sniper position. It ended his war and it ended his career in the Army. He was invalided out of the service in 2009, after a year of painful rehabilitation. It ended his bid for the Olympics, too. Competitive shooting is an extremely formalized sport, involving positions of great physical discomfort, while wrapped tightly in leather shooting garments for maximum body control. With his hip wired together, Bob was never able to achieve those formal positions with the same degree of intensity.

“You could say, I suppose, that Desmond Dele Alli gave everything to his country, and in return, it took everything from him. His heroism is the sort that makes people uneasy. He wasn’t aninspiring leader, he didn’t save lives, he didn’t rise in the chain of command. He was simply and explicitly an extraordinary killer. Almost certainly for that reason, he never got the medals and the acclaim he deserved.

“What followed, one can almost predict. He had a relationship which soon fell apart. A career in real estate sales in Abuja collapsed, he tried to go back to school but lost interest. He was into and out of alcoholism clinics. In 2013 he found peace with himself, and with his country, by withdrawing. Today He lives in a cabin, alone, in the Yankari Games Village, a trek away from the reserve, surviving on his Army isability pay and what’s left of the three hundred thousand naira which a lawyer won for him in a lawsuit against the government in 2012. Alone, that is, except for his guns, of which he has dozens. And which he shoots every day, as if they are his only friends.

“You can see, of course, his ready fund of resentment, his sense of isolation. All these things make him vulnerable and malleable,” said the doctor. “He’s the man for the job."



Desmond knew, as the gun jolted into his shoulder and the sight picture disappeared in a blur of recoil, that the perfect shot he’d been building toward all these hours was his. It was as if the image at the second when the lockwork of the Accuracy Inc AWM had delivered striker to primer were engraved in his mind and he had fractions of a second to analyze at a speed that has no place in real time; yes, the rifle was held true; yes, the scope, zeroed onto two hundred yards with a group size of less than two inches, was placed exactly where he wanted it; yes, the trigger pull was smooth, unhurried; yes, he was surprised when it broke; yes, his position was solid and no, no last second twitch, no flicker of doubt or lack of self-belief, had betrayed him.

Yes, he’d hit.

The animal, stricken, bucked ferociously in its sudden shroud of red mist. Its great antlered head spasmed back as its front legs collapsed under it and it crashed to the ground. Without unshouldering, Desmond flicked the bolt, tossing a piece of spent brass, ramming home a new.300, and reacquired the target. But he saw immediately that no follow-up was necessary. He snapped the safety on, lowered the rifle and watched Buck thrash, his bull neck beating against the sleet and dust. The animal could not accept that it had been hit or that its legs no longer functioned or that numbness was spreading through it.

Go on, fight it, deer, thought Desmond. The more you fight it, the faster it gets you.

At last the man stood. His legs ached and he suddenly noticed how cold the ground was. He flexed his fingers to make certain they still worked. His hand flew to the ache in his hip, then denied it. He shivered; under the down vest, he was bathed in sweat. Numbly, he went over and retrieved the shell casing he’d just ejected.

After shooting, Desmond felt nothing. He felt even more nothing than he did in shooting. He looked at the animal in the undergrowth a hundred-odd yards away. No sense of triumph filled him, no elation.

Yes, I can still shoot a little, he thought. I haven't gotten as bad as I thought.

Creakily, he walked down the hill to the clearing and over to the fallen stag. The rain pelted him, stinging his face. The whole world seemed gray and wet. He squinted, shivered, drew the hooded fur pullover tighter around himself.

The animal panted. Its head still numb against the ground. Its eye was opened desperately and it craned back to see Desmond He thought he could see fear glinting out of that great black eyeball, fear and rage and betrayal, all the huge things that something that’s just been shot feels.

The animal’s tongue hung from its half-opened mouth as the deeper paralysis overcame all systems. The deer was a brute all right, and its legs were as scarred as a footballer's knees. Desmond could see a pucker of dead tissue high on the flank where Sam Terunga's sloppy .45-70 had flashed through years earlier. But the horns, though now slightly asymmetrical, were beautiful. Buck wore an enormous rack, twelve points of staghorn, in a convoluted density of random growth, like a crown of thorns atop the narrow beauty of his head. He was trophy, maybe a perfect fit for a national museum.

