Jennifer Government: A Novel Read Free

we
would
apprehend you, Hack. We have an eighty-six percent success rate. With someone like you, inexperienced, no backing, we’d have you within hours. So I strongly recommend you do not carry out this contract.”
    “I know,” Hack said. “I should have it read it, but—”
    “Second, you can refuse to go through with it. That would expose you to whatever penalties are in that contract. And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you they could be harsh. Very harsh indeed.”
    Hack nodded. He hoped Pearson wasn’t finished.
    “Here’s your alternative.” Pearson leaned forward. “You subcontract the slayings to us. We fulfill your contract, at a verycompetitive rate. As you probably know from our advertisements, your identity is totally protected. If the Government comes after us, it’s not your problem.”
    Hack said, “That’s my only alternative?”
    “Well, if you had a copy of the contract, I’d tell you to go talk to our Legal branch. But you don’t, do you?”
    “Urn, no.” He hesitated. “How much would it be to…”
    Pearson blew out his cheeks. “Depends. You don’t need specific individuals done, right? Just people who buy these Mercury shoes.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, that’s cheaper. We can make sure we don’t take out anyone with means. For, you know, retribution. And you need ten capped, so there’s a bulk discount. We could do this for, say, one-fifty.”
    “One-fifty what?”
    “Grand,” Pearson said. “One-fifty grand, Hack, what do you think?”
    He felt despair. “I’m a Merc Officer, I earn thirty-three a
    year—”
    “Come on, now,” Pearson said, looking pained. “Don’t start that.”
    “I’m sorry.” His vision blurred. Twice in one day! He was falling apart.
    “Look, final offer: one-thirty. You can go talk to the NRA but you won’t get better than that, I promise. Now do we have a deal?”
    “Yes,” Hack said. He wiped angrily at his face as Pearson began to draw up the contract.

4 Mitsui
    The alarm clock said:
“
—
and rumors of strong profits. Microsoft tumbled to twenty-two after the company announced shipping delays would…”
    Buy couldn’t breathe. His chest ached. He thought:
I’m having a heart attack!
Then he remembered. No. Not a heart attack.
    He staggered into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. His face stared back at him. It didn’t look impressed. He said, “I am a great person. Today is a great day.”
    Taped to a corner of the mirror was a piece of paper. It said:
    I AM A GREAT PERSON
TODAY IS A GREAT DAY
EVERY OBSTACLE IS AN OPPORTUNITY
    It was Monday, October 27, and therefore the fifth-last working day of Mitsui Corporation’s financial year. Buy was an Account Manager, Competitive Accounts Group, Southern Region, which meant he was a stockbroker, which meant he was a salesman. He had a $4.2 million quota. That hadn’t looked like a problem after an outstanding first quarter and a solid Q2, but in Q3 they’d reorganized some accounts away from him, and Q4 had been
terrible, a
catastrophe. Buy had five days to find half a million dollars.
    He showered and padded out to the living room. His apartment looked over the ExxonMobil Botanical Gardens and beyond that the city of Melbourne, USA (Australia). It was a little after six, and the office towers were flaring orange in the dawn sun. The sky was a solid blue expanse. Buy had stopped seeing it in Q3.
    He ate toast and washed it down with juice. He dressed and caught the elevator to the parking lot, where his Jeep was waitingfor him. Jeeps were one of the safest vehicles on the road, Buy had read; safe for people in the Jeep, anyway. He roared out onto the street.
    The cheap roads were clogged, even at six-thirty, but he was only four blocks from a premium Bechtel freeway and that was eight lanes, two dollars a mile, and no speed limit. He sped past office buildings and factories with the needle on 95 mph.
    He pulled into the Mitsui parking lot and caught the elevator to the