by Michael Todd
“Good for you,” Eric exclaimed, watching the desert as they sped past. “Love is what keeps it all together in the end.”
10
“Oh my God, I know,” the Uber driver said. “Boys are so gross. So why am I taking you to the Ferrari dealership?”
“My car just came in!” Katie exclaimed in excitement.
“Oh my GAAHHHD,” she replied. “You bought a Ferrari?”
Katie snickered. “I sure did.”
“What in the world do you do for a living?” the driver asked.
“Um, I’m in universal securities,” Katie said, unsure if that even made sense.
“I don’t know what that is, but crap! I’m in the wrong business,” the driver replied with a snort. “Okay, here we are! Congrats on the new car! That is so exciting!”
“Thank you,” Katie said, running a debit card and tipping her. “I’ll keep your card, though, just in case I don’t feel like driving.”
“Do it!” the driver said enthusiastically.
Katie got out of the car and waved at the Uber driver as she drove away. Katie hadn’t actually thought about the fact that she missed having women in her life until that moment. She really did, though. She missed having girlfriends; people who understood life as a woman.
Hey, you have me. Pandora snapped.
Right, and you are inside me, Katie shot back. And you aren’t really up to speed with this century and the shit that we go through.
You’re right. Pandora sighed. And I don’t like humans anyways. By the way, that girl is false advertising. She was wearing ripped black clothes, black lipstick, and she had bright green hair and dark eye makeup. She seemed like the kind of girl I would seriously have something in common with. I mean, she looked like one of Satan’s followers…
Pandora grunted. And then BOOM! She fucking talks.
Katie laughed. What was wrong with the way she talked?
She was just so damn human, Pandora grumped. She gave a shit about what people thought of her, and she gushed over a goddamn puppy for like ten minutes. Seriously, I would have bitten the head off her puppy and not felt the least remorse.
You scare me sometimes, Katie said as she walked into the dealership.
“Elizabeth,” Brian said, smiling across the room. “It’s the big day!”
And this fucking guy… Pandora scoffed.
Be nice. He still has the keys to the car, Katie said, smiling back and waving.
“So, are you ready to see your new beauty?” Brian asked.
“More than ready,” Katie replied.
“Well, let’s go then.”
Katie followed Brian out to the back lot and stopped, her mouth falling open. There it was…freshly painted, spotless, and with a pretty red bow across the windshield. Katie smiled and ran to Brian, giving him a huge hug.
“OH.” He laughed. “Elizabeth, thank you so much for coming out here to pick your car up. Do you want me to get your phone synced in or anything?”
Katie shook her head vehemently. “I just want to get in and drive!”
Brian smiled. “OK, but please call me if there are any issues or you have questions at all.”
“I will,” Katie said, taking the keys from him and winking. “Thank you so much.”
“It was my pleasure.” Brian waved her to the car. “Now go! It’s all yours!”
Katie giggled and skipped over to the car, pulling open the door and taking in a huge whiff of the new-car smell.
The top was already down which was fine with her. She sat down in the driver’s seat and groaned, rolling her eyes.
This was her new baby; she didn’t have to share it with a single person. It was the first new car she had ever owned, and she had to admit she had splurged quite a bit, considering it was worth more than her mother’s house.
But she had the money and she had the stressful job and the boxed-in life, so it was a release—something they all needed from time to time. All she had to do at that point was figure out where to drive first.
Derek grabbed his file and headed down the stairs toward Korbin’s office.
He had been trying a new experiment where he put up a website with some information on it and waited for people to start commenting and talking, hoping he could get some clues on who was demonic and what people were saying about the most recent events.
It wasn’t something that cost a lot of money, but it did cost time. He wanted to make sure he and Korbin were on the same page before he moved forward with more sites.
When he got to the office the door was cracked, so he peeked his head in and saw that Korbin was on the phone. He looked up at Derek and waved him in, giving him the sign for one minute. Derek nodded and wandered around the office, looking at all the books on his bookshelf.
The man was definitely a collector, which was really nice to see. Those things tended to get lost in their world. After a few minutes, Korbin got off the phone and let out a long sigh.
“Sorry about that.” He stood up. “Please, have a seat.”
“The higher-ups giving you a hard time again?” Derek asked as he sat.
“No, not really. They just have to go over every minute detail, and it’s exhausting,” Korbin griped. “I wish they would just put it in a memo that I won’t read and go from there.”
Derek laughed. “That’s probably why they don’t.”
Korbin sat down behind his desk. “So how is the whole thing going? The webpage thing?”
“Well, it has borne a little fruit already,” Derek said, “but mostly it has produced a huge number of false positives. I fully expected that, but it is a little frustrating at times— I’m not going to lie. I want to scream at the computer at least ten times a day.”
“So what kind of false positives are you finding on there?” Korbin asked.