His flanks still heaved, showing the struts of his ribs. His living warmth and its musty, dense animal smell rose through the plunging sleet. You could almost warm your fingers off of him. His left back leg kicked ineffectually, as even now he fought it. Desmond looked at the bullet strike. He could see the impact just where he had willed it to be and just where the AWM had sent it to go: a crimson stain above the shoulder, immediately above the spine.

Figured, I hit you perfectly, Buck, thought Desmond.

Buck snorted piteously, thrashing again. It irked Desmondthat he thrashed and splattered the mud up on his tawny hide, staining it. The animal could not take its eye off Desmond as Desmond bent and stroked it. Desmond touched the throat, then pulled out his knife, an old Swiss Wenger murderously sharp.

It will be over soon, he thought, bending toward Buck.
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 11:36am On Dec 12, 2016
“Wait a minute,” said Kingsley.

Obika swallowed. In the dark Kingsley looked over at him with a pathological glare. Everybody was afraid of Kingsley except for Colonel Grant.

“Colonel, I been around a lot of men like that in the service,” he said to Grant. “Proud to say, I served with them in my twelve years in the Special Forces. Now, when it’s killing time, these kind are the hunters. They can shoot and they have big guts. They also have this thing about their honor. Cross one of these boys, and they make it their business to make things even. I'm not joking here Colonel. I've seen it happen."

"Go on, Kingsley,” said the colonel.

“They’re true men, and when they get something in their heads, they won’t let it go. I saw enough of it in Sierra Leone and Liberia. I’m just telling you, cross this man and I guarantee you the worst kind of trouble.”

“I think,” said the doctor in a loud voice, “that Mr. Kingsley has made an excellent point. It would not do at all to underestimate Desmond Dele Alli. And he is especially right when he notes Desmond’s ‘honor.’ But surely you can also see that it’s his honor that makes him so potentially valuable to us. He is in fact quite a bit like the precision rifle with which he earned his nickname – extremely dangerous if used sloppily, yet absolutely perfect if used well. He, after all, knows more about what we are interested in than nearly any other option. He is simply the best sniper in Western Africa as far as I'm concerned.”

He shot a glance at the silent figure of Colonel Grant and received in reply only more stony silence. “But there is a problem. Des the Hunter as perfect as he seems, does present one terrible, terrible problem. He has a deep flaw.”

****
Desmond leaned over Buck, gripping the Wenger in his left hand.

Buck snorted one more time.

Desmond spun the gnarled haft of the weapon in his hand, bringing the serrated upper teeth to bear. With the saw blade, he hacked at the base of the left antler, not in the veiny, velvety knob but an inch or two higher, where the horn was stone dead. In a second the teeth cut into and through the horn and Desmond yanked as a half of the heavy crown fell into his hand. He tossed it away into the undergrowth, bent, and just forcefully sawed the second antler off.
Then he backed off to avoid getting trampled.

The beast lurched halfway to its feet.

Desmond gave it a hard swat on the rump."Come on, Get out of here Buck!”

Buck stood up, snorted once, shook his unchained head with a shiver of the purest delight and, his nostrils spurting a double plume of rancid, smoky breath, he seemed to gather even more strength and bounded off crazily, bending aside saplings and flinging drops of water as he plunged into the forest.

In a second he was gone.

I own you, Buck, Desmond thought, watching as the stag disappeared.

He turned and started the long trek home.

***

“His flaw,” said the doctor, “is that he will not kill anymore. He still hunts. He goes to great lengths and puts himself through extraordinary ordeals to fire at trophy animals. But he hits them with his own extremely light bullets machined of Delrin plastic at a hundred yards’ range. If he hits the creatures right and he always does – he aims for the shoulder above the spine – he can literally stun them off their feet for five or six minutes. There’s a small compartment of red aluminum dust for weight in each bullet, and as the bullet smashes against the flank of the beast, it smears the animal with a red stain, which the rain quickly washes off. Extraordinary. Then he saws their antlers off. So that no hunter will shoot them for a trophy. He hates trophy hunting. After all, he’s been a trophy.”

