by Simon Archer
“I’m curious to get your take on things,” I said as I started down the hallway to the bathroom. Theo had a way of asking detailed questions that required me to have all the moving parts of a plan in line in order to answer. I valued his input and was sincerely looking forward to his thoughts on me going to Japan.
I got to the bathroom, stripped, stepped in the shower, and pulled the shower curtain closed. I turned the water on and stepped to the back of the tub while it heated up. When the water was hot, I stepped under it and let it pour down over my face and chest. I could feel the day’s remaining tension rinse away. I turned around and let the water beat down my back. One great thing about Theo and Bev’s house was the water pressure. After a couple of minutes, I washed up, rinsed off, and turned the water off. I opened the shower curtain and reached for a clean towel from the basket Bev kept on the table beside the tub. I swiftly toweled off and stepped out of the tub.
As I ran the towel over my hair with one hand, I reached with the other and opened the small window that sat above the towel basket. I felt a rush of air come in. It was ninety-three degrees out today, so I knew the air wasn’t cool, but it was cooler than the steamed-up bathroom and felt refreshing. When my hair was no longer dripping, I got dressed as quickly as possible and opened the bathroom door. I stopped long enough to close the little window and then walked out of the bathroom and back to the living room.
The closer I got to the living room, the cooler the temperature got. The air conditioning in the house was always coolest in the living and dining rooms. By the time I reached the living room, Theo had a drink poured for me that was waiting on the side table next to the lounger across from his.
“I appreciate you, Theo. Thank you,” I told him as I sat down. I picked up the glass and smelled the amber-colored liquid. Theo was a high-dollar whiskey fan, and we’d shared many different types together. I didn’t recognize the scent from this one, though. “What are we drinking this evening?”
“Compass Box Hedonism Quindecemus.” Theo raised his glass and smiled.
“That’s a mouthful!” I laughed.
“It most certainly should be!” Theo started. “It only set me back three-hundred dollars.” He was smiling, and I could tell he was proud of his find.
I raised my glass to my lips and took a small, slow sip. It was one of the smoothest whiskeys I’d ever tasted. There was an initial sweetness to it that was followed up with a smoke flavor as I swallowed.
I looked up at Theo and told him, “I’d pay six-hundred for a bottle of that!”
Theo laughed and took a drink from his glass. When he finished, he looked back at me.
“I’ll let you buy the next one in that case!” Theo laughed aloud, and I joined him. Just as our laughter was quieting, we heard the front door open, and a flurry of activity enter the house.
“Hello!” I heard a voice call from the entryway. “We’re home!” It was Bev. Theo’s face lit up. He was his wife’s biggest fan.
“Hey there, my girl!” Theo shouted back to Bev. He stood up, and I did the same. The two of us walked towards the front door but only made it through the dining room and to the kitchen before we’d caught up with all the noise. Bev, Ellie, Krysta, and Kennedi were all in the kitchen. There were grocery bags on every counter and on the island in the middle of the room. Kennedi turned around as Theo and I walked into the room.
“Hello, boys!” she greeted us.
“Do you need help with anything here?” I asked, shocked at how many bags the four of them had already carried in. Bev turned and smiled at Theo before answering me.
“Nope. We’ve got everything,” she said.
Theo crossed the kitchen to kiss his wife and asked, “What is all this for?”
“The community event that Leah is putting on tomorrow,” Bev said as though Theo should have remembered. “We’ve got all the hot food ready to go from the restaurant, but we need to put the appetizers and finger foods together.”
“Ah, I see,” Theo bent down and kissed Bev on the cheek, reached around and slapped her on her ass, and then walked back over to where I was standing before she could retaliate.
“You two get on out of here!” Bev said, feigning exasperation. “Dinner will be ready in about an hour or less.” Theo and I turned to exit the kitchen. Both of us knew better than to stick around after a direct order had been given in the kitchen.
A few steps down the hall, Theo stopped and called back to Bev. “Charlie is going to be here for dinner too.” We both heard laughter from all four women in the kitchen.
