Reward

He walked with his head buried in the fur collar of his long coat, his slouch hat pulled down to ward off the chill breeze that had sprung up. Few of the other pedestrians paid him any attention as they hurried on their way, each intent on their own concerns.

He stopped once to check a street sign and, satisfied, turned the corner and climbed the slight rise to the row of fashionable apartment buildings standing along this street lined with trees still sporting the reds and yellows of their Fall foliage.

He glanced up at the house number on the second apartment, hesitated, and then walked up the short steps to stand in front of what was obviously the front door. He pushed the buzzer and then stepped down a step.

He paused there, with his right leg on the step above the one on which his left leg stood. He gripped the railing firmly with his left hand and put his other in his right pocket. Although there was nothing out of the ordinary about his stance, there was a hidden purpose to it. His right leg was now bent at the knee, with his upper leg pointing directly at the door.

The door opened and a tall, distinguished gentleman appeared in the doorway. He looked quizzically at his visitor and said "Yes?"

"Excuse me, sir," said the visitor, "but are you Prof. Charles Barzee?"

"Yes, I am. What can I do for you?"

"I have a reward for you," said the visitor, "a reward for your treachery," he said as he pulled the trigger on the short-barreled shotgun concealed beneath his long coat.

With the visitor's knee cocked just so, the barrel pointed straight at the Professor's midriff. A sudden "Whoosh" from the sound-suppressed barrel and the traitor was cut neatly in half by a full load of double-ought buckshot.

The visitor turned around and walked down the stairs to the street, leaving the bleeding remains of the traitorous professor twitching on the doorstep.

"What a beautiful day to deliver such a richly deserved reward," he thought as he walked down the street, nodding pleasantly at a passerby. "Our dear professor will finger good men for the tyrant's murder squads no more."