Best Served Cold

                                              Best Served Cold


David had been working for Mr Stompanato for a week now and it was within this first week of work that he found himself tied to a chair in an abandoned Block of apartments with a headache the size of a mountain. Most of the people who David worked with would have laughed and called it a cliché or a mandatory job induction, although this was especially true though in David and his co-workers business. And what their business was would be the running of vices of the City state of Chicago, Illinois.
Between the bouts of pain that shot between his eyes and then to the back of his head, David tried to remember how he had gotten into this situation in the first place.

It had been in the early hours of the morning that Mr Stompanato had called David, Danny Fitz and Richard Benz into his office. David had met and talked with both of Danny and Richard on several occasions whilst he was still doing unofficial menial tasks and had grown to like them and was finding himself comfortable with the fact that he would be taken under their wing. Danny was a large twenty three year old man with chestnut brown hair and shoulders as broad as a tree whilst Richard was forty something (David had always refrained from asking him his actual age out of fear and downright politeness) and had jet black hair which had half faded into silver. As for Mr. Stompanato himself he was a bald middle-aged man who always had a fat cigarette in his hand, or at least always when David had seen him in the rare occasion of exiting the grounds of his manor or to affront business to his men. And so coughing and puffing lazy wisps of smoke into the air of the room he told the three men of their task, they were to situate themselves on top of the Barnes Street car park which happened to overlook a Brothel run by the Tapia Cartel, a group who had clashed with Mr. Stompanato and his organisation on several occasions, but at the present moment of time an alliance was held between the two parties, albeit an alliance that was on thin ice, which was exactly why David had to sit in the cutting frost of a November Friday with a camera in hand instead of walking into the heated home of lust and asking for Johnny Endrizzi.
And it was Johnny who was the sole reason for the current debate over whom had spies and two-timers within the two opposing gangs. Mr Stompanato had become concerned with Johnny over the pass several weeks due to the fact he seemed to have more money than he was earning and a larger smile on his face than usual, that plus the fact he would disappear at the most inopportune times to ‘visit his sister’. Accusations however were not enough to use as a bargaining chip in a hostage exchange or to calm the heat down if fingers were pointed, proof was needed, so one afternoon after Johnny had gained a successful overseas deal Mr Stompanato thanked him with a toast and a casual pat on the back which included a Tick tracking device that was no larger than a fingernail so perchance Johnny did not notice as it dug itself into his skin and began to relay his current position to Mr Stompanato’s personal network. 

And a short time afterwards David, Danny and Richard had been led to photograph and record Johnny exiting and entering the Brothel where he so commonly ‘visited his sister’ there was no telling when he would arrive though as Tick trackers have short life spans and the one planted on Johnny only lasted long enough to show Mr Stompanato where he was going.
David had put himself into a half prone and half standing position as not to call attention to his camera or in particular his and Richards’s presence. Being a Cameraman was hardly one of the one of the most obvious tasks David had come to think of when putting on a suit and working directly under Mr Stompanato’s mantle, still he would choose it any day over Richards’s job of being a human CCTV, even if he did get to have prosthetic eyes. Richard was keeping watch on the street below and would frequently look over his shoulder; enhanced vision made a man a good watch-out and not to mention inconspicuous too, as if anyone on the street below were for some reason to look up perhaps at a flying bird or the rarity of a hover car (something only the wealthy could afford in the 24th century) they would only see a businessman having a cigarette break. If that however was not what they saw it was then Richards job to inform David and Dan to move quickly and be ready.   
As for Dan’s part in the whole operation, he was to report back to Mr Stompanato every fifteen minutes as well as provide ample muscle and firepower as Dan had undergone several procedures to enhance his body with cybernetics, but David never knew what the enchantments were or what they did as when he had always asked Dan would simply smile and say ‘you’ll see for yourself sooner or later’.
Considering the fact that they had been waiting in the cold for almost an hour, and there hadn’t been the slightest trace of Johnny, Dan had decided to go get something hot to eat from a near fast food joint. After another half an hour of dull waiting and freezing, David decided to break the awkward silence with Richard by asking what was taking Dan so long, Richard grinned and said that Dan was probably having a slight case of ‘digestive difficulties’ and David had laughed and replied by saying it wasn’t surprising considering the things a man as big as him would have to eat to keep a form like his. However when Richard did not respond after David had called his name several times he jumped around expecting to see him peering into the street at Johnny Endrizzi, only to get a smack between the eyes with a blunt instrument and to have everything go black.

