An hour later Ken reappears back at the vending machines, but there is no sign of Boris.

Anxiously he checks his fob watch.

With no apparent plan, he begins to walk up and down the corridor, repeatedly looking through the door glass and out the windows.

Three long minutes pass.

Suddenly, he hears a familiar squeaking sound, getting closer and closer. Then a thud on the door, and a foot poke’s through.
‘Are you going to help me or what!’
‘Where have you been? You were meant to stay here. That was the plan………. I was about to head back to base without you!’

Boris parked the chair against the wall and casually applied the brake.

‘Relax. Everything’s fine. Don’t get those little pink panties of yours in a twist.’
‘Firstly: I’m not wearing pink panties, I just have my ordinary Y-fronts on, and secondly: Where did you get that carrier bag?’

Boris just grinned at him.
‘Its food isn’t it. I don’t believe it! I’m running around this place like a headless chicken that needs a wee, risking my neck, and the whole time you’re in the shop buying yourself a sandwich!
………The mission is a failure by the way, if you’re at all interested……… He isn’t here. I’ve looked everywhere.’
‘Failure? ………A good day’s work, I’d say!’ said Boris, with a smirk as he held out the bag and opened it.
Ken peered in to the bag and went white as a sheet.
‘You hacked the poor man’s arm off! ………And what are those in there with it? Fisher Price Crocodile Scissors? ………Is that what you used?’
‘They were all I could find.’
‘And he didn’t wake up? He must have been heavily sedated.’
‘A bit more than sedated. The guy was dead. I found him in a draw in the morgue, down in the basement. I was bored, so I thought I’d have a poke around down there.’
‘Dead maybe, but I can’t believe you cut his arm off!’
‘Well, the other one was already missing, so I evened him up.’

Ken still looked pale.
‘And you managed it with them kiddie scissors?’
‘Well, not exactly. I used them to hack my way through flesh and tendons, but the bones proved to be more trick. So, I had to climb up on the draw and snap the bones apart with my knee……… The blasted thing still wouldn’t come free, so I had to put my foot on his shoulder and keep twisting around and around.’
Ken looked even more pale.

‘If you’re going to be sick, stay away from this bag… Do it behind the vending machines.’
‘I’m just in shock. We don’t do stuff like that, do we?’
‘Look, I didn’t exactly enjoy it. I felt sick, but I had to do it for the good of the people of America.’
‘Well, we got what we came for I suppose. ………Hey, where did you get that watch? You weren’t wearing it earlier.’
‘Well, he didn’t need it anymore, and I’ve always fancied a Rolex watch. ………He probably nicked it anyway.’
‘Well, you can’t say you took that for the people of America! ……...I really don’t believe you sometimes.’
‘Hey, let’s stop all this and get out of here, before someone discovers what we’ve done.’

The unlikely couple made their way back to the lift and down to the main reception where the girl was still on the desk.
She rose to her feet and called out as they reached the revolving door.
‘Hey! are you leaving?’
‘Yes, he’s feeling much better now!’ Called back a voice as the two figures scurried off in to the night.

(continued)


@ruffedgebooks