Knowing

I am running for my life, over the tops of shipping containers, smelling the salty breeze of the Atlantic Ocean, I see Manhattan to my right, and hear the yelling of people behind me. I could see an empty fishing boat within a hundred yards. Just one more container-I jump, and suddenly an explosion rips through the air hurling me towards New Jersey...and to think that today started off like every over day.

I woke up on an unnaturally sunny day for March in my apartment in Midwood, New York. My name is Mancio, and I work at the New York Stock Exchange. I am not an ordinary broker. I was born with a special ability to see the future; however, there is one catch-I can only see five minutes ahead. This limits my ability to make lots of money in the stock market. That is okay, though, because no one else knows that I have this ability, and I do not want them to know. If people know, I could be hunted by the government and others seeking to use my ability. So every day, I go about my daily routine. I rise, go to work in the morning, eat my lunch at a nearby park, go back to work, then go home to my empty apartment in the evening. I try and live as unnoticed as possible, but apparently I was not careful enough.

As soon as I arrived at work, I stopped dead. There in my office was an angel. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She had long shoulder length wavy hair, a beautiful white smile that could light up the darkest of caves, and the most breathtaking eyes. They were electric blue with the gentleness of a puppy, yet with the ferocity of a lightning storm. Now, having a supernatural gift does not mean you are also gifted in other things as well. Let us just say that my first reaction to her was like a bull in a china shop. I walked in and fumbled over introducing myself, while knocking over my mug of tea as I tried to sit down. She was very polite about my mistake and introduced herself as Ellen Than and explained that she worked for a private investigative company. She admitted that her agency had been monitoring me for the past few weeks because they noticed that I never lost money in the nine years that I had been with the Stock Exchange. They had retrieved all of my transactions and noticed that I had consistently sold at the point before the stock went down. Ellen believed that I had a special talent, but she did not know exactly what it was. She was here to offer me a one time job to catch a known terrorist group, the Vukan. She had heard from the company's underground sources that the terrorist group were planning something big in Manhattan in the next twenty-four hours.

I asked her, “Is it okay for me to think about it for a day and then I’ll get back to you tomorrow?” to which she replied with a voice like silk,

“Of course. Here’s my card. Please call me when you have your answer.” Then she added, “You will end up helping us, it’s your choice whether it will be the easy way or the hard way.”

As soon as she left, I thought long and hard about what I was going to do. With a plan in mind, I gathered my personal belongings from my office and asked my boss if I could go home because I was feeling sick. The first thing I did when I exited the office was to catch a cab to the bank and withdrew most of the money in my account. I made a few calls and arranged for a private airplane to be ready to take me to a place where I could disappear. I looked into the future and saw that if I am to walk out of the bank, I would hear the whizz of a bullet, feel a burning sensation in my abdomen, see all the blood that was gushing out like a waterfall, feel light headed, start falling forward, and then, everything would go black. So exiting out of the front of the bank was not an option. I took an elderly man’s jacket and a woman’s big pink sombrero hat. As I exited the bank in my disguise, I kept my face hidden, and walked to the next block. I then tried to identify where the shooter was. I wanted to know who was out to kill me. I spotted a bald-headed man on the roof with a gun aimed at the door of the bank. He had on a black tank top with tattoos covering his body. He was a typical thug who was probably hired to prevent me from uncovering the Vukan’s plan. At that moment, I was not worried about the plan that would blow a hole in Manhattan. I wanted to get out of New York so people could not use my gift to their advantage. So I hopped in a cab and headed toward my waiting airplane, which was parked on a long strip of a pier so there would be no record of me leaving New York. I paid my acquaintance in cash for the airplane and his services. As soon as he left I, knew that the Ellen’s company was closing in-the front tire of the plane was shot preventing my escape. All options ended badly for me in this situation, so I decided to choose the least risky one and try to run away on top of the shipping containers.

The explosion sent me flying towards the New Jersey side of the river, and land I hit the bone chilling water of the Hudson River. As soon as I hit the water, I swim as fast I could towards New Jersey. Unfortunately Ellen has a boat ready in case I tried escaping by using the water. She catches up with me and a man pulls me out of the river onto the boat. She immediately starts questioning me about my gift. Maybe, because I was done trying to run or because she is so charming, I told her everything. Ellen explains that one of the shipping containers exploded and that is only a small fraction of what the explosives will do if I do not help them to stop this attack. She believes that best way to find out about this plan is to go after the man who tried to shoot me at the bank

At the bank, the shooter is still patiently waiting for me to walk out of the door. So Ellen and I climb the stairwell to capture the shooter. We quietly open the door and sneak across the open roof towards the shooter. We both grab one of his arms and pin him to the ground then she puts a zip-tie on his hands as modified handcuffs.

Ellen then takes the shooter back to the corporate headquarters, where she brings him into an interrogation room where she presses him for information about the explosives. Finally she offers him a deal of a softer prison sentence for the information on the location of the explosives. We obtain the information with five hours until the bomb is set to explode.

Ellen calls her friends at the company to meet her at the location for backup. It turns out that the location is a pier that has a rundown warehouse with a fence and barbed wire near the Brooklyn Bridge. Using my gift, I enter the building where many people start shooting at me, I am dead within seconds. I relay this information to the men that they will have to go in expecting heavy gunfire because there are many shooters. They brake down the door and we step into a warzone.

We enter and all I hear is the constant popping of gunfire like popcorn in the microwave. I manage to avoid being shot by using my talent for seeing what to do so I will not die. Sometimes this involves falling to the ground or hurling myself to my side to avoid stray bullets. Ellen and I start to search for the explosives before what little time we have left is gone. We cautiously climb up to the second level where we believe the explosives are being stored. There, on our right one guard steps out of a room with heavy artillery, but before he can fire a shot, Ellen drops him like a fly. Another one starts shooting from behind us. We are lucky that I can see the future because I push her out of the way, and she returns fire with extreme marksmanship. In the next room, a man in a formal suit is about to escape out of the window. With stupid courage, I pull him back into the building. He must be a master in martial arts, because he started attacking me with the ferocity of a lion. I am able to dodge the attacks because I can see where they are coming from by looking into the future. He left himself vulnerable with a big swing and I capitalized on this opportunity to disable him. I tie him up for the authorities we continue to search every room. We finally find the explosives in the northernmost part of the building. It is set to go off in two minutes, which Ellen informs me that it is not enough time to get the bomb squad. I decide to try and disable the bomb myself. I inspected the bomb, and all of the wiring runs back to the central console...one minute. There are two wires and I need to cut one. However, I did not know which wire to cut...thirty seconds! I decide to take my chances and cut the black wire. In the future, I see that nothing happens. We start celebrating, but then suddenly the explosives detonate leveling the Brooklyn Bridge and a third of lower Manhattan. So I decide that cutting the black wire would be catastrophic...ten seconds! I cut the red wire. Nothing. I kneel for another thirty seconds, making sure I cut the right wire and to catch my breath. I did it. I saved New York.

After all of the excitement, things went by in a blur. There was a big ceremony congratulating me. I met the President, and I asked Ellen out for dinner, to which she accepted. I still have a job at the Stock Exchange, and for now, life is perfect. That is until some other terrorist group threatens the United States and I am called into action again.