by Ramy Vance
“Was really us,” Reuben said.
“Yeah. It was an agency project, basically,” she said. “Slightly more complicated than that. It was a real company. But when it came down to it, yes, it was the CIA.”
“And when it went bad, they disappeared into the night and let the farmers swing.”
“That would be it,” she said. “There’s my bag.” She grabbed a small red suitcase off the carousel and wheeled it toward him to say goodbye. “Well, it was fun.”
Ruben shrugged. “Yeah, well, you know, we could make it more than fun.”
She raised an eyebrow, and he continued, “Go back to my place, get some beers, you know, talk some more about Canadian milk farmers.” With luck, maybe Marshall would be out drinking with some old police buddies.
She laughed. “Well, as engaging as talking about Canadian milk farmers might be, I’m going to have to pass. You’re too much of a badass for me.”
“You don’t like badasses?” Reuben asked.
“I do,” she said. “And I shouldn’t. It never works out. In fact, I'm in a bad relationship right now. You know what? Life's too short. I think I'm going to break up with Mike as soon as I get home." She stared reflectively at the airport's ceiling while Reuben did a mental fist pump.
Then Aki turned back to face him. "But hey, we could still be friends, right?”
Reuben's heart sank like the Titanic. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Cool.” She playfully punched him on the shoulder and sauntered out of the terminal to catch a cab.
Fuck. Reuben just stood there, a hand clutched over his chest. Maybe Aki was going to cause him to have a heart attack after all.
How had this happened?
He stood stricken, alone in the airport, until an attendant asked if he was OK.
Was he OK? Of course he wasn't. The woman he loved had just put him in the friend zone, and now he had to go back home to Marshall.
To reality.
As he sat in the cab on his way home, his phone went off. It was Martha.
“Hey,” she said. “Just want to find out if you’ve made it home.”
“I’m on my way,” he muttered.
She let a silence pass between them. “How did it go with Aki?”
“What do you mean? We just said goodbye.”
“Uh-huh, you know what I mean.”
He shook his head. “I think that ship has sailed. Er, sunk.”
“What? No, that woman was looking at you like she wanted to bang your brains out.”
“That’s not what she told me.”
“Whatever. She’s lying.”
“She punched me on the shoulder and said ‘cool.’”
“Oh...yikes.”
A text from Buzz popped up on his phone, and he laughed.
“What?” Martha asked.
“Buzz must have been thinking the same thing. He texted me. ‘Beware. If you mess this up, once you’re in the friend zone, statistically, it is nearly impossible to get a date. In fact, you’re more likely to die from a microwave explosion.’”
Reuben groaned.
“Well, you know, given your history,” Martha said.
“Yeah, so maybe I’ve still got a chance after all.” He laughed.
“Maybe. I like her, though. A little snobby, but you go for that type. So, I think she’s good for you.”
“Thanks.” Reuben felt an emotion like hope flutter in his gut. Maybe him and Aki weren't over after all. He grinned fearlessly and made a brave fist. “You know what, maybe you're right.”
“Of course I'm right. I'm always right. Call it cop intuition.”
Reuben had to admit. He did feel a lot better now. He was going to fight for Aki and find a way to work things out, even if it killed him—which it probably would. More than once.
Martha sighed. “Hey, want to come over?”
Reuben checked his watch. “Right now?”
“Yeah. To celebrate us being heroes and all. I could use a drink and some company after all of that.”
“Sure.” He smiled. “It’s not like I have anything to go home to.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
He ended the call and instructed the driver to change routes toward Martha’s neighborhood.
“Actually,” he said, “you’re going to have to get in that lane.”
“That lane? Now?”
The lane was crowded, and there wasn’t another turnoff for another couple of blocks. “Sorry, you can get in now, now, now.”
The driver cursed and did a quick turn that sent Reuben flying against the side of the door.
“Geez, man,” the driver said. “Are you trying to die or something?”
