Getting out of the chair, Felix opened the door, tossed his name badge on a counter, and walked right back out the front door.
Stepping outside, Felix stretched his arms over his head and then sighed with a smile.
That had been refreshing.
Felix jumped when his phone started ringing in his hand.
Looking down at the caller ID, he frowned. He didn’t recognize the number.
Lifting it to his ear, he thumbed the call accept button.
“This is Felix,” he said, walking to his car.
“Hey, Felix,” came the smooth voice of Marcus. Caldwell.
He didn’t give a flying pig’s ass what the man called himself.
“Hey, Caldwell. More merchandise already?”
“Hey, hey. It’s Leon today. And yeah, merchandise. Kind of. There’s an auction going down in three hours. I only found out about it a few minutes ago. Got you an invitation.
“Different this time, though. No damaged goods. Price will be higher accordingly, of course.”
Felix looked down at his feet, his keys forgotten in his hand. “How much higher would that be?”
“Last numbers I looked at, it seemed like the average price was about ten to eleven thousand per.”
He grunted at the number. He didn’t have that and wouldn’t have that. It was beyond his means. A pity, since—
“Alright. Give me the address,” Felix said, making a snap decision.
Sell my car and pull out the paycheck in the bank, that’s about twelve.
“Alright, alright. I’ll text you the address. See you there, Felix.”
Looking up from the hood of his car, he saw the loan shark across the street. The man operated out of a restaurant that he coincidentally owned.
This is a terrible idea. This is truly an awful idea.
He couldn’t manage a thought other than how much of a bad idea this was. Right up to the point that Felix found himself standing in front of said loan shark.
“I need twenty grand,” Felix said without preamble, introduction, or thought.
The loan shark blinked and looked at him in confusion. Then he started laughing and pointed at Felix.
“A man who knows exactly what he wants and doesn’t waste my time. I’m Dimitry.”
“Felix.” Holding out his hand to Dimitry, he shook it briefly. Then he was pulled in close to the man, who pulled open Felix’s shirt to look inside.
“No wire, either,” Dimitry said, lifting Felix’s arm to run his fingers down his side. “Or a piece.”
“No. I’m just—”
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. One of those things. Twenty grand?” Dimitry asked, looking at Felix first, then over his shoulder towards where he’d worked up until about ten minutes ago.
He’d undoubtedly seen Felix a number of times while he was working. Felix could even remember intervening once between a worker and Dimitry when they’d messed up an order.
Dimitry knew exactly who Felix was.
“I don’t normally lend so much to someone I don’t know. I don’t know you, but I know of you. I want forty back from you in three months. If you try to pay up early, it’ll still be forty grand. These are my terms.”
“I accept.” Felix said it with as much authority as he could.
Dimitry sniffed and took a drag of the cigarette in his left hand.
“Fine. Go inside. Here’s some markers. Head inside, talk to the hostess, get your money.” