Child, Lee – Without Fail
Child, Lee – Without Fail
ONE
THEY FOUND OUT ABOUT HIM IN JULY AND STAYED ANGRY ALL through August. They tried to kill him in September. It
was way too soon. They weren’t ready. The attempt was
a failure. It could have been a disaster, but it was actually a
miracle. Because nobody noticed.
They used their usual method to get past security and set
up a hundred feet from where he was speaking. They used a
silencer and missed him by an inch. The bullet must have passed
right over his head. Maybe even through his hair, because he
immediately raised his hand and patted it back into place as if a
gust of wind had disturbed it. They saw it over and over again,
afterwards, on television. He raised his hand and patted his hair.
He did nothing else. He just kept on with his speech, unaware,
because by definition a silenced bullet is too fast to see and too
quiet to hear. So it missed him and flew on. It missed everybody
standing behind him. It struck no obstacles, hit no buildings. It
flew on straight and true until its energy was spent and gravity
hauled it to earth in the far distance where there was nothing
except empty grassland. There was no response. No reaction. Nobody noticed. It was like the bullet had never been fired at all.
They didn’t fire again. They were too shaken up.
It around technique and nuance and op-histi
nhanced by unholy fear. A worthy attempt. A
t. Above all, an attempt that wouldn’t fail.
aber came, and the rules changed completely.
, was empty but still warm. He lifted it off the
:ed it and watched the sludge in the bottom flow
;low and brown, like river silt.
it need to be done?’ he asked.
possible,’ she said.
Slid out of the booth and stood up.
in ten days,’ he said.
sion?’
s head. To tell you how it went.’
w it went.’
,ou where to send my money.’
er eyes and smiled. He glanced down at her.
t I’d refuse?’ he said.
her eyes. ‘I thought you might be a little harder
1. ‘Like Joe told you, I’m a sucker for a challenge.
ly right about things like that. He was usually
)t of things.’
know what to say, except thank you.’
ply. Just started to move away, but she stood up
im and kept him where he was. There was an
e. They stood for a second face to face, trapped by
put out her hand and he shook it. She held on a
g, and then she stretched up tall and kissed him
Her lips ere soft. Their touch burned him like a
e isn’t enough,’ she said. ‘You’re going to do it for
)aused. ‘And you were nearly my brother-in-law.’
king. Just nodded and shuffled out from behind
,danced back once. Then he headed up the stairs
10
person on th planet.
It had started eight hours earlier, like this: team leader M. E.
Froelich came to work on that Monday morning, thirteen days
after the election, an hour before the second strategy meeting,
seven days after the word assassination had first been used, and
made her final decision. She set off in search of her immediate
superior and found him in the secretarial pen outside his office,
clearly on his way to somewhere else, clearly in a hurry. He had
a file under his arm and a definite stay back expression on his
face. But she took a deep breath and made it clear that she
needed to talk right then. Urgently. And off the record and in
private, obviously. So he paused a moment and turned abruptly
and went back inside his office. He let her step in after him and
closed the door behind her, softly enough to make the unscheduled
meeting feel a little conspiratorial, but firmly enough
to leave her in no doubt he was annoyed about the interruption
to his routine. It was just the click of a door latch, but it was
also an unmistakable message, parsed exactly in the language
of office hierarchies everywhere: you better not be wasting my