Chapter 117: Snipers Need Witnesses

The iron observation deck of the northern water tower was slick with rain and littered with spent plasma cartridges.

A corporate marksman clad in matte-black stealth weave lay pinned against the rusted railing, his custom heavy rifle crushed beneath Kage’s steel boot.

Dozens of razor-thin shadow filaments were wrapped around the sniper’s wrists and throat, pulsing with dark suppressive energy.

"Do not bother reaching for your cyanide capsule," Sierra said coldly, stepping into the lantern light with her blackened spool.

"I already extracted the false molar from your jaw while you were unconscious," Kage added, tossing a tiny glass vial over the side of the tower.

"You should have put a bullet through my skull," the sniper snarled, spitting dark blood onto the metal grating.

"Dead men do not answer questions in front of newspaper cameras," Leo’s voice resonated from the iron ladder hatch as he stepped onto the platform.

He walked over to the sniper’s dropped tactical vest, unzipping the internal waterproof compartment with deliberate care.

Leo pulled out a biometric data slate bearing the holographic seal of Vorn Executive Security.

"Show me the contract authorization," Leo commanded, holding the slate before the marksman’s bruised face.

"Corporate encryption requires my retinal scan to unlock the primary files," the sniper sneered with arrogant confidence.

"You think a street scrapper knows how to crack a twenty-eight-digit hexadecimal firewall?" the sniper mocked, baring his bloody teeth.

"I do not need to crack the code when your own optic nerve can decrypt it for me," Sierra murmured, pressing two shadow threads against his optical nerve cluster.

The sniper gasped in agony as his eyelids were forced open, allowing the red laser grid of the slate to scan his dilated pupils.

A bright chime signaled clearance, displaying an itemized contract titled *Asset Denial and Public Facility Scuttle*.

"Read the primary objective aloud for the record, Sierra," Leo instructed, keeping his eyes on the marksman.

"The target bounty was not the clinic or the doctor," Bekka said, reading the digital terms over Leo’s shoulder.

"The primary bounty was the Apex Molecular Synthesizer, valued at five hundred thousand gold credits upon confirmed destruction," Bekka revealed, disgust dripping from her voice.

"And look at the secondary rider stamped with the regional procurement seal," Sierra urged, tapping the lower clause with a gloved nail.

"Payment authorized by Director Albright upon confirmation of collateral civilian casualties," Leo read aloud, his eyes burning with lethal frost.

"Albright signed off on slaughtering recovering patients in a triage ward?" Bekka asked, her voice trembling with righteous fury.

"Casualties create panic, and panic forces populations to accept martial pacification," the sniper muttered with sullen indifference.

"Who else on the Hunter Association Council took kickbacks from this contract?" Bekka demanded, grabbing the sniper by his armored lapels.

"Ask your director when he sends his private guards to drag you to the gallows," the marksman hissed, glaring at her badge.

"If you execute me here, the corporate legal department will claim you fabricated this slate," the sniper pointed out with bitter amusement.

"Corporate lawyers thrive in dark alleys where corpses cannot testify," Leo replied with cold clarity.

"That is why you are not dying tonight, assassin," Leo declared, turning toward the perimeter railing.

"Toby, have you hooked the broadcast antenna into the regional frequency towers?" Leo spoke into his comm transmitter.

"Every public view-screen across District Six and Seven is receiving our high-gain feed right now!" Toby’s excited voice crackled back.

"Sunlark brought three independent journalists from the morning chronicle into our central plaza," Toby added with triumphant glee.

"We have live feeds patch-hooked into the municipal news networks across the entire central ring," Sunlark’s voice echoed through the channel.

"Sierra, initiate the public broadcast," Leo ordered, stepping back from the marksman.

Sierra linked her data slate to the portable transmission array, broadcasting the sniper’s battered face and the glowing contract directly across the city.

"Citizens of the capital, look upon the hand that fired a plasma bolt into our medical clinic tonight," Leo announced, his voice carrying through millions of public audio horns.

"This is an authenticated operative of Vorn Security, operating under contract to murder our wounded and destroy affordable medicine," Leo proclaimed.

The sniper stared into the glowing camera lens in sheer terror as he realized his corporate anonymity had vanished forever.

"Wait! They promised my family would be protected if I completed the assignment!" the marksman cried out, his composure shattering on live television.

"Your masters will disavow your existence before sunrise," Bekka told him, holding up her Association badge beside his face.

"As an active liaison officer, I officially remand this operative into civilian protective custody," Bekka announced into the camera.

"He will stand trial before the people he attempted to slaughter," Bekka declared with unshakeable legal authority.

"Albright, if you are watching this broadcast from your executive suite, know this," Bekka added, looking dead into the lens.

"Your warrants are void, your bribes are documented, and your reign over District Seven is finished," Bekka stated with icy certainty.

Across the district border, thousands of lights flickered on in the tenement windows as citizens poured into the streets in boiling outrage.

"We heard the broadcast across all three wards!" Tessa’s voice rang through the comm link.

"The guild councils in District Six are demanding an emergency tribunal at the municipal hall!" Sunlark reported, laughing with deep satisfaction.

The broadcast had accomplished what a hundred blade strikes never could.

It had stripped away the corporate lords’ respectable masks, exposing their greed to the judgment of the entire world.

"Take him down to the holding cells beneath the forge," Leo instructed Kage, switching off the broadcast feed.

"The public will guard his cell with pitchforks and hammers until morning," Kage noted, hauling the trembling marksman to his feet.

"A living witness is an unyielding shield," Sierra remarked, rewinding her shadow spool with profound satisfaction.

"You wielded the truth like a master swordsman tonight, Leo," Bekka said, watching the crowds gather in the lantern-lit squares below.

"A blade can cut down a tyrant, Bekka, but only the truth can wake an empire," Leo answered, looking out across the awakened city.

"Will the Association try to revoke Bekka’s jurisdiction before the trial begins?" Sierra asked, securing the sniper’s rifle in a containment crate.

"The Hunter Charter explicitly forbids revoking a liaison officer’s standing during an active murder investigation," Bekka cited with absolute confidence.

"Then we have them trapped within the very laws they wrote to protect themselves," Leo noted, watching the sunrise illuminate the rooftops.

"It is poetic justice when a tyrant’s own rulebook becomes his executioner’s warrant," Kage commented, nodding in agreement.

"What will Albright do once the morning news syndicates reprint this contract?" Bekka asked, resting her hand upon her wind-saber hilt.

"He will call an emergency press conference and claim his digital signature was forged by outer-district terrorists," Sierra predicted, adjusting the data slate.

"Let him claim whatever lies he wants, because the citizens of District Six saw his signature in real time," Leo replied with absolute conviction.

"Toby has already distributed three hundred physical carbon copies of the contract to the merchant guilds," Kage reported, nodding toward the square.

"Then the fire is already lit, and no corporate magistrate can extinguish it," Leo said, watching the morning sun break through the clouds.

"Let them try to bury the truth now," Sierra smiled, picking up the authenticated data slate to seal it in her pouch.