The Threat by Nathaniel Stein

Author:Nathaniel Stein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

8

FOR SEVERAL DAYS, LEVIN INHABITED THE HIGHER plane of existence with a newfound sense of security and ease. He felt that nothing could knock him off of it—for he was now a man under the threat of death who had spoken with his own threatener on the phone, engaged in a tense and fast-paced pas de deux with him, danced the dance of death and emerged stronger than ever to tell the tale.

He now walked with effortless confidence, barely ever checking his reflection. On the elevator, he offered the lawyers deep, hearty nods that were met instantaneously with reciprocal nods of their own. And when he did not see them in the lobby, he would linger, pace around, pretend to be checking a certain flier on the wall, in the hope that one of them would come—which sometimes occurred.

He had purchased a few threat accoutrements and arranged them around his cubicle, transforming his workspace into one appropriate to a man carrying out, in addition to his ordinary duties, tasks of solemn importance. Among them was a pair of fine binoculars, which he had placed prominently next to his computer, as well as a few maps of the city, which he had marked in mysterious ways and spread across the surface of the desk.

Every now and then he would glance at these items and feel a little rush of pride and excitement, anticipating the others coming to ask him about this or that one—though he understood that his bearing intimidated them into reticence.

At the fancy restaurant, too, he had reached a new level of confidence. He would bring his valise full of threat items and unpack them at the table—the baseball card and rag, and the preferred snapshots, and on one occasion even the initial threat itself—spreading them into a display and leaning over them in contemplation as he was served course after course by the unflappable waitstaff. He was secretly on fire with the transgressive glee of this exhibitionism. The thought of the others noticing these items was intoxicating, and from time to time he would glance across the room at the coat-check woman, almost breathless with the thought that she was seeing him like this, amid the trappings of his predicament! And though he never actually saw her looking at him, he only took that as evidence of her meticulous care to avoid being caught.

He had clipped from a magazine an ad that prominently featured the number thirty-four, thinking that he could show it to her as a joke at some point. He kept the clip in his threat valise but so far had not dared to lay it out on the table with the other items. He would bring it up in time—on a future walk, perhaps. They had not gone on any more walks yet—he had not caught her at the end of her shift—but he thought, with a kind of pleasing self-denial, that now was not really the time for walks anyway, not when he was

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.