Brinus tried to match drinks with Harper as the techno music pulsed in the background. The tarken tea smoke mingled with the burnt gunpowder from the indoor fireworks. Every so often, pyrotechnics would explode with the next techno song. The dance floor was full of people and catpeople all partying and relaxing on a Friday night.
In front of Harper at his classic booth were ten whisky shot glasses he had just downed his eleventh shot, just as the fireworks exploded and everyone cheered. Brinus had three whisky shot glasses in front of him.
“Are ya’ drunk?”
“A little.” Harper laughed and put his hand on Brinus's hand.
"I have to pee." Brinus stood up, but he stumbled, falling on his back, laughing. Harper stood picked him up. “I think you’ve had enough."
As Harper Left with Brinus over his shoulder, two women in suits came into the bar and flashed health department IDs. They spoke
“We received multiple complaints that minors were drinking at this bar. You two look too young. I need to see your IDs.
Harper put Brinus down and showed the health department officials his license from the police department to commit the crime minor in consumption and distribution of narcotics on a plastic card with a barcode. It had the saffron police headquarters logo and on the back, the Magi Logo on the front. “I am a police operative on official business. Brinus here is a syndicate member. You can call my parole officer on the number on that card.”
The two health departments dialed the number.
A gruff man who sounded like he had just been woken out of a deep sleep answered the phone. “H-Hello? Who the fuck is this?”
“My name is Karen Ragealot. I am a health inspector and code enforcer with the Saffron City Health Department. Why does a teenager have a license to drink alcohol?”
There was an angry scream and a woman’s voice at the end could be heard arguing in a language that wasn’t translated by a universal translator for a few moments. However, it sounded very angry and guttural.
He then demanded once he picked the phone back up, “Well I don’t know who the fuck you are or which client you’re calling about. If one of my kids has a valid license to drink alcohol then it is a police matter and none of your fucking business. If you have issues with it, take up with the precinct captain but I am sure the police are using him as part of an operation.”
“Sir, with respect, A 16-year-old named Harper Magnus who is prisoner 2242 is drinking alcohol in a nightclub. He obviously has consumed a large amount of drink.”
“My apologies. I didn’t realize you were talking about Harper Magnus. Yeah, the police are using him to sell drugs for the department to manage the recent pain pill pandemic caused by four pill mills recently shut down. His job is to keep track of who buys and regular buyers get visits from social workers to get them treatment. If he is drinking at a nightclub then it is none of my fucking business what he does while working.”
“Where can I verify this?”
The Parole officer cussed and shouted, “I suggest you release him. This is a magi operation in conjunction with the saffron police HQ. Now be a good girl and fucking let it go.”
The health inspector hung up the phone as she was only getting verbal abuse. Karen looked at Harper with a curled left lip and hardened eyes. “If you don’t want to be detained for a day or two while I verify this, you can go ahead and pay the fine directly to me and we can avoid all of the paperwork.”
“How much?”
“1000 credits each for you and your customer.”
Harper took out the coins on his credit purse and handed them to the health inspector. The second woman looked at Harper with crossed arms and a cocked head. She stated, “Get some sleep. Don’t you have school tomorrow?”
“No?”
Both health inspectors left the bar with their noses in the air.
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Brinus the next morning was in his bed with Harper. He woke up and stretched. Noticing Fifteen missed texts from Long Ho, so he began reading them:
I know you’re with that boy! Pick up your damn phone!
Did you know your boyfriend is a drug dealer who is with the police?
Did his supervisor think Brinus was stupid? Of course, he looked up Harper’s police. But to call him his boyfriend was stretching it. They were just getting to know each other.
You need to do better because real men date women. I can find you a woman who is just for you.
In the next message was a link to the organization’s website called ‘Pray the Gay Away’ by The Church of the Creator’s Witnesses.
At this point, Brinus took screenshots and sent them to management. Who responded with an eye roll emoji. We will tune him up this evening. I know just the guy to set him straight.
Brinus sent a smiley face emoji and a thumbs-up emoji.
Management: From now on you will deal with me until we get you a new supervisor. It looks like Charlie Pantelli wants you to report to her company. After your report was submitted she was impressed with you and wants to hire you for a job.
Brinus: What’s the job?
Management: Something we don’t discuss over text. I will give you the details at 3 pm.
