Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Stacks Part II


What was the mission anyway? Why was he here?

The thought had begun troubling him again even as he wore his gorilla costume and assumed the personality of Gonga. He knew he had received training specifically to accomplish the goal he had been sent to Columbia, Missouri to achieve. But after playing the part of Gonga for so long, he sometimes had trouble differentiating himself from the gorilla who spent his days advertising for a bookstore and whose family was in Africa.

The mission had seemed so clear when he was back in training. Protect people. Keep the world safe. Thwart the evil forces. It almost sounded like something a superhero would try to do. And back in training he had felt like a superhero.

But now…

He hunched over a little more, remembering that he was supposed to look like a gorilla. A gorilla in the middle of the library stacks, watching a National Geographic documentary of Congo. He snickered. It was all so surreal sometimes.

The door on the other side of the library stack opened and shut. Another weary studier shuffled into the room. Something metal snicked.

The hair on the back of Gonga’s neck stood up straight. The last time he had heard that sound was as he snapped the safety off on his Ruger handgun.

All his instinct snapped into high gear as he stared at his computer screen, clicking the mute button on his headphones and willing himself to see what was going on behind him through sheer sound.

Nothing moved.

Absolute silence.

Gonga leaned back in his chair, letting it squeak loudly as he stretched and yawned.
Beneath the sound of his own movements, he heard the rewarding sound of steps sidling away down one of the aisles between the shelves of books.

~To be continued.

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