I stood up from my place on the bench. Now I could hear whispering in the bushes. Whoever was hired to retrieve me this evening was far from professional. I looked down at my right hand, which still had a knife clutched in it. My left was clenched into a fist: a gesture partially out of anger but mostly out of fear. I am a strong woman, but being hunted like a dog is terrifying.
The man was on the business end of my blade before he had time to take in the gravity of his situation. It felt nice to be wielding the weapon for once. I couldn't believe how much my mind could wander under the circumstances. I ran through the steps that martial arts had etched into my brain;
1. Disable and disarm
2. Question
3. Eliminate or release
Today I decided to call one of my contacts in the NYPD. He was a police lieutenant named Clark, and an old roommate in college. He was a perfect example of what I should have done with my life.
We were both in university, preparing to go into the sciences for our careers. I have said it before and I will say it again- I am an aged woman. I graduated from college in 1958, and was hired immediately by a government owned and operated lab. I started out there exploring what it meant to be human. We began doing things that made the Human Genome Project possible. We tried to find the shape of DNA, and eventually how to decode it. After 20 years I had landed a job at a U.S. Air Force base in Georgia, where I was supposed to use our new knowledge of DNA to solve illness. We had finally begun to harness our newfound power over ourselves when the direction of our research changed dramatically.
Making creative use of a hair tie, the strap of my purse and the chain and lock from my bike I disabled him. I patted him up and down for a weapon, and found a 44 Magnum: not exactly a hit man's gun. For one thing it was bulky and loud. It was also powerful; the bullet could rip through the target and still be moving fast enough to kill. To say the least, I was not impressed by his choice of arms.
Step one was complete. It was time for step two. I knew that I couldn't question him alone though. I was a scientist, not a lawyer. I pulled out my phone and scrolled down to Lieutenant Clark's number. I looked up and noticed another woman with 2 dogs; all three of them were staring at me. With her mouth open and her face white, she pulled out her cell phone. There was no time. I had to leave: and fast.
