Brinus stopped at a liquor store on his way to the hospital. He pulled into the parking lot and turned off his syndicate-issued car. He came out and threw a cigarette butt onto the ground, snuffing it with his shoe. After grabbing a 40-oz malt whisky, he walked up to the counter and pulled out his credit card, but it was declined.
The store manager came behind the counter. “Kid, get lost. Don’t make me call the cops.”
“What if I had a syndicate tattoo?”
The manager laughed until Brinus showed his Orin affiliation mark. After scanning it, he realized it was real. He approved the purchase as two cops entered the liquor store.
“The AI said a teenager was buying alcohol in this store?”
The manager shifted in his shoes a bit before saying, “Oh, he’s military. He’s allowed.”
The cops nodded and left the store.
“You’re lucky you’re in the syndicate kid. Now scram.” The shopkeeper made a shooing motion with his hand.”
Brinus put the malt whisky in a paper bag and drove to the hospital. He got out and walked into the main lobby. Inside was someone with a camera recording a young man. Brinus immediately knew it was someone from the Federation. It was usually Feddie citizens who acted like fools in public. Indeed, four cops were in the lobby watching him.
He entered the check-in and swiped his military ID into the card reader of a cigarette vending machine. He put four one-credit credit chips into the coin slot and bought Harper's favorite cigarettes.
“Hey, you? What’s your name?”
Brinus turned and the person who spoke was the fed citizen. The cameraman was behind him.
“Get lost.” Brinus tried to push past him but the guy was a lot stronger as he was older and had more muscle mass. He pushed Brinus against the wall.
“Who are you visiting?”
Brinus had heard of these types of rage baiters from the federation. They would ask personal questions and then make fun of the answers. They would then record the reaction on the live stream.
He decided to give him exactly what he wanted but Brinus was sure this man would not like his response. “Harper Magnus, my Boyfriend.” Brinus began tearing up in a fake cry. “He is in the ICU from a car wreck.” He began crying hysterically.
The rage baiter smiled and then said “Your boyfriend deserved it and he was fa-.”
At that exact moment, a family of about seven people walked out of the elevator behind the rage baiter. Three babies in a stroller were crying loudly followed by a woman holding a screaming toddler’s hand, followed by a young man and a young woman with matching wedding rings on their fingers yelling at each other about how much of a waste of time this all was.
Brinus looked the man in his eyes. He simply sneered, “Is that your opinion of my boyfriend?”
The man nodded. The cops heard and blocked both ends of the hallway as one of them went on his radio. The man was laughing too hard as he heard the cop say, We need to shut the elevator down…no, my men are not going to intervene. We have been waiting to nail this guy for weeks. Once Brinus assaults that rage baiter we will have probable cause to arrest the idiot. I mean we could but where's the fun in that? The cop began laughing
Brinus pulled the whisky bottle out of the paper bag. “Are you sure you want to keep that opinion or do you want to apologize?”
“What are you gonna do about this? I have the power boy!”
Brinus noticed the four cops were keeping people from the elevators which were deactivated. He looked at the corporal on the other end of the hall. They met eyes and he gave him a thumbs up as the young man let loose a string of insults directed at Brinus’s boyfriend.
Brinus smashed the bottle on his head and punched him in the nose hard enough to break it. The cameraman then ran but was tased by the cops at the same time that the prankster fell to the floor, dazed. Brinus stepped over him and the corporal approached him.
“Thanks. We’ve been waiting for weeks to nail this guy. Do you want to press charges?”
“You sure you don’t want to arrest me?”
“No, we won’t. He pushed you into the vending machine, cornered you against the wall, used homophobic slurs, and was verbally provocative. Hell, he laid his hands on you. The DA will say you were defending yourself. I can throw in a hate charge to elevate the crime if you want. The whisky bottle was a bit excessive except this guy had dozens of harassment complaints against him.”
“I’m visitin’ my boyfriend. The sergeant can see me then. And yeah nail the asshole to the wall.”
“Sure thing. You might get a ticket though for concussing that man-child, but you won’t be arrested tonight.”
“Am I being detained?”
“Naw. You’re free to go. We have your information from the AI and it already filed the police report. If you don’t hear from us in a week and get a ticket tonight you’re in the clear.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Brinus nodded and went onto the elevator.
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Brinus came into Harper’s room a few minutes later. It took him a little while to acknowledge him, as he was having the shakes and had two IV bags in his arms. One was labeled “Polymorphine, 0.5%” and the other was labeled “Ringer’s lactate 25%.” There was also a bag of red fluid, which looked like blood, in his right wrist on another IV bag.
Harper looked at Brinus. “Hey babe, gotta cigarette?” Harper was shaking from what Brinus recognized as alcohol withdrawal.
“Sure babe, I got your favorite brand from the lobby.”
“They’ve been giving me AA nicotine pouches but it isn’t the same.”
Brinus put the pack of cigarettes and one of his lighters on his chest. He had gauze bandages wrapped around his torso. Harper struggled to light it because of the tremors so Brinus lit it for him. He saw the nicotine pouches on the bedside table next to Harper. They were in a round can labeled ZYN Pouches, 3.5 mg. It was one of the few companies on Earth that survived the collapse of society before the confederation invaded the planet to save it.
A nurse came after Harper and Brinus began to smoke together. “Hey, you have been told not to smoke. The chemicals in the cigarettes interact with your pain meds.”
“And? What are you gonna do about it?” teased Harper, blowing smoke in her direction and laughing.
