As Huang stepped outside, he glanced at the truck then up past the balconies to where Fang now stood on the sloping roof, his cane a dark slash mark across his hip.

Huang grew rigid, and his breath became shallow. His need for revenge or baochou had been carried down through the ages and was necessary because there was no god, no law, no earthly power that would carry it out for him.

Exacting baochou was the only way Huang and the elders could save face, so Huang had decided that if the secret police did not keep their promise, then he alone would kill the man. The blemishes must be wiped clean.

There was no other way.

Frowning over the drizzle, Diaz checked her Cross-Com's downlink channel for a weather report. Damn, the radar indicated it would only get worse, and the wind speed was picking up, the direction shifting more to the southwest.

Her target didn't like the weather either. He had twice wrestled with his position, his Type 88 rifle resting steadily on its bipod. She found it curious that he wasn't toting a more powerful weapon. Still, she knew that the 88 had only been issued to the PLA in small numbers. Perhaps it was one of his personal favorites.

Diaz's own DSR 1 subsonic sniper rifle had been manufactured by the German company AMP Technical Services, and the rifle had been adopted by the GSG 9 counterterrorism group and a few other elite European agencies. DSR stood for Defensive Sniper Rifle, but in Diaz's hands, it was nothing but offensive.

The rifle had a bullpup design, meaning the action and magazine were located behind the trigger. The design increased the barrel length relative to the weapon's overall length, saving weight and increasing maneuverability. The bipod was mounted on upper rails, and the adjustable front grip was mounted on lower rails. Diaz had already made slight adjustments to the buttstock and cheekpiece, and she had inserted a spare four-round magazine into the holder in front of the trigger guard. The extra mag sitting right in front of her hand made reloading much faster and kept her gaze locked ahead on the target zone. The rifle's bipods were firmly planted on her carrying bag, which doubled as a shooter's mat, and the bag sat atop a long, flat rock.

Additionally, the DSR had a rack-and-pinion fully adjustable monopod jutting from the bottom of the buttstock; as a result, the rifle was fully seated on the firing surface by bipods up front, monopod in the back.

Diaz's subsonic variant had been adjusted to incorporate the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle cartridge instead of the more overt .338 Lapua Magnum, and while she preferred the latter ammo, the mission dictated more stealth and those unmarked shell casings provided by the general and friends in her home state.