Second Chances

“Are you ready?” Brian asked. He’d put his own clothes back on. They were cold and wet and he shivered slightly.

Jennifer nodded. With his help, she’d managed to tear the bottom few feet of fabric off her dress, shortening it so it didn’t go down much past her knees. That would help when it came time to run. “Remember, when they start opening the locks, step back behind the door, and stay down.”

“But be ready to move fast,” he said, repeating her instructions. He glanced around the tiny closet, down at the Wells Project report still lying on the rug. He kicked it with his toe. “All this trouble over a bunch of equations.”

As Brian looked back up at Jennifer, she saw through his bravado. His face was pale with fear. “Jenny, if this doesn’t work….”

“I’m not going to let them hurt you.”

He kissed her. She could taste his fear. Or maybe it was her own. “I love you.”

Jennifer, nodded, forcing a smile. She had no doubt in her mind that Jenn already knew that.

Squaring his shoulders, he approached the door, pounding and shouting as if the world were coming to an end. “Help! Jennifer is trying to hang herself! She won’t let me near her, and I’m afraid she’s going to die!” He kept it up until there it was, the sound of the bolts on the outside of the door being thrown.

As Jennifer braced herself Brian moved to just behind the door. It was pulled open, and one of the agents got a glimpse of her, rope tied around her neck, lashed so that it looked as if she were hanging from the closet pole. The pole wasn’t going to hold her weight for more than a few seconds. But a few seconds was all she needed as the Merlin agent rushed forward to rescue her.

Jennifer released the rope as soon as the agent was close enough to reach for her, and her sudden unexpected body weight was enough to take the man down. They collapsed together onto the closet floor and Jennifer had her hands on the man’s gun as Brian kicked him sharply in the groin—all before the other Merlin agents standing in the doorway even realized what was happening.

The man was writhing as Jennifer scrambled to her feet, gun in hand. She could feel Brian next to her, pressed against her back just as she’d asked him to be. She pointed the gun at the other agents as everything seemed to switch into slow motion.

“Hands up!” she shouted, moving forward, pushing them back out of the closet. If they didn’t respond to the threat to themselves, she’d point the gun at herself---see how quickly they’d react to the possibility of her ending the Wells Project before it began. She was banking on the fact that they wouldn’t call her bluff.

And then, from the other side of the house, came the unmistakable sound of gunfire. It was the rapid-fire sound of an automatic weapon, and from the way Brian’s hands tightened on her arms, she knew he’d come to the same conclusion she had.

Jenn was here.

Before Jennifer could take so much as a step toward the door, an explosion rocked the foundation of the house. She realized as she looked out the windows that more time had gone by than she’d realized. It was dawn. The sky was just beginning to turn pink.

She motioned toward the Merlin agents again with her gun. “Drop your weapons.”

But before anyone moved, the door to the room was kicked open, and there in the hallway stood…..herself. She was dressed all in black. Black jeans, black boots, black turtleneck shirt, and she was holding the kind of assault weapon used by the military. She was holding it as if she knew how to use it, and use it well.

Jennifer stared for a fraction of a second into her own eyes. Into Jenn’s eyes. The woman she would become in five years. The woman Brian loved.

Brian stared at Jenn in disbelief. “Jenn, what the fuck…..?”

“I’ll explain later, right now……Get down!” Jenn shouted, and Jennifer turned to see the two Merlin agents hadn’t dropped their weapons when she’d told them to. She saw them turn and aim their guns at Jenn.

Jennifer pulled Brian away, pushing him onto the floor behind a big double bed. She heard the sound of Jenn’s gun, and she tried to cover Brian more completely with her body. There was the sound of shouting voices, more gunshots, then silence.

And then there was the sound of her own voice—Jenn’s voice—saying, “You better get moving. The house is on fire. It won’t be long before this whole place goes up.”

Brian pulled himself to his feet. And found himself gazing down at the remains of three Merlin agents. He heard Jennifer’s swift intake of air, and he pulled her away from the sight. “Don’t look,” he told her, pushing her toward the door.

Jenn was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, her gun cradled in her arms, as if the fact that she’d just snuffed out three lives meant nothing to her.

Brian ran to her, and Jennifer felt a sharp flare of jealousy that she tried to stifle. He’d been nothing but honest with her. She’d known all along, even while they were making love, that Jenn owned his heart.

But she didn’t have to watch as Brian took Jenn into his arms. She didn’t have to watch as he kissed her. Because he didn’t. Instead, he knelt beside her on the floor and turned to look up at Jennifer.

“Jenny, she’s been hit!”

Only then did Jennifer see the smear of blood on the white wall. Jenn’s blood. Her blood.

“I should have remembered the man in the closet,” Jenn said through tightly clenched teeth. “But I didn’t, and he surprised me.”

“But I had his gun…”

“You had one of his guns.”

“It’s her right leg,” Brian told her as she crouched beside him.

Jenn held out her gun to Jennifer. “Here. Take this and go with Brian. Quickly.”

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