Page 57 of Foxy Filthy Omega

I answered the phone as I headed for the stairs, wishing my employer would remember I was working at a detective agency – surrounded by some of the smartest people in the country. If they kept calling me at all hours of the day, I was going to get caught.

“Keep it brief,” I advised as I jogged down the stairs, taking them two at a time. “I’m at the office.”

“It’s been over a week,” they reminded me, the voice modulator making it impossible to tell if they were male or female. “Have you found anything we can use?”

‘We.’ As if I was somehow invested in the outcome of all this as well.

“No, I haven’t.” I pushed through the front doors and checked traffic before making my way across the street towards the independent café everyone here liked to use.

“I was told you were one of the best.” My employer didn’t have to say anything else. I knew exactly what they meant by that.

But I didn’t respond.

There was nothing I could say and if they really expected me to find something in only a week, they wouldn’t have needed my help to begin with.

“Fine,” they snapped, clearly irritated with my silence. “I’ll be generous. If you can’t find something within the next two weeks, the job will change. Create a weakness I can use. If you don’t give me one or the other, I may just have to hire someone to make sure you don’t get any ideas.”

I stopped outside the door of the café, pissed I’d been right about this too.

This job…I should have turned it down no matter how much money they offered me. It was too late now though. I was in the thick of the kind of legacy drama I’d sworn to stay the fuck away from.

My greed. If someone was hired to find my weakness, that would be it – my desire for freedom and a way out of this shitty fucking society that measured a person’s worth by the most ridiculous things possible.

The color of someone’s eyes? Really? That was how we were all supposed to know our place in society?

And if you had the power and strength but not the corresponding features, everyone lost their minds and tried to crush you into nothing because they feared what they didn’t understand.

I turned and leaned against the brick wall, pulling a cigarette out of my pocket and lighting it just to make my presence here look more natural. I held it up to my mouth, but I didn’t inhale.

The line stayed silent and I didn’t have to look at my phone to know they were still there, waiting for me to say something in response.

Finally, they couldn’t handle it anymore and a tiny red dot appeared on my chest. “Answer me, you mongrel.”

You never asked me a question, so what exactly do you want me to say?I didn’t say that out loud though and inhaled the cigarette smoke as I took my time responding.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I finally said, going with the most ambiguous response I could think of.

There was always the chance someone was watching me. Like that pink-haired asshole.

“You will get it done,” my employer told me, their tone making the statement sound like a threat. “I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger if I need to.”

Flicking the ash off the cigarette, I looked up at the roof of the building to the right of Genesis to see a sniper set up in broad daylight, like they weren’t the least bit worried about getting caught, and if they did, they knew they’d get away with it.

Ballsy, but stupid.

If that sniper tried to shoot, I’d shoot right back and I was positive my aim was better than theirs.

“Don’t worry.” I took another drag of my cigarette. “I’ve never been fired and I intend to keep it that way.”

I hung up before they could make another idiotic threat, annoyed that I couldn’t just quit. I could try. Could return the money and disappear, but there were always fail safes against that kind of thing with these people.

Stamping out the cigarette, I tossed it in the ashtray on top of the trash can and ran my hand through my hair as I considered my options.

There weren’t many and they all sucked.

Heading inside, I let the sounds of grinding beans and people chattering wash over me. The smell of coffee was strong with an edge of sweetness from the various syrups they used. It wasn’t too hot yet, but the air conditioning was already blasting.

I rolled my shoulders back and stepped to the side, eyeing the menu like I didn’t know what I wanted to order just yet.

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