The nurse rolled her eyes and left the room. She didn’t have time to deal with something this petty.
Brinus gave Harper a high five. The nurse came back with two ashtrays, she put one on a dinner tray and the other next to Brinus. Brinus after finishing his cigarette replicated a pillow, and a blanket, and undid the cot which was the couch.
“What are you doing?”
Brinus began making the futon bed and stated as he folded the blanket across the mattress, “I’m visitin’. I want to stay overnight to keep ya’ company so I am settin’ up the beddin’.”
Harper smiled shifting in his bed. “You don’t need to do that.”
“Long Ho is gonna pay fer this.”
Harper unrolled a napkin with a bloody tooth in it. “A syndicate goon visited me earlier and delivered this to me. It’s Long Ho’s tooth. Trust me he is paying.”
Brinus laughed cynically and then lit another cigarette. The nurse came into the room to spray deodorizer, shooting dirty looks at both Brinus and Harper.
“Good, he deserves every bit of torture he gets.”
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Briggs was about to go home for the day. He had sent his report on his four open cases to the Magi that week. The magi responded with a cryptic message. He figured he was given the blowoff.
His office was immaculate. Today, he had four exams, so he had nothing on his office walls or desk. It was just his computer console, four white walls, a wooden chair, and his camera.
There was a knock on his door as he finished a report to the magi about professional criminal activity.
“Come in.”
A magi officer entered the room. She showed her badge and sat across from him in the wooden chair. “Who is Brinus Helios. I want to know more about him.”
Briggs squinted his eyes and scrunched up his face. “Why?”
“I want to know how a 16-year-old with no protective gear, a set of welding gloves, went up five stories in the dead of night while the heat was on in the vents?”
“I am sorry?”
The officer rolled her eyes and sighed. She snapped, “Do you know how hot those vents get, not to mention when someone is welding the fans to the walls? They told me you were detail-oriented.”
“The climate control was at 73 degrees Fahrenheit. That means it would be 170 degrees and welding would triple that temperature. I did wonder about that.”
The agent crossed her arms and her legs. “The boy has magic. It is the only explanation. I want you to arrest him and bring him on charges so we can test him.”
Briggs laughed until the Magi agent showed him a viral video on her TriQuarter. It was Brinus assaulting the rage baiter. “I want you to fabricate a charge. Obviously, the charges won’t stick. From what I understand this rage baiter is hated in the Federation and has been causing problems in hospitals and at the spaceport all over Saffron.”
Briggs stood and grabbed his hat and overcoat. “The answer is no.”
“You act like you have a choice.”
Briggs laughed for a moment and then walked to the door. He then sneered, “Find someone else to touch this radioactive pile of nerfshit for you. I will not do it.”
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The hospital room smelled like Tarken Tea cigarettes in the ashtray next to Brinus were six butts and the ashtray in front of Harper there was only two butts. He laughed so hard he coughed up some blood and his heart rate spiked.
Brinus said anxiously, “Are you okay? Do I need to get the nurse?”
“Nah. I’m good. I just need to not laugh so hard.”
Brinus’s pupils dialed and his heart fluttered. “Are you sure?” This was an anxious response.
The nurse came into the room and scanned him with a TriQuarter. “I see what happened, your scar tissue that formed on your lung from the regeneration process degraded because of the cigarette you smoked. I’m taking away your cigs. You still have the ZYN pouches. If you can’t go a few days without a smoke then you have issues.”
The nurse took Harper’s cigarettes, the lighter, and the ashtray and walked back to the door. She rolled her eyes, “Teenagers,” and walked out.
Harper put a nicotine pouch in his mouth. “Damn, well I better not smoke anymore.”
A random kid who visited a friend came into the hospital room and took a photo of Brinus. “My name is Kal, I love what you did to that rage baiter! I saw the video! Bruh, that was epic.” He left after the one comment.
As Brinus removed his shoes and put on his PJs a woman wearing a suit and tie had entered the room. She had a wand by her side, two sets of cuffs, her Magi badge, and subduction gas spray on her belt around her waist. She was about average height for a human female and had her hair in a tight bun. She looked like a federal agent.
“I am here to test your blood for magic with your permission.”
Brinus nodded. One does not refuse a magi request. She walked up to him and pulled out a testing kit from her pocket. “My name is Samantha. You must be Brinus.”
He extended his arm however she did a finger stick to cause a drop of blood to pool. She stuck a pen into the blood to quickly sample it. She then pulled out her TriQuarter and scanned it for anomalies. It came up as positive for the genetic marker, but the nicotine blocked exactly which magic ability he possessed.
“I see you’re a heavy smoker.” The agent spotted the ashtray and the half-smoked pack of cigarettes next to Brinus. “The field test is worthless. The nicotine will block the test results. I am afraid you don’t have Magic Mr. Helios. Good day.”
The Magi officer left the room and called someone on the TriQuarter. “I found a mage. He smokes so much though I don’t think he is a viable candidate for recruitment…and he is too old.”
Brinus stayed with Harper, but the thoughts of the Magi agent visit stuck with him. He rubbed the spot where she took the sample until the pinprick healed just enough to bleed no longer. He wondered to himself why they were interested in him to begin with. They don’t come to anyone without a suspicion or probable cause. He kept this on his mind while he spent time with Harper.
Harper didn’t smoke anymore that evening, and he chewed on the ZYN pouches worse than a child with bubblegum, sometimes making audible squishes and squelches.
However, if nicotine kept the Magi off his ass, Brinus wouldn’t stop smoking, nor complain one bit.