Seven Demons by Aidan Truhen (best motivational books for students TXT) 📕

“I did not know that.”

“We all got our crosses man.”

“Yeah I guess. Okay well we’re going to do our next thing in total silence like a gliding majestic whale.”

“Whales make a surprising amount of noise Jack like they go WHOOMMMNAAAARP to one another right and that is—”

“Sharkey would you get on board with this please? We are going to do this like a real quiet whale, maybe shy maybe even mute.”

“That would be a serious fucking evolutionary problem for an animal that navigates by sonar Jack.”

“So this will be a short-lived metaphorical whale, man, but the silence will be forever.”

“I dunno Jack—”

“They are bored Sharkey.”

“…Bored?”

“Yes Sharkey the Demons are bored.”

I let him consider that in its fullness. Corporate boredom is just what happens and that is fine when your coworkers are typists or software engineers or even sheep herders but it is not fine when their skill sets revolve around germ war and artisanal murderings and making things explode. Then it is not a good thing for anyone.

“All right Jack I will look into it.”

“That is fine Sharkey. Do your thing and we will do ours. If we crime it, they will come.”

And I am right.

—

Incoming call, Poltergeist Secure VoIP: accept? y/n

(Poltergeist is this whole electronic thing that happens in Iceland it is like a concierge service for the digitally liberated societal and legal nonconformist, which is to say criminals of all stripes but also revolutionaries and freedom fighters and so. It is like the spy equivalent of the Apple Store or Google if they were based in nuclear-proof cells hollowed out of the Arctic ice and staffed by ice kobolds with computer science magic coming out of their ass. They are obsessed with client privacy and digital hygge and some variation of Scandawooj libertarian communism I do not comprehend because I do not have husky semen in my blood. Helluva nice people do not under any circumstances piss them off.)

Accept y/n?

y

(Ping and the little light goes green.)

“Hi it’s Jack.”

“Jack Price.”

“Yes that is me hello.”

“I wish you to rob a bank.”

“I would LOVE to rob a bank. I have not done that it is a classic.”

“…Mr. Sharkey suggests that we speak.”

“We are in fact doing that now.”

“I should like to meet in person. I will wear a gray suit Mr. Price. I am of ordinary height. I am told I appear intense.”

“That’s nice for you I guess, are you—I mean do you also put that on Tinder because—”

“Mr. Price. You should now tell me how I will recognize you.”

“We are in touch Mr.—”

“…”

“We are in touch Mr. Client we are now talking as men do. I figured I’d book a table and like they would bring you over and I’d do like a cool thing with one hand, ‘please do sit Mr. Client,’ right, and then we’d just make our deal. But now I sense that is not where you were going with this.”

“It is not.”

“You’re thinking all yellow chalk and Gauloises I guess, and that is fine but I have to tell you sign and countersign for a meeting where you are in phone contact with the principal, that is kind of more obvious than actually just calling out a person’s name to the maître is all. Like I could wear a flower and carry a copy of, I don’t know, like Butterfly Sex Quarterly? There is a place down the street which sells really fucking outré magazines, there is one for people who collect only model trains made in India before partition. Can you believe that is a thing? So I can absolutely do that but if I do that and someone is there, let us say doing a vice bust or whatever, doing something that is in no way like what we are doing, they will pay close fucking attention Mr. Client, and that is not to our advantage at all. And that is before we discuss the other diners Mr. Client, they also might be the kinds of person who watch for that shit who are even a little bit attracted to it that would depend on where we meet. I was going to pick that sports club on the marina. I’m guessing you can do that.”

“…I can.”

“Yeah what I thought so—”

“That will be fine. Until then Mr. Price.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Are you still there Mr. Price?”

“…Yes?”

“Why?”

“I honestly have no idea it just seemed rude to put down the phone.”

(Click.)

—

What I could have done is I could have traced Mr. Client after the meeting. I did not because if you get caught doing that, people think you are not going to deal square and they become antsy and oftentimes they will do something regrettable like try to kill you or set you up later. They think you want to maybe blackmail them or kill them or in some other way you are seeking power over them, and that is inevitably what people in this situation absolutely do not want. Therefore at a certain point in a for-hire criminal enterprise everyone has to accept everyone else’s boundaries. Everyone has to decide they do not want to know stuff the other person does not want them to know because knowing that stuff makes you enemies, and you need to be friends or at least like able to put your hand in your pocket while standing in the same elevator without that other person thinking you are going for a knife no not a shiv that is taxonomically inaccurate plus also fuck you.

So that is what I did.

I respected everyone’s boundaries.

Yeah I hear ya but you were not there.

—

The marina restaurant is one of the places with those seats that look real comfy and when you sit it turns out they are harder than stone so the first thing that happens is you go OOF as your ass bounces on the uncomfortable seat and this happens every time. The food is deceptive as well like the fried fish is cold and the ice cream is hot who fucking does that but: business so