An Escape, I Mean Heist, I Mean Spy Mission

      They’re close behind me as I burst onto the roof, quickly realizing there’s nowhere to go from here. I sprint to the edge of the building and look down, seeing the street 30 stories below. As I contemplate my next move, I hear the door open behind me and turn back to see three imposing men in matching suits scan the roof. It takes only a moment for them to see me and suddenly I’m out of time. I eye the gap between this roof and the one across from me. I can make it. I head towards the men for a moment, getting just close enough to get a running start. I barely outrun their grasp, my coat tail brushing the fingertips of the one out front as my feet leave the roof. I glance down at the cars passing below for half an instant before locking my eyes back to the roof ahead. As I reach the other roof—

           As I reach the other roof—

           I don't reach the other roof. Suddenly I’m suspended in mid-air, like I’m paused. Wait, would a real person be able to make this jump? Is it believable? All at once, like a rewind, I’m pulled back to the roof. The men are sent back through the door and I’m not far behind them. Now I’m back where I started, about to burst through the door, getting a redo. I don’t have time to hesitate. The men are still behind me and I still have to get away.

           They’re close behind me as I, again, burst onto the roof, still with nowhere to go from here. I start to sprint to the edge of the building but this time, I know I cannot make that jump, so instead I look for somewhere to hide, ducking behind a nearby air conditioner, at least that’s what I think it is. The men burst through the door and scan the roof. They don’t see me right away, so they fan out to search the roof. “He’s got to be up here somewhere, and he can’t hide forever!” I hear one call out.

He's right. Of course they’d find me on the roof. And then what? I’m supposed to take on three guys twice my size all by myself? Again, they go back through the door, in reverse, and I’m not far behind them. Again, I find myself back on the other side of the door, about to burst onto the roof.

This time I see a ladder next to the door and I climb up over the door. From here I can get the drop on them. It would be even better if I had a gun. But that wouldn’t make sense because I haven’t had a gun this whole time. I’d have to go way back and have a gun at the party in the first place, but I didn’t. So now how am I supposed to take them all out? I may have the drop from up here, but is it enough for me to take all three of them out in hand-to-hand combat? This time the goons don’t even make it to the roof before I’m back down the ladder and inside the door.  It’s been about a week that I’ve had this power. Every time I get into a situation that I can’t get out of or start to question if I can actually achieve something, I get a redo. It’s like my first attempt never happened and I get to try again until it feels right.

So I burst through the door again, this time I’m frozen on the roof, no idea what do next. Why did I run up to the roof in the first place? No sooner does the question enter my mind than I reverse back through the door. This time I go all the way down the stairs, back to the bedroom I was in before security caught me rummaging through the wall safe. I hear their footsteps and this time, instead of running, I close myself in the closet with the safe. The three mountainous men burst into the room and do a quick scan. “I swear I heard someone in here,” one says. “Check the safe,” another says, because obviously the ambassador’s security would check the safe if they were concerned about a security threat. And in doing so, they’d find me in the closet. Again, the world goes into reverse and I hear their footsteps, once again in the distance.

This time I close the safe and relock it, this time closing the closet door from outside of the closet. I roll under the bed just as the bedroom door opens. “I swear I heard someone in here.” “Check the safe.” At least they remain consistent. I watch a pair of shoes go to the closet and swing the door open. “It’s locked.” The three men take another beat, presumably scanning the room for anything amiss, then head back out the bedroom door. This time I got it right. Now all that’s left is to get back down to the party and walk right out the front door.

I roll back out from under the bed and exit out the bedroom door. The same door security just went through. Why would they hurry back to the party and leave the hallway unattended if they were suspicious? The security people are of course right in the hallway and see me immediately. I reverse back into the bedroom, back under the bed. If I can’t go the way security went, I’ll have to sneak out the window and back into the party. I start to climb out the living room window when I remember this bedroom is on the second floor. I’m back inside the window before I know it and this time I start fashioning a rope from the sheets. But then they’ll know I was here, which defeats the purpose of the mission. The sheet rope unravels and I’m climbing back out from under the bed for a third time.

This time as I climb out the window I find a trellis to climb down. I reach the ground and the guards who of course are circling the perimeters see me immediately. I am pulled back up the trellis and back through the window, under the bed yet again. Sneaking out the window and back into the party would absolutely be more difficult than sneaking back down the hall and stairs. The guards wouldn’t hang out in the hallway forever, would they? One might stay on the door to the bedroom, but the other two would return to the party after a few minutes. I am a world class secret agent after all; I can take out one giant man.

This time when I find myself under the bed, I wait. I roll out after a minute and listen at the door. I hear footsteps in the hall at first. After what feels like an eternity but my watch tells me is just a few minutes, I hear talking. It’s too muffled to make out much, but the words are followed by steps retreating down the hallway. I peek under the crack in the door and see exactly what I expected, a single pair of shoes posted outside the door. I count to 30 to make sure the other two are out of ear shot before I act. I know that I’ll have only an instant before Goliath draws his weapon once I open the door, so I have to act fast. I try to picture the guards I saw when I was at the party and where they keep their guns. My instincts tell me it will be holstered on his right side, but I wonder if that’s colored by what most security people do or if it’s actually memory of these guards. I close my eyes to picture the guards and I’m glad I do, because I see the gun tucked in the back of the waistband, no holster in sight. I open my eyes, take a deep breath, and spring into action.

I swing the door open and grab the gun before the guard can even react. I shoot him in an instant and the sound of a gunshot brings the rest of the security team running. I can’t just shoot him; it’s too loud. The clock turns back to before I took the shot and this time I push the gun into the back of his neck and whisper in his ear, “You make a sound, you die. Now turn around, slowly.” I walk around as he turns, staying behind him so he never sees my face. I remove his earpiece and radio, so he can’t call for help, then hit him hard in the back of the neck, knocking him out. He hits the ground hard, causing a guard to radio him asking if everything is okay. I rustle my shirt over the mouthpiece as I radio back, saying everything is fine through the rustle so they won’t notice that my voice is different. “Jesus, Smith, your radio is giving a lot of feedback, but Roger that,” he responds. But at least he’s not suspicious. I start down the hallway to the stairwell and return to the party.

Though there are guards blocking the stairs to make sure guests don’t go upstairs. I would need to get them away from the stairs to return to the party unnoticed. I reverse back to the top of the stairs and this time I throw the radio in my hand, hoping the guards will rush towards it when it lands. But the guards see where it came from and turn around, spotting me immediately. The radio returns to my hand and I need a new plan. I push the button on the radio and start to make up an incident across the ballroom, but the guards don’t know my voice and immediately grow suspicious. Time turns back again. I reach for my shirt to rustle it again, but they know Smith is upstairs and wouldn’t know about what’s going on in the ballroom. Maybe it’s time for the other guards to find Smith.

I duck into the room at the top of the stairs and throw Smith’s radio down the hall back at him, hard. It makes a loud noise hitting the wall and I pull the door almost closed behind me. The guards rush up to check on the bang and run past me down the hall towards Smith. I slip out the door and down the stairs quickly, blending back into the party crowd just in time before the guards upstairs radio for backup. I breathe a sigh of relief and grab a glass of champagne off a passing tray. Now I just have to enjoy the party and walk out the front door later in the night. I finally got it right this time.