XI
"Jake, Jake! Wake up!" Jake stirred and turned over, moving his mouth away from the tiny puddle of cold drool that had formed at the base of the pillow. Chance groaned and started rolling his friend back and forth with the heel of his boot. "Jake, get up!" Suddenly, Chance found himself hurled to the ground and Jake was on top of him holding a knife over him.
"Jesus. Chance, you can't do that to me."
"Just means the Ursalians did their job well. But at the moment, our focus needs to be elsewhere." Chance pointed to the television. "Turn it to the news." Jake placed the knife on his bed table and switched on the set. The familiar face of Anne Gora appeared on the screen, along with a crawl detailing some sort of information about suspects that was incoherent to Jake.
"At the time, we have no further suspects, but FBSS director Steele has already begun a perfunctory investigation and agents have been dispatched. For those of you who are just joining us, we are in the midst of a tragedy. It is my deepest regret to have to inform you that our beloved president, Paul Bender Felis, was assassinated early this morning. According to initial reports, the kat responsible for this heinous and cowardly crime has been identified as being John Katawitz, a Jew who, as of a week ago, was reported as escaped from the resettlement camp at Billings. Though nothing has been ascertained at this time, it is believed that Katwitz was allowed into the President's residence by a fellow conspirator who was part of the Army guard."
"Shit…" said Jake.
"The weapon used to kill the president was a .45 caliber Bentley automatic, a weapon of Ursalian issue. Whether or not the Ursalians were involved is not known at this time, but what is known is that the weapon was issued in a foreign country." Chance reached forward and switched off the set. With a look of detachment he stood up and stared out the window. Dark clouds had started to form earlier that morning. By now they had finally finished covering the sun and rain began to sparsely hit the panes. It wasn't long before it turned into a full downpour. Jake arose from his bed, dressed only in plaid pajama pants and an off-white muscle shirt. Chance turned around and held up his finger in a deductive manner. "There's something strange."
"What?" asked Jake as he opened his desk drawer and withdrew a super .38.
"The first time she was talking about Felis, she said he had been assassinated, but the second time she said he had been killed." he said as Jake opened the cylinder and began placing the cartridges in slots. Chance watched his friend as he fingered the cartridges "Well, what do we do now?" Jake held the last round between his thumb and index finger for several seconds before placing it in the last empty chamber.
"We improvise. Feral still has to go, but in the meantime we have to violate your primary operating principle."
"What's that?" asked Chance.
"We wait. We wait for Mr. Gdansk."