Edward "Scorp" Desenni
"Scorp," one of the little ones whispered.
Ed gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up from the table doing his best to hide the pain that shot up his back with the movement. Sixty-three. He shook the thought away.
The little one hadn't earned a name yet, but at least Ed couldn't see his bones through his paper thin skin.
Jackal was waiting near the door with a suitcoat. Ed didn't flinch when he turned his back on the younger man. If anyone was betting, they'd figure it would be Tiger or Rat that would try to take him out and take over the gang. But Ed knew it would be Jackal. The man wasn't as big or rash, but he was sober, and more importantly he was a thinker. A planner.
"Who is it?"
"John-John."
"You're with me on this call," Ed said.
The Jackal's eyebrows twitched but the man only nodded.
"I'm likely going to have you run this job," Ed was saying, "and I don't want any misunderstandings on the details."
"Of course boss."
When Ed reached the chair he looked around, though he'd spotted the drinks on the far table.
"Pour us a bit of fire," Ed said nodding at the tray of rough alcohol poured into fancy bottles that he sometimes used as a background when speaking with Corpo types. As soon as Jackal turned toward it, and away from him, he held his breath and lowered himself into his chair. His back screaming in pain.
Twenty-one steps.
Ed pictured the bags this time. The gritty powder that was left in the empty ones. How it felt when you rubbed your fingers over it. The relief it would give if you rubbed a bit of the powder on your gums.
Ed opened his eyes when the glass clinked down in front of him.
The Jackal was looking at Ed. He shifted his eyes to his glass and sipped. Ed could have looked at the glass to see if there was evidence of adding a powder to it. Streaks where he wiped the rim clean? Some build up of powder on the bottom where the drugs hadn't fully dissolved.
Instead Ed took a long pull of the cold alcohol, the ice bumping against my lips. For a fixer like John-John ice was enough proof of their wealth.
"You can stand on this side of the table," Ed said.
The Jackal's eyebrows twitched again, but he came around the table and stood behind Ed on his right side.
Ed adjusted his suit coat and studied their images the camera displayed on the screen. Then he accepted the connection.
"Mr. Scorpion," John-John said. He was born black, but he'd had his skin dyed or altered to an unnatural darkness. It was midnight dark now, his teeth literally fluorescently white.
"It is good to be talking with you again," John-John said. His eyes hadn't even darted to Jackal, nor would they until Ed introduced him.
"John-John," Ed said, "This is Jackal. He'll likely be taking over from me in a year or so."
It was a spur of the moment decision. Ed wasn't a planner. He had to learn to do that and, as he often lamented, was mostly shit at it. He needed out now, or he wasn't going to get out. He couldn't move without thinking about how far he was from the safe that stored the drugs they sold. And he knew, viscerally, what happened when the sellers became the users. He could still remember the warm blood washing over his hand when he'd slit old Turtle's throat. He'd expected to see rage or betrayal in Turtle's eyes, but it was the same glazed bliss as ever.
"It is with much pleasure that I meet you Mr. Jackal," John-John said with a seated bow.
"And I you," Jackal said. He hesitated a moment before he bowed.
"With no disrespect," Ed said seriously, "I would like to cut through the pleasantries and begin our business."
"Of course," John-John said.
He discussed what the buyer wanted and the pay.
"It is too much I know," John-John said with a smile. It was too much for the work being done.
"But I was not dealing with my normal contact, but someone much higher up the chain of command. I named a high price, and then raised it when I learned my contact would not be included in the job. The client was not happy but they agreed with very little haggling."
Ed thought about half turning to Jackal but that would twist his back.
"One of the perks of working with John-John for as long as I have is building a relationship where he might share a bit more information with me, so long as it never leaves this room. Up to this point in the conversation everything he's said can be discussed with the men. Whatever follows, if anything follows, is not for others."
I saw Jackal nod on the display.
"The client wishes to steal their own shipment," John-John said. As such they wish for the cargo to be as intact as possible. The less work involved to restock and resell the cargo, the higher the bonus."