Brinus put on his shirt, walked over the counter, and sat on top of the countertop. He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it as he brewed coffee in his coffee maker. He wondered how he ended up in his bedroom with Harper cuddled next to him. He didn’t remember what happened after they got home. Only that they snuggled and spent quality time with each other. He had two more shots of whisky and then blacked out.
Brinus saw the two condoms on the kitchen table. He’d only dated Harper for two weeks and just Brought him home. I am being too reckless! What the fuck is wrong with me?!
Brinus went into his room and slapped Harper on the back.
He didn’t even stir. Brinus slapped him on the back hard enough to leave a handprint but Harper still didn’t stir. He rolled his eyes and left him a note on the fridge after replicating some alcohol for him.
Brinus took a sonic shower, cleaned up, and put on his clothes. This time instead of a white tee shirt he wore a blue Death Metal Star shirt and instead of cowboy boots he wore skateboard shoes.
He checked on Harper and wondered if it was safe to leave someone he’d only known for two weeks in his apartment by himself. It was 2 p.m. and he needed to go. He made a final attempt to wake Harper by blasting an air horn in his ear. Harper moaned but didn’t even wake up.
Technically Brinus could call the police at this point but chose not to. That would be dickish. He would just have to trust him because he didn’t have time to arrange a house sitter.
Brinus kissed Harper’s head and left the apartment for his new job.
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Thirty minutes later, Brinus walked through the main entrance. The first thing he noticed was that the security personnel were wearing different uniforms and had guns and shock sticks. Also, mechanics repositioned cameras.
He walked up to the receptionist. “I’m here to see the CEO.”
"Name?"
“Brinus Helios. Call sign Ginger Cat.”
“Can you hand me your wrist?”
The receptionist scanned Brinus’s wrist and then handed him a name tag. On it was the name Ginger Cat and the word guest under it.
“What is your business with the CEO?”
“None of yours.”
“I need to put down something for the books.”
“It’s a private matter.”
The receptionist rolled her eyes and waved her wrist to say shoo. Brinus flashed his stained teeth in a screw-you smile and went to the elevator.
A few moments later Brinus was at the CEO’s office. He waited in the lobby tapping a cigarette on his leg. Wanting to see what the job was he waved down the receptionist.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“Yes, Mr. Helios?”
“What am I being hired to do?”
The woman laughed and then stated, “Hell if I know, I just get her coffee and donuts.” She winked at him signaling him to stay quiet.
Brinus didn’t smoke because last time it cost him ten thousand credits. However, he felt a growing need as he waited longer and longer. Finally, he was called into her office.
Charlie smiled as he walked in. He saw a physically fit man in a suit, tie, and shiny dress shoes. “Hello, Mr. Helios. This man is my husband, my CTO, and the president of mathematics and engineering. He manages the tech side of the business and I manage the business and financial side of things. You look like you need to smoke. Here, have some nicotine gum.” She handed him a piece of gum and it took the edge off of the urge to smoke. “Now onto business. Mr. Pantelli has told me my rival Pen Corp. has developed a new tricobalt warhead for the navy. It hasn’t been tested or submitted for a patent. I understand you have an EOD disposal certification?”
“Yes ma’am.” Brinus popped his gum, wondering where this was heading.
“I want you to take apart the warhead and bring us the components. I also want you to make a copy of the blueprints and bring them to us.”
“Okay. Consider it done.” Brinus had trained for nine years for jobs like this.
“Here is the contract.”
Brinus pressed his thumb on the signature after reading over it.
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The next day Brinus was modifying the fake social media accounts he made and changed his main account name to Bryan. He also made his two dads to spite Long Ho. Bryan McGinty from Earth Born in 2082 was in the Writing Club, a Student Journalist in the school newspaper, taking courses on journalism and technical writing, and was attending the Saffron School of Liberal Arts.
The school didn’t exist so he created a website for the school and used an LLM to generate articles for the newspaper. He edited them to make them sound more human. He created fake classmates with AI and he used AI generators to create fake teachers and their bios. The website and news articles took two days to create. He used an IP masker to hide the address and ran it through a syndicate VPN with the endpoint being spoofed through a syndicate spoofer. which took another day to create. He ordered a school uniform after creating a phone number and a bot programmed with responses for that number.
Once the disguise was set so he called the company.
“Hello this is the VP of communications Allen McGory. How can I help you?”
