Act IV

We sat in silence for about five minutes before Bones finally showed up. I was able to hang from the window ledge and drop down to the top of the dumpster below and help Circumstance down. She could have probably jumped down herself, but I figured she put aside any feministic pride she may have had and accepted a chivalrous gentleman's offer of help. We crawled into his van and skipped off into the night. After sitting quietly in another alley for a few minutes, we stopped at a friend of Bones': a doctor that operated out of a basement apartment. He claimed he used to work for DocWagon, but he had a "falling out" with the organization. If that was the case, a lot of high-end medical equipment "fell out" with him. However, I wasn't in the mood to care where he or anything else came from. Both of us were in bad shape. Circumstance had three slugs in her leg, and I had a gash across my head and my side that was still slowly oozing blood after nearly half an hour.

"So tell me, why do you think I can get more if I sell these files to your employer?" I asked Circumstance while the doctor stitched the holes in her leg closed. I was sitting next to her, holding a bag of frozen tofu against my freshly treated ribs.

"The video I taped would have only delayed the takeover. A couple of people go to prison, a month of business-as-usual, then the onslaught starts over again." She explained. I nodded in reply. "Everyone in the corporate food chain is looking to sell out. Usually, that's just the way it is and no one thinks twice. Like I said, business as usual. But with the files you got, Blue-Atkins Pharmaceuticals will be able to shut down companies ten times larger than it is. I've never seen a puzzle piece as large as the one you have."

"Why do you care so much about this tiny company anyway?"

"It's not that I care about 'em, it's because one, the price was right, and two, my father was staging the entire takeover operation."

"You two don't get along I take it?"

"He forgot my fifth birthday, I forgot Father's Day, things went downhill from there. You know." Circumstance explained smiling.

"So what do I do with my employer? Tell him to play 'Hide and Go Fuck Yourself'?"

"Oh, I don't know. Tell him they were destroyed. Something like that."

We left the doctor's apartment at sunrise. We took a ride over to Mr. J's office building. The place was abandoned. Apparently these documents I had recovered were going to sink him. I assumed he was in South America by now. That made it much easier to sell the goods to someone else. Bones dropped us off at Circumstance's employer, complaining that he wasn't going to cart us around anymore because he had certain "responsibilities" to his houseguests. It goes to show you that friendship means nothing when you're trying to get laid.

The meeting with Circumstance's employer was very brief and to the point. She was right. I received eighteen thousand nuyen for those documents. Her employer informed me that three dozen competing companies were going to burn thanks to those files. Plus, I could expect to be getting jobs from him real soon. On top of it all, he called us a cab. What service!

We walked out together, but much richer than we were before. In the bright morning sun, we were a motley pair standing there waiting for our ride. I don't think you could have found a more disheveled couple than us. Certainly didn't reflect our mood.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." I said.

"For your first run? Hell no."

"Good. I'm going to go home and lie down for a little while. Say a week."

"Wow. You know, I'm really hungry right now." Circumstance confessed. I turned to her in surprise.

"Let me get this straight. You get shot three times in the same leg and that's all you can think about?" She just looked at me as if to say "Duh". I paused and pondered my own situation.

"Damn. So am I." I said, smiling.

"Well then you can buy me breakfast." She said.

"What? Are you making a date?" I asked, looking at her.

"No."

"What if I refuse, huh?" I asked. Yeah, like that was going to happen. Circumstance looked back at me and smiled.

"You can't." She explained. "You're a victim of circumstance."

end