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"Line up the sight up with the 25 of the quarter and lightly squeeze the trigger."

Simple enough instructions.

If I could only see the damn 25 on the stupid ass coin. Couldn't even make out the bloody antlers or the fucking caribou. Didn't help that the coin was 609.6 cm away. Or so said Bucky.

All I could make out was a stupid silver circle. And my eyesight's perfect.

'Okay, replace 25 with pupil. Simple. Yeah.... Fuck.'

This particular eyeball was a bigger target, which didn't help all that much. Not when it kept swaying from side to side, never quite returning to the same spot twice.

I followed the best I could. Kept the eyeball lined up with the tip fin thingy, and the tip fin thingy slotted between the two bulkier back fin things. Or something along those lines... right?

'Now to shift it up and a bit to the left... Ah fuck, which way's left?'

"You've wasted five months on this fake kidnapping nonsense."

"...It's only July, Mum, and I spent all of March at events with the clients."

"Don't lie to my face when your facebook says you've been partying. You couldn't even manage the small task of writing the mining proposal."

"...I filed that second week of February...."

"No, you didn't. I didn't see you do it."

'...Fuck. Missed.'

Straight up missed the head. Flew right by the dangling ear.

Didn't help that my left arm was tiring from holding up the dart revolver for so long. It had to be getting heavier by the second.

"There's more of a noticeable arc to the darts. They don't have the power of gunpowder behind it. Tilt the muzzle 1.5 millimetres at 347 degrees."

"Uhhh...?"

The numbers Bucky spewed out flew straight over my head. I had a slight idea of what to do. Sure. But those numbers were too exact, and measurement guessing wasn't a skill I much perfected. I had Eve for those situations, but she couldn't guide my hands.

"Aim 31 millimetres at 347 degrees from the 25. It should hit the target from 609.6 centimetres away according to your eyesight."

"...Um... I can't see the 25 from this far away...?"

"You dragged out recruiting the scientist over two months and then made up this kidnapping for a vacation."

"Mum, Wegner really didn't want to be poached from Jekyll – "

"Don't use such an ugly word! We didn't tell you to poach him!"

"...."

"You purposefully wasted two months on him."

"Damn shit! I'm not trying to hit the bloody body!" I yelled, frustration boiling in my bones.

"You do recall this is 360, correct?"

"I know! This one is shambling closest at the moment!"

The dart flew from the chamber and hit. Finally hit. Took three darts. But it hit. Half of the dead grey skinned head exploded. Brains rained down around it.

Didn't hit the eyeball, but the head. That meant the rotting corpse was dragging itself closer to me with only one eyeball to shoot at.

'Shit.'

"Might help if you concentrated on the situation and not whatever it is that's on your mind."

"Easier said than done."

Mechanics called for an eye shot to kill.

Better aiming practice or some shit.

Bucky's hand drifted into view. The jump scare avoided by the reflection on the windows behind the stupid coin. He tilted the revolver just the slightest up and to the side. Could barely even feel the difference.

"Like this. It should hit the target."

Miss.

Flew right over the quarter this time.

"Predictions report says the warlords will take the fresh water machines for themselves. Got a solution for that? Highly doubt the Ayers would like to be associated with warlords or faulty exploding machines."

"They're not exploding 'cause they're faulty, Amber."

"Doubt exploding on purpose would ring well in the news."

"It's in all the fine print. If the tech's misused, it goes boom. Not that it's going to deter the warlords.... Not without setting off the big bombs."

"Which would end with casualties of the people Project Oasis is supposed to help.... Can't you do what you did to protect the old smuggling woman?"

"I was playing Dollhouse to protect Auntie Irene. This, this is an entirely different story..." I mumbled.

"Dollhouse? Nope, forget I asked. Don't want to know."

"What if we use a combination of regular feeding bacteria refills, Eve's monitoring and the electronic offsite security team loaded with pain darts? Might be a good enough deterrent for anyone wanting to mess with the building."

"Offsite prevents bribery. Regular refills mean no need to fix the self destruction genes. Yay, less work for me."

"Yeah... about that...."

"...What? What do you want me to do? And I'm not some stupid wizard. I don't magic."

"...Are my parents throwing a tantrum over how this hasn't been released yet? And probably citing some time before you found about it...."

"It's so annoying!" The clattering from Amber's end of the call probably meant she pushed a bunch of stuff around on her desk. Not quite onto the floor though.

"Going from how the call with my mother went, they're due for another bout of explosive tantrums. Best we all keep our heads down until that passes over."

"Great.... Got a meeting with them in.... What? five? Yeah five hours.... So? What do you want of me? Something with the earpiece project? More memory fruits and or blends? Helping the dead guy? A new project for me to juggle?"

"Bucky's not dead. Stop calling him that. Can't have him hearing it...."

"I'll try."

"Thanks.... I need you to bring up fusing the schools with the buildings. Play it under... growing roots with the communities? Giving us the opportunities to mine the brains of those who might not have gone unnoticed otherwise...? Maybe something about increasing workforce over there if the parents fight back on it. The supply runs would create jobs too. This might cement Ayer's roots in Africa."

"...Fine. Guess I could.... Wouldn't it help you more if you got the credit for this idea?"

"Nope, I can't have any knowledge of Project Oasis. If I have any associations with it, they'll jump to thinking I buried it. I don't want to know what will happen to me if that happens, let alone find out I actually did."

"Holy shit!! It's so bloody close!" I shrank away from the bad breath washing over my face. "Hurk."

"Dry heaving's not helping you in any way."

"Urgh.... If... if the eyeball is dangling out of the socket – bleghhh... it's still a kill thingy, right?"

"I don't see why not."

With a shrug, I fired for the swaying eyeball dangling from the swaying head on a swaying body.

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Author's Note:

If you enjoyed this part, please consider leaving a vote. They're very much appreciated. ^^

And a big thank you to TinselA/Bunny Carrot (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7591081/) and the Anonymous Fifth Beta for Beta-ing this chapter.