Mexican Standoff

It was stalemate. His Xatnep SLR was old but it looked pretty effective from where I was standing - just inches away from the business end.

"Go ahead" I said. "What's stopping you?"

My mouth went dry as I saw his finger move on the shutter release button. The click as he partially depressed it echoed around the room like a very loud click. I heard the whir of his autofocus as it locked in on me.

He cleared his throat. When he spoke, the words came out like the rasp of a worn autowind motor - "We can both walk away from this. No-one needs to get shot today. What say we both put down our pieces real slow?"

Inside my head, bells were ringing and a choir was singing. I realised that he didn't know about my back-up. The iPhone was never going to win me any photography awards but it might just be enough to take that one crucial picture.