Sniper's Poker

Prologue

The year is 2029. The world is raging with unimaginable technologies. Cybronic implants and cybernetic organisms were abound. Androids were not behind either. A new breed of military androids called the Tachikoma were the latest ones in use. In addition to heavy firepower capabilities, armour and optical camouflage each came equipped with a unique personality akin to human beings. Except for their bodies, which were the size and shape of a pick up truck, they were quite similar to cyborgs. They were recently inducted into the elite Japanese vigilante group called Section 9, which was headed by chief Aramaki and led by the able ‘Major’ Kushanagi. Other members of the team were Tagusha, Bato, Ishikawa, Paz and the one eyed sniper Saburo.
Except Saburo all the others were Japanese nationals and for the last one read on to find out how he ended up in Section 9.

Sniper’s Poker

It was an evening in winter. A few friends were huddled around a table in the corner of a repair garage. On the table cards and tokens were scattered all around. Evidently a game of poker was in progress. A couple of Tachikoma who had come for their regular check up were chatting away merrily nearby. “Shut up you two. Can’t you see that a game is on here?” sergeant Weathers of the local police department said to the Tachikoma. They in turn replied “Poker is a game of probability and memory isn’t it sir? Players look at other’s cards and try to guess their hands. After that they bluff or bet their money. So at some times they win and so at some times they win and most of the times they don’t”. The other Tachikoma added “but here Saburo Sir always wins. Why is that, sir?” Weathers said, “ He wins more than others because he bluffs.” Then turning to the man in question he spoke “but not today Saburo. Today your bluffs are not going to take you anywhere. This game is mine” he ended glancing back at his cards.

Tagusha, another member of the elite Section 9 opined “don’t be so sure weathers. Saburo always has a trick or two up his sleeve.” The fourth gentleman in the group was a new recruit to the in the police fraternity. He was quiet and was called Walters.At long last the most talked about man in the group intoned in low than usual voice2 I do not bluff. I can merely read all of your thoughts just by looking at your faces. So as a piece of advice I ask all of you not to poker face me. Get it.” A few moments of pregnant silence passed. Finally Saburo had to speak again to break the ice “OK you guys I will tell all of you a story. It is the story of my life and the experience I had in it chilled me to the very bones of my spines. Apart from that it also taught me to read poker faces like all of yours.” The Tachikoma broke upon into an appeal for the story. Saburo said “all right I will tell you all the story if all raise their bets.” Noncommittally everyone raised. However Weathers said, “ I am not raising because I want to listen to your dumb story. Just so you know that, all right.”

Saburo began “while I tell the story please do not interrupt me and one more thing comments are not welcome. Fine then.” “It was the summer of 2020. Back then I was still just a mercenary. I was in the Spanish national army. At that time the US and Japanese economies were in great turmoil. They could think up of only one solution their downtrodden condition by crippling the Mexican drug and arms industries, which boosted the Mexican and its ally’s Spanish economies. They had persuaded the UN to allow them to assault the Mexican government under the name of disrupting their illegal drug trade and production or something. I did not know the reasons very well back then nor did I care. I did what I was paid for. I fought. I was perhaps the last man standing left of my team that was wiped out by a surprise attack by the US and Japanese allied army. I was in wait for a chance to surrender given my mercenary status. While I was still on lookout I got an Intel update from my headquarters that a small group of the allied army was in the town to nuke it and flush out the remaining guerrillas in the nearby areas. This plan of theirs irritated me to no end and I went against my surrender plan and instead decided to have a final go at them before I leave this world for the netherworlds. I wanted to give them such a nightmarish time that they forget for their entire lives and maybe eve after that. Trying to nuke me out are you?”

The sun was beginning to dip behind the distant western Sierra Madres. Painting the wee little town red and orange. I scanned the region with my binoculars and after a couple of minutes of searching I acquired my targets. It was smallish group by allied standards, I thought. However my shots were also limited so I decided to go one after another.

On the ground, lieutenant Marcus led the group of three Japanese and four Americans including himself. They were sergeant Mothers, private Paul, private Ivan, the ‘Major’, Ishikawa and Bato. Marcus was growing impatient, he said to the others “I say we detonate the darn thing right here and return to base. This hunting for survivors is taking a lot of time. Moreover we have strayed too far away from the company already.” No one replied. The made their way in silence through millions of boulders and debris that cluttered their path.

