Defaced

The tight grip of handcuffs on my wrist. The many high-security guards all around me, and the icy glares burrowing into me.

Someone elbowed me in the back and I staggered forward. Snickers broke out as more jabs hit me, and a guard said gruffly, “Move.” I did.

I was walking down a hall with a dozen guards escorting me to a judge. Despite the fact that I was going to be tried for a crime that I hadn’t committed, I was completely calm. I couldn’t explain it. I was probably going to be sent to jail with a lifetime sentence, but at least I got something out of it. Nobody was going to believe that I had saved everyone in the White House, but that didn’t matter. I had saved the President of the United States. I had saved the President of the United States. I had managed to diffuse a bomb, and although only my friend, Andrew, knew that, I felt a sense of accomplishment.

I entered the courtroom and was shoved into a hard wooden chair. I was going to have to wait for at least ten minutes before the trial started.

After the first six minutes, my butt started getting sore. Would it have killed them to get a nicer chair into the courtroom? Finally, when my bottom was growing almost numb, a judge entered the room.

The judge stepped onto a podium with a gavel. She cleared her throat, and I braced myself for the worst. But something else happened.

“Now.”

Immediately, half a dozen men in the courtroom jumped up and knocked out the people sitting next to them. The security guards who had been holding me were taken down in a split second, and within a minute, everyone but the judge and the men who seemed to be working with the judge had fallen.

One of the standing men picked the lock on my cuffs and released me. As soon as my hands were free, I jumped back with my spine pressed against the wall with my fists up. I had never taken karate, but I had watched enough of Karate Kid to know how to defend myself.

The judge calmly stepped from the podium and threw off her robe. Underneath, she was wearing sleek, black leggings with a woolen black turtleneck that looked very good on her. Now, when she approached me, I could tell she couldn’t have been more than a couple years older than me and she had some sort of utility belt on. She strode toward me and took out a rag. Dipping the rag in a liquid that she had taken out of her belt, she clamped the rag around my mouth. Immediately, my head clouded over and the last thought I had was Oh my gosh. That’s a sedati...

I woke up, drowsy, with my eyes blindfolded. My head was still foggy and I shook my head to try to clear it. A smooth, feminine voice said, ”