Paranoia

[Cain]

I open my eyes as something drags me abruptly from my sleep.  The harsh tones of a phone are ringing, violating the sanctity of my rest.  Rubbing my eyes,my hand reaches to take the sheet off me as I swing my legs out of bed.

Looking at the window, I can see that its light outside, though the curtains are closed.  The clock on my beside table reads 15:27.

Oh god I feel awful.  Its that terrible feeling of not having quite enough sleep, mixed with getting up at an odd time and having the driest throat possible.  And that bloody phone is still ringing.  Still unable to see straight, I desperately scrabble on the floor for...something.  Anything liquid.  My hand grasps the slender neck of some bottle and without a second thought I pick it up and swig the contents.

Scotch burns down my throat as I splutter and nearly choke.  Now I feel really bad, but at least I'm awake and alert.  Steadying myself, I blink, then manage to lurch towards the white plastic device.  Dead line.  Damn, wrong one, where's the mobile?  Shaking my head, I finally wrap my hands around it and press receive.

,ÄúHello?,Äù I whisper.
,ÄúAh, yes, hi.,Äù  Male voice, somewhat hesitant, but otherwise lucid seeming and in control.  The voice went on ,ÄúI was referred by Liam.,Äù
,ÄúWhats this about?,Äù
,ÄúI have a job that needs doing.  Are you available?,Äù
,ÄúOf course.  What sort of work are we talking about here?,Äù
,ÄúSomething within your skill set.  An item has to be retrieved from a courier who may be...difficult.,Äù
,ÄúI see.  And who am I working for?,Äù
,ÄúI'm not at liberty to say.,Äù
,ÄúGoodbye.,Äù  I went to hang up the call when I heard frantic shouting from the end of the line.

,ÄúWait!  Why would you turn this down?  The company hasn't been heard from in 3 months now.  We can pay just as well, if not better.,Äù
,ÄúJust because you know about the company doesn't make you any more reputable than before, in fact rather the opposite.  I think its best we ended this call.,Äù
,ÄúHold on!  We can meet, allay your concerns!  I insist.,Äù
,ÄúThen desist.  I will talk only to my employers.  At a venue of my choosing.,Äù
,ÄúYou're presumptuous, Drake.,Äù
,ÄúAnd you're less than an idiot.  So would I be, if I did any less than I demand now.,Äù
,ÄúYou dare-,Äù
,ÄúYes, I do, quite frankly.  You're only one client and my list of jobs is growing.  The market for ex-company employee's isn't as big as you'd think, so I'm doing rather well.  Now whats going to happen is in 10 minutes I'm going to call you back, and I'll expect to be talking to the man.  Or else, this SIM card will be fried and you'll never have contact with me again.  Understood?,Äù

I hung up and took a deep breath.  Hardball.  It was always the way to play the game.  Not that what I said wasn't true, because it was, but you had to watch yourself in this sort of business.  No-one else would, after all.

7 minutes later, the call came.

[Triple Zero]

nice!

it's like only writing the short juicy bits of a story and not bothering with the boring big scale plot you never get around to fully developing anyway

i like the concept of frying the SIM .. microwave it i suppose?

[Cain]

Yeah, I've decided to leave all those bits out.  If I do enough, I may collect them together or something.  I was inspired by the idea of theatre John Fowles created in the Magus, only I'm doing it with prose.

The easier way is to put pin protection on, enter it incorrectly 3 times, then enter the PUK code incorrectly 10 times.  My sister did it once, luckily she managed to get a free replacement from her provider.

[Triple Zero]

entering the codes incorrectly is not really going to delete the data on it (i think) but frying it in a microwave is :-D

and yea, this writing kind of reminds me of the stuff you did for "the city", i printed all of it out once and read it a while ago -- it was good, but i kind of had the idea you had no idea where you wanted to go with it, or if you did, no idea how to glue it together in order to get there

i think you did a few new episodes in the mean time, haven't had time yet to print those as well, btw.