“Yes my name is Bryan McGinty and I am with the Saffron School of Liberal Arts. I want to set up an apportionment to do a tour?”
“Oh my PA told me about you. Yeah we looked up your school. I never heard of the Saffron School of Liberal Arts but new online colleges are popping up every week. Tell me what is your interest in our company.”
“I have an assignment to write about how businesses develop weapons for the military.”
The VP was quiet and then said. “Well, I can’t show you the development labs or anything classified. As I said, my assistant did her due diligence and everything was checked out. As long as you write a positive article about our company we will give your school a five thousand credit donation.”
What Brinus really needed was access to a computer port so he could plant malware on the building systems to do his job. However, he felt like it would be pushing it too much to ask for access to a computer. One of the lessons he learned in his training was subtlety and patience.
“Sure.”
Damnit, maybe I can get in with the Wi-Fi.
“See you next Monday at 10:00 am?” inquired the VP.
“Sure.”
The VP hung up and Brinus made a note on his calendar for Monday at 10:00 am.
Brinus spent the next two days writing an executable program to be able to hack the computer system undetected and gather data. He then used an AI scraper to scrape the email addresses of every person on the company roster on Saffron and sent a spam message saying:
URGENT: Security Update Required for Pen Corp System – Immediate Action Needed
Dear valued employee,
Due to recent suspicious activity detected on our network, all employees are required to update their security credentials immediately to avoid potential service disruptions and data breaches. This mandatory update will ensure the protection of your account and the integrity of our systems.
What you need to do:
Click on the link below to download the latest security patch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Open the downloaded file and follow the instructions to complete the update process.
Please note: Failure to comply with this update by 30/8/90 will result in limited access to the system until further notice.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact the IT Department directly.
Stay safe,
Pen Corp IT Department
Pen Corp
He then pressed send at the start of the work day after uploading undetectable malware to the link.
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On the day of the school trip, Brinus arrived with his comms burner device and his school business card. His uniform was red and yellow so it would cause the AI to write a line of code to corrupt the image. That way it wouldn’t catch his face.
They scanned him with a full body scanner and then patted him down. After the search, he was given his stuff back.
Tight security. Can’t enter the main entrance. Cameras everywhere. Armed security at every vantage point.
The VP walked into the lobby. He shook his hand and greeted him. “Hello, Mr. McGinty. Call me Allen. Sorry about the intrusion. We had a malware attack a few mornings ago. Someone sent an anonymous email from a spoofed address impersonating the IT department rickrolling the entire company.”
Brinus laughed but turned it into a cough. “Smoker’s cough.”
The VP looked at him. Is he laughing? What the fuck?!”
“What’s funny?” Asked Allen.
Brinus put a cough drop in his mouth. “I smoke a lot and sometimes I have coughing fits. Anyway, let’s get to the tour!”
Whatever. This kid has issues. The VP rolled his eyes and motioned for Brinus to follow.
The tour went fine until the AI noticed that Brinus snapped photos of the cameras and doors rather than the exhibits.
A guard approached Brinus and the VP looked at him. “What’s wrong?” asked Allen.
“Bryan here is taking photos of the cameras and doors.”
The VP looked at Brinus and demanded, “Show us your phone now!”
Brinus surrendered his phone as two security guards surrounded him.
The VP went through the photos. “Where are the photos of your friends? Why is there no contact numbers on your phone? Why do you have photos of cameras, doors, and hallways and nothing else? Is this a burner phone?”
Brinus realized he was caught. He fell to the floor and began seizing. His arms and legs convulsed in a fit which the VP realized was fake.
He went up to Brinus. "Nice try. My daughter has epilepsy from a Nerf riding accident."
They forced him to his feet and the VP went into his face, “What are you doing here? ”
“Call Saul Redman. I want my lawyer,” demanded Brinus as they put handcuffs on his wrists.
“What business does the syndicate have? Are you behind the malware attack?” The VP grabbed Brinus’s right arm, rolled up his sleeve, and exposed his syndicate tattoo. “I knew there was something odd about you. Take him to the police station. Let the cops handle him.”
The two security officers jammed shock sticks into Brinus’s stomach and dragged him to the holding area as the VP called the police non-emergency number.
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Five cop cars arrived in three minutes with sirens blaring. Four uniformed policemen and two detectives. Came out and went into the lobby. Brinus was in a metal room in handcuffs with a cigarette in his mouth flicking his lighter. The detective sat across from Brinus.