Meanwhile I checked my signal-jamming device. Last time I had checked it was able to jam their radio and satellite uplink including their GPS as well as their remote communicator devices. With the hep of this device not only were they stranded away from their company reinforcements they would be totally helpless in locating me without the help of satellite imaging of the area. Now all they had to rely on was their unreliable humanoid instincts. However that was only what I had speculated. I checked my Rolex, which was a gift from someone special. This is not the right time to bring up that issue though. It was fifteen seconds to five. After checking the time I checked my rifle and finally I checked out my first target. I closed my right eye and took careful aim with the left. Funny thing though. Back then I still had my real left eye not this Cybronic implant I sport now. I must say I had a rather good eye then for rarely did I miss a target. My eye and crosshair was one instrument when I followed the American soldier carrying the nuclear device. He was my first choice for obvious reasons. Five seconds until I announce my presence to the group below. I began counting under my breath. Five. Four.Three.Two.One.Zero. The clock tower at the opposite side of town gonged out aloud. As I had anticipated everyone on ground zero paused momentarily caught unawares. I shot that man in that brief moment of surprise turning it into shock. As he crumpled to the ground even from my hiding spot I could make out the sudden ruckus below as everyone dived for cover.

On the grounds not only the view changes but also the entire scenery. Since you change from the attacker to the attacked. So I took the liberty of describing the emotions and actions undergoing at the ground level. “Sniper, sniper in the ruins. Take cover everyone.” The ‘Major’ cried out. She neither was a major by rank nor by name. But the lady who was in fact a cybernetic organism since her childhood was as much experienced or maybe more than any living army major in the tactics and techniques of guerrilla and modern warfare that her colleagues aptly called her Major.Anyway everyone dived for cover as soon they heard the Major’s command. Well almost everyone, except sergeant Mothers that is who still writhed in mortal pain on the open ground. Private Paul said, “ We have to rescue him” indicating Mothers. Lieutenant Marcus said “All right everyone listen. Bato and Ishikawa cover fire the western building and Major and I will cover from the eastern side. Meanwhile Paul gets Mothers. Any doubts anyone.” On the count of three all emerged.

The firing disturbed the deathly silence of the city. Paul was at the side of Mothers in a flash and was saying to him “try not to move too much, Sir. Everything is going to be fine” However he could speak only as much as a moment none too late a slug punctured his temple and crumpled beside the wounded Mothers, stone dead. Everyone dived for cover once again, this time leaving the two Americans to die in the open.

In a fleeting instant in which everyone must be trying to catch their breaths on the ground I proceeded with the next phase of my plan. I used my remote control to fire a 20mm shell from the previously set up mortar-firing unit in the eastern building. The shell landed on a stagnant car lifting it off the ground. As I had expected the firing briefly stopped and then riveted to the opposite direction. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
“Stop, stop everyone stop firing. Cease fire, cease fire”, yelled the Major. The firing stopped in a few moments. “Do you know where the sniper is? Try to think straight for a while. I feel the eastern one is just a decoy to divert our attention for a few seconds.” Marcus argued, “How can you be so sure. Maybe there are more than one snipers. Maybe we are all surrounded.” To this the Major calmly replied, “ if we were surrounded by snipers we’d have been dead by now.” Then to Ishikawa she said, “ Ishikawa can you track down the jamming device’s originating signal. Can you get a lock on its position from here”. Ishikawa replied after checking his devices “the signal is originating from three different locations. If we take down any two of the transponders then we can uplink with the satellite and call for backup”, he continued “the locations are the church and the hospital in the west and the apartment in the east”. The Major said, “very well then I will check out the apartment to prove my theory. However I strongly believe that the enemy is only one sniper and a very clever one at that. My instincts tell me that he is hiding in the western side. Snipers hate to face the sun anyway.”

“Cover me guys” the Major shouted and made a dash for the apartment in the east as the firing erupted from the ground again. Once inside the apartment turning corners cautiously the Major made her way to the potential location of the jamming device. As she had speculated earlier there was only a single transponder and a premeditatedly propped up 20mm heavy round launcher aimed at the ground below complete with a remote trigger.” About twenty minutes later she returned to her companions at the camp below holding a telltale 20mm clip. “There was only one round in it and it was fired with a remote controlled trigger. So now we are sure that our friend is in the western side either in the church or in the hospital,” she concluded.

As she wondered about the further plan of action Marcus began to load a heavy round in the shoulder mountable rocket launcher saying “at least there is one way to find out”. In the hospital Saburo had not let his guard down even for a single moment and rather followed the proceedings below. I could not help praise the presence of mind of the team members to check out the apartment first before jumping to conclusions. However I must say I was a little taken aback to find a female in their midst when I focussed on the huddle below. I guessed she must be a cyborg. Real woman are such soft creatures to survive in a battlefield let alone discuss strategy. In a second none too late my eye caught one of them aiming a rocket launcher at the hospital, at me. Not losing any more time I slugged him in his forehead.

The Major cried hoarse “the hospital, he is in the hospital. Bato, Ishikawa cover me. Ivan follow me.” They began to advance to towards the hospital cautiously. At some distance the covering fire began to pummel the weak old hospital walls and I hid behind the windows. I could not for long though for otherwise they would storm the place taking me down along with it. I decided to retaliate. I aimed from the tiniest corner I could find and followed the man running behind the lady. Just before he entered the smokescreen below I nailed him. As he kissed the ground I saw helplessly as the woman in their team make her way harmlessly into the hospital grounds. I bailed from my hiding place and took refuge near the pillar which a good fifty feet from the only entrance to this floor.

