George took the gun from under his jacket. The girl's eyes widened.
"Don't try making any noise," he said. "Maybe somebody would get here, but they'd be too late as far as you go. And it wouldn't help your Fred, anyhow."
"Fred?" the girl said. "I don't know any Fred. Who're you talking about?"
"Don't kid around with me."
"Really…" the girl said. "Please. Please believe me, I don't know any Fred."
George moved away from the door, keeping himself between it and the girl. He backed the girl down the hallway into the large living room, and sat down on a red-upholstered couch. "Just sit down and listen," he said to her. "Could be we've got a long wait."
"I don't know any Fred," the girl said. "You must have the wrong place. Really… I–I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure," George said. "Sure."
"You can go downstairs and ask," the girl said. "They'll tell you I live alone. So whoever you're looking for — "
"Sit down," George said. He pointed with the gun. The girl dropped dazedly into a straight-backed chair. "You live alone," he said. "Sure you do. And Fred takes care of the rent. Now you can't kid me and there isn't any use trying to."
The girl was silent for a long moment. George figured she was trying to decide whether or not to go on with her bluff.
"You can't kill him," she said, gently, softly. "Fred doesn't want to do anybody any harm. All he wants is to be let alone."
"I got a job to do," George said.
"But Fred hasn't done anything. He won't do anything."
"That's a chance we can't take," George said.
He studied the girl, and admired Fred's taste. She was slim and about medium-height, with light-brown hair and a heart-shaped face. And her prettiness and pleasantness were somehow one thing.
Suddenly, George didn't know if he could go through with the job. He was frightened and tried to push away his feelings.
"Please," the girl said. "Please, I'll do anything." She was pleading now.
"That's no good," George said irritably, "and you know it." If he left now, Terry would only send someone else, and maybe find a third gun to send after him. It was crazy to even think about leaving the job undone…
"What are you doing to me?" he said. "Now I want you to just sit right where you are and not say anything. One word out of you and this gun goes off. It's silenced, so I'll still be able to wait here for Fred."
"Please…"
The girl was silent.
They sat without moving. The apartment was soundless; they were enclosed in a great blanket of cotton, George felt, and there was no way out, no way to escape, to go back to a simpler period in his life.
He held the gun in his hand like a weight, and sat still, waiting.
The doorbell rang, and George and the girl walked slowly out of the living room and into the hall. George walked behind her, and now the gun and his hand were in his jacket pocket. "Open it," he told the girl.
The doorbell rang again as she put her hand to the knob.
A voice outside said, "Cleaners."
She opened the door.
The boy standing outside had a dress on a hanger, poised on one hand. "Dollar-fifty," he said.
To George the boy looked a little like Fred. He had the same eyes, the same shape of jaw, thin, nervous; but George knew the boy had nothing to do with Fred. George felt the gun in his pocket and tried to move his hand away from it but his hand remained, touching the cold metal.
George thought the boy looked at him strangely, after he was paid and as the door closed.
Some day I might be after him, George thought. And then: Why would I think anything like that? What's wrong with me, anyhow?
"Maybe Fred won't be here today," the girl was saying. "Maybe — "
"If he doesn't show up today," George said, "I'll wait until he does. Just go on and sit down."
The girl sat on the straight-backed chair. George walked around the room nervously, stopped abruptly when the knob of the door rattled and they heard a key fitted into the outside lock.
The girl stood up, and George moved quickly to her side. "No sound," he whispered, and put the gun in her back.
Like her body, the girl's silence seemed tensed. The door swung slowly open.
Fred saw them both at once, but he stepped inside and shoved the door shut behind him, He grinned, let his face go slack, stood pressed against the door, without saying anything.
"I've been waiting for you," George said.
Fred's face was thin; he was going bald. George also noticed that Fred was wearing a brown, plain suit, like one he had hanging in the closet at home. He thought of putting a bullet through the suit and felt strange, a blend of fright and distaste.
Fred said, "No…"
George stepped away from the girl, holding the gun in front of him and moving to a position from which he could watch both of them. Fred made a half-turn toward the door, and George pointed the gun directly at him.
"You wouldn't make it," he said. "Before you were half out the door you'd have had it."
Fred moved back into the room very slowly. "You wouldn't kill me," he said carefully. "Not you, George. You couldn't do it."
"I came here to do it," George said.
"I'm Fred," Fred said.
George coughed, cleared his throat. He asked himself: Why don't I shoot? Why don't I finish the job and get out…
The silence was long.
"Listen," Fred said. "What I want to say… she's all right. You can leave her alone."
"All right," George said.
"Listen, I wouldn't do anything either, George. I wouldn't go to the police. What do you think I am? You know me."
"Yeah," George said. "Yeah. You ran out."
The girl said, "Oh, God, please… listen, he's right. He wouldn't do anything. You can leave us alone…"
George stood silent, waiting, and he didn't know for what.
"A man has a chance to go straight, George," Fred said.
George nodded.
"I just felt I didn't have to stay with the organization… forever," Fred said.
"You don't have to do anything," George said, agreeing too readily. "That's right."
"Look, George, why're you acting like this? We were friends, we were better than friends…"
George stood holding the gun. "I can't listen to you," he said. "I can't do it." He heard the voice of his wife, Fred's voice, the girl's voice, his own voice, all moving and speaking, in his mind, stirring there in noisy fragments.
"You've got to listen to me," Fred said. "You've got to, George."
The girl, standing near him, suddenly moved and George turned, but not soon enough. The girl was upon him, trying to swing him around, but George swung with his free hand effortlessly, hitting the girl and knocking her away.
Fred rushed forward, but stopped abruptly. George had backed away, the gun was up again and leveled.
"It's no good," George said.
Fred said, "God…" and George felt his fingers tighten on the trigger. There was the noise of the gun, and, with surprise, George saw Fred fall, in a world of silence, a pantomimed world of horror and conscience, the strange feeling he knew, now, and recognized, and would never be without.
The girl was kneeling at Fred's side. George watched the girl who was like a figure made of stone, like an idol towering over sacrifice.
"Why did you have to…?" the girl said, staring down at Fred, her eyes brimming over with tears and pain.
George looked at the gun in his hand. There was nothing to do now, no decision to make. You had to live with the world the way it was, he thought; you had to be dependable, and take care of your responsibilities. You had a job to do and you had to do it, whether you liked it or not, whether you thought about it or not, no matter how you felt…