Desperate Measures

I hung up, smiling to myself. I had him.

Well, rather, I would have him soon. I just had to get him out of his current predicament.

I knew who was chasing him, and why. Usually this would be because I was the one pulling the strings, but it was good to let a couple other wannabes in the game, keep you on your toes.

I opened the door of my office, only to be met with a gun barrel.

“Nothing personal.” He said, before pulling the trigger.

I guess the problem with wannabes is they can offer amnesty too.

Desperate Times

It’s amazing how quickly your mind can work when said mind has a better than 50/50 chance of being blown out the back of your skull within 48 hours.

I managed a complete inventory of how many favors I could call in, cross-referencing that with just how big a pile of shit I was in and reaching the conclusion that I was still aiming to be six feet under, all while driving at top speed, avoiding both cops AND pursuers.

After the crash, a shootout and a knife battle, I gave up, shanked a passer-by, grabbed her phone…

And dialled.

Bullet Proof

Having gotten away from the Costbuilder Cartel and hidden in a warehouse, I thought we could have a moment to plan, or at least reload all our weapons. But once Amber clocked Chuck with an elbow, I knew I had to play peacemaker, had to calm everyone down.

“The FUCK?” I yelled.

I wasn’t good with peacemaking.

“Someone tipped them off about where we were, and since we were together last night, must have been Cowboy!”

Chuck stood up.

“I can’t prove I didn’t-“

A sniper bullet slammed into his shoulder.

“Or maybe I can.” He muttered as he died.

Def, Dum & Blynd

I’m aware of the term ‘Groupie’, and that it has connotations. But this wasn’t about glamour or trying to get my hooks into some stupid rich kid. Their name was silly, sure, but what Def, Dum and Blynd did with Electronica, EDM… Those three men were the modern day Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, working together! And while their mousey little manager tried to keep me away, I ignored that bitch and… ‘Got’ with them, just to be close to them…

Then I found out the manager was actually making all the music, the boys were just decoration.

So I switched.

Bundle Of Nerves

The landing party materialised in some sort of farmland. All of the veterans began to perform their tasks, while one of the women swayed and bent over.

“First time zipped?” asked the medical officer, running the scanner over her quickly.

“Uh, yeah, but also, first mission, I’m just a… Threat!”

As she called out she pulled her Stun Gun and fired at the angry native who was running towards them. The native collapsed and stopped moving, fully.

Turns out that a weapon that overloads nerve endings to knock creatures out is lethal if you have enough nerve endings bunched together…

Checkmate

In thirty-seven years’ worth meetings, he must have asked about my chess set at half of them. I knew it was part of the act, he kept up the façade of an old man, but I knew the Grand Chancellor was a brilliant tactician. Keeping the crown safe despite stupid Royals wasn’t easy.

But no matter how many times I offered, he never let me teach him. Far too old, far too busy.

Shame. Because when I gave the newly crowned teenage King a beautiful, seductive courtesan from my homeland, he might have understood why I whispered ‘Checkmate’ to him.

Rich Man’s Folly

Locally, it was known as the Rich Man’s Folly, a name that had been applied to half a dozen things over the years. But unlike the underground tunnel systems or the small water treatment plant, this one looked set to keep the name for years.

After all, the town had at most a thousand people living in it, why would it need a fiberoptic internet node with a maximum capacity of a yottabyte per second, whatever the hell that was?

Thing is, it was on Native land, and thus copyright law worked differently there.

Less folly, more legal run-around really.