11

The Man In Black smiled as if he had been waiting all his life for this. He made Avril uncomfortable, as uncomfortable as everything involving General Dynamics. He moved into the pack of reporters as a wolf walking among sheep. Some of them looked upset when he approached, but he was breathing confidence, and people tend to leave him alone. He had managed to make his way to the door when Avril hung up on Chris. She didn't like thew situation at all, but she was quite sure now that she had made the right decision. Whoever these guys at General Dynamics were, they were going to make an ever bigger spectacle of all this than it already was. If she wanted the story, she needed to be with them.

The Man In Black had never told her his name. He claimed only that he had heard great things about her (as if anyone said any great things about anyone nowadays), and that General Dynamics were glad to have her on board. It pissed her off that a person would become so impersonal, all in the name of a corporation, but at least she hoped they didn't ask the same of her.

As the Man In Black assumed a speech position in front of the door, she wondered if maybe they had never gotten the option, if maybe this simply was something that happened, and one day she would find herself dressed completely in black and wondering who this Avril that everyone talked about was.

And then the Man In Black started speaking. He used a high monotone voice, to make sure that every one of the reporters would listen to him. He had explained his plan in detail, and she still didn't like it at all, but she was ready at least. These people out there weren't.

"Hello," he said and the whole audience listened. "I represent General Dynamics. If you don't know who we are, google us. You might be surprised. We've decided to take Chris into custody, as we feel that his security might be compromised if he is to be left on his own means. Our CEO will be answering questions in a live press conference that will take place at fourteen hundred today and will be broadcast from our own website: GD.org. For now on, for your own safety, you are warned to vacate the area. We will bringing in a helicopter in the next three minutes."

The crowd went crazy, as she knew they would. They were pressing towards him and asking questions that she knew would be asked. Many of them were quite stupid, the likes of "What is GD?" and "Who do you represent?", things that had already been answered. She longed for the journalistic heroes of old that she had studied in college. However, a few of them asked interesting questions, and she heard a "on whose authority is your company making these claims?" that made her smile. The Man In Black wasn't answering, however.

"This," he said pulling a brown bag from his suit," is a packet of C4, I will now lace the door with it, and open it. The blowout might hurt you if you stand too close. You've already been endangered today once, by the sniper that was roosted in the roof next door. He is now dead, but I wouldn't want to harm any innocent. That doesn't mean I wouldn't do it, only that it wouldn't be ideal, so please leave the area now."

Avril was amazed to see the journalist react. They actually started running past her and mounting their vans. She guessed that there was something about the Man that was scary. She guessed it was the way he talked. He didn't threaten, he simply laid rules. Some of the reporters stayed, and she even saw some of the them enter the house next door, quite possibly looking for that sniper that he had spoken about. Meanwhile, he was using small traces of the plastic he had waved around so effectively to the door. She realized just then that she was starting to listen to the helicopter over the sound of the masses. She looked at it and wondered how the hell she was going to fit her bike on it. She cursed silently.

The Man In Black was walking towards her, while the heli descended. Less that ten reporters remained in the area, and they were all busy getting away of the door when he detonated it,

"Come with me quick," he told her and started running towards the house, that now had a smoking hole where the door had been.

She got there in time to see the Man In Black run towards the kid that was curled up in the floor. The sobriety of the home startled her. The only pieces of furniture were a couch, of a faded blueish colour, that sat in the middle of an empty room, with light blue walls. The kitchen had a fridge and a microwave, but she couldn’t see any other electrical appliances. There was a laptop in the middle of the floor, and next to it an old, outdated phone. She picked up the laptop and phone while the Man In Black was asking the foetal curled heap on the floor to move. She let her eyes wonder around the house, but couldn’t find any evidence of people living on it. No posters or pictures on the wall, no signs of continued habitation.

Somehow, she found the house extremely depressing.

She followed the Man In Black as he shoved the kid towards the heli, but couldn’t hear what they were saying. Chris was scared, and he seemed tired and small. It was no surprise after all, it must had been a really hard day for him. As they crossed the street, Avril realized that the reporters were scared of her too. She hated to admit it, but the calmness and confidence of the Man in Black was starting to rub on her. She was dealing with the situation with a zen like mannerism. She walked slowly but surely towards the heli, as if this was something that she did everyday.

She thought about it, and was aware that from the beginning, she had had an advantage over most of the other players in this situation. She had been there when it all started, she had found out about Chris’ life before anyone had, and it seemed she was going to have a front seat to the end of the world.

She decided that she would at least look good doing it. She was the last one to reach the heli, but she turned and blew a kiss to the cameras as it was lifting off. The Man In Black looked at her with a smile in his face. She sat opposite to him, next to Chris.

“What?” she asked the Man In Black.

“You are going to be a great General Dynamics girl, Miss Smith.”

“Fuck you,” she said.