“It’s people who either live in another world, or they think the website is like a fantasy fiction kind of thing,” Derek explained. “For example, I had to delete like a hundred comments that had nothing to do with what we were looking for, but everything to do with Dungeons and Dragons. They get on a roll on there, and there is just no stopping them. If I don’t delete their comments anyone legit who comes to the site just will pass it over, thinking we are full of shit or made everything up. They won’t see their connection to it all.”
“Right,” Korbin agreed.
“Oh, and I had to delete a ton of comic-book characters like Spawn and Dead Pool,” Derek continued. “They were comic relief, and though I appreciated it, I am taking this very seriously. This is our future, you know? At this time and place we are facing something no one has ever seen in their lives. It is historical...and terrifying at the same time. I want people to start taking it seriously, or at least attempt to. I am just surprised that I didn’t get any Cards of Humanity fiends! Go figure. You attract one kind of nerd and repel another—just great.”
“You are moving forward though, right?” Korbin asked.
“An inch at a time.” Derek sighed. “Sometimes just a centimeter at a time, but forward is forward, I guess.”
“That is true, and we knew it wouldn’t work overnight,” Korbin assured him. “So, among all the bullshit, is there any useful new intel?”
“I mean, not really.” Derek shrugged. “It is all still pretty evenly distributed across the country, to be honest.”
“That’s okay,” Korbin replied. “It’s just the beginning, and none of us expected this thing to be the save-all. You have to remember that all these things contribute to the bigger picture. A little intel from you, a little intel from the reporter, and we are putting pieces together before we know it. It takes time; that’s something I learned in the service. Everything takes time, especially when you need it right then and there. There’s no easy solution, unfortunately. Every once in a while you get a good tip and it’s magic, but most of the time it’s sifting through the shit before you find that one piece of gold.”
Derek raised an eyebrow. “I appreciat
e the pep talk.”
“Well, that’s what I’m here for—the professional pep talker.” Korbin laughed. “I should charge for it, but then all of you would be broke and complaining.”
“That is very true.”
“So, tell me what else you think you could do to push the site out of fantasy fiction and more into underground news?” Korbin asked.
“Put up stories or articles, maybe,” Derek suggested. “Something to drive people there and start them thinking about what they have seen or done, you know?”
“That’s interesting, but you don’t want it to take up all of your time,” Korbin warned. “You want to be able to put up the pertinent things and have it run itself, almost. You go in, check for intel, post something else, move on.”
“That’s true,” Derek agreed, making a note on his tablet.
“Also, you could add in some murder stats and connect them to additional databases to run some information,” Korbin offered. “You could get the statistics going—the pure data. People love numbers, whether they are lottery jackpots or murder rates. This will get them to start thinking, right?”
“That’s…a really interesting idea,” Derek mused, writing it down. “I’m not positive about how to connect those things, but I’m sure with a little bit of research I will have it down in no time.”
“See?” Korbin smiled. “You sit there day in and day out going over the numbers, but you start to lose focus when it is like that. Sometimes it takes stepping away from the screen and going over things with someone else—me, or any of the other people in this house. We are lucky enough to have a solid group of smart people. People who can think outside the box. They are strong-willed and strong-minded and educated and experienced, and you have them at your fingertips. All you gotta do is grab someone and say ‘Hey, give me five minutes.’”
“Right,” Derek agreed, feeling better already.
“Oh, and I suggest that you ask James Caplan to come out of retirement,” Korbin told him. “He has done some stellar consulting work for me in the past, and you can trust him fully. The biggest issue is figuring out whether we can actually get him.”
“All we can do is try,” Derek replied. “I mean, it’s not going to hurt. The worst he can say is no, and we haven’t lost anything with that. My mom always told me it never hurt to ask.”
“She was very right…unless it’s a stupid question.” Korbin chuckled. “I don’t agree that there are no stupid questions.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” Derek asked, still making notes.
“All right.” Korbin rubbed his hands together. “I give you my approval to reach out to James, but be very vague on what we need at first. Once he hears my name he will understand why it needs to be vague, especially over the phone. He will come in if he is interested, and we can give him a better rundown of what we are trying to achieve and where we want to take this project.”
“Awesome,” Derek exclaimed, standing up and shaking Korbin’s hand. “I’ll check back in with you later this week.”
“Sounds good,” Korbin agreed.
Derek felt better about his project when he left the office, and headed down to the main area.
Once he got there, he decided he needed a break; some time to just clear his mind. He headed up on the roof with his tablet.
Rarely did anyone go up there, so it was the perfect place to be alone and uninterrupted.
Everyone else was perfectly okay with being up each other’s butts, but not Derek. He cherished his alone-time. That was when he did the stupid shit most people made fun of him for.
He plopped down on the lounge and turned on his tablet, then went to his social media and scrolling through the lives of people that he didn’t know at all but had friended to make his account look real.
