''Rumble''

[Keep your files up to date with this earlier entry ''Walk, Don't Run'' ]


Subject: 452859. ''James''. Status: Bonded to the Union.

October 21^st,

Codename 'Black Rhino'.
Josip Tgonda. Former African arms dealer. Now special witness for the union. I am here to protect him.

I escort him to the airport in a battered Oldsmobile. I spot Johannsen leaning against a booth. Reading a magazine. Trying to look casual. He never fits in. I am relaxed. Tgonda is not.

We are moving towards the airplane. A mass of people. Each one to his own. We move at a normal pace. Tgonda has recently testified against the State. So, it is not surprising that Tgonda gets assassinated. It is expected. They know that we know that they would send someone. So, we let him be killed. We hope to nab his killer. A tat for a tat.

The airfield is open. One minute Tgonda is walking alongside me. The next he is sprawled on the ground, clutching his chest. There is a clean hole through it. He is dead. The pigeons scatter. The crowd behaves as it should. Commotion ensues. I spot the assailant. He is a short man clad in black running away from the scene. He is making his way towards one of the privately held planes.

The crowd is there to help him. It is a clever tactic. In a public place, determine which way the herd moves and then head in the opposite direction. There is a name we have for this. Rumble. The killer has sprinted clear of the mess. I run after him. I am tall and I run fast. The killer turns and fires. The bullet grazes my cheek. I recognize him. Chien, State employee. The bullet does not slow me down. It hits Johannsen in the shoulder. Chien is heading towards a Cessna that is gathering speed slowly.

I consider myself a good leader if not anything else. I cannot leave a man down. Not even a bumbling fool like Johannsen. I crouch down beside him. Chien manages to get on the plane as it slowly gathers speed. I take out my weapon. I decide to take out the pilot. I fire and knock her helmet off. Her golden hair billows in the cold air. She turns around. That excellent image is fresh in my mind. It would have been better if she wouldn’t have fired back.

She misses. Intentionally I hope. I look into here blue eyes. I find her looking into mine.

She pouts and blows a kiss at me. It just kills me.

You would expect some discretion in a public place like this.