When David had awoken he found himself with his limbs tide behind a chair with rope, inside a leaking, dilapidated, blank room that only featured a door, table, chair and a steel bucket on the floor. David looked to his left, hurt as it did and saw Dan and Richard in a situation identical to his, only they did not seem to have regained consciousness yet, either that or they were already dead. David shook himself of this thought and his pain, after all they wouldn’t of have been dragged here if they could have been killed right away. David began to check off a list in his mind.
It couldn’t have been the Tapia Cartel as they were well informed and would have recognized and killed two of them and let a survivor run back to Mr. Stompanato as a warning if they had been found.
Cops perhaps then, no, whilst the police did tend to meddle themselves with the origination they wouldn’t of brought down a simple mission of information retrieval on a rival crime gang, after all crime families fighting amongst themselves meant the pigs didn’t have to do their jobs. Whoever had kidnapped them though was after intel on Mr Stompanato or the organisation, David was sure of that, at least that was what David thought until he lifted his eyes to peek a gander at the men who had done the dirty deed of knocking them out and dragging them into this hellhole. There had to be seven of them (or at least that’s how many of them David could of make out as he was suffering from a slight concussion) and their faces were all concealed by balaclavas which showed only their eyes, one of them wore a sniper visor and two others had prosthetic eyes, cheap ones that is, not ones that were indistinguishable from a humans and top of the line like Richards these were old and looked like bottle caps. But despite their customisation of their faces the men all had one thing in common, they all bore the same symbol of a flaming ball on their jackets and they were all armed with rifles that could only be obtained on the black market, ‘mercenaries’ David thought with a groan. This officially meant that unless whoever was responsible for the trouble he was going through right now was now impossible to identify unless they felt like revealing themselves for whatever reason. A low growl came from beside him; David flinched only to see it was Richard waking from his forced sleep, groggily he looked around the room and then at David ‘Ain’t this a kick in the teeth, huh Dave’ he said smiling as though there was no apparent problem with their current predicament, ‘you wanna tell me what’s going on’? He said
‘Don’t know ‘said David ‘I just got up myself, try asking them’ he said cocking his head at their captors.
‘Hey boys’ Yelled Richard at a volume that made David’s concussion ring around his head
‘You mind telling us why we’ve been given the pleasure of visiting your lovely abode’.
One of the mercenaries (‘probably the leader’ David thought) who had been sat down at the table with his balaclava pushed up  the brow of his nose so he could smoke his cigar gave Richard a look that would of made His rifle seem redundant. He stood up and raised his hand, thinking he was about to strike Richard David looked away only to hear the sound of clicking fingers and then looking up to see another Merc exiting through the room’s only door.
‘Our employer is about to tell you everything’ he said in an emotionless tone that you could only of obtained through numerous beatings throughout the course of military training. ‘He has made it adamant that you do not speak unless directly spoken to’. And before Richard could respond, the hollow thumping of feet walking upon rotten wood came from down the corridor, the handle of the door turned and David and Richard looked upon the face of ‘the employer’. Although Face was a much stressed word to use as a means of describing the man as he wore a rubber mask that bore a smile that you would only find on a Ken doll.
‘Ah that’s good’ he said his voiced muffled ‘your awake’ he said rubbing his hands ‘wouldn’t want you boys to miss this now would we’.
‘Miss what’ said David blinking hard, the employer turned his head to look in his direction and even though David couldn’t see it he could tell the man was frowning underneath his smiling mask. ‘I’m sorry’? He asked ‘but didn’t one of the boys make it quite clear that you weren’t to speak unless directly spoken to’. The employer glared at the mercs leader ‘what do you think I’m paying you for’? He said in a tone so pleasant it was threatening
‘But I did tell them’ the leader objected.
‘Well you obviously didn’t tell them hard enough did you, so someone’s getting a pay-cut for not carrying out orders properly’ said the employer almost delighted. The Leader gritted his teeth and began to reach for his gun in the left pocket of his jacket, and for a brief second David thought his luck was too good to be true, that petty squabbles would make these men kill each other and the problem would sort its self out, either that or the Merc leader would just shoot the employer, take his money wherever it may be and pop him Rich and Dan just for the heck of it and then dump there bodies in lake Michigan. But no, the leader simply sunk his hand onto his lap, which told David that there was obviously no way that the mercs would be able to get there pay if they killed the employer, ‘slaves to money’ David thought just like the rest of the world, living in servitude of the three Ultra corporations.
