This story is a work in progress done mostly to write how I wish my life was and how I think some things should be. It's also a way of having something to work on when writer's block hits me on Thrace Down.

~o~

“So? Will you?”

“Fine. Just shut up. I'll take you to the clinic.”

James scowled and pulled a sweater on and grabbed his keys off the desk. “How did you get into the condos, anyway?”

“Does it really matter?”

“Yes. I have to kill whoever it was. You stole from me. I didn't want to see you in my life ever again.”

James sighed and pulled her by her elbow towards the door. “Let's go. The sooner its over with, the sooner you can get out of my life once and for all.”

Amy nodded and allowed James to push her out the door of his downtown condo and towards his car. She had shown up at his home begging him to take her to the family planning clinic so she could... well, abort the child she had inside her.

James sat as the car warmed up and tried to ignore her. She was sniffling as she pulled the seat belt on. She snuck a look at James and wondered why she'd ever betrayed him. He owned many businesses, a dozen cars and had the most beautiful little girl. Plus great taste in cars. She gazed at the exotic wood dash of the Aston Martin he drove as he pushed the paddle to shift into first.

As he drove, James tapped the beat to a Metallica song and ignored her. The drive was one of the longest fifteen minutes he had ever driven. Once he was near, he picked up his cell and hit the concierge button. After two rings, a woman answered and said, “Good morning, Mr. Blake. How may I help you today?”

“I need the directions to the Atlanta Northside Family Planning Services.”

“Yes, Mr. Blake. One moment...” she didn't comment on the strange question. She'd been asked far stranger by other customers. And on the dozen or so occasions James Blake called, the requests were usually strange. A restaurant that served Breyer's ice cream or a little Tokyo section when he was in a different state.

She found the information and relayed it to him and received a distracted thank you before he hung up. As soon as she disconnected, another call came through from one of her clients for the day.

James turned left and pulled to a stop at a light. He typed in the address on his GPS display and nodded when he got the same directions. When they arrived, James was amazed to see that there weren't any protesters. This was the same clinic that had been bombed six years ago. James shrugged as he pulled his keys out of the console and got out of the car. Once the doors shut, he hit his key fob and locked the doors while activating the alarm.

Amy walked into the clinic slowly as James followed her. Once inside they sat waiting. Amy tried to page through a magazine, then asked in a hesitant voice. “A-are you dating anyone?”

James replied in a cold and even voice, “Strange place to want to catch up. I'm here to take you home afterwards and have someone bring your car to you. That's all.”

“P-please, this is all so... strange.”

“Fine. We just released our fourth game, I finished my fourth book and made three point six mill off of it. My car shop just built a hot rod that's going to be on the cover of Popular Hot Rodding, the LAN center is holding its own. It's making about thirty bucks more a week than it takes to maintain it. The import shop is building a new street monster for the NOPI race wars and my daughter is doing just fine.”

Amy started to reply but was cut off when her name was called. James sighed gratefully as she followed the nurse through the door. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and told the attending nurse, “Tell her I'll be outside on the phone when she comes out.”

The woman nodded and wondered where she'd seen him before. She didn't recognize him without the blue hair he'd had a few weeks ago when he'd been on Jay Leno's show. If she had, she'd be asking for his autograph. His books were some of her favorites.

James dialed his main office and got his secretary. “Marla, what are the numbers for our latest pressing?”

“Good morning Sir. We've had tentative reports of the first pressing nearing complete market saturation.”

“Excellent, I'm going to be in late. Have Social run the meeting and you take notes for me.”

“Yes, sir. Will that be all?”

“Buy the daycare Sofia goes to.”

“I'll tell Legal and Appropriations right away, sir.”

Marla heard his side of the line shut down and she hit the switch to disengage the line. She flicked the speaker phone on and called the Legal department. “Mr. Blake wants Kids R Kids to be appropriated. Look into any possible legal problems with acquiring the business and possible legal problems of the current owner if they don't want to sell.”

“No problem. I'll get on it within the hour.”

The line clicked off as Marla turned back to her work on one of the few Macintosh's in the office.

James was on the phone talking to his daughter's doctor when he turned so the wind was at his back. His eyes traced the design of an aerial antenna when his mind keyed on the fact that there weren't any protesters. His phone hand dropped as he turned to the building at the same moment as an antenna inside the building transmitted its final signal to a small package attached to the natural gas heater in a utility closet. Around the inlet pipe, eight ounces of Semtex were wrapped around the object, a small black box attached with a red blinking light, only visible in the infrared spectrum. The red light blinked one last final time, a green light activated but the electricity didn't have time to reach the light as the Semtex detonated.

