partitions and mini-offices on the fourth floor, where lawyers busily prepared their cases, a desk sat empty. The name plate had been removed, and the plastic tree in the corner was gone. Eddie Loco had been fired the day before.

Today he was coming back to visit.

It was just after lunch when Eddie appeared. He calmly walked through the revolving doors and strolled nonchalantly through the main reception area to the elevators. He pushed the up button and patiently waited for the doors in front of him to open. With a quiet ding! the doors slid open, and Eddie entered the elevator. He pressed the button for the fourth floor and waited.

Up on the fourth floor, in a real office, sat Adrian Browning, the man responsible for the dismissal of Eddie Loco. He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on his desk. He closed his eyes, put his head back and relaxed. His intercom buzzed, and he quickly sat up and pressed one of its many buttons.

"Yes, Ms. Stevens?'' "There's a Mr. Loco here to see you, sir. He says it's very important.'' "Show him in.'' The moment Eddie walked through the door into Mr. Browning's office, Ms Stevens activated the silent security alarm under her desk; she had seen the handle of Eddie's magnum when his jacket had brushed against her desk. She bit her lip when she heard shouting inside the office and prayed the security guard would get there before it was too late.

Inside the office Mr. Browning stared down the barrel of Eddie's magnum. Sweat beaded on his forehead and trickled down his spine. "Please, Eddie, I have children.'' "Yeah, well so do I, and now that I have no job, they're going to go hungry.

Isn't that great?'' Browning swallowed hard, "Uh, no. No, of course not. That's terrible.'' "Shut up.'' Eddie fired three times into Browning's chest. Browning gasped a last, ragged breath. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped forward in his chair, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Loco grinned with satisfaction, "Let's see you fire me now.'' The door of the office flew open, and the security guard who had just kicked the door in levelled the gun at Loco and commanded, "Freeze!'' Loco swung his gun around to shoot the guard but was too slow. The slugs from the guard's .38 slammed into his chest and propelled him back through the huge window behind him. His blood splattered the window a fraction of a second before he smashed through it and plummeted to the sidewalk below.

A window washer a floor down on his scaffolding watched as Loco's lifeless body tumbled past him and sighed, "Man, I just washed that window.'' DONALD McLEAN 4 South, Warwick Academy