The Pawn Ticket – Castling the King

Tucker can feel his pulse quickening and his hands trembling. He checks the pocket with the pawn ticket inside. It’s still there. Oddly, he is relieved.

Patsy is watching him closely, as the wheels turn frantically in his mind. There is no way anyone could have known that Tucker has the strange pawn ticket. He hadn’t even known he had it, until late last night.

From the other side of the building, comes the dinging sound of the elevator arriving on this floor. Tucker feels the bottom drop from his stomach, and his palms are now sweaty, a full blown panic attack was imminent.

The Pawn Ticket – Castling the King

Patsy asks him something, but he doesn’t hear, he has decided to take the rest of the day off. He stands and gathers his things from his desk. He can hear the sound of the elevator doors opening from across the office floor.

“I just remembered that I left the ticket in my car, so I’m going to go and get it. Please ask the agents to wait here, I’ll be right back.” He doesn’t wait for Patsy’s reply, instead he makes straight for the stairs, and begins descending them two at a time.

Tucker reaches the ground floor and exits the stairwell. The building is modern and has a receptionist area just inside the entrance. The stairwell is far enough away from the receptionist desk, to allow for unobserved use. This is the only reason Tucker isn’t the latest running man.

Two suit types with ear pieces, are at the receptionist desk, hovering the area. Tucker feels his pulse double down, and he very nearly passes out from the stress. What is going on? What did they want with the pawn ticket?

Better yet, what will they do with Tucker, once they get the ticket?

He decides going out the back, is his only option. There will be no use of his car, something tells him they will have it covered too.

Castling

He moves quietly away from the front of the building and angles toward the rear service elevator. There is a small maintenance room behind the elevator, with an emergency exit. He can cross over to the next building’s parking lot and from there walk to the next street up.

It’s still early enough in the day to redeem the pawn ticket and Tucker wants to know what all the fuss is about. His Mom had always had a saying, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound‘. Tucker had a bad feeling he was in for more than a penny.

Opening the emergency exit door slowly, Tucker peers around the back lot, and discovers, it is agent free. Walking quickly, he crosses to the next parking lot and turns right. This is his fastest route to the next block.

Once there, he turns left, angling between two buildings, to reach the busy street beyond. It is early afternoon so the traffic isn’t near gridlock yet.

The King

Hailing a taxi takes less than three minutes and he gives the cabbie the address to the pawn shop. They are on the way one minute later. Tucker is so intent on knowing what the pawn ticket will redeem, he doesn’t notice the dark SUV that pulls out behind the cab.

In his distracted state, it’s also easy to understand, how he could miss the shoulder holster the cabbie is wearing. Tucker’s realizations are just beginning, as all the cab doors lock, simultaneously.

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