His wife is in the passenger seat, 25 cm away. He does not know that a weapon is already aimed at his face. He does not know that a camera hidden inside a parked truck has already identified him. He does not know that 1,600 km away on the other side of the Middle East, a sniper is watching him through a live satellite feed.
Finger resting on a trigger that will fire a weapon he will never hear from a country he will never see. The sedan slows for a speed bump, the AI locks on and from a continent away, the trigger is pulled. 13 rounds tear through the car. The vehicle swerves and stops. The driver stumbles out, crouching behind his open door.
Three more rounds find him, ripping through his spine. He collapses on the asphalt. His wife, 25 cm away, is not touched. Not a single bullet hits her. Not one. The entire operation is over before his bodyguards can even identify where the shots came from. Because there are no shooters. There is no ambush team. There is no one on the ground at all.