James had taken one step forward to suggest they evacuate when the explosion over pressurized the building, blowing the windows out of the frames and the doors off their hinges. The pressure threw him backwards, the glass door shattering and missing him mostly. A few fragments grazed him, ripping his sweater up and causing only a few abrasions. As he hit the cement, more damage was done. His shoulder was dislocated as the tarmac ripped his back raw. His last thought was whether or not his phone was still functional as blackness enveloped him.

James woke up to find a mask over his mouth, an irritating siren wailing and a paramedic crouching over him. He tried to move but found that he was strapped down. The paramedic was looking up at the moment and didn't realize he was awake. James decided this was probably for the best and closed his eyes again. She's hot, he thought. Kym is a pretty name.

When he woke up next, the room was all white and an old woman in purple scrubs was looking at his chart. “Good afternoon, Mr. Blake. How are you feeling?”

James scowled at her and said, “Like a bloody building blew up in front of me.”

“I'll just go get your doctor. He wanted to have a few words with you. The police are here also, and would like to have a word with you.”

James nodded and said, “Keep them away from me. Tell them to come by my office the day after I'm out of here.”

she nodded and headed towards the door when he asked, “Where's my cell phone?”

“Most likely with your belongings. We don't allow them to be used in the building. They can interfere with the medical equipment.”

“I need a phone, then.” she nodded and walked out of the room.

James thanked providence for donating three million to the hospital last year. Having to share a room with someone else would have been intolerable. He may have come up from nothing, but he sure as hell didn't want a reminder of that nothing anywhere near him.

The doctor walked in as he was looking out the window along with a man in a black suit. The man in the black suit spoke first. “Mr. Blake, I'm John Fitzgerald, the administrator of the hospital. I wanted to thank you again for your contribution to the hospital and I hope your stay here is short and easy.”

James nodded and wondered when he'd get some more pain medication. His shoulder was on fire. The doctor picked up his chart and spoke as the administrator left. “Your shoulder was dislocated. From your medical record, I see it's happened before. So there should be no worries there. Your skin was ripped up pretty badly and we've put four stitches on your chest to cover the holes. The back will have to just regrow. It'll itch like hell, but you'll be fine. I want to keep you for a day just to make sure that little crack on your head is nothing. Other than that you're absolutely fine. The nurse will be here in a moment to give you some painkillers. I'm writing out a prescription for you when you leave and I'll tell the officers outside you're not able to speak to them at this time.”

James nodded and tried to ignore the pain as the doctor poked at his shoulder and chest. After a few minutes, the man left and the nurse from before came back in. she smiled as James choked down the pills and drank water from the Dixie cup she handed him. The pain began to subside as another nurse came in with a portable phone. “The number is printed on the base. Any long distance calls will be charged to your bill.”

James nodded and dialed his office. If he was stuck here for a day, his secretary's secretary could come in and take some dictation. Both of the nurses left the room as the line was picked up on the other end. “Marla, it's me.”

“Sir, are you all right? I tried calling you twice. We've acquired Kids R Kids. The owner sold faster than your stock does.”

“Good. I need you to pick up Sofia and take her to her grandma's. Send someone to the hospital and get my car keys then go pick up my car at the Atlanta Northside Family Planning Services. Send Michelle to come and take some dictation from me tomorrow. And have her bring a one liter of Pepsi Blue from my office.”

“Are you at Piedmont?”

“Is that the one I donated to?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yeah, and have her bring the suit in my office. My clothes are probably trash.”

“Yes, sir. What happened?”

“A building blew up. Let my housekeepers know where I am.”

“Oh... the abortion center? Umm...”

“I took an ex there so she could get to her appointment.”

“You didn't need to tell me.”

“True, but I wanted the office gossip to be correct.” he chuckled then asked, “Transfer me to Social.”

the phone clicked and played five seconds of the muzak version of Enter Sandman before a deep voice answered the phone. “This be Social. What you want?”

“You have a degree in English and a degree in Classic Literature. Act like it.”

“Hey boss man. What you need?”

“I need info. Who bombed the building. Before the police can bring them in.”

“Which building?”

“Abortion center. There's a card in the esses in my Rolodex labeled S911. Call that number and tell him to meet me at The Zone Wednesday night at midnight. How did the meeting go?”

“The story line from your second book is translating to the game well. And that new secretary is hot... think she'd be interested?”

“I seem to remember telling you when you were hired... no interoffice dating.”

“Fine. What about the girls from the second floor?”

“Yeah... if one said yes you could try... didn't know you were into the site.”

“I use your access.”

