“No, no. This is mine” said Terry grabbing the bill.

“The company’s got it” said Adrian his face flushed from the six or so rounds their conversation had lasted.

“Didn’t you say earlier you already drank through the per diem at dinner time? I got it. Seriously, no skin off my back,” said Terry.

“I’m up for another if you guys are,” said Duncan.

“She’s here with the bill,” said Terry pointing at the waitress waiting with the machine.

Duncan waived at the waitress. “Hi.”

 “And we already had this discussion…” said Terry tapping his credit card on the payment machine. It beeped in acceptance.

“Thank you” said the smiling waitress after looking at the tip on the print out. “Have a great night guys.”

“You too,” said Jesse. Jesse and the waitress locked eyes for a moment.  If the others had been watching closely they would have noticed her quick wink at him.

After the waitress’s attention had moved away from Jesse and back to her work, Terry grabbed his lapel and pulled his suit jacket open so Duncan could see the 12 Oz. flask in his pocket. “We just talked about this.”

“Oh. Yeah.” said Duncan.

The four of them got up and Adrian threw Duncan’s arm over his shoulder for support. They made their way out of the resort bar and up the wooden slat paths in the dark. Terry and Jesse had their IPhone flashlights out as the four of them stumbled back to Duncan’s room.

They pulled the two hotel-room type chairs up around the couch and table in Duncan’s suite. Terry passed around the flask. “Everyone had their two shots?”

“And a negative test within 24 hours of when we arrived. Company policy. No shots, no test. No retreat.”

“Happy I put that into place,” said Duncan taking a swig from the flask. “Ooh that’s good. Scotch right?” He passed it to Jesse.

“Yup,” said Terry.

“Something fancy” said Jesse “not sure if I like it”.

“It’s very peaty,” said Terry.

“So that’s what peat is, eh?” said Jesse.

“So, you guys like your work?” asked Terry.

“Don’t ask that sort of shit,” said Duncan.

“Love it,” said Adrian. “Help people solve their problems. Get the solutions show them how to make more money from their business.”

“Not a fair question. The boss is in the same room” said Jesse with a big smile on his face, pointing at Duncan.

“It stopped being challenging years ago,” said Duncan. “and now its mostly just about getting these knuckleheads to do the work and make sure they are staying on top of things. And manage the turnover of the people that aren’t going to make it long run.”

“Whoa,” said Adrian. “I thought everything would be great once you were managing everything. And you’ve been here forever, you’ve lasted through what five rounds of firings?”

“They have no reason to complain. I do the politics right, do my job. The Man, and yeah I get that I’m the Man to you, has no reason to complain. Get meaning from other things that I do.” Said Duncan as he took another long sip from the flask that had made it back around to him again. He offered the flask to Jesse, but he passed and Duncan sent it along to Adrian again.

“Jesse, you want to open up one of the bottles of champaign?” said Duncan.

“Fuck yeah, I do” said Jesse. “I’ll be right back”.

Jesse appeared surprisingly sober as he went to his room next door.

While they were waiting for him the three of them went out to the deck. It looked down on the manicured property of the resort and out onto the ocean.

“I thought of going to law school,” said Duncan.

“Really?” asked Terry.

“Wrote the LSAT and everything. Did well too.”

“How well?” asked Terry.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Sounds like someone also scored high,” said Duncan.

“Haven’t met someone that’s scored higher than me in ten years of practice yet,” said Terry.  “But I am in conveyancing.”

“Well, I probably scored higher than you,” said Duncan.

“Perfect?” said Terry.

“Almost. 179.”

Terry whistles.

“That’s good?” askes Adrian.

“One away from perfect. I got a 177. Only two questions wrong, but one question was removed from the test that round.” Terry pauses to drink. “The first person I meet with a higher score and they didn’t even go to law school. Probably the more intelligent decision.”

Jesse entered back into the room with four tall cans of beer and two sabers on a scabbard on his hip. “I’ll go grab one?”

“Please,” says Duncan.

“What are those for?” askes Terry.

“It’s for a trick,” says Adrian. “You’ll see.”

Jesse goes and opens up a closet door. At the bottom where you would expect to see shoes are stacked cases of champaign bottles. Jesse picked a a bottle.

“You want to do this down by the water?” asks Jesse?

“Sure, you three go set up and I’ll be right down,” said Duncan.

“You sure you going to be alright, boss.” asks Adrian?

“Positive. Feeling much better right now. The scotch helped me sober up. Also got to take a monster piss.”

The three of the headed down to the beach while Duncan puttered around the room.

He used the toilet and stumbled as he grabbed some TP to wipe up the misfire. Then he downed a full bottle of water and from the closet grabbed his bow and five target arrows. Then he stumbled down to the shoreline.

