0050 Naked Adventure

“Ladies,” the strange man says as he walks around the burning limousine, “I am Mister Takkato.”

“Midnight don’t mess this up!” Sarah whispers. “This is one of the rich guys, and if they are rich then they can abuse us all they want.”

Midnight blinks. “He what-?”

“Hello, um, yes sir!” Sarah says. “Have we pleased you or upset your algorithms in any way?”

“You girls are tracking fine,” he laughs. “Go below a certain level and we will have you killed.”

Midnight blinks again, fist tightening.

“I am joking!” he laughs. “Or maybe I am not. In either case, our little attempt at de-platforming Laura and her family was a total failure. Normally us tech executives work at home from behind keyboards, getting used to heavy weapons is quite a challenge!”

“That was you that blew the hell out of the car?” Midnight says. “You know there was a head of state in it?”

“Like we don’t pick them anyways,” he laughs. “We control the media so this never happened.”

Sarah nods. “It is good the media don’t do anything on their own or think for themselves, I agree.”

“All right ladies, our iteration goal is to kill Laura and friends. Our first two stories for this sprint were complete failures. It is understandable, we are agile and following good design methodology. We must adapt and overcome, but we are learning as we go.”

Midnight stares. “What the hell are you doing standing here and talking for? If you want to kill them, why aren’t you chasing them?”

“This is our stand-up meeting,” he says. “We are discussing what worked, what didn’t work, and how we can improve.”

“If you chased them down the fifty yards they could have ran while you had the advantage,” Midnight says, “they would have been dead.”

“We would be chasing them down using the waterfall method then,” he says, “and that is the most inefficient way to kill someone.”

“I agree,” Sarah says, “you would not be sure if they were dead, and you would need a high enough waterfall.”

“Time to plan our next course of action. All right let us go round robin,” he says. “Midnight, you go first.”

“If we are here to kill them,” she says. “Just do it and get it over with.”

“Wrong,” he says. “Break it down into smaller steps first!”

“Okay I get this,” Sarah says. “First thing I am going to do is walk into the forest. Then I am going to look around. Then if I don’t see them, I am going to walk some more. I keep doing that until they are dead.”

“This is bullshit,” Midnight says.

“Good feedback,” he says. “Let us talk about your feelings Midnight. We want you on this team, and we don’t want to lose you or Twilight.”

Midnight opens her lips, but nothing comes out. The fact he brought her protégé and step-daughter into the conversation only meant one thing. They all had to do what this evil tech company wanted, or they would both be killed.

She blinks again, looks at the ground, and looks back into the soulless man’s eyes. “We are going to need to track them. Pin them in an area. Then close the trap.”

He smiles and nods. “Good to see you adapting! I knew you knew what the right thing to do was! Do you feel that team spirit?”

Midnight nods, any words feeling like pressing her finger against the shell of an egg.

“We hear and obey,” Sarah nods. “They are heading into an area the Society has had its eyes on for years. It is a hotspot of loot and treasure Miguel Romero has been keeping out of our reach. I am sure there are many priceless treasures in there for tech billionaires to put in their homes as decorations.”

“Talk about delivering value,” he smiles. “See Midnight, I bet you are feeling more agile already! Now we have someone else on the team I want you to meet. Let’s say, he was a high-value acquisition who can help our team track these targets through the jungle and into our trap.”

Another man walks around the burning car, spitting into the fire.