Did you guys know something? In a battle no one knows who kills whom except for one person. The sniper, the sniper always knows. He is the one guy you can take your revenge on. That is why snipers never become prisoner of wars. Thinking along such lines I prepared myself for the final battle of the day.

Meanwhile the Major successfully crossed the threshold of the hospital and proceeded along the stairs to the third floor swiftly where she believed the enemy to be hiding. In a few minutes she reached the third floor entrance. There she picked up a piece of broken glass lying on the floor and with its help surveyed the entire scene while still in the shadows. She saw a transponder device lying on the floor beside the pillar. Calculating her risks she removed her semi automatic heavy machine gun from her shoulder and plugged its data cable into her neurosystem port at the back of her neck. Balancing the gun at her waist level for maximum stability she stepped out of the shadows.

I was surveying the entrance with my mirror glass for the past ten minutes. I sensed some disturbance in the ninth minute but nothing happened until sixty seconds later. The woman stepped out of the shadows a heavy machine gun swinging at her waist and fired a deafening three shot burst that took out my transponder. It did a couple of back flips and finally came to rest against a boulder. I had only a single rifle bullet and loaded semi automatic hand gun which quite useless at this distance. I gauged her distance and my skill several times and tried to picture the scene in my mind. Though the rifle she held was ordinarily used as an assault weapon it could effectively double up as a long distance shooter in the hands of an expert user such as a cyborg as her. Supposing the software for the long and medium range shooting were installed and ready for use in her cyber brain, if I fired a shot she could easily shoot down my only bullet and given her rifles much faster firing rate take me down with the next shot before I could duck back. No matter how many times I played the scene in my mind the outcome seemed the same to me each time. I realized I was pitted against a complete cyborg and it was a test of all sniping experience. It was truly a moment of truth and I am really not ashamed to say that it chilled me to the very bones of my spine. She stood there unmoving, not even blinking her eyes for a nanosecond. I saw her expressionless face and observed a drop of sweat crawl down her forehead into her eye and back on her cheek. As it left her chin I concluded any mistake on my part would be my last.

The Tachikoma interrupted Saburo for the first time during his entire storytelling “but you could not wait forever, could you sir?” Saburo observed them for a second and continued, “Well yes I could not”.

At that very moment my gaze fell on something that jumpstarted my brain again. I saw my transponder lying quite dead on the ground. It was shot evidently shot down with a three shot from her, but why three shot when one would have been enough. It dawned upon me that the software for long range shooting had not yet been installed and now that the satellite uplink was back on track she was downloading it as I was thinking. There was not another moment to loose. I swung into action immediately. Taking aim only for a fraction of a second I fired. Just as I had calculated she tried to shoot down my bullet but managed only to deflect it a millimetre. My bullet scraped her cheek and cut out a lock of her hair. Her next bullet was already on its way. I backed away quickly but I was not quick enough to completely evade her bullet. It scraped my sniping left eye and crippled me. With one hand I covered my remaining eye and with the other I took out my handgun. But before I could fire it she was already standing over me. In a flash she disarmed me and pinned my free hand to the wall. Her poker face had not left her yet. She said, “You are a very good shot. Work for me. Your call”.

I had no choice to refuse but had to work for her. Not only had she defeated me truly in battle but also had successfully deceived me to the end with her poker face. In this way I ended up in Section 9. However to this day I wonder if I could have spotted her poker face a couple of seconds earlier maybe I would still have had my real left eye. From that day on I never had an experience as frightening as that and I never have any trouble with poker faces like you either.

“Wow” the Tachikoma cried out in unison. Weathers however said, “that was a really good story but you still can’t bluff to win here. I kind of remember seeing that movie sometime ago though” Saburo didn’t bat an eyelid. Instead he said, “ Let me have my last card. Yes I was bluffing. I made it all up”. The final cards were dealt “I bid all my money” Saburo said. Weathers was hysterical “ You can’t bluff here. You can’t win. To win you need a straight royal flush of spades and you can’t have it since I have the ace right here.” Saying so weathers showed his cards.
Saburo got up to leave and spoke to Walters “Settle my bill, will you?” The Tachikoma asked him “were you really bluffing, sir? About the story.” Saburo left the room poker faced without speaking a single word. Walking down the street he lit a cigarette. The Tachikoma moved up to the table “are Saburo sir’s cards really that bad? It picked them up and said, “wow guys look, it’s a straight royal flush of spades. It makes me wonder if the story was real.”“Maybe” the other Tachikoma said as Saburo disappeared into the city leaving behind a trail of cigarette smoke.