“This wasn’t part of our arrangement.”
There was a brief pause. She watched as he filtered through the holos of his dailies; which had come in, which were late and those yet to be processed. You had to give Gargoyle credit; he was one of the most organized fixers in the ‘Burgh. If any of his four hundred or so contacts had approached him with a situation, you could damn well be sure he’d researched it, cataloged it, cross-referenced other opportunities and calculated risks and payouts before he even considered whether or not to take the job.
“Yeah, well, it’s either you or someone else. Your choice.”
“And by someone else you mean that thug Chaucer.”
He might’ve given an almost imperceptible shrug. Then again, maybe he didn’t, she wasn’t sure. He obviously had no opinion about it.
“Dammit, I don’t have time for this…”
“Like I said,” he gave her the briefest of glances, “up to you.”
Checkmate mentally flip-flopped the trouble this was going to cost her several dozen times in half as many seconds, trying to decide.
She cursed silently, hating herself for even questioning what she knew she would do anyway. She owed the big troll that much. More, if she was honest.
“Where is he?”
The third most powerful man in the ‘Burgh sighed and turned away from the flickering glow of the business data; glancing at the opposite wall, scanning each of the fourteen security screens quickly.
“Roof.”
Get the full story in...
Stories in the Ether, Issue #4
A Digital Storytelling Anthology
$2.99
Stories in the Ether is a quarterly story telling anthology of fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction short stories from Nevermet Press. This issue features 11 compelling works including:
- The Gorgon’s Love, by Martin Shelby
- The Stars at Night, by JC Hemphill
- Big Heart, by David J. Fielding
- The Chase, by J. A. Gonzales
- A New Beginning, by Colin W. Campbell
- The Mechanical Turk, or All’s Well That Ends, by Tucker Cummings
- Shelled, by M. R. Williamson
- Exodus, by Eric Staggs
- The Emerald City, by Per Wiger
- The Occurrence of the Cavalry Horse, by Teel James Glenn
- Empyrean Skies, by David Gaither
With artwork by Paul Hagwood
$2.99 in ePUB for all eReaders from Lulu, DriveThruFiction.com, Smashwords, B&N Nook Bookstore, and Apple's iBookstore. Also available from Amazon for Kindle.
