Runner-up 1

Charlie didn’t have a fourth rule of engagement to handle this kind of situation. He stared dumbfounded at Ernesto holding a gun to his wife, while his own weapon still had its sights onFalco.

It was like someone had lighted a thousand sticks of dynamite and, in about two minutes, they were all going to explode. If someone panicked, there were going to be bullets everywhere, tearing into everything.

He calmed himself. This was a crisis. He needed to defuse it.

“Change of plans?” he asked calmly.

“I’ll off this tramp for free,” Ernesto said, chuckling, as he leveled his gun against Genie’s head. “We’ll keep the original price. Consider it a two-for-one special to make us even.”

Even? Not in this lifetime, Charlie thought, and realized that he had to calculate every move if he was going to make it out alive. If Ernesto was holding Genie hostage, he must have the flash drive. Charlie needed to get it back and get the hell out of this ticking time bomb.

“Go ahead,” he told Ernesto. “We’ll call it even.”

“First I’m going to do this piece of back-stabbing trash,” Ernesto said and pointed the gun at Falco. “Only fair you die first.”

“Please,” Falco whimpered. Charlie noticed a puddle of moisture on the table directly under Falco’s chin. He couldn’t tell if it was sweat or tears dribbling down his burning face. Maybe both.

Charlie couldn’t help but close his eyes before the shot, but that didn’t stop him from seeing it blaze across the darkness of his mind. He opened his eyes and looked at Falco. No blood in sight.

He heard a thud and whirled around just in time to see Ernesto’s limp body fall to the ground. Genie swooped down next to him and then jumped back. A moment later a man in black stepped into the room, gun in hand, followed by another armed man.

“The flash drive, now!” the first man screamed. “Now or you all die.”

Charlie made eye contact with Genie. They were both hostages now. Her eyes pointed downward and Charlie almost fell over when he saw the drive in her hand. By some miracle she had managed to swipe it in the last second.

Not only had she robbed him, Charlie thought, but now a dead man as well. She was some piece of work. He glanced back up and watched her eyes direct him to the door.

The man in the coat fired the gun at the ceiling. “That was your only warning.”

It was obvious that these men were only trying to save themselves the time of searching a bunch of dead bodies. Genie kept motioning to the door, but he couldn’t risk a move now. Even if he managed to hit one of the men the other would shoot them both instantly. Charlie felt his body go numb with indecision.

Suddenly Falco screamed and bolted out of his chair. Seemed like the frail politician had reached his threshold and needed to get out. Charlie watched him run like a man on fire across the room, followed by a trail of bullets blazing behind him.

This was his only chance. He looked at Genie, who was already getting ready to spring out the door. Every second he hesitated brought death closer. A single word shot through Charlie’s brain like a lightning bolt and seemed to reverberate a million times throughout his body.

Run. Run.

This is the third runner-up win for South Pasadena resident Tom Yufik.