Chapter LII: Death of Sultan

 Wind swept through the rolling hills of Dark Valley, sweeping with it the fallen leaves of autumn. Rain pounded the ground, the droplets making it almost impossible to see ahead. Dark Valley was already among the most inhospitable places in the Zone with its gloomy athmosphere and dangerous inhabitants, and this weather did not help one bit.

A single figure emerged from a gap in the border fence, entering the valley from the forests that surrounded it. Usually this entrance would have been guarded by bandits, ever since the Redemption faction became a known entity in the Zone. Tonight the guards had retreated to the nearby pig farm to gamble and drink, as no sane soul would travel in this weather. Even the mutants stayed in their nests and caves, the rain as vicious as the most fearsome bloodsucker.

Braving the night, the figure moved silently through the downpour, clutching his Tactic variant of the Val rifle close to his body. He was wearing a ghillie suit, a rarity in the Zone due to its abysmal ballistic and environmental protection. In this rain however, it did make him almost invisible. He crossed a lake filled with putrid waste, careful not to step into the radioactive standing water. The lake had an island in the centre of it, and the stalker could see zombified husks standing there. He chose not to disturb their pitiful existence for now.

The stalker arrived at a crossroads by a small bus stop. Straight ahead was a large facility, but a quick look through the binoculars revealed that a small military detachment was guarding it. Not his target for today, but valuable intel for future missions nonetheless. Down the road was the infamous bandit base, guarded from all sides by heavy walls and sniper towers. The news of Boris Unforgiven's death however had somewhat loosened the watches around the camp, and only a few unfortunate bandits shivered in the towers.

The stalker lay on his stomach and started crawling down the heavily overgrown side of the road, sticking to bushes as he went, his rifle tied to his back. His destination loomed ahead, a large set of silos next to a gas station. The landscape ahead was lit by a crackling lightning bolt, and thunder roared soon after. The sudden strike of light had revealed a patrol coming down the road, and the stalker quickly hunched over, making his body as immobile as possible next to the roots of a large bush.

The patrol passed him by, complaining loudly about the weather and this particular posting. As their voices faded into the rain, the stalker continued. When nearing the silo ahead, he startled a flesh resting inside the gas station, the mutant pig escaping quickly. The stalker glanced around nervously, but no one had seemed to notice this incident. He quickly ascended the ladder by the side of the silo and lay on his stomach once more, taking his rifle out.

Sheltering the rifle from the rain, he cleaned it quickly and dried the parts inside that had gotten raindrops in them. He checked the magazine, all rounds were thankfully dry. Checking his Geiger device, there seemed to marginal amount of radiation. Relieved, he off his gasmask to get his eye close to the optic on the rifle, and in a swift movement removed the eyecup and lense protections. Quick glance at his watch revealed that he still had around a minute for the target to come in range. He used this minute to configure his scope properly, checking that none of the adjustment knobs had been damaged or accidentally turned.

The rain and thunder continued over Dark Valley, and the stalker finally took aim, raising his rifle and placing the crosshair over a window in the bandit base. Inside the room, a bandit guard checked out of the window and turned around, passing a large bandit in an exoskeleton as he left the room. The exo-bandit nodded to the last man in the room and similarly left. Half a minute passed and the exo-bandit came out of the building. Standing outside of the facility walls, he lit a cigarette in the rain. Go ahead, the gesture said, and the stalker on top of the silo needed no further encouragement.

The ghillie trooper turned back to his rifle and looked through the optic. Usually there would have been a large steel plate covering the window but the security measurements around the base had recently grown a little more lax. The man in the room sat at the table, looking over some maps. A lightning bolt lit the sky, and it was followed by the booming of thunder once more. The thunderous noise enveloped all of Dark Valley beneath it, and many bandits looked up to the sky fearfully, as if the Zone was releasing its rage upon them.

Covered by the thunder, a shot rang out, heavily suppressed. The man in the room slumped over the table, a hole the size of a 9x39mm bullet in his skull. Like Borov and Yoga before him, Sultan lay dead in his office.

• For Venya Mosquito and all the others you have killed, you motherless mongrel, the ghillie stalker muttered, puffs of smoke rising from the muzzle of his rifle.