Interrogate Her

You pull up in the parking lot, then glance to the side to make sure that nobody sees what you’re about to do. You pop open the trunk, using your body to block the women’s figure from the CCTV in the corner, and fit her into a double bass case tailored for this very purpose.

You haul the case out of the trunk and enter the lift, nodding at the young lady who enters from the indoor pool level. She gives you a once-over, glances at your big instrument case, and then looks back at you with an arched eyebrow.

“Wondering what this is?” you say.

She leans in to get a better look at the fabric, and then her arm flashes, a knife stabbing into your coat. It stops at the kevlar, and your arm shoots out, grabbing hers while twisting to the side, wrenching the blade out of her grip. You sweep her off her feet with a smooth motion from your legs, and she falls against the wooden banister, reaching for a pistol concealed in her waistband with her free arm. You spot her just before it’s too late, controlling her other arm.

With both of your arms pinning hers to the wall, she swings her entire body upwards, kicking you in the stomach. You crash back against the doors, causing the elevator to rumble ominously, and then she draws the pistol, finger on the trigger, pointed at your head.

You see her trigger-finger spasm, only held back by the revolver that has found its way into your hand, pointed at her head.

“You have ten seconds before the elevator doors open,” you say. “Drop the gun and we can settle this civilly.”

“I think not,” she replies. “I think you’re stuck in a foreign country without back-up. It was careless to come here instead of a safehouse. At least you’d control the territory there.”

“You’re right. Awful careless of me,” you say, as the elevator doors ding open, a feminine voice announcing the penthouse floor. You pace backwards out of the little box, gun still trained on her head, and she keeps the gun pointed at your head. Now she has to choose - save the woman in the instrument case, or go for you?

Her hesitation tells you all that you need to know. If she truly had control over this area, then she would go for you without hesitation. The instrument case would go with the elevator, and somebody else working with her would handle the woman in the case. She’s alone here, or here without much back-up. She makes the choice to go for you, sliding through the elevator doors just as they’re about the close shut. You both still have guns trained on each other.

“It’s mutually assured destruction. We only both leave this corridor alive if we both drop our guns at the same time. I’ll count down from ten, and we’ll both drop on one,” she says. “Ten…”

“Is that how your spy training covered this scenario,” you ask, shooting her a grin. She keeps her face set, not saying anything. She’s stopped counting. You can see her calculating in her head. Can she pull the trigger without you seeing and reflexively shooting back? What can she do? What should you do?