‘Now then’ said the employer ‘whilst it’s all well and good that you two boys are wide awake it’s nothing if the big guy isn’t up and about as well’ pointing his index finger at the still unconscious Dan. The employer walked over to the table and picked up the bucket which had been standing beside it and threw its contents over Dan, ice cold water, Dan sprang to life in gasping shock and tried to shake his head dry of the freezing liquid. ‘Good morning Danny boy’ said the employer ‘ I know I’m asking a fair bit of you, what with you just regaining consciousness and all, but could you possibly tell me if you remember my voice’?
Rich craned his neck towards his work partner ‘you know this guy Dan’? He asked.
‘Excuse me, but if you wouldn’t mind I was asking the man a question’ said the employer with enough venom to kill four men. Dan gasped and breathed hard, ‘no it’s okay’ said the employer placing a friendly hand on Dan’s shoulder ‘you’re still in shock after all that’s happened, take your time to get back on your feet’ and the employer laughed at his own terrible pun to which David grimaced.
‘I’m sorry’ Dan said inhaling deeply ‘but I’ve never met you before in my life’.
‘Oh really’ said the employer as if he had been expecting Dan’s answer ‘then perhaps this will get those rusty gears moving’ and at that the employer grabbed his mask and tore it from his head. David swallowed.
The employer had a face not even a mother could love, its entire left side was swollen and red as a cherry, his left eye socket was empty and his jaw was prosthetic and it was just as cheap as the two mercs eyes, as it made a slight fraction of his cheek bone visible. His hair which was black only grew on the right side of his face and his one bloodshot eye was a deep blue, he was a real oil painting (if the painter happened to be Picasso that is).
‘Well, Danny boy’?  Said the employer
David looked at Dan and saw that his face was frozen as solid as stone in a mix between awe, surprise and terror ‘yeah I remember’ he said, his face going slack ‘but it isn’t because of the voice or the face, the reason I remember you is because there was only ever one person in my life that called me Danny boy, right Marcus’?
‘That’s perfect’ the employer burst out and clapped his hands ‘that’s exactly how I wanted it’ he squealed ‘that’s right it’s me Marcus, Marcus Frei’
‘Frei’ said David and gave out a noise of thought ‘same last name as that senator, what was his first name again’ he asked.
‘Luke’ said Marcus ‘Luke Frei, my father’ he snorted with contempt.
‘Senator Frei only has two sons and last time I checked neither of them was called Marcus’ said Richard
‘No your right he doesn’t have three sons said Marcus ‘at least not until five years ago when he got rid of his third that the press had flown over and had unintentionally made completely irrelevant due to his two older brother’s success’ Said Marcus
David rose an eyebrow ‘got rid of’? He said bewildered ‘how and why do you get rid of your own son’?
‘Oh I’m sure Danny boy can tell you all about that himself, can’t you Danny’ he said tilting his head and leering at Dan ‘after all it was your fault that my father threw me away and you ruined my life and it is because of that you have now ruined your own life and these two men’s as well, so I think you at least owe them an explanation or two’ he said with a Cheshire cat grin. David merely sat in silence until Richard broke the tension,
‘Dave, as much as an asshole this guy is for kidnapping us and despite the fact he’s going to kill us or worse he’s still right, I think we should know what this is all about’.
‘Oh you’re right there’ Said Marcus ‘you do deserve to know and you’re also right about me killing you’ He drew a pistol from his left pocket, the sight of it and Marcus’ last words shot down David’s spine, he had expected someone to stick a gun in his face and threaten to kill him eventually, after all in his career it was inevitable, but he had never thought it would be this soon within his first week when he was still too green to handle the situation. He bit his lip to stop himself from swearing out loud or to just break down and cry, men would be looking for them yes, but David had no idea how long they were KOed for and it was most likely their own tracking bugs had been fried by an EMP device as a precaution.
