They have us handcuffed and stuffed under the desk like discarded and crumpled receipts. Were it not for the air conditioner we'd be as dead as a dog in a locked car. How much longer is this going to go on? Carol - how on earth? "Carol," I nudge her: how on earth is she asleep?
"Humpf," she groans, struggling to open her eyes. "I'm so hot. So sleepy. Need water."
"Hey! Dude!" I call out to the man with a gun. "Can we get some water?"
The man with a gun walks over; stands there, eyes peering through the holes in his balaclava. He lifts the fabric up over his mouth, hacks, and then spits in my face. He laughs and turns his back on me.
My colleagues shy away from eye contact, as Carol sighs.
I'd freed my wrists from the handcuffs hours ago, and held my composure. The mechanism was relocked but I could pull my hands free in under a second if needed.
That's the thing about working in an office; surrounded by implements of death. You just need to know how to use them.
I inch out from under the table, and raise my arms up over my head. Clamped between my fists is a chain of paperclips.
Progress evidently wasn't being made. Time for me to act.
I stand and hook the chain over his head, across his neck, and pull with all my strength. He doesn't even have time to whimper, but he does thrash about, risking alerting the others.
From my pocket I pull a paperclip shiv - three paperclips lengthened out and twined together - and thrust it into his right ear. He goes limp as the lights go off in his brain, dropping his gun. The rest will be a piece of cake.
There’s something to be said about the growing quality of my indie review list: many of them could easily grace the shelves of your local bookstore with the backing of a publisher, and even those that may fall short just need some tinkering. Stepping to the plate is A Life Removed by Jason Parent, a crime thriller perhaps in the vein of James Patterson or Thomas Harris. It may not have the depth of say a Silence of the Lambs, but it does well to weave an intriguing plot that leaves you wanting more of the bad guy. And everyone loves to hate a bad guy.
