Winter garden

When I walked in her winter garden, the moon was slowly disappearing behind the tall trees, and she was sitting, reading, a light steam flowing eerily from the samovar. I kissed her hand, and her forehead. I knew she woke early, prepared tea, and read. The house was surrounded by silence.

“Have you made up your mind?”, she asked in a low, melodious voice. She was reading War and Peace, and I said:

“I want to read Tolstoy, at long last… And also re-read Stendhal, I read La Chartreuse, and Le Rouge et le Noir, long ago, when I was a boy…”

“… In his letters of 1812,” I continued, “he ridicules those generals, call them stupid! You know, he never spoke good English, but did learn Italian. Milan, the opera, Italian women. It became his life.”

War and Peace

I reflected, in the light of the moon, sitting next to her. She is the same age as my mother, had she lived, I thought. I said I would bake bread for her. Finally I replied to her question:

“Yes, my mind is made. The timing is right too.” I smiled: “And so it is to read War and Peace… By the way I am trying to find the books of Plievier… I want to read again, such a witness…”

She then explained that I would have to wait. The small fry was easy to trace, but the big fish, like Mr B, who knew the cloud of hate and contempt that followed him everywhere, were much less predictable. It was he who would decide the time and the place. “Many of the venues are just unsuitable, location, surrounding buildings, his guards”, she said.

Parliament

“What I can show you, is some examples of venues, and what it would mean for you.” She opened a thin folder.

“For example near Parliament, he does make occasional appearance there, this is what it looks like…” The picture showed a vey small oblong object, looking like a short camera, at the angle of a building right in front of the entrance. “You would have to find some place in one of the local shops or cafés. The connection between your “phone” and the gun, as it were, is short range. I will show you.”

She had pictures of the weapon, nothing like what I’d expected, and of the receiver-transmitter, a small handset.

Detection

The main risk is radio detection. This is why you have to be quick, and move on straight away. They have improved their detection technology so much, since the start of the war. You will have a location where to drop the handset, at once; it will be near a station, as you must use public transport at first. Then you can cycle to leave the city. After that you disappear in the country for a few months.

Needle

I browsed other examples. The projectile was like a fat needle, it would be silent, at once lethal. The gun would disintegrate within a few minutes, leaving hardly any trace. “Yet, forensic would eventually pull some pieces together. There are risks. With the crew that installs the thing, and of course spies, who are observing us now.” It sounded as if the best place for me to wait, see, and fire, would be a crowded museum. The “where” was all important. And this was not our choice.

We chatted a little longer, about books, the past, and the future. Then she signalled I had to go. I kissed her hand again, and walked out, in silence. The moon had disappeared. The street was still deserted, dawn about to break in the cold air.

Also inspired by Three Things Challenge #M586

War and Peace

La Chartreuse de Parme

Le Rouge et le Noir

Theodor Plievier (de)