The Chandelier

 This story received an honorable mention in the first round of the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge 2021.  The story had to have these elements: Action/Adventure genre, acrobat, dependence.

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Sam dodged the fist coming his way and delivered a knee to the stomach.  He followed with an elbow to his victim’s back, sending him sprawling to the cement. He picked up the bleeding guy’s head by the hair and said, “Call off work for a few days,” and threw him back down to the pavement, breaking his nose.  Sam brushed himself off,  buttoned his black leather jacket, crossed the open plaza surrounded by high rise buildings and got into the back seat of the waiting SUV.  The car pulled into traffic as soon as the door was closed.

“Alright, I beat him up as requested. Who was he?” Sam asked.

“Part of the next assignment. We need you to take out a Bulgarian politician’s daughter. He has, shall we say, disappointed us. She thinks she’s in hiding but we found her.  She’s an acrobat in the Bingley Family Circus,” Mikalo said.

“Why me? I don’t know anything about the circus.”

“You don’t have to.  You have a unique skill set we need for this job, rigging.  You need to simply arrange for an accident.”  Mikalo handed Sam a photo of the circus act.

“I count eight girls involved here. Which one is the target?”

“We don’t know.  Our sources aren’t clear. We just know she’s one of them.”

“What about the other women?”

“There are sometimes unfortunate side effects of the work we do.  You take out the whole act, we know our job is done.”

Sam shifted in his seat.  “It’s sloppy. You’ve always left the details of the assignment to me.  Why is this time different?”

“You know what happened in your last mission.  We can’t always be on cleanup detail. We felt it would be better if we set this one up for you. Give you an opportunity to get back in our good graces, as it were.”

“I did that job as expected.  It’s not my fault that one of your operatives decided to get creative.” Sam took another look at the picture. “I can’t do it.  Too many innocent lives.  I didn’t sign up for this.” He passed the photo back to Mikalo.

“And your daughter?”

“Is that a threat?” Sam lurched forward as the driver slammed on the brake at a stoplight. 

“It’s an insurance plan.  You don’t have an option here. You take on the job or you know the consequences.” The car moved on as the light changed.

Sam considered it, rubbed his hand over his face and exhaled.  “How much?”

“That’s a good man.” Mikalo winked and smiled. “I look forward to reading the news about the tragic accident.” He sat back and took a drag on his cigarette.

“I can’t guarantee I can get in right away.  It’s going to take some time for me to assess and make the plan.”

Mikalo blew out smoke. “You’ll get in. The circus arrives in town tomorrow.  You have three days.” The vehicle pulled over to the sidewalk in front of the arena.  Sam got out of the car.

A few hours later, Sam walked out of the Botanicals Pet Foods Arena’s personnel office with a key pass/ID badge.  Six foot tall, evidence of body building and good looks for days, he had easily secured a temporary position on the arena staff assigned to the incoming circus show. They needed an extra hand as they had someone call off work for a week, something about an unexpected injury. He spent the rest of the afternoon with the arena regulars, learning the specifics of where everything was located and researching circus rigging on his mobile during breaks.

Gone were the days of the big tent.  The three-ring travelling circus booked their shows into arenas, field houses or covered stadiums.  They had their own train, cars filled with equipment, animals and sleeping quarters.  The trucks arrived early the following morning to deliver the gear to this week’s show grounds.  Sam and the rest of the staff supplemented the circus riggers with their knowledge of the arena’s facilities.  Controlled chaos best described the setting up of backstage wardrobe and makeup rooms, various lighting contraptions, the three rings, the trapeze artists platforms near the ceiling and more. Sam met Alejandro and his boss Thompson who showed him the equipment truck full of pulleys, blocks, chains, ropes, carabiner clips, shackles, eye bolts and other tools of the trade.  The show itself required a strict adherence to the schedule to ensure that each piece of machinery was in the place it needed to be to shine the spotlight on the master of ceremonies and to make sure the swings were ready for the gymnasts.

Thompson said to Sam, “This is your earpiece.  You need this on you during each show.  My notes here say you’re an expert so I’m putting you on the hair chandelier act.”

“The what?”

“So, the acrobats get attached to this rig by their hair and are lifted 35 feet in the air and they spin around and do whatever it is that acrobats do.” Thompson used hand gestures to draw the mental picture.  “It’s actually pretty impressive and it looks like it hurts like hell. And they do it without a net.  You got that? No net. So, it’s vitally important that this rig is safe and secure, got it?  ‘Cause these women, their lives depend on this rig, understand?  I’ve got two safety checks built into the run-through, Alejandro does one and you do one, got it? Life and death shit right here.” Thompson shook his head. “Sometimes the things these people come up with.  Let me show you how it works.  Remember, life and death shit, got it?”

Sam walked through that afternoon of “got it?”s and “understand?”s assuring Thompson every time.  He examined the umbrella-like piece with the attached wires and hooks for each girl to connect to the metal ring in their hair.  There was a single point failure, an industrial strength carabiner clip at the top of the umbrella, which holds the weight of all of the performers and the rigging.  Sam stashed a spare carabiner in his personal gear. 

The team worked long and hard and by the end of the day, everything was in place for tomorrow’s early show.  Alejandro invited Sam to go out drinking with them and the three men took the truck back to the train.  While the circus employees took a quick shower, Sam stood outside and watched a busload of performers unload.  He caught the eye of one of the acrobats. 

“You hang by your hair? Doesn’t that hurt?” he opened.

“Nah, used to it.  The hair, it’s strong, you know?” She said in a heavy accent. She looked him over and laughed.  “You must be new.”

“I’m with the arena.”

“Performers and crew, we do not mix.  You are cute, though.”  She laughed as she walked away, arm in arm with another performer.

“But not cute enough,” he mumbled to himself.

