RESEARCH ( barry berkman.. ) ✔

o35. wannabe john wick..

"Yes?" Barry picked up his phone and whispered his reply, as clear as possible without really disturbing the silence of the night. The call had to be balanced on his shoulder, so his overall propped position was remained unchanged. Both his hands returned gently on the handle of the sniper rifle which barrel hovered on the stone he sat behind. The target has been fixed, on their car, parked down the hill, in the parking lot of a closed mall; inside was the dark silhouette of someone holding the steering wheel.

It felt only normal to end this charade with a type of gun he has been used to at the marine scout sniper post. Lightweight, the black Vanquish .308 Win was what Barry found trustworthy; the higher ground and the distance, as well as his black attire in the night, were creating an almost eerie peace, which could only get irritated into an irk by the fact he mindlessly answered a call he should not have.

"Barry, where the Hell are you?" Sally's voice came in his ear, already relaxed to the silence of the little nature around and Adelaide's calm breathing besides him, where she insisted to be for this ordeal. "I know you don't like me and I get that, but Gene needs all of us in these tough times for the theater class...," Sally gradually started yelling so Barry's eyes moved to their corner and begged Addie to get him out of the situation.

"Sally?" Adelaide mouthed, though very little sound escaped her lips. He nodded almost indistinguishable, but it was enough for her, already accustomed to the lightless, cloudy and cold night, to pick up. Adelaide brought herself up on her knees and fished the phone from between Barry's shoulder and ear as careful as she could - which was in fact really not that hard with the chirurgical-appropriate small hands.

Before answering anything, Adelaide turned down the luminosity and volume, not just a notch, but almost all the way down, then scrambled a bit further away from Barry's spot, more towards the bushes, so that he could remain concentrated on their plan's functionality. They could not afford any mistakes, because this Mr. Pareja was the real deal. Though they have not looked into it immediately after Addie's close encounter with this individual at the swimming pool in her home town, now that he seemed pestering, a small research revealed exactly who they were up against.

Cristobal had made a very resourceful and scary friend with Mr. Pareja. Though the nature of how a Bolivian mafia leader got to have that sort of man on his friend list, it was a tactically impressive move to have tucked in his sleeve. Mr. Pareja was the sort of man involved with crimes the size of Fargo, a paid assassin with a military background in the private sector, the sort of guy who Adelaide noted her old boss would have considered a "wannabe John Wick".

Barry only knew that he was dangerous, cold and driven by revenge. He fooled the Chechen's, left them broke and now was on the hunt to eliminate everyone involved with Cristobal's death. Even if he took Hank out, one day of rest was enough to realize they were definitely next on the list. There would be none of that on Barry's watch, even if by seriousness, this was the worst he ever had to go against. 

He was nervous, but his hands would be slippery if he let himself get sweaty in the chill of the night.

"Hello?" Sally insisted, as for a while she only heard a breath into the speakers. 

"Sorry, this is Adelaide. Barry is quite busy right now. We both are, really. So how about you call back tomorrow? Or maybe never, that would be pretty nice of you too." Adelaide adopted a fast speech. Barry had told her, on a run, in the few moments they had for breaks since Halloween, about Sally's indiscretion and though control was key, Addie had to admit she considered making it fully personal and violently putting this blonde woman back in her place, far away from them both.

"Adelaide?" Sally's voice died out from being fired up. If Addie's expectations of Sally have not already been lowered so hard they had their own funeral, she would have been fooled to believe it was guilt sounding in her voice through the phone. "I... I don't know what Barry told you of-"