The Woman in Pink
He was polishing a rifle. Today was the day he became famous, his name would be remembered in the history books. He looked over at the calendar, today was November 22nd 1963, and it was a Friday. The date didn't seem that interesting, it didn't give any indication that the world was about to change. He took his rifle apart and put the pieces inside of a black duffel bag. He put his shoes on and walked calmly outside of his apartment on the fifth floor. On the hallway he was greeted by the woman next door.
"Hi Lee" she happily said to him. His mind was elsewhere and his reply was short before walking downstairs and out of the building. The air was hot today, but then again it always was in Dallas, even in winter. He looked at his wristwatch it read 11am. He put the duffel bag inside his car's boot and got inside it drove to where he was going to wait. On the way he was stopped by no one, security is lacking, they must think nothing's going to happen. He smirked at that. Just as he thought that though, he was waved to pull over at the side of the road by a policeman in front of him. Quickly thinking about what he was going to do, he pulled over and waited for the policeman to come over to him.
"Where're you headed today?" asked the policeman through Lee's rolled down window.
"I'm going to see if I can see the parade go by before it's too late sir" replied Lee in the most innocent tone he could manage.
"You and a thousand other people, well I'll be happy to let you pass but first I have to make sure you're not carrying anything not allowed. So if you wouldn't by opening the mood."
Lee did as he was told and pulled the little inside his car that made the boot pop open. The policeman moved to the back of the car to inspect the boot.
As he was doing that Lee swiftly and quietly got out of the car and pulled out his silenced pistol the was concealed in his trousers. He shot the policeman twice in the chest and once in the head, just as he was taught. Before the man could fall over, Lee pushed the duffel bag over to one side of the boot and put the policeman's body inside. Closing the boot he went back to his car and continued driving to his destination. He felt a certain thrill every time he took a life, he couldn't quite explain it but everything seemed to become sharper and more vibrant when he did it, it was as if the world was sleeping and woke up whenever he took a life.
He continued driving, all the time the feeling he had after he killed someone was slowly fading. He had arrived at his destination, a small hill overlooking the freeway, perfect for what he wanted. He stopped at the bottom of the hill, got out of his car, opened the boot, the man inside was starting to smell a little, he opened the duffel bag and built the rifle. He closed the boot and walked up the hill with the rifle. At the top of the hill he went prone and looked down the scope of his rifle, clear view of everything. He looked at his wristwatch, the time was 12.25pm, the parade hadn't gone by yet, he could see it slowly coming his way from the west. A convoy of black vehicles led the way, with a blue open topped car in the middle of the convoy, they were moving slowly enough for secret service men to walk up beside them. They were going to reach him in about ten minutes at that pace. He didn't need that long he just needed them to get a bit closer. The people in the crowd were cheering as the blue car went by but Lee still couldn't quite see him in the car.
Then the car got a bit closer and Lee could clearly see his target, possibly his most high profile hit to date. John F. Kennedy, today's the day, the man was smiling waving to crowd gathered to the left and right of him, Lee was smiling too, a predatory grin.
He took aim of the president, took a deep breath to steady himself and fired off three shots, two in the chest and one in the head like he was taught. The world came alive then full of colour and screams. Screams from the crowd and the noise of birds as they flew out of trees were drowning out almost everything else. Lee was still looking through his sights and he could see Jackie Kennedy going holding her husband's head, she wasn't crying.
The memory paused, and Michael became confused as to why he hadn't come out of the animus, damn this machine has a lot of glitches, the memory was paused with Lee Harvey Oswald looking at Jackie Kennedy through his sniper rifle and that was also all Michael could see, this motionless face. Then she started moving again and Michael assumed that the memory had started up again but nothing else was moving, just the woman in pink's face. She was staring directly at him and was saying something to him. He couldn't understand her, all he could see where her lips moving. The world went white again. He came out of the animus once again.
"Well what did you think of that then Michael?" inquired Vidic.
"That was the Kennedy assassination. Why would I have genetic memory of the Kennedy assassination?" asked Michael, it hadn't occurred to him while inside the animus but now he was intrigued at the answer.
"Bastard son." Vidic seemed to think that was enough. But Michael didn't.
"Don't be cryptic with me, who's bastard son?"
"Lee Harvey Oswald conceived a bastard son two months after the Kennedy assassination, that bastard son was your grandfather."
"But Oswald died two days after the assassination." Said Michael, he was sure of it, he'd read about it when he was in school.
"Did he now?" asked Vidic in a mock surprised tone, "Well then I guess the fact that you have that memory shall never be explained. That is unless what you read in your history books isn't the god's honest truth." And with that he left Michael alone again to go to his quarters.
He kept thinking about the glitch that had happened near the end of the memory. It seemed too deliberate; the woman was looking straight at him when she had started talking, a glitch would have caused other errors, and from the way Vidic was earlier, it was pretty clear that he hadn't noticed any errors in the machinery. If it wasn't an error then what was it? This question gave him yet another rough night's sleep and by tomorrow's session he was feeling drowsy and was hoping he could sleep while and in the animus.