From there, he followed his normal routine of scanning through the memes of the day in several different groups that he belonged to. They were stupid but funny, and funny was a perfect break from the stress of the life he led.
His life consisted of constant doom and gloom, constant death, constant attacks, constant dark alleys, and constant blood baths, so if he could sit back for a couple of hours and laugh at llama or cat or even Ryan Reynolds memes, he was all about it. It was what he had done before he came into Korbin’s Killers. Before he was part of the Damned, before he knew demons really existed.
It made no difference to him that his life outside of that was different. He just focused on the laughs.
After about an hour, he looked up from his tablet and set it in his lap.
The sky was bright blue, and the breeze was almost hot as it rolled over the desert. He closed his eyes and thought about a life without killing.
He thought about the family he would never have, the house he would never buy, and the car he would never own.
He thought about his prospects for a future outside Korbin’s Killers, but what would he do? Sit on a beach, drink mango juice, and drum on a goatskin bongo? Nah, that wasn’t him. He had to be needed. To be important, and vital to the world’s functionality.
He wasn’t positive about the last one, but he sure as hell was trying to be vital, and the website was going to help him get there. He knew he could create a tool to help with the fights. He just needed to figure out the answer to the question at the back end of the code; the missing link that would tie it all together.
He just needed the final puzzle piece.
11
Mamacita sat at her desk and stared down at the books. There were plenty of calculations to be done, and this was the first time that she’d had time to sit down and do them. She was tired of rushing through them right before the ordering, so she had now made it her rule that she would get them done at least one day before ordering. That way no matter who was there or who did the ordering, everything was set up for success.
Before she could begin, though, Joshua walked into the office.
“Hey!” He grinned at her. “I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about quotas and exchanges.”
Mamacita smiled. “Well, look who is all business now! Please sit down.”
“Thank you.”
“Why now?” Mamacita asked. “Let me rephrase that: why the interest now?”
“Well, I have to admit that in the beginning all I wanted to do was be left alone to make my weapons,” he told her. “I liked the quiet and the solace, and I didn’t want to have to deal with customers or anything. Of course, I would have failed miserably if I hadn’t, but I was unhappy and anxiety-ridden the whole time. Now, though, it’s different. I see the help that the others are giving me, giving you, and giving the company. I want to be a part of that, beyond just hammering out weapons. And most importantly, I don’t want to fail for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I know I can do better than I have until now.”
Mamacita listened to him with her hands in her lap and her face calm. She considered his words, his tone, his body language, and the story he was telling beneath it all.
She waited until he was done, and paused for a moment to think about what she wanted to say to him. She knew that with Joshua you had to be specific. You had to be on-point, but in a personal way.
You had to connect with him on his level.
“Let me ask you a question,” she began. “Who do you think the highest-level business people are, as far as careers?”
“I-I-I don’t know. Maybe bankers?” he suggested.
“That’s a good guess, but no,” she told him. “The highest-level business people are either engineers or in sales. They are working together, but they are on the same level in business.”
“How are they working together?” Joshua asked.
She smiled. “Well, think about it. You have the one who created it, and then you have the one who sells it. Engineers usually hire someone to work the business side, because that isn’t where their talents lie. Like you: you are very knowledgeable about creating the product. That is your expertise, and no one can even come c
lose to doing your job. Then you have me and Korbin, who are really good with the books, so we focus all our energy there. We may be interested in learning how you do what you do, but we will still be better at the books. You are irreplaceable, though, and that makes you the most important man in this entire building. You push harder than anyone, and you are responsible for making the product that we will be selling.”
“Oh, okay.” Joshua nodded. “You are saying, stick with your strengths. Learn your weaknesses, but operate where you are the strongest.”
“Yes,” Mamacita agreed.
“So, like Katie—she helped get the business on track, but she was overwhelmed in the beginning,” Joshua said. “You and Korbin have a lot more experience on the business side, so you are taking over that part—at least for now—to make sure the company runs smoothly—so you aren’t having to dump money into it all the time because of bad deals with suppliers. Also, you are making sure that when I have done my job, you have a home for the product. It’s like a circle where we want the strongest people we can have at each point, so that we stay strong all the way through from beginning to end.”
“You got it.” Mamacita smiled, a glint of pride in her eyes. “You are even smarter than you give yourself credit for. You understand complexity in such a unique way, and it’s wonderful and refreshing. Now, I do want to point out that just because Katie didn’t know what to do, it doesn’t mean she was a bad owner. She reached out. In fact, being willing to reach out for help even when you are at the top is a very big indicator that you are a leader.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a leader, but it’s really hard because I get so nervous, and sometimes I get confused,” Joshua admitted.
“And that’s okay, because guess what? You are the leader in your specialty,” Mamacita told him. “Just like Korbin and I are leaders in ours. You are the boss of the weapons.”