Now We Are Free - Chapter One

 The Man in the Navy Blue Suit

    The muzzle of the pistol pointed directly at the back of the kneeling man’s head. The hand holding the pistol was unmoving, as cold as ice. The face of the holder was even more so. The man being held at gunpoint shook slightly, but not out of fear. He shifted nervously before his captor, his body language hesitant, but he stared her straight in the eye. He looked to be a business man of sorts, wearing a navy blue suit and scarlet tie. His hands were upraised. His lips moved though no sound came through them. The air was stagnant and heavy with tension. Both their hearts beat faster and faster, sure that the other could hear the quick thrumming through the dead air.

    It would only be a few minutes before someone would see them, they couldn’t hide long in this glass office building. She stared coldly back and was slightly perturbed, this man wasn’t like the others, he wasn’t flinching. What was he doing? He would glance up to the ceiling while muttering. She followed his gazes and saw nothing. What the...? She tired to calm herself, she needed to get this job done, it was just like all the others. Her finger squeezed harder on the trigger. But yet it wasn’t; there was something about him...

    Now the man gazed continuously into her blue eyes, then he broke the eerie silence. “You’re going to do it? End the life of another?”

    Shifting from one foot to the other, she returned his dauntless gaze and gripped the handle even tighter, her hands bleaching white. She spat back contemptuously, “I wasn’t hired because I’m nice. Now tell me what you did! They must have some reason they want you dead.”

    “I have done nothing that merits punishment, unless it’s now a crime to believe in the Truth.” He replied evenly. “Now I am going to reach into my pocket and pull out a piece of folded paper. Don’t shoot me till it’s out.” He moved his hand down from the air and towards his suit.

    “Stop! Don’t move!”

    His hand kept moving, his eyes still penetrating hers.

    “I don’t want to have to do this!” she threatened, biting her lip.

    “You don’t have to. You can start over if you like, we can walk out of this as friends, you can start new—”

    “They won’t let me! Now stop!” She cried desperately, her hands beginning to shake. Why was this suddenly so hard? How did he get under her skin like that? “Stop trying to convince me of something that doesn’t exist! I can’t be different— stop moving! Not another inch!”

    His hand had raised back up, and he was holding a white sheet of paper. It was folded into thirds. He slowly turned his head forward and slightly bowed it. He lifted his hands open wide. She sucked in her breath through the black cloth mask which covered the bottom half of her angular face. Closing her eyes she steadied her hands and firmly pulled against the trigger. Just before she was about to squeeze it, she heard a shot fire from behind her and a bullet whiz by her ear. The man kneeling before her slumped over, dead.

    Whirling around to see who was behind her, she saw a tall man in black drop from the paneled ceiling. She stared at him, crying, “Tav! What are you doing here?! This was my job!”

    “Yes, and you did it so well,” he sneered approaching her. “Someone will have heard that, come on.” He stalked over to the window which was about five feet from the fallen man. His gloved hand slid it open letting a gust of crisp autumn night air flow in, teasing her bobbed blond hair.

     She heard shouts from down the hall outside the nicely lit office. Dashing over to the newly arrived man in black, she snatched the paper out of the dead man’s hand and rushed to the window. He slipped out the window and disappeared from her sight. Following his lead, she lightly balanced on the sill just as the silhouettes of three men appeared on the other side of the frosted glass. Taking one last glance at the office, she jumped out the widow and into the dimly lighted night, papers flying like startled pigeons in the office behind her.