“Shit, I knew there was a reason I was looking for a gay guy to be the head of the buildings network.”

Social laughed and James said, “All right. Get cracking.”

James hung up the phone as Social started looking for info on the net. A window with a woman reclining half nude was closed as he began paying attention to his search for information.

Another screen ran through lines of code. The custom screensaver used the source for the company's games without any spaces in the code. When words or phrases were found, the item was saved to a text file so the rest of the company could see what the search matrix could do. It was like the bible code but a lot less useful.

Data was saved to a folder shared on the third network in the building. There were three networks in use and most computers only had access to one or two. Social had access to all three as System Admin for the building and for EnerDyne Software.

There was a knock on his office door and Social hit a switch that opened his door for him. The lights in the room came on, revealing a black man in an expensive Armani suit at the door. “Mr. Siemens? Ms. Watson asked me to drop this off on my way out.”

“Ms. Watson? Oh, you mean Ennui?”

“Umm, yeah. These are the fiscal outputs for EnerDyne and floor seven compared to the third through sixth floors.”

“Why not floor one?”

“The vehicle shops and LAN are supposed to be done separately. Mr. Blake's orders.”

“Oh. All right.”

The financial officer left the office and Social wheeled himself out the door. His wheelchair had wireless access to a hardened transmitter that only the IP address on his wheelchair could access. As he wheeled himself towards James' office, he slipped the disc into the access port and read the data as it scrolled the screen.

He rolled into Jame's secretary's office and said, “Gotta pick up something.”

“No problem. Just show me so I can log it.”

Social nodded and rolled into the office. He flipped through the Rolodex and found the card. “Binary?”

Social scowled as he translated it. He wrote the number on his arm, double checked it, triple checked it, and then rolled out of the office.

“It wasn't there.”

“All right. See you around, sir.”

Social scowled again after he left the office. All these people calling him sir annoyed the hell out of him. If it weren't for the fact that EnerDyne was the best company he had ever worked for, he'd quit.

James was bored to tears. Being stuck in a hospital was the worst. Sofia was in bed so he couldn't call her. He wasn't seeing anyone so he didn't have a girl to call. Then he remembered the paramedic and hit the buzzer to ring for a nurse. So far he had lucked out and the press didn't know he was there. His car had been towed as and the rear plate had been damage beyond recognition, making it impossible to tell he was there by that.

The nurse knocked on the door, then entered. This one was younger and much more attractive than the first nurse had been.

“Mr. Blake, here are your personal belongings. I noticed your cell was damaged and I called the local Vertu office. I told them you were here visiting sick children and your phone was damaged by an orderly. They're sending over a technician tomorrow. If you wish, I can intercept and hold your phone then bring it to you when it's repaired.”

“Oh, thank you, yes. I was wondering if you knew the EMT named Kym?” as he asked, he made sure to remember this girl's name, Anna, and send her something nice when he got out. Maybe a car?

“Actually I do, possibly. The Asian girl with curly hair?”

“Yeah.”

“She's my roommate. Why?”

Maybe a damn nice car. “Well... she looked like an angel and I was wondering if she's seeing anyone.”

Anna smiled and said, “No she's not. Here. This is our apartment number. Give her a call sometime. She has Wednesday and Thursday off.”

James nodded and put his good arm behind his head as he laid back. Even if Kym wasn't interested, Anna looked like she might be an intriguing girl.

James closed his eyes and was asleep in a few moments, the number clenched tightly in his hand.

Social had sixteen possibles and was narrowing it down as he coded a program. Ennui had dropped off a hacked copy of Rainbow Six 3 and it was installing on his gaming system while hunting the last few bugs in the code. Actually, the copy of Rainbow Six 3 was legal but the installer had been modified as well as the majority of the models and the main executable. The info had been copied over to a DVD+R and now only one disc was needed for the install. It wasn't exactly legal but they weren't going to give copies away. James always bought copies of the latest games for everyone so they could see what the competition was doing and he was a hardcore gamer. Hell, Social thought. It's amazing he ever gets any writing done, he games so damn much.

The install finished and Social ran the game. He started laughing as he saw that all the models of terrorists had been replaced with politicians and the hostages were modeled after porn stars. Social had chosen a M82A1 .50cal sniper rifle and shot George Bush Jr. in the head. Unfortunately, unlike other games, Bush only dropped to the ground and Social shut the game down. There was time for games later. Right now he had work to do. He made sure his door was shut and locked then connected to a VPN at the University of Georgia. From there he telnetted into a system in Oregon. That system had access to the local FBI office but that wasn't his goal for the day. Sixteen more computers joined the linkage by proxy or telnet as Social prepared to hack into the Atlanta Homeland Security Office.