“Oh, I do not know about that.” Sam turned to face the voice. “Naveena is right, though.  We do not mix with the crew.” The young athlete took the measure of the man before her. “But you? I will have a drink with you.” She climbed onto the train.  Sam followed.  

The rabbit warren that serves as living quarters was confusing but she opened a door and Sam stepped inside. Everything was covered in brightly colored fabrics, pinks, purples, blues, a kaleidoscope of indistinct images. He sat down on a low yellow ottoman, cocked an eyebrow and accepted the gin glass pressed in his hand.

“I’m Rada,” she said.

“Sam.”

“Sam I am, that Sam I am. I learned English with that book.” She swallowed the contents of her glass and sat down at her dressing table. She took the metal ring out of her hair pulled her arms out of the leotard straps and started peeling off the outfit. “We will have sex now.  Then I only have to shower once.”

“What?” Sam nearly spilled his drink.

She stood up to finish taking off her clothes. “You want to have sex with me, yes?  That is why you followed me, a stranger, into my bedroom, is it not?”

“Uh, well, yes, but, um, usually we try to get to know one another first.”

“I don’t have time for that.  I want to have sex and then get my shower.  It is just exercise with a bang at the end. Take off your trousers. You can keep your T-shirt on.  I like the smell of musk.”

Sam threw back the rest of the drink, set the empty glass on the floor and did as he was ordered.  Rada took his hand and led him to the bed. “You are beautiful,” he began.

She sat down. “Ssh. Do not talk.  I did not invite you here for conversation.  Now, take me where I need to go.”  She pulled him onto the soft downy comforter and they made the beast with two backs. The interlude lasted all of twenty minutes.

Rada got up and put on a red silk kimono, dragons chasing each other designed in yellow thread.  “That was satisfactory.  And maybe tomorrow, we will do this again. But now you will go.  Goodbye Sam I am.”   He donned his pants and slipped into his trainers.  He put his hand on the door and turned to face her.  Rada cut him off.  “Say nothing.  Just go.” She pushed him into corridor and shut the door behind him.   His phone vibrated as he maneuvered himself off of the train.

“We have intel that she will do a runner tomorrow,” Mikalo’s text read. “We can’t lose her. Do it at the 8pm show.” Sam stashed his phone in his pocket.  He felt a hand slap his shoulder from behind.

“Dude, where the hell have you been?” Alejandro asked. “The drinks don’t get drunk by themselves.”

Sam woke up on the floor in Thompson’s quarters in the train car. He had just enough time to hit his apartment, clean up and be back for the early show of the two that would be performed that day.  Alejandro and Thompson didn’t look a whole lot better than he did but they were professionals. He put on his head set and began following his cues.

The hair chandelier act was the first one after the intermission.  He and Alejandro pulled up the circular curtain that hid the preparations from the audience. They released the ropes to drop the chandelier to the ground and examined all of the wires and clips, raised the unit four feet and waited for the girls to arrive.  The acrobats rush in with their sparkly spandex. The two men assisted with attaching the hair rings to the carabiner clips at each of eight points around the umbrella, Sam personally ensuring that Rada was secure.  Alejandro stayed while Sam ducked out of the curtain.  The arena lights dimmed and the spotlights came up. The chandelier made its ascent while Alejandro dropped the circular curtain and controlled the umbrella’s rise.  Unexpectedly, the chandelier rigging swayed slightly, enough that Thompson and Sam could tell that something was amiss but the audience would not know. The rig righted itself.  The acrobats spun by their hair high above the circus ring and finished the performance to thunderous applause.  

Rada sought out Sam in the interval between the two shows.  “Our chandelier has never wobbled like that before. What happened?”

“Don’t know. We went over it before the show and everything looked good.”

“I do not trust that man, that Alejandro.  Naveen would not accept his advances and now he is mad.  I think he is trying revenge, no?” Rada took both of Sam’s hands.  “You, you would not be so careless.  I would feel better if you took his place for the next show, yes?” Sam told her he would. He knew he had time to get out of the way of the accident that was about to happen.

The first half of the 8pm show was flawless.  The lights of the arena came up for the intermission.  Sam, Thompson and Alejandro pulled up the circular curtain, brought down the umbrella rig and examined the chandelier closely.  Everything looked as expected.  Alejandro checked the carabiner at the apex and declared it to be sound. Alejandro called Sam over to do his check as he moved on to look at the eight individual carabiners.  Sam switched out the carabiner clip with one that was compromised, without the other guys seeing. He gave a thumbs up and Thompson left. 

The music started playing to introduce the 2^nd half of the show.  Sam adjusted the umbrella frame to be about 4 feet from the floor.  While the arena lights were still on, the acrobats ran in to connect into their assigned spots.  But although there were eight acrobats, Rada was not one of them.  No-one knew where she was so a last-minute substitute was made to ensure the weight distribution would not upset the delicate balance of the chandelier.  The performers were ready when the arena lights dimmed.  The spotlights came up as he was guiding the ropes lifting the apparatus to its full show height. Sam’s earpiece crackled and he heard a familiar but decidedly American accented voice.

“Hey, it’s Rada. Well, actually, my real name’s Courtney.  Just wanted to let you know there is no Bulgarian politician.”  Sam was still standing directly under the chandelier as he dropped the circular curtain to reveal the spinning aerialists.  He was disoriented by the voice in his ear and didn’t move.

“The operative from your last assignment who died?  That was Mikalo’s favorite nephew.  You screwed up and it’s payback time.  Bye Sam I am.” The connection was dropped.

Sam jerked his head up when he heard the snap as the carabiner clip broke.  He could see, from a singular, unique vantage point, the acrobats and the chandelier plummet to the ground on top of him.  Thompson’s words were the last thing he thought of.

“Life and death shit, got it?”