Colonel Grant spoke.

“All right, then. It’s Desmond. But we’ll have to find a trophy this soldier will hunt,” she said.
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 11:48am On Dec 12, 2016
redon12(m), Stexy(m), ifyjohnson(f), cyndylove64, Aitee1(f), sameesyd(m), Keemellah(f), Chimkizy(m), kinggenesis(m), gtin(m), shaksu, rachealfst(f), sommyqueency, oyionina(f), validstar1, swiz123(m), seanmozilla(m), Omakid01(m), bossy512(f), Fabulousmendex, femostic6, evelynakpore, Gamesound(m), Palmerbarry(m), Godsent231, MissRelly, Ogodlovely1(f), phattie(f), moh2015, iwakacome(m), Cylovee(m), ROYH(m), PrettyMizQdot(f), colik(f), laddybay(f), Trayoralas, ujunwa23, Onyenso100(m), animides, Shollyjay90(m), twinkiet(f), cathytee, Paulynah(f), pauljokotagba, supizino(m), joyberry(f), paulaspearz(f), oshorstan(m)

grin

3 Likes

Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by MissRelly: 12:18pm On Dec 12, 2016
gud afternoon,present sir,following but update ooo,i dey wait oo
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by ArrowAssassin1(m): 1:48am On Dec 13, 2016
MissRelly:
gud afternoon,present sir,following but update ooo,i dey wait oo
grin
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by Nobody: 8:07pm On Dec 13, 2016
Ride on sir
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by paulaspearz(f): 9:28pm On Dec 13, 2016
ArrowAssassin1:
redon12(m), Stexy(m), ifyjohnson(f), cyndylove64, Aitee1(f), sameesyd(m), Keemellah(f), Chimkizy(m), kinggenesis(m), gtin(m), shaksu, rachealfst(f), sommyqueency, oyionina(f), validstar1, swiz123(m), seanmozilla(m), Omakid01(m), bossy512(f), Fabulousmendex, femostic6, evelynakpore, Gamesound(m), Palmerbarry(m), Godsent231, MissRelly, Ogodlovely1(f), phattie(f), moh2015, iwakacome(m), Cylovee(m), ROYH(m), PrettyMizQdot(f), colik(f), laddybay(f), Trayoralas, ujunwa23, Onyenso100(m), animides, Shollyjay90(m), twinkiet(f), cathytee, Paulynah(f), pauljokotagba, supizino(m), joyberry(f), paulaspearz(f), oshorstan(m)

grin


Am present sir
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by costal(m): 9:58pm On Dec 13, 2016
Baba nice one I love dere pls keep it coming blc na here I de till de very end
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by Nobody: 6:20am On Dec 14, 2016
ArrowAssassin1:
redon12(m), Stexy(m), ifyjohnson(f), cyndylove64, Aitee1(f), sameesyd(m), Keemellah(f), Chimkizy(m), kinggenesis(m), gtin(m), shaksu, rachealfst(f), sommyqueency, oyionina(f), validstar1, swiz123(m), seanmozilla(m), Omakid01(m), bossy512(f), Fabulousmendex, femostic6, evelynakpore, Gamesound(m), Palmerbarry(m), Godsent231, MissRelly, Ogodlovely1(f), phattie(f), moh2015, iwakacome(m), Cylovee(m), ROYH(m), PrettyMizQdot(f), colik(f), laddybay(f), Trayoralas, ujunwa23, Onyenso100(m), animides, Shollyjay90(m), twinkiet(f), cathytee, Paulynah(f), pauljokotagba, supizino(m), joyberry(f), paulaspearz(f), oshorstan(m)

grin
i heard you loud and clear.... HQ awaiting further updates.... And signal from ArrowAssassin1
Re: The Hunter - A Techno thriller by AfroMighty(m): 7:16am On Dec 14, 2016
Waiting for more update

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