Dirty Work: Volume 1

The First Run - 3

I flicked the lights on to my apartment, revealing the grand total of next to nothing that I hadn't sold off to try and get some kind of cash. There was a single couch and table with a solitary mug that hadn't been washed in a day or two, and the remains of a bag of bread. Nothing to go with it of course, just plain bread. I can tell you for certain that the craving for plain, dry bread, with not even butter to go with it, wears off incredibly quickly. Some people don't appreciate this fact, and I despise them because of it.

Markro motioned for me to sit on the couch, and I humbly obeyed his orders. He sat on the couch next to me and I could see that the gun was trained on me through his coat.

'You got any friends nearby?' I looked around the room. As much as I knew that I shouldn't resort to sarcasm, I've been told many times that one day my mouth would get me into trouble, and I just can't help it.

'Look around you. Does it look like I've got friends? Or even a job?'

'Smart-ass, aren't you?' he said, raising an eyebrow. I saw the slightest of movements beneath the coat.

'Always have been. Can't help it.'

'Then let's get something straight, and straight damn quick,' he said to me. 'I've got a job to do, and right now I'm in a hell of a mess. And now you're in the mess whether you like it or not. So you can either help me and make sure all of my problems get smoothed over nicely, or I get so stressed about the situation that my finger gets twitchy, and your balls end up as a pile of ash and gloop on the floor, dribbling out of your trousers with bits getting caught in your ragged old shoes. Kapish?'

'Most certainly. I kapish. I very much kapish.'

At this point his Halo-Core went off again. He took it out and answered it. This time the face of a young lady appeared, perhaps twenty or so, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She smiled too much.

'Markro, how's it going?'

'What's he said to you?' Markro obviously didn't want to speak to this girl, but that didn't stop him blushing more than someone whose mother has just walked in on them with someone else in the bed.

'He says there's a Zoomus at a warehouse in Zale Court. Warehouse is next to an old racetrack grandstand, shouldn't be too hard to miss. He also says to take the tunnels through to the underground lot and park up there. He'll get someone there to escort you.' Markro nodded.

'Is the Zoomus for two?' The girl on the other end frowned, her nose scrunching up slightly.

'Why two?' Markro stuttered slightly before replying.

'Well... I've, um... kind of had to...'

'You didn't,' the girl gasped. Markro nodded in reply, looking sheepish and blushing even harder. The girl pouted. 'He won't like this, you know.'

'Yes he will,' Markro replied quickly, his eyes suddenly lighting up. He looked over to me, and I could see what he was thinking. I could see past his forehead, that block that nobody should be able to see past, and I knew what those turning gears were telling him. I was a get-out clause in more ways than one. 'You want a job, buddy?'