“It’s hilarious that you think I don’t know that already!” Bev called back through her laughter. Theo just rolled his eyes and continued to the living room. I followed closely behind him.
We both settled back in our loungers, and I took a deep breath and let it out. I took a drink from my whiskey tumbler and looked over to Theo.
“So, Charlie, Kennedi, Ellie and I will be going to Tokyo in three days,” I blurted out. I watched Theo’s face for a reaction. True to form, there was very little change in his expression.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because Ellie spied on Mirai Gurasu’s business dealings, and we think there’s an opportunity there,” I told him.
“Why?” he asked again.
“Do you know what Mirai does?” I tossed out.
“Nope,” Theo responded. I loved getting into verbal ping pong with him.
“They make the nano-glass that we have to crack to do the cat girl mods,” I filled him in.
“Okay. Why do you think there is an opportunity?” Theo sat back in his chair. He seemed to enjoy these types of conversations, as well.
“Charlie heard talk that Mirai wanted to end their contract with Omnicorp, so I sent Ellie into their network to do some snooping,” I said.
Theo nodded slowly and asked, “What did she find?”
“She found evidence to back up the rumor, so I had her leave a message for the founder, Mr. Isamu Sato.” I waited for Theo to fire the next question. He didn’t disappoint.
“What did the message say?” Theo was starting to look more curious.
“It was designed to let him know I was interested in a chat if he was open to it, basically,” I said.
Theo took a sip of his whiskey. When he had swallowed and set his tumbler back down, he asked, “And was he?”
“Yes,” I started with a smile. “That is why we are going to Tokyo. We received a phone call just minutes after Ellie dropped the message. I’m assuming he doesn’t want to talk business over electronic communications, so within minutes, he had arranged for the four of us to travel there.” Theo was still slowly nodding his head and looking at me, but I could tell he was processing.
“What do you want with him?” Theo asked when he had thought for a moment.
“I want a way to do the modifications without having to crack the nano-wire,” I stated.
“Why?” Theo asked.
“Although we’ve never had it happen, if we create a crack that ends up elongating itself, it can damage other CG abilities,” I explained to him.
“So, you want him to design a solution?” Theo perked up even more.
“Not exactly,” I said. “I already have a device designed that I think would work. He would make any necessary tweaks and manufacture it.”
“If you would be using a device that you install on a CG to perform the mod...” Theo paused for a moment before continuing, “what would stop someone from removing the device and undoing your handiwork?” True to form, Theo had come up with the question I hadn’t thought of but needed an answer to. I hadn’t deciphered a way to make the device unremovable yet. Before I could tell Theo so, there was a knock at the door. Theo started to get up, but I stopped him.
“You just relax, I’ll get it. I imagine it’s Charlie,” I said as I stood up. I headed to the door, but Charlie met me when I was only halfway there. One of the girls had already gotten to the door and let him in. The two
of us silently shook hands and walked back to the living room. I sat back in my lounger, and Charlie took a seat on the couch. The moment Charlie was seated, Theo stood up, left the room briefly, and came back with another glass of whiskey for him. He held out the tumbler for Charlie to take. Charlie nodded his head and took the drink.
“Thank you, Theo. You know me too well,” Charlie said.
“Welcome,” Theo replied as he sat down. “It’s good to see you, Charlie.”
Charlie smiled and sat back in his seat. “It’s good to see you too, Theo. Any new projects lately?” Charlie knew Theo liked to have a little hobby to fill in any gaps in his time. Activities like building the firepit out back, sanding the kitchen cabinets and re-hanging them, and building all manner of things from shelves to furniture.
“I’m not up to much at the moment,” Theo said. “Bev has me doing a lot of schmoozing with Belavi’s customers so we can help pack the volunteer event tomorrow.” Both Charlie and I chuckled, and Theo rolled his eyes. “It sounds to me that you and Clark are busy enough for all of us!”