Reuben smiled. “Nah, I’m done dying. No more for me. All I want is to live for the rest of my life so I can die from old age. Preferably in my sleep. That would be nice.”
The driver stared at him quizzically from the rearview. “You do that kid, you do that.”
New York State Penitentiary—Wednesday March 18, 9:01 a.m.
“New roommate, Pout,” the officer yelled as he opened the cell.
“I’m sorry.” He looked at the officer. “My lawyers arranged a private cell for security purposes.”
The officer laughed. “Security purposes? Ain’t no security in here, Mr. Pout. This here’s prison.”
The man entered. He looked different without his hoodie on—the hoodie with the stripes on the shoulders—but that scar across his face was unmistakable.
Alister tensed, “How did you get in here? I did as you said, and I didn’t say anything to anyone about you.”
The man put a finger to his lips, “Shh, people are listening.”
Alister shut his mouth.
The newcomer set his things down on his bed and squashed his mattress. “This will do. Do nicely.”
Bile rose in Alister’s throat. “What do you want?”
“Don’t worry. I won’t be here for long. I just want a few of my questions answered.”
“What do you mean you won’t be here for long?”
“Don’t worry about it. Tell me which foreign governments invested in RedBook. I need dirt. More specifically, I need to know which leaders are on edge so I can push them over.”
Alister frowned. “What? I don’t understand.”
“Microwave bomb was destroyed. But why have a bomb when you can have a nuclear war instead.”
“I wasn’t sending a…”
“RedBook was to be the ultimate surveillance tool. Who wanted it? Why? I need information. Or better yet, your files. Where are they?”
Alister’s mouth hung open.
The man spat on the ground. “Your plan wasn’t a complete failure. It just didn’t work. Your files.”
Alister said nothing to any of this.
The man sighed. “When I enlisted you as my pawn, I expected more. The files.”
“But you’re in jail with me. How will you—”
“Just answer my questions,” the man kicked him in the gut. Repeatedly. “That’s for failing on your mission.” He gave him another kick to his face. “And that’s just because you’re an asshole. Too bad you won’t remember a thing about it. The files.”
Alister whined in pain, and he held his face. “You broke my fucking nose?” They heard guards running to the cell.
“Don’t worry about it. You won’t remember any of this in a minute. You One-Deathers never do.”
“Where?”
Alister had no choice and told this scarred man where he kept his flash drive of information.
“And the password?”
“But—”
The man lifted a fist, threatening to punch him.
Alister covered his face and said, “You only die twice. No spaces. The ‘e’s are the number 3.”
“Interesting password. And wholly inaccurate. One can die way more than twice.”
Alister wiped the blood off his face and laughed. At this point, the guards were fumbling with the cell door. �
��What are you planning on doing with that information? You’re stuck in here with me.”
“Am I?” The man pulled a contraband razor out of a toiletry bag, and without hesitation or fear, stabbed himself in the neck over and over again until he gagged and finally died with a smile painted across his face.
To Be…Repeated
Witch Of The Federation
Have you read Michael Anderle’s latest creation, WITCH OF THE FEDERATION? It’s available now at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
The future has amazing technology. Our alien allies have magic. Together, we are building a training system to teach the best of humanity to go to the stars.
But the training is monumentally expensive.
Stephanie Morgana is a genius, she just doesn't know it.
The Artificial Intelligence which runs the Virtual World is charged with testing Stephanie, a task it has never performed before.
The Earth and their allies, may never be the same again.
Will Stephanie pass the test and be moved to the advanced preparatory schools, or will the system miss her? Will the AI be able to judge a human's potential in an area where it has no existing test data to compare?
Available at Amazon
Author Notes Ramy Vance
June 8, 2021
“I hope you got this out of your system,” Michael yelled at me.
(Well, not yelled – anyone who knows Michael, he doesn’t really yell at you. He just gives you a blank stare that lets you know, in no unequivocal terms, that you’re in trouble.)
