Intelligence

Chapter 2: Error

"Hurry up!" A man boomed. "I'm trying! I'm trying!" The other man pleaded through tears. He typed quickly, putting in codes that not many would understand. His fingers pressed the keys hard, hoping it would break but knew it wouldn't turn out well for himself. He pushed his falling glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. He swallowed hard and tried to not panic. He could feel the barrel of the man's gun at the back of his head. "I say we just kill him now." Another voice in the room said, causing a small whimper of protest from the hostage. "No! We need to do this now." The only woman protested, pushing the gun off his head. "Otherwise we're all dead."

Taking shaky, deep breaths he continued to type in the codes. "There! It's done." The hostage cried. They all looked over his shoulder as if they could understand what was on the screen. "Activate it or whatever." Demanded one of them. The man swallowed hard and pressed enter. The coding all loaded as they watched a percentage on a screen.

36%

57%

78%

85%

99%

There was a long pause. Then a gunshot as the hostage lay dead on the ground. Blood sprayed from the bullet hole and onto the computer. On the screen in white font on a black background said the words Error. The woman cursed under her breath in disgust. "He could have fixed it." She argued to the man, putting away his gun in his pants and covering the handle with his shirt. "Tomorrow, we get a new person. No more of these idiotic nerds who don't have a clue about what they're doing!" He shouted and taking a step towards her. She didn't flinch, all she did was sigh.

***

Max woke up the next morning after quitting his job. He rubbed his eyes and swung both legs over the bed. He stood up and slipped on a black t-shirt and jeans as he headed to his kitchen. He saw a note on the counter and went to pick it up. To Max was written on the folded paper in net handwriting. He unfolded the letter and read it softly to himself. Suddenly the memories of the events of last night played in his head.

Max had asked Amelia Goldstein to have dinner with him. She had said yes but ended up sleeping over since they had talked for hours. At the end of the letter it said Sorry for leaving without waking you, I had work today. Smiling slightly, he put the letter into his pocket. He looked outside his window and saw his landlord with a bat, destroying Max's car. He bursted out of his house, shouting at him to stop. "Where's my rent huh? Where is it?" He demanded pointing the bat at Max who put his arms out.

"I'll get you your rent!" He promised. "Tomorrow I promise!" He tried to step in the way of his car and his landlord but the man kept the bat on Max's chest. "If I don't get it by tomorrow I'll blow your head off." He barked. "I will, I will." He insisted. He watched as his landlord walked away. Cursing under his breath, he heckled the damage of his car. Shattered back window, broken headlight, dented doors. He held his face in his hands and shook his head and groaned.

Most of all, Max had no idea how he was going to get money to pay the landlord and to fix his car. He went back inside and dialled his sister's number.

"Hello?"
"Hey, Lisa. It's Max."
"What do you want now?"
"I need money. To fix my car and to pay the landlord."
"Just get a job! God you're so lazy!"

The other line cut off. Max rolled his eyes. Can't even give me $10 he thought to himself. He tossed his phone down and fell onto the couch. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. He looked up when he heard three loud bangs in his door. He got up and opened the door without looking. A man holding a bat raised it above his head and hit Max hard. Black spots blocked his vision as he was thrown to the floor. He looked up but his vision blurred.

Darkness.

A/N
I have so much evil planned for this to a point where people will legit hate me mwahahah. But it probably won't happen until later in the book. Hint: it will be very sad. Maybe. I don't know.

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