Charlie glanced over at me, chuckled again, and said, “Well, if Clark would stop invading foreign networks and gaining insider information, we wouldn’t have to be so busy!”
“Hey, now!” I said, mocking indignance. “I didn’t invade anything. All the information Ellie was privy to was publically visible to anyone who knew how to look!”
“I know, I know,” Charlie smiled and said. “I’m just giving you shit. It was a brilliant move, in all honesty. We will be walking into the situation a little more confident about our position now.” Theo started nodding his head and looked at Charlie.
“Has Clark told you about the device he’s looking to put together that would make this whole adventure of y’all’s necessary?” Theo asked Charlie. Charlie smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“Actually, no,” Charlie started. “One second, I’m scouring my casino’s financial reports, and the next, I’m a silent party on a three-way call from Japan!” Charlie turned to me in mock impatience. “It’s a good thing I trust you! Now, would you please tell me why we are going to Japan?”
A new voice piped up. It was Bev. “Yeah, Clark,” she said. “Why are you taking Ellie away from me?” She was standing in the entryway to the living room, and none of us had heard her come in. She had her hands on her hips and a humorous expression on her face.
“I know it’s an inconvenience to you, and I know I’ll owe you big, but this trip has the potential to bring your husband’s investments in VSG a huge return. You know what that means…” I trailed off. I saw Bev realize what I was getting at and start to smile.
“An expansion for Belavi!” She clapped her hands together excitedly. Charlie, Theo, and I just laughed. “Okay, then! Well, I actually came out to let you boys know that dinner will be ready sooner rather than later.” She turned to go.
“What sort of meal takes four people to prepare?” I asked, wondering how Ellie, Kennedi, Krysta, and Bev were possibly working around each other in the kitchen. The room was decent-sized, but I wouldn’t think four cooks could work comfortably.
“Oh!” Bev laughed. “Kennedi and I are the only ones actually cooking. Kennedi said she wanted to learn, so I parked Ellie next to Krysta at the island. They are mere gossiping spectators tonight!” Bev turned on her heel and bounced out of the room without another word.
I turned my attention back to Charlie. He’d had a legitimate question about why I’d had him patched into the phone call from Isamu, and why any of us would be going to Japan. I hadn’t mentioned the device I’d been working on to anyone other than Kennedi. Now was as good as time as any to put the idea out in the open for everyone.
“So, Charlie,” I started. “I’ve been toying with a way to do our CG modifications without having to crack the nano-glass wire associated with network connection. With Kennedi and her trainees doing the cracking, we are virtually guaranteed that there won’t be a mistake, and up ‘til now, there hasn’t been. You never know, though. Worst case is that the crack spreads and damages more of the wire than it is supposed to.” I gauged the look on Charlie’s face before continuing. “The device I’ve designed would be attached to the end of the CG’s neuro-cord and does use a tiny bit of nano-glass. Its purpose is to block the signal from the nano-wire, so we don’t have to crack the wire to accomplish the same thing.”
Charlie leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. His voice was low and serious when he asked, “Okay, so you’ll need a tiny bit of nano-glass. Understandable. But you can buy that from them directly as a customer. Why the business interest?”
I nodded my head because he had made a very valid observation. “First, we will need someone to manufacture the attachment. Second, there’s always the personal satisfaction of making sure Omnicorp loses their only nano-glass supplier.”
Theo chimed in at that. “You realize that no nano-glass for Omnicorp means they can’t build any more CGs, right?” He asked, almost rhetorically. “Do you plan on starting to build cat girls to satisfy the demand instead?”
Charlie and I looked at each other and then back at Theo. Neither of us had ever visited the possibility of building cat girls, but Theo was right. Someone would need to do it in order to fill the hole in the market if Omnicorp went completely under. Theo must’ve seen the inability to answer him on our faces because he started laughing.
“I suppose that is an issue to be addressed at a later date,” he said. “You two should see your faces!” Theo was laughing so hard that the words barely came out. His amusement was contagious, and both Charlie and I started laughing as well. The three of us ended up laughing so loudly that we didn’t hear Krysta walk into the living room.
