The next day finally came, and I could not help but think that if it had not been for Captain Dumas, I would be dead. I was not sure if I was happy to be alive or not.
CJ was still sleeping; snoring loudly. I was trying to ignore her, but the noise was so irritating to my ears, which were used to musical perfection, I could not stand it for long. I picked up the shoe she had thrown at me the night before and lobbed it at her, striking her shoulder.
She jolted awake, "What was that about?"
"You snore," I was not looking at her, I was on my back staring at the ceiling; a spider was lazily creating a web above me.
CJ said nothing. In fact, we said nothing the whole day. Nothing happened, no one came to speak to us, to further explain what we were doing, or to feed us, there was nothing.
At the end of the day, our door finally opened and Captain Dumas entered, followed by two armed men. I notice one was carrying food.
"So I guess you would like to be untied," he began, but then I held up my hands, indicting I was already free, and he stared, "how…?" I pointed my thumb at CJ
"I'm impressed, no one else in this little experiment of mine did that, good, you are working together already,"
I blinked; I could not really picture myself working with this girl.
"First job, you two are going up town, Monsieur Wollstonecraft, mouth full I know, anyway, this guy has been causing some commotion; he is stirring up emotions in the middle class; trying to cause a revolt, and France can't take that. You two, kill him, then find the list; we think he has a list of coconspirators in his house somewhere."
"And by coconspirators you mean future marks?" CJ asked dryly, to which Dumas nodded stoically.
I milled over his words in my head; I did not like any part of what he had said. "Wait, you think he has a list? Somewhere in his house?"
"Yeah, make it work, and here" Dumas tossed me my mask, "slightly more anonymity"
"What about the food?" CJ asked, looking at the man holding a meager dinner in a bucket,
"Waiting for you when you come back,"
Dumas turned and started to walk out. I did not move, and neither did CJ.
"Now you two," He snapped, and I looked over at CJ, she looked back and shrugged,
"Now or never I guess," She sighed. I stood, and we followed Dumas out of the basement room.
There were doors on either side of the hallway we were walking down, other participants in this little gamble of the Captain's were no doubt kept in the rooms blocked from my view by the rotting planks of wood.
We left the shack dressed in houses clothing and headed to the cab. To my surprise, Dumas entered the cab as well. It appeared he was coming with us.
The ride to the home of our first target was a long one. As we went I had a hundred things running through my head; how should I kill the man? Where would the list be? How could I get into the house? I suddenly realized…
"Are we supposed to kill him with our bare hands?" I asked Dumas,
"One gun, one knife, who wants what?" CJ and I exchanged glances,
"I want the gun" CJ said, and I had no objection, so I took the knife and she had the gun. I looked down at the blade in my hands; I wished I had a rope.
The cab stopped in a dark ally, but it was by no means a filthy, poor ally; we were in a rich neighborhood now where the houses were grand, possessing well polished fronts visible in the gas lamp light.
"One block from here, the blue house on the right side of the street, 478 is the number, that's the house," Dumas said to us, "Go and don't disappoint me, if you do, if you two run, I promise I will find you and you will not like the end you will meet." Dumas narrowed his eyes, he looked deadly serious.
I could have laughed at him; if he only knew who he was talking to, I had seen every form of cruel torture ever invented, I even invented some myself. Even life was torture for me; and he thought he could threaten me.
Time for him to know the truth I thought; "Sir, I can run if I want to and if you find me, I assure you nothing you do to me can match watching a man get a nail driven into his skull as a form of execution; so no more threats, I will be coming back, I have no where else to go, as I am sure you knew already; that is why I am here in your little experiment." There was silence for a moment,
"If you two are done, we have a little job to do…" CJ said, stepping out of the cab and turning around,
"See you in an hour sir," I said to Dumas, then I followed CJ out into the Paris twilight.
