Callie had been older than she was, but Miller/Georgina knew she had found her true life partner in the beautiful, warm, and giving woman, and they’d managed to live a happy life together. They’d successfully raised Callie’s kids together, and now, both were in university themselves, with Christopher electing to go to Georgetown while Kim stayed back in London to attend the London School of Economics.

Miller’s thoughts drifted back to her life with Callie, and her pride in Christopher, whom she’d just visited. The boy (what boy? He was a big strapping 6-footer, handsome as Kim was pretty) was about to enter his senior year, and thinking about volunteering in Africa during the holiday break.

Miller was still thinking about their last conversation, when Chris had prodded her to at least test the dating scene, “given that mom has been gone now for over three years, Georgie! She’d hate to see you like this!”, when she saw an inexplicable mini-explosion in the stonewall behind Bette and Tina that bore a hole in the wall and caused pieces of the stone to jettison in all directions like mini-missiles.

The couple hadn’t noticed it, but the others had.

And so did Miller, and the ex-gun-for-hire knew exactly what had happened to shatter the otherwise peaceful Sunday mid-day scene.

A sniper’s shot aimed at one of the couple (Bette maybe?) had just missed because Bette had leaned Tina over to her left to simulate a dip as if they were dancing, so the bullet the sniper had shot at them sailed past Bette’s ear harmlessly.

Bedlam ensued as one of the men took a running leap and sprang towards the surprised couple, his mouth open, as if screaming at them while attempting to knock them down to the ground.

The other blonde and the auburn-haired woman also ran towards the couple.

The two other men were shouting and running towards the taller man who’d been on the phone, standing furthest away from everyone else. The men were gesticulating wildly with their arms.

Other shots rang out, and Miller’s field instincts took over.

The milliseconds between shots were giving her more information about the direction the shots were coming from and she began to calculate quickly, smoothly releasing the safety catch in the advanced sniper rifle she was holding.

This thing better live up to its billing because if Tina’s been hurt by whomever’s firing at her and her friends down there I will blow that sonovabitch’s brains out, Jackson’s instructions be damned.

She willed herself not to check on what had happened to the people the sniper was targeting and focused on finding the sniper. After another series of shots, she spotted the sniper, camouflaged and nestled in the tall grass on the slope of a hill about half a mile from the estate. The first series of shots had allowed Miller to triangulate her scanning to that area, and his position had been betrayed by the sudden glint of the sun on something metallic or glassy in his rifle. Whatever it was, it was enough for Miller. Got you, you stupid fuck!

She pressed on the trigger calmly and saw a helmet pop off. She pressed the trigger again a millisecond later, even as the helmet was floating up in mid-air, and saw pink spray explode from the target. She fired a final series of shots into what she guessed was the broadest area of body mass of the sniper for good measure.

Miller scanned the surrounding area. She planned on doing a physical reconnaissance of that hill, but first she had to make sure no one else was positioned to shoot at the estate. Or to observe the work of the sniper. The shots being fired on the estate had stopped when she’d successfully taken the sniper out, but she continued to pan the scene even half an hour later, her professional instincts still locked in even as she blinked back tears.

Philby if this is your work there is no power on earth that will stop me from ripping your heart out!

She half-paid attention to the noise and chaos caused by the stream of ambulances and speeding cars that stormed out of the estate as they roared down the quiet country road, sirens wailing, heading towards the hospital.

I swear!  No power on earth, Philby!

xxxxx