It is the morning of November 22, 1963. Ryan Collier, a young CIA agent, marches into the Pentagon. He walks right past the security checks, mounting his ID marked with a important appellation, “Operation 40” to a scanning machine. Ryan surveys his surroundings, it is his second time visiting the Pentagon and he wants to know more about the place. Hallways are all over the building as if it’s a maze. Most of them are covered by portraits of previous presidents of America. As Ryan Collier walks down the corridor, he gazes at each portrait, acknowledging the time and energy they’ve given to the country. There are signs at the end of each corridor indicating where the departments and offices are. Ryan looks for the washroom.

He is preparing for a meeting with a high-level CIA agent named George De Mohrenschildt (pronounced Moe-ren-shield) who called him last night about something very crucial. Ryan wants his first impression to be very pleasant. He opens the door to the washroom and looks at himself in the mirror. He stares at his stubby beard and combs back his short dark brown hair with his hands. A few minutes later, he realizes he is late for his meeting with George De Mohrenschildt. The room that he is suppose to meet him in is not that far-off and he quickly rushes to the door. The door is unlocked and Ryan has no hesitation opening it. “Hello Ryan.” says George. “Good morning sir.”

“Take a seat.” Ryan looks at De Mohrenschildt. He has black short hair combed to the back of his head and appears to have no facial hair. George is wearing a black suit, a white collared shirt, dress pants and a tie. He moves to the side of the bookshelf near his office desk and leans on it.

“So, there is something important that you should know, Collier. The president… is a threat to the nation.” The look on Ryan’s face is in shock. George begins to tread back and forth behind his desk. “Ryan, you are part of Operation 40, yes? Then I assume that you were involved with the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs out to kill Fidel Castro? Am I correct?”

Ryan hides his extreme emotions. He does not know what to say to the man who looks to be in his forties. “Listen Ryan, the president continues to refuse to put a full-on assault against the Bay of Pigs. We need to assassinate the president so we can assassinate Fidel Castro who has codes to launch a goddamn nuclear missile to the U.S anytime he feels like it! We need someone like you, Ryan. You’re a benefit to the operation. Other Operation 40 agents have volunteered. What do you say?”

It took awhile for Ryan to respond. “Anything for the country.”

“Good, I’ll see you in an hour. I got something to do right now. Meet here at the same place for a briefing, the others will be here. Get ready, son. We are about to make history.” George De Mohrenschildt finally left the room.

Ryan gets off his chair and notices a cabinet beside the office desk that has been left open. He takes a peek inside and is delighted with piles of highly confidential documents. All of a sudden, Ryan can hear footsteps in the hallway outside, the sound closes in, slowly. He takes a peek at the files to the recent date which are labelled with a big red title, “Top Secret.” The steps were getting closer and closer. Ryan quickly opens the folder and skims through. I got to know what’s in here, there has to be something related to the president, he thinks to himself. Ryan squints his eyes and looks over the small text, some words were crossed out in black ink. The only sentences and words he can recover are “John and Robert Kennedy to be assassinated, codenamed The Big Event.” Ryan skips the page and looks at it as fast as he can, his eyes dashing from one sentence to another. It reads, “JFK knows too much, the president has been asking the CIA for documents regarding to UFO’s. The truth must not reach the people.”

“Lee Harvey Oswald who joined the CIA not long ago, is to be taken in as a patsy if the assassination is successful.”

He takes a glance at one more line, “Watergate Scan--” Ryan hears the steps outside the door and he immediately shuts the highly confidential document and puts it back in the cabinet where he had found it. He then walks out the door. “Good morning sir.” the young stranger says.

“Good morning” replies Ryan. The young man continues to walk down the corridor.

Ryan tries to absorb all the information he found in the documents. What was I thinking? What in the world is going on? Did the others get bribed to kill the president? Many questions are scattering in Ryan’s mind. About to make history? What is he thinking! Ryan feels something is wrong. Something is suspicious…he thought. A corruption within the CIA in front of the president’s eyes! What about the president’s body guards? The secret service has been infiltrated? This can’t be.

Ryan tries to remember and follows the direction of the distinct sound left by De Mohrenschildt’s footsteps when he left the room. He walks down the long corridor and overhears a phone conversation between George and another man behind a door. Ryan looks both ways up and down the corridor and it appears silent except for the words coming out of De Mohrenschildt’s mouth. Ryan moves to the door, closer and closer. He can hear George’s voice more clearly exiting the room.