Three minutes later, he was cackling over how easily he was in. the data he was after was in a shared folder on their supposedly secure internal network and had been accessed recently. There was only three Megabytes in all and he copied it to a minidisc. Once that was done, Social began rewriting the access logs. In thirty seconds, all traces that the files had been copied were gone and he logged out, making sure to save the password and username. It would most likely be changed soon, but sometimes even people who did security were stupid. Especially government employees.

After that, he disconnected from the half a dozen systems and connected to three others. Within moments, he was in the police file for the case and saw that they had little to nothing except half a dozen anti-choice groups claiming responsibility.

One by one, Social shut down connections and then wiped any trace that he had been in other systems from his own system. The custom operating system he used automatically rewrote every bit of data on his system, restoring it to the point it had been at thirty minutes ago. The key allowing this was pulled from the front USB slot and the option disappeared as he slipped it into the rabbits foot on his key chain.

The minidisc was slipped into his wheelchair and he read what he had retrieved. Two groups were suspected and neither had claimed responsibility. Social didn't know much about this kind of stuff but he figured it was probably one of the two. If he had been part of something like that, he wouldn't claim he had done it. From his wheelchair, he transmitted it to a folder on James' PC, made sure it was the correct “temp” folder and then deleted and reinitialized the minidisc.

Social wondered what the boss man planned to do with the data then decided not to think about it. He had given Social everything he could and done even more. Social had a Lincoln Navigator and the coolest handicapped accessible street racer ever. A 412 horsepower Chevy Cavalier with a six thousand watt sound system. He had three trophies from car shows thanks to that car and James Blake.

James had been driven to the police evidence lot by Michelle and had seen the damage done to his car. Instead of worrying about the insurance, James decided to just have it repaired himself. This was his favorite car. He finished the Pepsi and grinned lightly. The Absinthe affected the flavor in only a minimal way. It actually tasted better and the cooler kept people away from drinking his stash. The buzz from the alcohol was very nice as he got into the back seat of the woman's car.

As he sat there on the way back to the office, he wondered about getting a limo after all. They were expensive but renting them to woo investors and new employees was getting just as expensive. He decided to have Appropriations look into it.

As they approached the parking garage for ColeBlak Enterprises, Inc., James debated a move to a new building. The first floor held the hot rod and the street racer shops he owned, along with the entrance to the building for access to floors one and two and four through six. Floor two was a museum of his private vehicles that was open to the public on the weekdays only. Floor three was by private access from the parking structure and was a private area for a website that James had started on a whim. was a voyeur site and the third floor was a recreation of a large house where a dozen women lived for days at a time. The site brought in the most revenue on a steady basis. Nearly one point seven five million a month net. That was the only reason it wasn't discontinued. James hated the thought of his little Sofia ever doing anything like it... but a valuable asset it was and personal feelings weren't allowed when it came to business. He had actually met Amy through the site by accident. He had been touring during a hardware upgrade and asked her out.

Floor five was a private software concern and did custom software for companies. Floor six was the full offices that controlled the major day to day business. And although most of the executives had access to the seventh floor in case they needed to speak face to face with Mr. Blake, less than one hundred square feet were available to access by employees from floors five and six. The rest of the floor was only accessible by biometric measures for the one dozen employees of EnerDyne and the network techs.

Off of James' office, there was an elevator available to all the floors but it spent more time at the top floor than anywhere else.

The parking lot across the street had private access skywalks for floors three and seven while floors four through six had public access.

Michelle pulled into her parking spot on the seventh level and got out to open the door for James. He got out before she could open the door and thanked her. He rotated his right arm carefully and thanked the woman as he headed towards the skywalk. Michelle had grabbed her identity card but James pushed his thumb against the display before she could insert her card.

As they walked towards the offices on the seventh floor, James nodded at the few developers not working in their offices. Most on their way back from a bathroom or grabbing something to eat from the cafeteria. The soda machines only charged a dime. Higher amounts of free food and other compensations allowed him to pay somewhat less than most other game developers.

Cole found a message in a text file written in the minor code used for internal memos. A long string of numbers and hyphens were translated to forward slashes, zeros and ones. Once he was done, the 'temp' file was found and James typed in the address to his file browser. While he was competent enough with Linux and the custom version they used on the PCs in the office, James used Windows mainly. He may have had the ideas for the games and played the Linux versions often enough, he was more comfortable with Windows day to day although he used a replacement Kernel, Aston Shell, with a desktop customized to look like the dash of his Aston Martin.

