cameras were manually following him. “How does he avoid getting captured?” Tag wondered. There were plenty of shadows that allowed Tag to follow him without being seen. He took off his green jacket and stuffed it under his shirt. He didn’t want to match any description that might be given about his appearance. He had to give the big guy credit; he was moving fast and appeared to be headed towards a door on the south end of the building ahead, so Tag moved towards the next door north of the same building. The man was moving quickly, but he was trying to use obstacles such as trees, parked floaters, and shrubbery to mask him from the cameras. Tag could have told him that it was a waste of time once the cameras locked on you. He actually got to the north door at the same time the big man entered the door to the south.
The building’s corridor was filled with people leaving their jobs and headed home. Tag saw the big man duck down like he was tying his shoes, then move quickly through the crowd, bent over so he was lower than everyone else. Tag stayed ahead of him and watched until the big man was covered in shadows. “That’s how he loses them,” Tag said to himself. “The cameras can’t see him in the crowd.” Then he noticed that the man was moving through the crowd to the side of the corridor he was walking on. He stayed low, and Tag could see that he was headed towards the door of a cinema. As the big man got there he waited for the camera to turn away; then he walked past the ticket counter and punched a ticket he already had into the entrance computer. Tag got behind a woman who walked up after the big man entered and went in with her after she inserted her ticket. He was surprised how easy it was to stay in the shadows and not be seen. He thought that there would be a lot more camera activity looking for the big man. Then he noticed that all the cameras were pointed out into the corridor. Even an amateur would only have to watch for the cameras to swing away and then enter the cinema entrance to avoid being seen.
Tag followed his quarry into a cinema that he knew had awful ratings for a movie that lasted over five hours. It was some sort of history about a country that was called the United States. It was supposed to be about the time before the third world war when that country was supposed to be the dominant nation. If he remembered right, it was supposed to be a love story where a couple was trying to get together while nuclear weapons were exploding in every major city. As he entered, he noticed that the cinema was already playing and the theater was dark. The big man moved to the far right side and went to the second row from the front. “The worst seat in the house,” Tag thought. He stayed in the shadows and moved to a seat where he could observe what the big man was doing. Tag noticed that he bent over and pulled out a backpack from under the seat in the front row. They were the only two in the cinema. The big man then changed his clothes and put his old ones in the backpack. He put on a pair of glasses and a hat, and then stood up and straightened his shirt. Tag immediately noticed that he looked twenty-five pounds lighter. He must have had something on to make him look fat, Tag realized. Even his cheeks were thinner. The man then went to the back of the theater, entered the concession booth, and came back to his seat with popcorn and a drink. He sat back down and watched the cinema while he ate his popcorn.
Tag moved into the row behind him without being seen and said, “You still haven’t told me what we were going to do.” The man spilled his drink and popcorn and nearly fell over the row of seats in front of him while exclaiming several expletives. “That language is not very becoming,” Tag said.
The man looked at Tag and his fear was real and palatable. “How- how- how did you find me?” he stammered.
“It really wasn’t hard. You just have to know where to look. I am surprised that you picked this terrible cinema to hide in. You could’ve at least picked one more enjoyable.”
“There would have been more people. Are you here to finish the job?” he asked.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether or not you meant what you said tonight,” Tag said. “You have done a lot of people harm and you should pay for your actions, but I don’t intend to be the one to exact the price from you.”
“Then why are you here if not to kill me?”
“Sit down,” Tag said. “I’m sorry about your drink and popcorn, but I think it would have been worse if you had seen me coming.”
“You’re right; I would’ve died of a heart attack.”
“I’m going to ask you some questions and I’ll know if you’re telling the truth. Just to show you that I’m able to do that, give whatever answer you want for the next few minutes and I’ll tell you when you lie.” Tag had discovered that after he had felt the truth field in his mind he was able to recreate the field around him. How, he didn’t know, but he could tell when he was being lied to. “What’s your name?”
“John.”
“That’s a lie. How old are you?”
“Forty-two.”
“That’s true.”
“What’s your wife’s name?”
“Ruth.”
“That also is a lie. How many children do you have?”
“Four.”
“That’s true. What’s your favorite color?”
“Red.”
“That’s also true.”
“Okay, okay; I can see you’ll know.”
“Now, your future depends on your honesty from this point forward. Do you understand?”
“Yes, but I thought you weren’t going to kill me.”
“I’m not. But I can tell security where you live and direct them to your little stash of disguises.”
The man said, “I’d rather you just kill me now than lead them to my family.”
“Then it’s important that you be completely honest. Why did you say you had to resort to robbery to support your family?”
“I’m a retired naval marine. After I retired I thought that my wife and I could support ourselves and our children on her job and my retirement, but she got sick. Now she’s not able to work and I can’t get another job, because my retirement would end if I go to work again. My test scores in school were average, so I’m not qualified for a higher paying job. I’ve looked, and most jobs that I can take pay less than my retirement. My family was hungry. We were close to losing our living quarters. I had to do something, and one of the men you killed in our first meeting offered to pay me if I would help him.”
“So you go out and kill people.”
“No, I didn’t. If you remember in our first meeting I didn’t attack you. My purpose was to keep you from running. I didn’t know that they were planning to kill their victims. Once they killed someone, then I was just as guilty, and they threatened to tell security about me and kill my family if I didn’t continue to help them. I never killed anyone, but that doesn’t excuse me because I was there when they did it and I prevented their victims from escaping. Tonight you killed the brother of the man who recruited me. Now there’s no one left to threaten me. I can stop now.”
Tag could tell that the man was telling the truth. He felt certain that eventually he would have to pay for his crimes, but maybe not tonight. “What will you do now to help feed your family?”
“I don’t know, but I won’t ever do anything again that would hurt another person.”
“What’s your name?”
The man hesitated a long moment, then said, “Do you really need to know that?”
“Yes.”
“What the hell. My name is Richard Wiseman.”
“Well, Richard, you and I have a common problem now. The enforcement committee is looking for both of us. They’re looking for me primarily because of the two attacks you and your friends committed on me. Even though I defended myself, they think I represent a real danger to be running loose in society.”
“I can’t say I blame them,” Richard said under his breath.
Tag continued, “They didn’t know who I was until your attack tonight. Now they do, and I’m going to have to hide from them probably for the rest of my life. Life as I know it is over and Richard, you had a major role in that.”
“How old are you?” Richard asked.