‘I suggest you make it quick’ Said Marcus looking at David writhe ‘your company is beginning to bore me and I would prefer it if we could get this over and done without the dramatics’ Dan began to open his mouth but Marcus quickly put his finger over his lips ‘but don’t make it too quick’ he said ’I want to enjoy myself a little while longer, after all, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time’
‘Six years to be exact’ Said Dan ‘back while we were in college is where this started’
‘You went to college’? Said a confused David
‘Yes I went to college’ confirmed Dan ‘Mr Stompanato takes people on from all walks of life, social status means nothing to him’
‘Do get on with it’ Ushered Marcus, Dan paused for a second ‘where was I, that’s right, college, that’s where I first met Marcus, I was part of the debate club it was about the immigration of Valdians to earth, that was where I first met Marcus and that was where he gave me that stupid nickname’.

The Valdians had come into contact with earth over fifty years ago and were the only alien race to do so at this present moment in time. David however remembered a conversation he had with Richard a while ago and how he had said that was a load of horseshit and mankind had come into contact with at least half a dozen alien species ever since the start of the twenty-second century and that the ultra-corporations had rejected any offer of friendship due to their societal structure and technology. It wasn’t that there societies were immoral and their technologies outdated or anything like that, no quite the opposite they were halfway to utopia, and that was exactly the problem. The Ultra-corporations didn’t want utopia, they were quite happy with the status-quo of servitude that they ran and were in no way to be convinced otherwise of giving up their positions as world leaders. After all if you have nanotechnology advanced enough to rearrange molecules and to be able to literally make anything out of thin air, (something all the apparent visitors were all five steps ahead of humanity in, aside from space travel) be it food or a clothes or even a car, it was the sort of technology that could fill all of mankind’s base desires and therefore there wouldn’t be any need for the organisations that tried to fill them. such as the government and especially not the ultra-corporations. Richard had laughed and said it was sort of like someone chasing a Jehovah’s Witness off their front door step. And when David had asked why the ultra-corporations had even bothered to shake hands with the Valdians Richard had said it was that out of all the species the ultra-corporations had met they had the closest society to modern day capitalism than any other, therefore their leaders were as bigheaded and egocentric as the CEOs of the ultra-corporations and were willing to exchange and sell each of their cultures and technologies to one another. Be it fashion, music or architecture all facets of each races individuality were up for sale if the price was right, especially sex, however this was only possible due to the physical similarities that humans and Valdians shared as well as the economic and political ones. Basically they were humanoid; they were of the average build and height of any other human being and they had two arms and legs and one head on their shoulders and shared the same facial features as any other person. The similarities ended there tough, the Valdians were slightly weaker than humans but made up for their lack in strength with quicker agility and reflexes. Their skin was a milky white and their hair shining bluish silver and they all bore the same black eyes with auburn irises, like a quartz ruby set in marble. Their ears were almost mouse like in a way but they tapered and became pointed at their tips (leading to variety of ‘elf’ jokes on behalf of the more ignorant part of the population). If humans had been descended from apes though, then the Valdians according to evolutionists had evolved from a race creatures similar to lemurs, and like humans they had also completely lost their fur over the entirety of their bodies, apart from the usual places.

‘We got into a heated discussion about it’ said Dan continuing with his story ‘you know we talked about that whilst it has to be regulated their should also be benefits and all that stuff, at first I thought Marcus had an open mind about the Valdians but It I was soon to be mistaken’ Dan exhaled ‘more mistaken than about anything else in my entire life, because it was not soon after I found out who Marcus’ father was and, well’ he paused to smile ‘we’d all heard the rumours about Senator Frei and his apparent position in the sons of Terra, so it was only natural for Marcus to be involved, after all’ Dan smiled ‘the apple never rots far from the tree’.

The sons of Terra as it so happened were a xenophobic organisation that objected to the immigration of Valdians to earth and any contact with alien species, they were apparently mostly composed of religious fundamentalists who saw any sentient species that weren’t human as an objection against god as they were a proof to the theory of evolution, that plus fundamentalist assholes always need someone to yell at, and seeing  as it was the 23rd century and they could no longer really get away with persecuting gay people, who would be more better suited to hate  than the alien Valdians. But it wasn’t just the evangelical crowd that made up the sons of terra, politicians were rumoured to get into their group as well as they saw the Valdians as a danger to the economy and as a risk of overpopulation etc. And although they were indeed notorious there infamy was built on nothing but rumours and conspiracies so there was no way of knowing who was a member unless they admitted it themselves.           