“What on earth is so funny, gentlemen?” she asked, starting to chuckle a little herself. I stood up, walked over to her, and put my arm around her shoulders.
“If only I could explain it,” I said. Krysta just looked from one to the other of us and started shaking her head, still smiling.
“Well, boys,” she humorously downgraded our titles from ‘gentlemen,’ “dinner is ready, so you’d better hustle to the dining room.”
“You’ve got it, darling,” I said and removed my arm from her shoulders. As she turned to go back to the kitchen, I slapped her ass just hard enough to get a mock dirty look thrown back at me.
I walked to the table by the lounger where I had been sitting and picked up my whiskey tumbler. Charlie and Theo stood and grabbed their drinks as well, and the three of us headed to the dining room. We walked in to see Krysta and Ellie were already seated, and the table piled with food. There were plates of meat, bowls of various sauces and shredded cheeses, and each place setting had a bottle of beer. We took our seats just as Kennedi and Bev came into the room carrying armloads of circular dishes with lids on them. They passed one container out to each of us and then sat down. Kennedi looked at me and smiled shyly. I could tell she was nervous about how the meal she had prepared was going to taste.
“What have we got here?” I asked as my stomach growled. I hadn’t realized I was as hungry as I was.
“We are having build-your-own lime pepper chicken burritos with cilantro glaze dipped tortillas,” Kennedi said softly. I couldn’t imagine that she’d have anything to worry about with as magnificent as the room smelled. There was a combination of citrus and spice floating through the air.
“Well, it smells like heaven,” I said, smiling at her. “Is there any special way we should be putting them together?”
“No, you can add and mix whichever ingredients you’d like. The tortillas are in the covered dishes we just handed you,” she answered, sounding a little more confident. Theo reached for his tortilla dish and took off the lid. A cloud of steam came billowing out. He immediately leaned forward to inhale the aroma in the steam. He closed his eyes and smiled.
“Even without taking a bite, I can tell this is going to end up putting me in a comfy food-coma!” Theo said as he sat
back in his chair. He took out a tortilla and put it on his plate, while the rest of the table followed suit.
We built our burritos in silence while we passed the various dishes around to each other. I piled mine high with the lime pepper chicken, fresh pico de gallo, diced jalapenos and serrano peppers, cheddar cheese, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, and black beans. I had to stretch the tortilla gently to get it to close around all the food I’d put on it.
When I had it all wrapped up, I picked it up and took my first bite. The combination of flavors mixed in my mouth and confirmed what I had initially thought. It tasted like heaven. The chicken was tender and had been infused with lime, onion, and jalapeno flavors, so it had a kick to it but was more flavorful than spicy. The pico de gallo and peppers added a fresh crunch followed by a dose of heat that lingered in my mouth. The textures of the sour cream and guacamole balanced the crunch perfectly, and the light cilantro flavor of the tortilla topped it all off with an added freshness.
I had never tasted anything so good in a tortilla before. I had taken three bites, as had everyone else except Kennedi, before anyone even looked up from their plates. Charlie was the first to speak up.
“Kennedi, Bev,” he started. “I have no words to accurately describe how good this is.” An extended round of compliments echoed Charlie’s sentiment.
Theo spoke up next. “There is a serious lack of words, as Charlie said, to tell you how delicious what you have created here is!” I watched Kennedi’s smile brighten a little with each compliment.
Bev leaned forward and started shaking her head before saying, “This is all Kennedi. I did nothing other than monitor temperature and provide a couple of tips. She gets all the credit for this meal.” She smiled at Kennedi proudly.
“How long have you been planning this?” I asked, looking at Kennedi. I wanted to know how long the chicken had to marinate to come out with such an even taste throughout.
“Twenty minutes,” she said.
“Twenty minutes?” I asked in disbelief. “How did you get it to taste like this is twenty minutes?”