He read through the files quickly and looked at the hologram clock on his desk. It was only two in the afternoon. He printed them out and made sure the memory on his printer had lost all the data by printing out another copy of an old contract.

Within moments, the files had been transferred to the DocuShredder and the data was deleted then the sectors were written over with garbage and deleted again a dozen times. Overkill but warranted. Except for the paper, all evidence of the data being in the building should be erased by that time.

His office had a shredder and a small wood fireplace they used to destroy documents. James read the pages one by one and dropped them in the shredder as he finished them. Thirty minutes later when he finished the final page, only thirteen were left. Those would go to S911 if he decided to take the job. James pulled the shredded pages from the bin and ran them through the shredder again three more times. When he was done, instead of confetti, he had mulch. Social would never tell what he had done and James was a closed mouth bastard, as many of his lovers had told him when the relationships ended.

There was a buzz and his secretary's voice came through the speaker phone. “Sir, your trainer is here. Should I--”

“I'll be right out. It'll be a chance for me to practice one handed.”

James stood and took his katana and bokken off the wall, then headed out of his office. “Hi, Sato. How are you today?”

“Good lord, what the hell happened to you? You look like you picked a fight with me.”

Marla covered her mouth but a chuckle still escaped her. James waved it off and said, “There was an explosion. The police will probably show to talk to me soon. Let's get started.”

James thumbed a door open and walked into the main area. A large white mat covered an eighteen by twenty foot rectangle in the center of the building while two dozen wheeled easy chairs were pushed up against the walls in between doors to offices. A large black bar was suspended from the ceiling. From the bar, a silver screen would drop by remote so movies could be watched in the building. The white mat was covered by red shag carpet normally except Wednesday mornings. This was the morning that James had his private lessons.

“Today we'll dispense with the normal routine and stick to your single hand stance and one hand falls.”

James didn't have time to reply before Sato's foot swept out and knocked James to the ground, his sword still firmly in his grasp. He caught himself with his free arm and stopped himself from landing on his bad shoulder.

James felt a stitch tear out and was glad the shirt he was wearing only cost two hundred dollars.

After the lesson... beating, he thought, actually, James grabbed the keys for his 69 Camaro SS and decided to go home and get a few hours of rest before calling his wife's parents house and asking for Sofia to be brought home. He grabbed a Pepsi Blue for when he got home and told Marla he was leaving for the day before taking his elevator to the second floor.

He got into the Camaro and warmed it up, glad that the majority of his classic cars were automatics. Even a paddle shift was a bitch with only one arm.

When he arrived at home, a plain police car was in the driveway. He made sure his shoes were clean before walking through the door. Even though they were clean, he removed them and set them on a small pedestal just inside the door. He pulled a pair of black slippers from under the pedestal and slipped them on over his feet. He stared at the photo of his dead wife for a moment, then crossed the marble entryway and onto the thick shag carpeting.

The two plain clothes police officers in very cheap suits were sipping at coffee from fine china in his sitting room. His housekeepers, an elderly couple from japan, were entertaining the two as they obviously waited for him.

“Mr. Blake?”

“Yes. Can you call Sofia's grandparents and have them bring her home?”

“Yes, sir.”

His housekeepers left the room and James sat down on a chair, then opened his Pepsi. “I didn't see anything. I was making a call and the next thing i know, I'm in the hospital.” He took a drink and waited for the officers to speak.

They asked half a dozen inane questions and then left after twenty minutes of him explaining in detail what happened and why he was there. James promised to call them if he remembered anything. They didn't know he wouldn't call them with what he hoped to find out. The housekeeper, Eiko, came in and cleaned up the china. Her husband, Fuji, waited until she left the room and then came in and spoke softly, “Your daughter will be here momentarily, master.” James nodded and thanked him.

He made a quick call, found out his car would be released in a week and called the dealership to order the replacement body panels and windows.

He set the phone down and smiled as he heard, “Daddy, daddy. Look what I made at preschool today.” Sofia came running into the sitting room, then stopped dead in her tracks. Teetering for a moment as she surveyed her father's blooded shirt and arm in a cast. “What happened, Daddy? You're all messy.”

“Rough day at the office. Why not run upstairs and change for dinner.”

His in-laws, John and Erin Summers, sat down unbidden and asked, “What happened?”

“A building blew up and I was way too close.”

John asked, “The abortion center?” They received a nod and Erin asked, “Why were you there?”

“An... acquaintance asked for me to take her to her appointment.”

“Someone you were dating?” John asked, a pale look to his face.

“No, if I start seeing anyone, you'll meet them if it got that serious.”

both nodded and the conversation was closed. Sofia came charging down the stairs wearing her pajamas singing, “So comfy, so comfy.”