When he got down to the water. Terry had one of Jesse’s sabres in his hand and the champagne bottle was resting on a rock wall around the edge of the fire pit. He ran the sabre up and down the seam of the bottle in practice.

“Jesse, was just explaining here that you the sabre up the seam and put a snap of the write and the end and it pops off.”

“Yeah, and while the swords are sharp, they were a gift from a client in the razor blade business, you use the back side to pop of the top of the bottle. If you do it right, there will be a clean break and then we can pour it in the disposable coffee cups,” said Jesse smiling with a coffee cup in the hand.

Terry tossed the flask to Duncan “I saved a sip for you”.

Duncan caught it and removed the compound bow from his shoulder. He lowered the bow to the ground and unscrewed the cap of the flask. He then raised it to his lips and tasted the peat as he polished off the contents. “Thanks.”

“Is that a bow?” asked Terry.

“Yup” said Duncan. “Show me what you got with the champagne. Let’s see if Jesse taught you the trick right.”

“So, just up the seem?” asked Terry as he slid the sabre up the side of the bottle.

“With Gusto,” said Jesse.

Terry flicked the Sabre up the bottle with gusto and touched the rim below the uncared cork. Nothing happened. Duncan gestured for him to do it again.

Again, the clack of the Sabre hitting the rim. Another gesture and Terry went again. And again. Sliding the Sabre up the side of the bottle and into the rim but without result.

“Maybe you should let Jesse try,” said Adrian.

“I got this. Just taking me a moment to get the hang of it,” said Terry as he slid the Sabre up the side again with a flick of the wrist and nothing happened. He did it again. Pop! The cork at the top of the bottle with the rim on it went flying into the air.

The four of them shouted out. Duncan reached his hand over Terry’s shoulder and clasped him tightly.

Adrian pored the champagne into four red solo cups and immediately took a swig of his after he had finished pouring the last of the bottle.

Jesse had picked up the cork, still compressed in the glass top of the champagne bottle. He handed it over to Terry. “This is yours.”

Terry paused. Hesitant he didn’t like collecting junk generally, and in his haze fell back to his rule before recalling the correct social nicety.

“It’s tradition,” said Adrian.

“You guys sure have a lot of traditions,” said Terry.

“It’s been a long time, and not everyone at the company gets this drunk every night. But yeah we’ve been coming here for fifteen years. And the fun things, the sabring, the shooting cans with the bow, the singing. They stick around as tradition things to do out of the normal. Bonding to make the work the rest of the year a bit less monotonous.”

“Should you be shooting cans if you’re this drunk?” asked Terry.

Duncan sat there looking at him put down his solo cup and arranged the bow next to him. He held out his hand to Jesse who tossed him a tall boy. Then took out a knife and carved the drinking hole to shotgun his beer.

“Watch this,” said Jesse to Terry and Adrian. “This is wild.”

Duncan grabbed the bow and a target arrow in his left hand. He popped the tab of the beer and poured it down his throat. He tossed the empty can high into the air, higher than Terry thought it should be able to go. Then in one smooth motion he nocked an arrow and tracked the can through the night sky. The sound of the arrow releasing was followed by the sound of the can crinkling as the arrow passed through it.

“Whoa!” said Adrian. Terry joined in with a shout of his own.

Jesse walked over to where the sound had come from and picked up the beer can with an arrow poking through it. “Wild huh? You’re not a cute girl so Duncan wouldn’t mention it, but he’s been to the Olympics five times now.”

Duncan grabbed his solo-cup with champagne in it and took a sip.

“Whoa, did you win a medal?” asked Adrian.

There’s a moment of quiet where they could hear the crashing waves.

“I would have led with that if he had,” said Jesse.

A ring light descended like a flash of lightning with an eerily silence to the ground just down the shoreline from the crew.

“Whoa,” said Adrian. “You see that?”

It left an afterimage and a brief moment later a circle of light rose from the ground at a sedate pace. Where it passed a stone tower just smaller in circumference than the ring was left behind.

By the time Duncan walked over the tower had grown to almost five stories and showed no signed of slowing as the ring of light continued to rise.  A large wooden door stood in the center of the tower. At least it looked like wood, but it felt closer to steel under Duncan’s fingers.

“Yeah, we’re seeing it too Adrian,” said Terry.

“You know he’s going to try to go in,” said Jesse. “No way he doesn’t at least test to door handle.”

Terry picked up the Sabre he was holding and along with Jesse and unsteadily headed over to Duncan leaving Adrian behind. Adrian tried to take another sip from the empty flask that was still in his hands and failing began after them.

As they were getting close Duncan looked back at them before pulling on door handle. The door slid open to his pull and as they looked inside the tower the ring of light above them pulsed brightly and then without additional warning all became nothing.

No sight. No waves in the background. No taste of scotch lingering on the lips. All went except for thought.