‘Unfortunately though I was not to find out just how much Marcus was his fathers son until some time after I met Leefra’ said Dan. Leefra was A Valdian who Dan was betrothed to, David new little about her save the facts that Dan and she had met in college and that she was very pretty judging from the picture Dan had showed him.

‘We first met in the debate club as well’ Said Dan ‘talked about a different issue though rather than Valdian emigration as that would of just been in bad taste considering her species and all’ David noticed the smile that rose on Dan’s lips and even felt like doing it himself when he saw how Marcus practically wretched at the mention of her name ‘and through it all we found ourselves going out together’ Dan’s smile then turned upside down and he narrowed his eyes ‘ and that was when it happened, on what was our fifth date, walking down a street at night some jokers decide to jump us. At first I thought they were just a bunch of petty thugs after our wallets and valuables but after I saw that they were wearing blur masks and I heard them spewing anti-Valdian bullshit I knew who and what they were, and I’m a big guy I was able to hold them off until the assholes started laying into me with the batons, I black out for a second or two and when I woke up one of the Dicks has me held to the ground and their leader, their fucking leader’ He spat ‘has Leefra on the ground, trying to fuck her’
‘And that was when the fucking cavalry arrived’ said Marcus taking over role of story teller ‘you see’ he began to explain ‘Danny boy had been part of Mr Stompanato’s gang now for a couple of months now’ he said ‘And he knew there would be a danger in him dating a fucking dirty Valdian bitch’ Dan thrusted himself at Marcus only to drag the chair with him by a fraction giving Marcus an even bigger look of contempt on his face. ‘So he decided whenever he went out with her’ Marcus continued ‘that he would have a little group of chaperones come with, and of course not five minutes after his little run in with trouble do they show up and beat the living shit out of the people who assaulted him and his bitch’ He licked his parched lips in what David though was either pure excitement or either utter dread. ‘And then Danny boy gets back up, lifted to his feet no less, and he takes off the leader of the groups blur mask and who does he find under there, that’s right’ He jittered ‘he finds me, and that’s when one of his friends hands me one of my boys batons and he hits and hits and hits me in the face until there’s nothing left but a red paste and a wet stain on the alleyway floor’. ‘And then the pigs show up as he and his cronies and bitch girl high tail it out of there, and naturally with me being the son of a senator the news sites and TV have a fucking field day’ Marcus’ breathing was starting to become aggravated, with any luck David thought he would kill himself from exhaustion. ‘So I get sent to the hospital for god knows how long due to the fact they have to regrow parts of my fucking skull in a vat, and when I get out I look like this’ he said stabbing himself in his scarred face and then laughed and shrugged ‘it was fortunate really that my father paid them to fix my jaw and grow my tongue back so I didn’t have to talk like a retard, but not so good luck that my father told the surgeons to call off the growing of my new face as he wanted me to have a reminder of how stupid I had been and that’ he paused to giggle ‘was just the tip of the big fat fucking ice-burg, oh sure he paid off a list of men as long as your arm to stop his name from going into the papers, to make it look like just a stupid hate crime by a little gang of street filth’ he said ‘I can most assuredly say my father covered his own ass, but did he cover mine, his own sons, no’ he began to scratch his head in irritation ‘my face or what’s left of it gets sent all out over the goddamn net so its only natural that none will have me when my father  disowns me and throws me out of his home and says I can never come back, that I’ve dishonoured the sons of terra by even thinking about putting my dick in a Valdian’ his voice became more irrational and quick, he was beginning to climax ‘I tried to explain to him that rape was the ultimate act of humiliation and punishment on the Valdian scum but he was having none of it, so,’ He shrugged ‘I get given millions of dollars to do whatever I want with and then I get told to fuck off and never come back.
‘If your father gave you millions of dollars why didn’t you just get yourself a new face and get lost to some other city state’? Said Dan as an insult rather than a question.
You could have heard the butt of Marcus’ gun hitting Dan’s face two rooms over.
