A bullet punched through the sink a few centimeters to the right of my shoulder, and my teeth clenched in fear. The two gunmen flared within my mind's eye like two balls of violent tension. I knew exactly where they were, but there was nothing I could do about it. If I moved in the slightest, I would just become an easy target for them. In my bones, I knew that I could kill one of them, but the other would just gun me down in response.
More gunshots filled the kitchen, filling the room with deafening bangs that were noticeably quieter than the rifle shots. Another ball of violent tension appeared behind the two gunmen as a dull reverberation reported the collapse of one of the assassins.
"What!?" Bravo, the remaining man, cried out. That was the final mistake of his life. I could tell based on the acoustics of his voice that he was facing away from me.
I jumped out of cover, and the sights of my rifle found Bravo's back instinctually. A flurry of bullets from two separate directions executed the final assassin as I put three rifle rounds into his upper back. Simultaneously, Renault shot the man in the head with a pistol.
Holding a hand up, Renault said with a disaffected voice, "Friendly. Watch the crossfire, please. If I have to die, I'd rather be killed by the enemy."
"Are the others all right?" I asked, standing up fully from cover. I ran up to the counter and saw Wei with a pistol in his hand standing over Charlie's prone form. The assassin was gripping a gaping wound in his chest and moaning in pain.
"Helen!" I shouted, jumping over the counter and running toward her. She had fallen to the ground, and blood covered much of her body.
When I reached her, I saw that she was kneeling down next to Bianca. With a rifle cradled under my arm, I knelt down and frantically asked, "Are you okay? Did you get hit?"
"N-No," Helen said shakily. "I-I was standing right next to the man when Wei shot him."
Rage filling my body, I marched up to the prone assassin and leveled my barrel at his forehead. Ragged breaths escaped through my clenched teeth, and I was about to pull the trigger when Wei spoke to me.
"Not yet. We can still get information from him."
Angrily, I threw the rifle aside. I knew that, if the rifle was in my hand, I would not be able to resist the urge to put a bullet in Charlie's skull.
"I'll ask again," Wei said, putting all of his weight on the assassin's arm. "Who do you work for? A Zabi? The Federation?"
"Why should I tell you?" Charlie wheezed out through his one working lung. "You're going to kill me anyway."
"Everyone! There's no need to be concerned, but I'm about to discharge my weapon!" Wei called out as he pressed the barrel of his pistol against the assassin's abdomen.
"No! No! Wait!" Charlie called out with tears starting to fall from his eyes. "I'll tell you! I don't want… I don't want to be shot again," he whimpered pitifully.
"First rule of torture," Wei whispered to me. "The threat of pain is always more effective than actual pain."
Wei knelt down in front of Charlie and said, "Who do you work for? Why did you try to kill Captain Dogwood?"
"I don't have a name, but it's someone high up in the military! Only a commodore or above could have sent the order! They said there would be a civil war if we didn't kill Dogwood, and they paid more than anybody else!" Charlie gasped out.
"Any other questions?" Wei asked, turning to me.
My eyes wandered down to the patch on Charlie's chest: the valkyrie. If my memory from the original timeline was correct, Valkyrie was an organization tasked with the assassination of Gihren Zabi. That organization was a political one; they weren't simple mercenaries.
"Who told you to wear this patch?" I asked, tapping the patch on Charlie's chest.
"We were told to wear valkyrie patches in the mission briefing," Charlie said. "I don't know why, but the contractor was insistent."
Whoever actually put the hit out on me knew that I wouldn't go down without a fight. They knew at least some of the mercenaries would be killed. Most likely, the sloppy and overt nature of the assassination attempt was intentional. Somebody high up in Zeon's military wanted to pin the blame on Valkyrie.
"Thank you for your honesty," Wei said with a smile as he put a bullet in Charlie's skull.
I jumped at the unexpected gunshot before saying, "What was that? Shouldn't we have asked him more questions?"
"Can't you hear that?" Wei asked. Once the ringing of the gunshot left my ears, I heard the distant sound of police sirens. "The police will be here in a few seconds, and we can't afford to let his employer know what he just told us. If you don't tie off loose ends, the whole ship will be blown off course."
"Right," I muttered as I looked around. The five assassins were dead, and six civilians had been killed in the crossfire. I couldn't even go bowling without a kill count in the double digits.
I returned to our table and knelt down next to Helen as four police officers and two detectives entered the bowling alley. Dozens of frightened civilians fled as soon as they saw the officers enter. Wei and Renault spoke to them, and I saw Wei flash his military ID before they could start asking questions. Wei spoke to the detectives, gesturing over to me a few times as he spoke.
"How are you doing, Helen?" I asked fearfully.
"I'm fine," Helen said absentmindedly. "N-None of the bullets hit me."
"I mean mentally," I said. "Are you in shock?"
"It was a bit shock-ing," Helen said, laughing weakly, "but no, I'm okay."
"C-Come on, let's go home," Bianca said quietly.
"Yeah," Helen said, taking a deep breath. "Sebastian, can you drive us back?"
"Sure," I said, turning to Wei and the detectives. "Do you guys need to talk to me?"
"Nope," Wei called back. "We've worked everything out. There's no need to open a long and cost-intensive investigation when the case is so simple. We were attacked, and we shot them. Really simple."
"Good," I said, turning back to Helen and Bianca. "Let's get going."
Putting my coat back on and feeling the comforting feeling of the revolver in my pocket once more, I walked out to the parking lot and started driving back to the campus of Munzo Technical College.