TEARS OF RAGE

Chapter 34

Given the impact of the unknown, a man has no room to accept failure...

One wrong move and death could be a man's closest companion.

Swaylo had no intentions of making any mistakes, though.

There were still a few things that bothered him, but he kept quiet about it. They wanted a job done by someone who would not ask a lot of trivial questions.

But, in his mind, none of what the lawyer had said, seemed possible...

Unless he reasoned, the person that wanted his help, had a lot of power, or a lot of money...

And the fact that he was out of Fulton county, on his way to pull off a murder mission, proved to him that he was working for someone with money and power.

His mind was a whirlwind of ideas.

When the sunset that afternoon, Swaylo found himself staring down the corridor of a different existence.

Questions ran rampant throughout the night, as he pondered over the endless possibilities that would become available to him; should the man do what he had propositioned him with.

Once the bloom of sunrise rose over the horizon the following morning, Swaylo was awake; prepared to confront the enigmas of his day.

He was tempted to call Charmaine, but his paranoia had him avoiding her; to protect her.

Whoever they had to handle surveillance for them, had a dagger poised above his heart.

Swaylo did not want to take a risk of placing Charmaine in jeopardy of being arrested. Just to protect her, Swaylo knew that he would willingly commit murder.

The evolution of events that documented the progression of his day, passed before his screen of existence without registering any type of significance...

Swaylo watched his day drift by like a mirage, the closer the clock got to 5 pm, the more anxious he became.

The jingle of the news was playing, when the call came.

Swaylo walked to intake, in a trance of anxiety...

Worried that someone would come to cancel his walk to freedom, Swaylo was moving with a purpose.

As he was being processed out, with the attorney overseeing everything, Swaylo was amped.

At that moment, he knew that he was prepared to do whatever was necessary, to accomplish his mission.

Deputies were huddled off to the side, brooding and making snide comments about Swaylo being scum.

The thirty minutes that it had taken for them to process him out of Fulton county, Swaylo could not stop smiling.

The weight of being submerged within the bowels of the facility, had him feeling like a drowning man pulled free from the ocean. A second chance to breathe felt fantastic.

It was at the cusp of twilight when Swaylo emerged from the facility and saw the expanse of the sky, spread out above him.

Words could not convey the surge of emotions that overcame him when his feet hit the pavement.

The attorney slid behind the wheel of a silver-gray Porsche and hit the unlock switch to allow Swaylo to get in. The engine came to life with a purr of power.

When the Porsche sped out into traffic, Swaylo felt like a goldfish, drifting through a coral reef.

Lights from buildings, vehicles, and the illumination of the city were the images that welcomed him back to freedom.

There were no stops for gas, food, or anything else.

They sped through every caution light, as if it were green, and meant increase speed.

Swaylo watched the world beyond his window drift past like a cascade of images, their drive to the interstate taking them south, out of the city.

He remained quiet until he saw the mile marker for Covington.

Augusta was less than an hour away.

The touch of trepidation tip-toed across his back.

The only time that he had journeyed beyond the Atlanta city limits, he was on his way to do a bid...

This venture was steeped in too much mystery, he thought.

"Am I allowed to ask where we're going?"

"We're going to Augusta, Georgia. Home of the Master's golf tournament." He glanced at Swaylo with a grin.

"Are you scared?" he asked.

Sway matched his grin, grateful to be so close to such a circle of wealth. Both men had the same smile, but their objectives were different.

"Not really. What's your name?"

"My name is Henry Bibbs," he replied, looking away from the highway. "But let's not concern ourselves with a bunch of meaningless questions to get acquainted... All you have to do is handle what's required, and you walk away from twenty-five thousand dollars richer." With that, he reached into his glove compartment and passed Swaylo a brown paper bag. Inside was a pistol and two stacks of cash.

"That's ten thousand, the number is the combination code to a wall safe, where you will find an additional fifteen thousand in the same five thousand dollar stacks."

As Swaylo perused through the contents of the bag, he came across a photograph of an attractive white woman.

She had a mane of lush honey blonde hair, with lips as succulent as slices of mango.

She was dressed in blue jeans, a peach-colored blouse, and a pair of open-toe sandals.

She stood before a two-story brick home that could have been mistaken for a mini-mansion.

There was a circular driveway, with a garage attached to the main body of the house.

"The woman in the picture is your target. Two to her head, no exceptions. I'll show you where you'll need to go," he points a finger at Swaylo like a teacher would to a child.

"According to your record, you were into stealing cars... You're going to have to steal some wheels. Will that be a problem for you?"

"Just let me know what needs to be done, and I'll handle it," Swaylo stated, his hand caressing the metal of the pistol.

The separation between a shooter and most of society is determined by the risks that they choose to take...

When Swaylo glanced back at the photograph, he knew that he would not hesitate to kill the woman.

Her days were done. His were just beginning...

Two hours after being released, Swaylo watched as the Porsche merged into traffic, exiting from the interstate into the heart of Augusta.

A shopping plaza sat along with the eastern realm of the horizon, with a crescent moon playing peek-a-boo with rain clouds.

Drizzles of rain began to tattoo the windows of the Porsche, as Henry Bibbs turned into the parking lot.

The swirl of rain could be seen through the headlights of moving vehicles, and the lights illuminating the collection of businesses set throughout the crescent plaza.

Henry Bibbs drove to the far side of the lot, found a spot to

park, and let Swaylo get out.

From where he had parked, the swirl of rain made it hard to keep Swaylo's insight, through the car windows.

He had given Swaylo a detailed outline of what he had to do, to satisfy the contract.

The idea that he may have run off on them, was giving growth to frustration. Creating thoughts of ways to get even, if Swaylo were to betray them...

After twenty minutes of waiting, and no sign of Swaylo, Henry Bibbs began to get worried.