‘Because you stupid fuck’ he spat like a wild animal ‘if someone fucked up your life and your face wouldn’t you spend every last cent to get back at him rather than waste it all on stupid, bleeding edge cosmetic surgery’
Dan just sat there and swivelled his jaw back into place, looked at Marcus and said ‘point’
‘Your damn fucking right I got a point’ he smiled ‘and when I mean every last cent I mean every last cent, so much so that I wasn’t even able to by myself a woman, because you know, no one would fuck me with a face like mine would they unless you paid them a ungodly amount of cash would they’? He flared his nostrils ‘you did more than just screw up my looks, you fucking castrated me you piece of shit’ and Marcus pointed his gun at Dan ‘and I would do the same to you but I have been waiting far too fucking long fir this, to hold your death off any longer would be an insult to my self respect, so that’s why I have to kill you now’ he clocked his pistol ‘any last words’ he said utterly satisfied
‘Yeah’ snickered Dan ‘you guys’ he looked at both David and Richard ‘sorry’
And Marcus pulled the trigger and Dan hit the ground like a lead weight. David only stared and swallowed at first but over the mad laughs of Marcus he began to scream in distress
‘You bastards look what you’ve done’ Richard only sat still and stared at his feet a lost look in his eyes and a wordless expression on his lips.
‘Oh bitch, bitch, bitch’ Marcus said madly pushing his gun against David’s forehead and over his sobs he said ‘don’t worry you’ll be seeing him real soon’. David breathed and heard the bang of a gun, several to be specific and what sounded like several bodies hitting the floor and much to his surprise he opened his eyes to see the mercs on the floor and full of holes big enough to spit through, and their was Marcus alongside them, his legs torn off at the knees, he was grabbing at the blood squirting stumps and turning the air blue with incompressible swearing.
‘Good timing right’ said Dan, David turned to see him standing next to him free of his binds, his left arm had opened like a flower and within each metal leaf that had been his arm there was what looked like several small gun barrels and several intimidating looking round balls that David assumed were some sort of grenade, but his fascination was soon broken by Dan’s laughter ‘told you you’d get to see my enhancements sooner or later’ he smiled.
David tried to string a sentence together ‘but… how’ he stuttered
Dan smirked and raised a finger to his forehead which was bleeding profusely or was at least giving the image it was, as rather than seeing Dan’s skull bone David saw metal and wiring which crackled from the damage the bullet had caused. Dan picked at it and produced the bullet which he had been shot with and dropped it on the floor with a hollow pang.
‘It’s just my left eye and arm which are artificial, as well as a radio-telepathy implant in my brain to boot too’ he said ‘if it weren’t for the fact that this’ he paused to kick a whimpering Marcus in the head ‘Piece of shit wasn’t void of a eye he would of probably of hit me right between the eyes instead of my prosthetic’ he winced as the faulty wiring went on the fritz again ‘and although I’m glad not to be dead this still stings like a bitch’ Dan drew a pen knife from his coat pocket and begun to cut David free. At first Richard’s laugh began as a tiny snort and eventually became loud enough to fill the room
‘You bastard’ said David with a voice that would of put Marcus’ hate to shame ‘you knew all along didn’t you’ through his tears of hysteria and Dan’s equally loud fits of laughter Richard managed to reply ‘yeah he pretty much could of snapped those thick ropes like wet string anytime he wanted to’
‘I don’t fucking believe it’ said David rubbing his raw wrist as he was finally cut loose ‘you didn’t think to do this’ he gestured around the havoc in the room ‘oh I don’t know just a little bit earlier’
‘Had to wait for just the right time’ said Dan beginning to cut Richard free ‘and besides like stumpy here said, you deserved to hear my story and it was because of the chance of a situation like this happening that I never let you know what sort of prosthetics I had, after all Marcus did his research that’s how he was able to nab us and it’s because of keeping this’ he patted his arm ‘secret, that he didn’t just decide to resort to tying us up with metal wire and sticking a body locker in any of my cable ports he could find’ Said Dan pulling back his left sideburn to reveal said port.
After the laughter had died down and Richard was free they walked out of the building slowly just in case there were any backup mercs who had decided to wait for them to peak their noses out of their captive room, but they got lucky.
The three men looked up to the sky as they walked out onto the street, to see the scrapers reaching into heaven above them; they were in what was known as the foundation. The area of which modern day Chicago had simply grown over the old city like a forest, rotting old and dark, the cops never came here, the perfect place to pull a kidnapping or whatever else you happen to be doing which the Ultra-Corporations would of declared illegal, which also made it the perfect breeding ground for mercs and wannabe revolutionists like the hired goons that had kidnapped David, Richard and Dan.
