My hand was resting on my sidearm, a Sig P226. When I saw the gun I knew I didn’t have a chance. I considered my options. It is amazing how quickly the human mind works when it has to. His gun was out. It was in his hand but not yet pointed at me. I considered trying to draw, but there wasn’t any way I could beat him. I was dead meat.

His hand came up, holding the revolver. He swung it up and pointed it at the back of the head of the kid in front of him. I saw him hesitate a moment and then pull the trigger.
The hammer fell with a click. No bang. No explosion. I heard him laugh and a second later he was out of sight. It had been a starters pistol or cap gun.

By the time I had reached the bottom of the escalator, the adrenaline surge had caused my hands to start to shake uncontrollably. In those two seconds, those two brief seconds, I knew I was going to die. The sequence was as clear to me as if it had been story boarded out. But I walked away, and it seems, no one but I saw what had happened.