It was as if time was frozen. The gun clicked. Vincent stared into the deep chambers of the gun and let out a small smile.

"I knew it."

It was as if time was frozen. Brett stood waiting for the bullet to leave the gun. Another click.

"It's no use trying," explained Vincent. "I already emptied the bullets, actually."

And as Brett checked the cartridge, Vincent jumped on him and pinned him to the floor. A security guard passed by and rushed to the scene. Another student had run off to tell security in the apparent confusion.

"Actually," Vincent said, "the gun never left your back pocket."

And there it was. The policeman pulled it out of Brett's pants and stuck it in his own.

---

"So how'd you know?" asked Alia anxiously, during History class.

"Simple. He was the only one with the strange reaction." Vincent tried to pay attention, but diplomatic resolves weren't exactly an interesting point in history, even if they were important.

"But I thought you bought those smoke bombs from him."

"Yeah. So?"

"So... wouldn't his behavior be... well... not strange?"

Vincent looked at Alia as if she were stupid. "Of course it was strange! It's not like he knew what I was going to do with those."

"Well fine," Alia said with resignation. "Even if that's so, how would that have told you who the... er... culprit would be?"

Vincent shrugged. "Simple psychology. He had a gun. He wouldn't care about his own life if he was going to go to a high school loaded with security guards to kill someone. He clearly didn't value his own life. Hence the set-up."

It was all so simple when he explained it, Alia thought.

"Well, how did you know it would be a gun?" Alia asked.

"What else could you possibly bring in time? If that person was going to glow up the school, he'd be making announcements weeks before. The fact that the announcement came only yesterday led me to believe that it wasn't a bomb, because bombs take quite a bit of preparation. So what else could possibly be smoke? Smoke bombs? A simple prank. I figured I'd be more prepared for something more drastic."

"And how'd you know that Brett had a gun in the first place?"

"What else would he possibly have brought?" Vincent said it matter-of-factly, but it was a weak argument.

"But some bombs can be prepared quickly..." Alia rebutted.

"I took my chances."

Vincent was staring straight at the board, and Alia felt a pang of shock run through her body. Had he really not known what kind of weapon it would be?

"Look, if it was a bomb anyway, I would have stopped him before he could plant it. The fake gun was a dual-purpose. If he had a gun, it would serve as a decoy. If he had a bomb, I could threaten him with it."

Vincent continued scribbling notes.

"It was ingenious, pretending to take his gun while dropping a decoy," Alia noted. Vincent let out a short smirk.

"Wait a second." Alia turned to Vincent as he continued writing. "Don't tell me that wasn't part of your plan...!!"

Vincent didn't lift his head to turn to her. He said simply, "You'll never know, because a magician never reveals his tricks."