‘Well’ Richard said exhaling through his nostrils ‘I was going to call Michelle, but what with were we are I’ve got a better chance of finding a working phone than he’s got to see the next sunrise’ he said looking at the legless Marcus who Dan had dragged outside with them
‘Relax’ said Dan ‘they may have got our phones and guns and my implants is on the way out but I should have enough juice left init to give someone a call to pick us up before it completely shuts down’
‘Relax’ said David ‘whilst were dragging a man who almost killed us around… why the heck did you bring him along anyway’? Said David suddenly gaining inquisition.
‘Because Mr Stompanato is going to be pissed off with the fact that we didn’t get those photos of Johnny that he wanted’ Richard said his voice finally showing the aggravation he had been keeping down with his sarcasm and humour ‘we can say goodbye to our ace in the hole and say hello to a long dirt nap, unless we have an alibi like him’.
‘And what makes you think he’ll talk? I mean he hates Dan with a vengeance, c’mon he’s not going to say a god damn thing if it means pulling Dan out of the shit he put him in’ David began to pace muttering something along the lines of out the frying pan an into the oven
‘Oh he’ll talk’ said Richard calmly lighting a cigarette (which the mercs had left on him after taking everything else out of there pockets) ‘by hook or by crook and through ways and means, he’ll talk’ and he gave David a smile that forbade him to go into any specifics. ‘And top of that he is the son of a senator after all, who also happens to apparently be a member of the sons of Terra’ Richards smile was growing wider by the second ‘think how much real estate or money we could stand to gain if we got the proper evidence from this boy here and blackmailed Senator Frei, I think that makes up for our little screw up with Johnny don’t you’ and he gave David a sly wink.
‘I guess’ David sighed ‘it’s a just a shame that I had to screw up my first mission on first week of the job’
‘Two things’ Stated Dan raising his middle and index finger ‘one, this situation was entirely my fault if I had just finished Marcus off years ago like I should of neither would had been put through this stupid mess, so anything Mr Stompanato Nitpicks out of this whole scenario will be put solely on me’ He paused to take a breath’ and secondly, who says we screwed up the job’ and pressed his finger against his eye socket and slowly what appeared to be video footage of Johnny talking to Pedro Tapia, the proprietor of the brothel, in the alleyway behind the hothouse, projected itself from Dan’s left eye.
‘Oh you’re kidding me’ said Richard who looked like he could just lie down and die a happy man
‘Fortunately I’m not’ said Dan in a serious tone ‘caught him walking down the street as I came out of the fast food joint and I tailed him, took some footage of him waiting outside and meeting up with Pedro until Marcus’ boys knocked me out cold’ he said turning the footage off ‘besides what did you think was taking me so long, what’ he shrugged ‘did you think I was sat on a toilet taking a crap’? Richard tried to hide a snigger. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me’ said Dan ‘I need to make that call before the local thugs get a taste of our scent’ and Dan walked down the street and began to mouth and mumble slightly to himself, a sign that he was speaking radio-telepathically with another implant user.
‘Is it always like this’? Asked David
‘Is it always like what’ said Richard
‘You know what I mean’
‘If you’re referring to the fact that it’s common for men in our line of work to be threatened and have guns put to our heads on a common basis, then yes I know what I mean’ Said Richard puffing a drag from his cigarette
‘Is it worth it’ said David
‘Compared to working nine to five in an office, five out of seven days of the week as a white collard slave yeah it is kid, first week on the job I had a gun put in my face as well’ he said patting David on the shoulder ‘and the fact is any one of us could go at any moment, (although that’s sort of gone down the list of the facts of life thanks to full body prosthetics but you know what I mean). It doesn’t matter if you living on the edge kid, so long as it makes you happy and you’re doing it for whatever reason is all that matters’. At that moment Richard turned on his heel to see their ride drive round the corner and pull to a stop on the curb and then he took one last puff from his cigarette and stubbed it out on the sidewalk and began to walk towards the car with Dan.
‘Richard’ David called out to him and he turned to look at him ‘you said ‘so long as you’re doing it for whatever reason’’
‘And’
‘Well I was wondering, what is you reason’ 
‘My reason’ Richard stretched his back and sighed ‘it’s the same reason you’re doing this, or Dan’s doing this, or anyone else in this business is doing what were doing, it’s the reason why we don’t stop and join the rest of the fucking sheep’
‘And what is that reason’?
Richard turned and walked away and simply said ‘it’s because were alive’.