Ed let the Jackal ask questions until it was clear the young man had no meaningful questions to ask. Then Ed asked the important questions the young man has missed.
When the conversation ended Ed waggled his glass making the ice race around the inside.
"The pay is never this high," Ed said, "What's your take on this?"
"Rush job. Incursion close, which means the rail yard workers know they can get away with killing us outright."
"You don't think it's a trap?" Ed asked.
"I always think it's a trap," Jackal said.
Ed nodded. He hated that he couldn't turn around to look at the man.
"This is your job. Take a seat and explain to me how you want to run it. I'll make suggestions, but you'll have say over everything save the percentage of pay that goes to the gang upkeep and what is paid out."
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Stacey Geller Hemsworth-Narcan
"Thank god! I've been trying for twenty minutes!"
"Mama!" Stacy whispered, "Quiet."
"Quiet?" her mother asked, "You're in a shelter baby. Right? You made it to the shelter?"
"It was full," Stacey whispered. She didn't go into details about the bodies in the hallway and the men at the other end screaming at them to leave. There was room, but they were waiting on others and shooting anyone else. They'd had an argument about her, but in the end one of the men had lifted his pistol and pulled the trigger. She ran even as the others were shouting.
She'd made it up into the middle of the building before she saw the silent green monsters climbing the next building over outside the stairwell's window.
"I love you Mama," Stacey whispered.
"Baby. Where are you at. Did you up date the feeds? Did you see the messages?"
She had. The networks were flooded with queries about where people were and how many were there.
"Can you get to the roof baby?" he mother asked after a quick conversation in the background.
"News is reporting a Samurai is lifting people off the roofs. There are guns up there."
"Ssshhh," Stacey said suddenly. Her whole body clenching as she heard the door to the apartment she was in burst open.
Hopefully it was looters or someone looking to hide like she had.
Under a bed wasn't the best place to hide but she needed to see.
When the door pushed open and a green clawed foot entered she wished she had brought Teddy with her. She wanted something to squeeze.
"Mama!" she screamed moments later when tentacle things swept under the bed.
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David Elmort
"Dave wake up!"
"God damn it Sean. I swear to you if this is some sort of stupid meme thing I'd fucking kill you."
Silence stretched but David was already awake.
"What is it?"
"You said not to tell you," Sean said with a grin.
"Fucker," David said as he rolled out of bed. It was wasn't that late anyway, he just hadn't wanted to go out because of the test tomorrow.
"What is it?"
"Some Samurai in North America has a, well just look."
Sean scooted over so David could see the screen. A dark gunship looking thing was flying through the air. The video was obviously filmed shaky hand and stabilized afterward as the borders of the video were jumping around. The ship was far larger than he originally thought.
"Here it comes," Sean said.
The ship was swarmed by what had to be model ones.
David thought initially it had exploded, but as Sean replayed it and let it play farther he saw it was some sort of cloud or gas attack. Lots of model ones rained down afterward as it shot out the other side.
"I need that fart sound. The one from that huge black dude," Sean said.
"Hawaiian," David said watching the video again.
"Whatever. The big fat guy with the massive fog horn fart. You got that somewhere?"
David sighed. Last year, their freshman year, he'd enjoyed making memes as much as Sean had, but that was last year. Still, he did have it.
"There is another video where the ship does it again over a building and collapses the top floor. I was going to use that one but this one is better cause all the fliers die. I'm gonna put the red X's over their eyes like that mouse meme, then do the zoom in and out."
David found himself smiling. Sean might not have grown up but he still made funny memes.
"Yeah I got it one sec."
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Donald Boyer
"Janet, listen to me," Don said as he knelt near his wife.
She nodded up at him and blinked in confusion.
"You're going to stay here. Tess and Rex are going to look after you."
"Oh," Janet said shifting her confused eyes to Tessa. Then she saw Rex and smiled as she started to pet him.
"Dad please," Tessa said as he stood up.
She stood up as well as he hugged her tight.
"Stay with your mother and kept the dog with you- No. Listen. Do no go to the refugee camps. You stay with your mother here at her side."