I nodded.
“What did we learn, Ramy?”
Me, sheepishly looking away from the screen, “No more crazy, time-travelling, multi-dimensional stories with mad scientists and underpowered heroes. It was hell getting this through Beta and the editorial teams. Lynne (the editor) wants my head on a stake and Beta thinks I’m certifiable. I get it. Never again!”
Michael nodded satisfied. Beta-readers nodded satisfied. The editorial team nodded satisfied.
Me: “But now that this series is in the can, we need to plan the next and I have an idea… Vampires colonizing space…” Pause. “Oh, with a bit of wormhole travel thrown in, too. And an alien race that gets their food from photosynthesis.”
Michael purses his lips, thinks it over and says, “OK, let me have it. What the plotline?”
Vampires Colonizing Space (which is a bit of a misnomer because we don’t really have many vamps in it. It’s more of a… well, you’ll see) will be out in July
So much for straight-forward simple stories.
Author Notes Michael Anderle
June 8, 2021
Thank you for not only reading this story but these author notes as well!
Now that we have Ramy’s version of events, let us discuss my version.
This is how I remember it.
Ramy: I have this fantastic idea where we are going to do something like Groundhog Day and Chuck… You know, the tv show where the tech guy is a spy?
Mike: Ramy, sounds good except the whole timey-wimey issue. LMBPN has had a couple of those, and they are always a B@#@# to do and get right.
Ramy: No problem! I’ll have the timeline all worked out, and it will be super tight.
Mike: I don’t think you are hearing the words coming out of my mouth. Is your ZOOM working? I know it’s late there in Scotland. Perhaps the fact that we have done these types of stories and it’s been a total shitshow isn’t translating correctly through ZOOM? Do I sound like I’m speaking Russian over there right now?
Ramy: Hear you four by four. This is going to be so funny. A guy wants to get the girl, but the girl is a spy-like person and our guy just learned that the world exploded…
Mike: <
Mike: Ok, Ramy, we can try this. I mean, how bad can it be…for me?
The answer to that was, it was fairly annoying for me.
Ramy, on the other hand, was up for almost seventy-two hours trying to do his day job and fix the @#%#!!! errors the first book had coming back from the Beta readers. At one point, I was worried he was losing his hair.
I have on good authority that he isn’t going to try and pull this off again.
Right after his next effort.
Ramy is like a teenage collaborator who refuses to see the reality of the problems he causes himself because he gets caught up in the idea. Let’s see how wise he gets over the course of the next few stories.
Well, if Ramy was a teenage collaborator with two kids, two jobs, and a mortgage.
As soon as Ramy pitches an idea…hell, as soon as my mind registers that the words coming out of his mouth are intended to pitch an idea, my hand involuntarily moves up and my mouth (of its own accord) yells, “NO!”
It’s a learned response.
Until next time!
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Other books by Ramy Vance
Other Middang3ard Books
Never Split The Party (01)
Late To the Party (02)
It’s My Party (03)
Blue Hell And Alien Fire (04)
Death Of An Author: A Middang3ard Novella
Dark Gate Angels
Dark Gate Angels (01)
Shades of Death (02)
The Allies of Death (03)
The Deadliness of Light (04)
Dragon Approved
The First Human Rider (01)
Ascent to the Nest (02)
Defense of the Nest (03)
Nest Under Siege (04)
First Mission (05)
The Descent (06)
Sacrifices (07)
Love and Aliens (08)
An Alien Affair (09)
Dragons in Space (10)
The Beginning of the End (11)
Death of the Mind (12)
Boundless (13)
Other Books by Ramy Vance
Mortality Bites Series
Keep Evolving Series
Fatebound Series
Welcome to the Dragon Show Series
Books By Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit:
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/
All LMBPN Audiobooks are Available at Audible.com and iTunes
To see all LMBPN audiobooks, including those written by Michael Anderle please visit:
www.lmbpn.com/audible
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