All three adults laughed and took the glasses of sherry Eiko brought them on a silver tray. “Dinner will be ready in twelve minutes, master.”

Sofia jumped on the couch next to her grandfather and bounced a few times before asking, “Is that juice? Can I have some?”

“Remember when I let you taste wine at Christmas? Besides, dinner is in a few minutes.”

“Eww. Icky. Are you staying for dinner, grams?”

“Would you? I have an appointment tonight. Fuji can make up a guest room for both of you.”

“Why not. What's the appointment?”

James waved it off and stood. “Come Sofia. Let's go to the dining room.”

Sofia and her grandparents followed James into the dining room. He put his daughter on a booster seat on her chair and then sat at the head of the table, Erin and John sat to his right.

His housekeepers each brought in two plates. A small cheeseburger, baked fries and orange juice for Sofia while the adults were given plates of meatloaf, cheese covered broccoli and rice.

“Meatloaf?” James asked.

“Made from elk meat . You said i should try more American recipes, master.” Fuji replied.

James laughed and nodded. “Thank you.”

he took a bite of the meatloaf and nodded. “Excellent. Best meatloaf ever.” John and Erin agreed heartily and the meal progressed.

James had just finished tucking Sofia in and kissed her brow. He flipped the light off and closed the door softly. As he walked to his room, he debated leaving now and hanging out or waiting and only arriving within a few moments of the meeting.

His mind made up, he strode towards the staircase and followed the steps down. Out the door and in his Camaro, he used his cell phone and did a massive page to all his game design employees leaving the voice message, “If you know what's good for you, meet me at The Zone.”

While he didn't truly mean anything by that, it would quickly get them all together, and the drinks would flow. Owning a club was great for its best perk; free booze.

When he arrived, Social had already arrived. “Hey bizzity bizzoss man. I was still at the office when I got your page.”

James laughed and followed Social in. Ennui and her girlfriend were already inside at the bar when they walked in. “Ennui, Mischa. What are you drinking?”

“Nothing yet. Waiting for you so we don't have to pay.”

James signaled the bartender and leaned over, whispering in her ear. She nodded and James led off towards the private room at the back of the bar and thumbed his way in. biometrics were everywhere in any business he owned, allowing him access sans a card or key.

Micheal, a young Asian man called Warfiend, arrived next. He was the head artist for the project. His assistant, Anya, called BearyBrite, arrived next. One by one the rest of the team arrived and sat down in lounge chairs. Phearefex, GruppeSechs, BlackHart, Heart, LoveHate, Fingers, ColdFire and BrokenAngel. All his employees went by their screen names nearly all the time.

The bartender brought in a black wrapped bottle along with thirteen shot glasses and silver slotted spoons. A black sugar bowl held a pile of sugar cubes next to a pitcher of water. She set them down on the middle table and began preparing shots of Absinthe handing them out, the first to James and then to the rest before leaving. All waited until they all had a shot, for James to speak. “To gamers everywhere. May their lust for our games keep us in booze.”

All repeated, “To gamers,” and drank.

They spent the rest of the evening sipping their drinks of choice. James had three more shots of Absinthe then switched to sparkling water. At a few minutes to midnight, he made his excuses and went out to the bar to wait. As he sat at the bar nursing a glass of water, a business card was slipped under his hand. He looked down and saw a black card with a silver silhouette of a man, blood red lettering proclaiming only a letter and a number, S911.

James slipped the card into his sleeve and walked towards the end of the bar. A door stood with Manager written in gold. He opened it and walked in, the man following him. Once the door was closed, the loud club became a soft roar and a normal voice could be heard easily.

James pulled the files out of his pocket and handed them to the man across from him. Ten minutes later, the man spoke. “Ten thousand.”

James pulled a passbook out of his pocket and handed it over. “There's twenty thousand. I want their heads.”

He slipped the passbook into his pocket without looking. James never lied to him. “Within the week,” and left.

James sat for a moment then stood and went back to his employees. They'd say he never left the back room the whole time they'd been there.

The next morning, James dropped his daughter off at daycare and drove into work. At noon he remembered about Kym and pulled the number out of his wallet. He turned on the speaker phone and dialed the number.

“Hello?”

“Is Kym there?”

“No, she had to—is this Mr. Blake?”

“Anna?”

“Yeah, she got called in to work today. Someone got sick.”

“Oh, okay. Hmm, have her call me sometime?”

“Sure, what's your number?”

James gave her his cell number and said goodbye.