“Oswald, You are a brave and courageous man. You will be rewarded. If…you confirm the kill.” Ryan recognizes his name from the top secret document. Oswald is a low level CIA agent and they are using him! As the fall guy?

“Focus Ryan, focus.” he says to himself. What has Oswald got himself into? I cannot just break in to the room and kill George now, Ryan thought.

“Call me in a few hours, there will be a briefing, I’ll see you then.” George demanded. Ryan quickly leaves the corridor without a sound and continues his tour around the Pentagon.

An hour has passed and Ryan heads back to De Mohrenschildt’s office. He opens the door and a few people are inside, they looked like they were from the secret service. “A small team we got here.” says Ryan.

De Mohrenschildt replies back with a bold statement: “Quality over quantity, my friend.” Ryan listens to George. “In a few hours, things will happen very quickly and I am aware that you all know the president is a threat to the country. Do not hesitate when you are out there. You will be heroes and rewarded as heroes at the end of the day.”

Bull#, Ryan thought to himself.

George continues his briefing. “The president will be on a political trip in Dallas, Texas in a presidential limousine, traveling with his wife and Governor John Connally. Three shooters will be placed in specific locations around the Dealey Plaza, each position will have a escape route already laid out.” De Mohrenschildt pulls out a map and points out the sniping locations.

“One of the sniper’s position will be in the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Ryan, you will be northeast of that position behind this wooden fence. Unfortunately the third shooter cannot make it to this meeting, but is preparing and making a flight to Texas as we speak, I’ll give him a short briefing there on a phone call. When the kill has been confirmed, you will take your flights back to the Pentagon for a debriefing. I will not be there in Dallas.” Ryan thought of Oswald for a short moment. “Your flights will be ready in a few minutes.” George looks at each one of us. “You guys are on your own.” Everyone leaves the room. History is about to be made.

It is 12pm, thirty minutes before the presidential limousine will enter the Dealey Plaza. The distance between the airport and the position of Ryan’s location was a long drive. A long drive of painful thinking. Ryan walks behind the wooden fence, there is a road right behind him and a empty alley. It was a very good escape route. The other shooters must be here by now. He looks at the sky and admires it’s beauty.

Thirty minutes have passed. The emotion coming out of Ryan is tense, nervous and afraid. Ryan looks at the peek holes on the wooden fence to make sure no one sees him. There is a family of a husband, a wife and two kids not that far in front of him, waiting for the president to wave at them. The president’s motorcade is now turning this way. The presidential motorcade is slowly approaching the plaza.

The intensity is closing in, focusing on the three shooters. The three shooters must be in sync together, firing one bullet at the same time as the other bullet. It had to make it look like there was one shooter in the assassination. Ryan couldn’t kill the other two men. They didn’t know what they got themselves into. They were helpless at this moment. Ryan wished he told them earlier about this, but there was no time. He picks up his rifle and feels the heavy weight of it. His scope focusing onto the president as if it is a spotlight following him. He zooms in on the secret service car following behind the presidential limousine. Then a man inside the vehicle, stands up and informs the president’s two important body guards to stand down. One of the two guards shrugs three times in confusion, each shrug more dramatic than the last. All of a sudden, the sound of a gunshot explodes.

Ryan thought it came from the Texas School Book Depository. There was hardly any reaction from the majority of the crowd or anyone riding in the motorcade itself. It sounded like a firecracker going off or a exhaust backfire of a vehicle just after the president started waving. Ryan looks inside the scope, the president and the governor are both down, but the president appears to be moving. The shot went through the presidents upper back and right to the Texas governor’s right lung. It is Ryan‘s turn now. He has sweaty palms and it is a hot humid day out here in Texas. His fingers slowly pulling the trigger, his hands shaking. Then…the bullet whistles out of Ryan’s barrel.

The bullet missed any civilians in the way, missing the motorcade and missing the president. Ryan shot twenty-two feet above his eye level from the president, purposely. He sees the family in front of him leap down to the grass covering their two children with their bodies, camera men were filming the chaos. Ryan runs away to his escape car in the dark empty alley beside the wooden fence and can see the full view of the disaster occurring in the plaza. Then the third bullet strikes the head of the president from the final shooter. The job was finished.

Blood splattered and brain matter flew into the air as the president’s wife tries to leap out of the car grabbing the hand of a secret service agent on the back bumper of the presidential limousine. Ryan opens the door to his escape car, turns the key and the engine starts running. He is now in a search of Oswald to save his life. He drives the car around the plaza, Oswald can’t be that far away.

There are readers, but no comments? D: Btw, this is my first short story attempt. (:

good job! that was amazingly well written!