The branches in the periphery swayed to the cold evening breeze like a muted warning. The stone fountain looked uncomfortable. Even in the scarce lighting of the night, its surface looked rough and starved of the maintenance it so desperately needed. I chuckled. That was a good metaphor. Unintentional, but applicable to everything here. Tangible or not. It even applied to the man sitting at the edge of the fountain.

Starved of maintenance? Definitely. Rough? Well, he was understandably upset. Not that he was getting an apology any time soon.

I was impressed by this unusual display of patience. It was well over an hour. I didn’t think he would wait even half this long. If I hadn’t known, then all the evidence I needed for his messy psyche was this document sitting on his desk. It had been torn up into a hundred little pieces and put back together with tape like a shitty jigsaw puzzle. It wouldn’t be long before he returned to this pitiful apartment.

The feed on my handheld was magnified from a distance, but the image quality was perfect. He was contemplating something over his phone. I sighed. I wanted to get this over with.

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There was a weight to my small black case that sat atop the table. I knew that what I was going to do wasn’t pleasant. I had come to terms with the nature of the work a long time ago. But being unpleasant didn’t mean it was wrong. Or that it was right. Not that they were relevant concepts. The only thing that mattered was what happened next. Only that would tell me what any of this meant. The only thing I knew for certain was that this was important. For reasons far beyond myself. Beyond him. But was it too much to ask for it to be important for us, too? In the ever expanding grand plan, we were all just grains of dust so miniscule that only a microscope could see us. But I was that microscope. I saw something meaningful. I wanted to know what it meant.

The feed began to change. The angle shifted. The elevation changed. The operative behind the camera was moving and I didn’t know why; he had been so still for the past hour that I wondered whether he was finally having muscle spasms. It took me a moment to gather myself. An hour of waiting and pointless brooding did that to you. And then I saw it. The mark was walking away from the fountain.

It was time to do my part. No room for doubt. And even less for apology. I unzipped the black case and began the preparation. He would be here shortly and it would be all over soon.

No. It would be the beginning.