He was playing Raven Shield when his cell rang. When his eyes were pulled away from the screen to check the incoming number, he heard his character groan and the flat line tone told him his character was dead. He picked up his cell and didn't recognize the number. He hoped it wasn't another reporter. Whoever had decided just because he wrote books that he was public property, the asshole needed to be shot.

“Hello?”

“Is this James Blake?”

“May I ask who's speaking?” James didn't recognize the voice offhand.

“This is Kym Hart.”

“Oh hi. How are you?”

“you were the guy from the abortion building right?”

“You could say that. I was on the parking lot when it happened. I woke up for a moment in the ambulance and I thought you were quite attractive.”

he could hear the smile in her voice when she replied. “Thank you. Were you at The Zone last night? Do you work there? Anna said you donated a lot of money to the hospital.”

“Yes. No. Yes. I own the club. I actually bought it 'cuz I hate paying for my drinks. Were you there too?”

“Yeah. I went out with my sister for her birthday.”

“Oh. She turn 21?”

“How did you know?”

“The Zone seems to be the place for 21st birthdays.”

“I went there for my 21st. It had only been open for a week.”

“That's about the time I bought it. When is your birthday?”

“October third.”

“That's the day before I bought the club. The owner had some gambling debts. So you just turned twenty four a few months ago?”

“Yeah, how old are you?”

“Twenty seven almost. Hang on.”

She heard typing and asked, “Are you working? Do you want me to call you back?”

“No. Just telling my friends I'm out of the game.”

He shut down the game and leaned back in his Caper Multitask Chair and asked, “Are you busy tonight? Would you like to have dinner?”

“I was going to order pizza but I guess I could put that off. Where?”

“Why not meet me at The Zone about six and we can go from there?”

“All right.” Kym thought for a moment and asked, “How should I dress?” wondering what he would say.

“What would you wear to dinner with your parents?”

“A blouse and a skirt or a nice dress.”

“That'll do.”

“Okay. I'll see you later, then.”

James said goodbye then picked up some papers. Thirty minutes of initialing and signing he was done for the day.

The restaurant he was planning on going to didn't need a reservation from him. He had a standing reservation for a private room. He dialed the chef, Bruno Ménard, anyway and waited as one of the waitresses brought the phone to him.

“Bruno? It's James.”

“Jimmy boy. How are you? Are you gracing us with your presence?”

“Only if you make me Calamari like only you can.”

“Ah sorry, none in at the moment.”

“That's all right. I'm still coming. I have a date tonight.”

“Oh, want to impress? Dom Pérignon?”

“As ostentatiously delicious as that sounds, she doesn't know how well off I am. Surprise us. We'll be there about seven.”

“Excellent. I hope to see you soon.”

James hung up the phone and stood to look in the mirror. His pants were still crisp and his t-shirt was the first thing to go. His dress shirt was on the back of his door on a hook. Within a few minutes, his shirt and tie were back on and he was swinging his jacket on his shoulders so he could slip his arms in the sleeves. James made sure his cuffs were as immaculate as his cuff links and then looked at the time. Two more hours and there was a new movie in the main room.

The others were blowing off work when he walked in and watching a leaked copy of the remake of A Clockwork Orange.

It had just begun and James leaned against the wall by the door as he watched.

“There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.”

As the credits began rolling, James said, “Tomorrow we have to discuss the motion capture. Make sure you're on time.”

He turned before they could answer and headed back towards his office and his private elevator. As he arrived on the second floor, he surveyed his vehicles and decided on his 2001 Camaro. The Lingenfelter Stage IV Turbo was the only major modification and the vehicle still sounded like a 25,000 dollar car with a strange whine to it. James doubted she would know what the Lingenfelter badge on the interior would mean.

He pulled into the parking lot and saw she had arrived only a moment before him. He watched her walk into the club and thought maybe he was a bit overdressed then decided his suit wasn't too much compared to her black pleated skirt and red sweater.

He parked the car and got out, setting the alarm. The engine alone cost twice what the car had.

He made his way to the front door and went in. if they had been staying there, he would be overdressed but he only planned to stay for one or two drinks. Once inside, he saw her standing at the bar and scanning the crowd, looking for him, he supposed.

She saw him and hesitantly waved. He waved back and started to make his way over, but was stopped by a few regulars. He greeted them quickly then continued on his way to the bar.

The man James had met in the bar was glad this client gave at least some information. Most just gave guidelines and forced him to do all the research. Now he could do what was asked of him faster. Strange though. He'd never wanted someone dead before. Just embarrassed or financially humiliated.

The man shrugged it off and sent text messages to his operatives on their cell phones. Each one began tracking down all the info on the person he was assigned. Three people were on the immediate list and their associates would be taken care of also if deemed they had been a part of what had happened.