One of the detectives ripped the half-smoked cigarette from his mouth, "No smoking. You're just a kid."
Brinus sneered, "Come on man. It's just one cigarette."
“What is your business at this company?”
“None of yours.”
“Why did you create a fake school and fake social media profiles?”
“Where is my lawyer?” Brinus laughed while shaking his leg from nerves.
“What is your real name?”
Brinus smiled and shook some ash into an ashtray. “Bryan McGinty and that is Bryan with a y.”
“What is your date of birth and tax code number?”
“Call Saul Redman; I want my lawyer.”
“Are you refusing to identify yourself to the police and requesting a lawyer?”
Brinus smiled his screw-you smile, “Yes. under section ten paragraph four of the criminal code of conduct. Until my lawyer arrives I have the right to refuse to identify myself when lawfully detained if I am a syndicate member.”
“So you admit you’re on syndicate business? What crime were you hired to commit?”
“Lawyer.”
“Did you send the mass email for malware four days ago?”
Brinus put his feet on the table to hide his cravings. “You are violating my right to legal representation under section four of the criminal code of justice.” Brinus flicked his lighter out of nerves.
The two detectives looked at each other and went into the observation room. The CEO and the Head of security were inside.
The CEO stated after a moment of silence. “He’s a professional, that much is obvious. He knows way too much about the law.”
"Do you want to press charges?"
The C.E.O. nodded. "What are the charges?"
The detective sighed. “At most, we can get him for the fake social media accounts. Our cyber crimes department is working on tracing the fake school site but we can’t prove he made it. He covered his tracks too well.”
“What would the charge be?” repeated the C.E.O.
The two detectives looked at each other. The young man sighed and stated, “The only account we can trace back to him is Bryan McGinty. So we are looking at a 500 credit fine? We can also charge him with criminal trespass. A one thousand credit fine but at his age he won’t face jail time and will likely get 40 hours community service.”
The head of security rolled his eyes and yelled, “Are you fucking serious?! What is the point of the police if you don’t protect us?”
“The point of a healthy police force is to enforce the law and keep the peace between citizens. Now, to the point, do you wish to press charges or not?”
The head of security and the CEO looked at each other. The CEO sighed and groaned, “I want him escorted off our property and banned from the campus permanently. I will apply for a restraining order tomorrow since the courts are on holiday.”
“Good. I will have the police escort him off the grounds.”
The CEO stated, “If he comes back I will press charges.”
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In a nightclub velvet room, Long Ho, management, Mrs. Pantelli, and Mr. Pantelli sat at a table. Long Ho had two black eyes and a large bruise across his cheek. The room was smokey and expensive liquor was on the shelf next to them. There were lamps that shot beams of light through the cigarette smoke and vapor.
“So what exactly happened?” asked Mr. Pantelli.
Long Ho slammed his hand on the table and screamed, “Brinus’s homosexuality is what happened. Because he wasn’t a real man and he failed in his reconnaissance mission.”
Everyone rolled their eyes and made a collective groan. Management poured himself a shot of tequila to keep from yelling at Long Ho. “I think what happened was that Brinus is 16. He became impulsive due to his youth and made some errors. I have seen this happen over and over again. He just needs experience. This is why after ten years Mr. Homophobe I am a manager and you’re still a supervisor.”
“I am right and you’re wrong Brinus needs to pray the gay away and he will be fine.”
Management yelled, “Tell me, do you need another tune up?! Maybe we can do some dental work as well?!”
Mrs. Pantelli rolled her eyes and took a shot of whisky. “Whatever is going on between you too I don’t care. Can we just stick to the matter at hand? Can the job be salvaged?”
Management leaned forward and smiled. “The job is still on. He got the intel. While he was taking photos with his phone and causing the distraction, Harper downloaded the floor plans for the building from His computer console. He left him step-by-step instructions. Basically, the goal was to divide the attention of the civic AI and the security staff while stealing building blueprints and gathering data points for analysis.”
Long Ho cussed and left.
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Brinus was in handcuffs as he was being escorted out of the building by security. Two cops were behind him.
Brinus saw a bunch of people recording him on the plaza so he screamed out, “The police assaulting me! This man is a predator! He is a sexual predator!”
Everyone began running and a cop came up and tased him. Brinus fell to the ground. They uncuffed him as people started recording the police and then went into their cars and sped off.