He glanced at the rows of people laid out on the ground. Some were under the reflective blankets in the hopes to keep them cooler by keeping the sun off them.
Most of the people had wrapped arms or legs. A few, like his wife, had heads wrapped as well.
"You don't have to help," Tessa said.
He stopped there for a moment and then pushed away from her even as she tried to cling to him.
"And if the Doc that wrapped your mother up said that? What about the men who helped carry her to the medical tents after that landing?"
Tessa didn't say anything.
There was a high pitched whine and a deep rhythmic thumping sound. Combined they sounded wrong. Both their heads came up to see the black Samurai ship screaming in over the PMC camps, medical tents, and loading areas. Three of the rescue pods were hanging beneath it as it banked wide. The screaming increased and for a moment they saw one side was warped and damaged from some great impact or attack. Bits of green flesh or mashed Model Ones clung to various portions of the ship.
A warning claxon sounded twice before the rescue pods were dropped. Two crates appeared, their parachutes being jerked sideways in the powerful turbulent wash of air as the badly beaten ship shot back toward the city overhead.
"I'll stay with mom," Tessa said squeezing her father's hands momentary.
"Remember if we get separated-"
"I send texts and emails on the hour every hour. You'll do the same."
He nodded and turned away.
Then he turned back and kissed her forehead, knelt to kiss his wife, and ruffled Rex's hair.
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Sally Haywood
"Get out of the way!" Sally screamed as she slammed a shoulder into the man standing in the doorway.
She bounced off him but didn't fall. Class wouldn't let out for a bit, but there were people on the campus sidewalks that stared at her. It didn't matter. All that mattered was getting to her locker at the public transport hub quickly enough.
Stupid campus rules!
She had the alerts set up across all her devices, but she had to forward them through the university system to get connection on campus.
Supposedly it was a hacking / cheating thing. In reality it was so they could track your data patterns and sell it to future employers.
She left the sidewalk to race around a couple holding hands. Both men said something, but she neither heard it or cared.
When she saw the public transport building she told herself to sprint but there was nothing left in the tank. She gritted her teeth and pushed on, her legs burning.
It seemed to take forever to get into the door and to the locker she leased for the year. Her hands shook as she tried to get the code into the door.
Then she was tearing through her bag until she produced the tablet.
She held it, foot tapping away, while the device booted up.
She wanted to scream! How long had it been since she'd been informed about the incursion? She'd come up with this plan in Econ 101 last year. She'd even mapped several cities, narrowing down companies that had a majority of their assets in those locations. It had been a lot of work but what wasn't. She maintained the list, not religiously but from time to time. Why not? It was a long shot as no one knew where an incursion would occur but the possible payoffs-'
The tablet flashed and the screen loaded. She had to unlock that screen as well.
Then she had to log into her account.
Once in she swiped to macros, then the one named Spokane, then looked at the current prices. Nine companies, only one of which whose shares had already dropped drastically in price.
She stabbed at the macro, then slide the bar all the way to the right. She didn't have a lot in the brokerage account.
A confirmation popped up; 2,417 credits. Twenty-four hundred! What the fuck had she- She remembered suddenly and about spat with anger. It was what it was though. There was no time.
She stabbed at the confirmation button. The rotating icon seemed to take fucking forever.
It was taking longer than normal. It had to be. It never took this long.
Was she fucked already?
The confirmation message about gave her a heart attack.
She navigated back to her asset page and after almost a full minute she was able to pull up her short selling custom graphic page.
Her eyes were drawn to the number in the upper right; 623,835.04
She either peed herself a little bit, or came, possibly both. As she watched, the number continued to climb as the stock for those companies based solely in the incursion area plummeted. In moments it was over with.
She pressed a hand to her heart.
4,385,006.32
She had to breathe, but couldn't. She pushed the tablet into the open locker and then turned around and pressed her back to the lockers as she slid down. In no time at all she was breathing deeply. The hands in her lap were shaking a bit as she let her legs relax and spread away from her.
Then the laughter started and she couldn't stop it. It had worked.