ERQ

7: Nathan Harris

        Nathan completely forgot about Jeannie until she showed up a year later. This time she brought a rat in with her. By the size he'd say it was an Emperor Rat from the New York City Sewers, because nothing in the midwest ever got that big. At least not unless it had been experimented on. Looking at it made him think of some cop who knew about the last time he'd hired a Pro. It was like the filthy beast knew his every thought. As if having it in the store wasn't bad enough.

        Ever since the Great Rat Exodus of last year, he'd made it a point to stay away from them. When the Division Supervisor of the Health Department disappeared, they'd sent in a Company of the National Guard, but just before they could be deployed to poison all the rats, the horrid little creatures fled the city as if it were on fire. It had been as if they knew that the soldiers were coming after them.

      What a sight that had been: Over a million rats fleeing the city in hordes so large that they literally covered the streets in brown fur. Nathan wondered at the time if maybe there was about to be some kind of earthquake or BFR storm or something, but nothing happened.

        "We don't allow pets in here."

        Jeannie got a very dangerous look on her face then, and Nathan instinctively went for his gun, but then she smiled brightly and said: "Okay."

        That look though...it wasn't cold, it was something else. The first words that came to mind was: No Mercy. He'd known mean girls in his life, but he'd never seen any of them give him a look like that. What happened to her to make her capable of such an attitude? Did he even want to know?

        Never mind.

     Jeannie kissed the rat twice and set it on the floor. It scurried out of the store without shitting anywhere. That was a good thing because he would have made her clean it up, monster sized rat or not.

        "What've you got this time?"

        "Stuff."

        Most of the items were the same value as before, except for an empty wallet that smelled of finely oiled leather and plenty of TLC. He put it to the side and studied all the items in front of him. He checked his pricing book and found the total of the goods minus the wallet was $400.00.

        "I can give you 400 for the other stuff, but I'd like to talk to you about the wallet. We have an office in the back of the store."

        She followed him to the office where he did a quick scan of the wallet and determined that it didn't show up on the FBI Stolen Item Database for Eden County, known as the SIDEC page. He then went to the vault and took out 500 dollars and made up a receipt. The wallet was Martian Serpent Leather -- very rare and extremely valuable. There were Martian Werebears who considered the gigantic monsters to be sacred beings. They'd been known to kill others if those people didn't show the proper respect to the Serpents.  He needed to make sure it wasn't insured. So he took a photo of it and sent it as an attachment to all of his Supervisors. And then, even though he was an atheist, he silently prayed to whatever gods he could think of that he did not believe in.

        When his new tattoo started to tingle, he realized that she was trying to use some kind of telepathy on him. He ignored the use of the OBP this time because he'd been trained to repel telepathic invasion. The rune told him what he already knew -- that Jeannie was a Sol Mage. 

       Just as soon as it was reported stolen, a red flag warning came up on the FBI SIDEC page, The wallet belonged to a VP of a TRS subsidiary, and therefore an uninsured company. He whispered a thank you prayer to those Gods he did not believe in. He defintely did not want to go back to prison.