He began looking into a fourth name that had been given. He knew this name. As he was looking at info on half a dozen different websites, his office door opened and a woman walked in carrying a file folder. “Mr. Stewart? Your wife is on the phone and I'm leaving now.”

“Thank you, Marina. See you tomorrow.”

She closed the door as she left his office and he picked up the phone, pushing down a flashing red lit button and saying, “Deanna? I'll be home in about an hour.”

“Alright. I'll leave dinner in the over for you. I'm going to get some sleep. The kids have a game tomorrow. Don't forget. Bye my love.”

He grinned and put the phone down.

The fourth man had been out of town and an ardent supporter of women's rights but didn't believe in abortion and had accused one woman of being a murderer. She had done nothing more than work at an abortion clinic as a cleaning lady but the man had still thrown a bucket of cow blood on her.

Being out of town didn't mean he hadn't been involved. He printed out a dozen pages and slipped them into his briefcase before walking out of his office and into his secretary's. He set the alarm and closed the front door, the logo on it fading and peeling badly, proclaiming that within were the offices of Kerrin and Kerrin, Notarizing and Hand Writing Analysis.

Both were still occasionally done, but the real business done at the office was corporate espionage and humiliation of officials, private and public.

“So that's what stat means. I thought it was just a bastardization of a French word.”

Kym giggled and took a drink of her champagne. They had finished their meal of Sea Bass and bak choy cabbage and were just talking about things. Her job mainly. James was leery of telling her what else he did for a living and just enjoyed spending time with her. When he got to know her better, he might tell her where he lived, about his daughter and how much he was worth. Until then, he'd just get to know her.

“I think I drank too much. Can you drive me home? I'll have Anna take me to get my car tomorrow.”

James nodded and she wrapped her arm around his, guiding her hand into his as they walked from the hotel to his car, running, the door held open for her by the valet. James smiled and closed the door for her, then crossed to the driver's side and slid into his seat. She then asked, “Why are you using both arms? Shouldn't you still be in a sling?”

“I've dislocated that shoulder so many times, i usually just pop it back in and take a dozen Advil.”

she raised an eyebrow then hiccuped softly. Kym snuggled against him and directed him towards her house. When they arrived, she kissed him lightly on the cheek then got out of the car, he grinned as she flashed more leg than she most likely meant to show then walked to her front door, digging in her purse for her keys. She turned and waved and blew a kiss before opening the door.

James grinned lightly and drove off, resisting the temptation to honk his horn goodbye. Her place was only fifteen minutes from his and he pulled into his driveway and waited as the gate closed behind his vehicle. Once he was sure the gate was closed and secure, he pulled up in front of his home in a large circular driveway and got out, leaping on the hood and sliding to the passenger side. He took the steps three at a time up to the large front doors and slipped in, looking to see that the alarm wasn't activated. He turned it on and slipped out of his shoes, making his way up to his room while slipping on his custom made slippers.

Sofia was at her grandparents again and the guest and servants quarters were a quarter mile from his house so he turned on his brand new Bang and Olufsen stereo system, the BeoLab 5 speakers emitted crystal clear music as he undressed for bed. He turned his cell back on and checked his voice mail. One from his daughter telling him she loved him, another from his in-laws saying that Sofia skinned her knee and a third from Social telling them that he'd be spreading a rumor James had been on a date with a, total, Asian hotty.

He wanted to scowl but the night had gone too well the be annoyed about his private life becoming the speculation of the water cooler gossip. 'Sides, he knew everything that happened in the building anyway. There were more microphones and cameras in there than in a CIA safehouse.

Instead of going straight to bed, he went through to his office and flipped a switch turning on all the lights in the room. He hit a switch on his desk caused the painting behind his desk to split in half and reveal half a dozen flat panel monitors and a keyboard and mouse, three of the screens displaying rotating feeds from the external security cameras, one showing the internal security cameras, another showing the security cameras from ColeBlak Enterprises and the last showing a screensaver of pictures of himself, Sofia and Daphne cycling through. James tapped the keyboard and a picture of Sofia riding her pony for the first time was on his desktop. He clicked a link and looked at the intrusion attempts for the day and saw only six, all from a website he had visited before. He banned their IP address range on the router and then looked at the his email. More spam.

Once that was done, he hit the switch, hiding the monitors again and turned off the lights in the room. Closing the door behind him, he crawled into bed and sighed as he slipped under the cool silk sheets under the thick comforter Daphne had picked out when she decorated the bedroom. He debating redecorating all the time but he still hadn't found a girl he wanted to bring home yet and the bedroom was a comforting reminder of her.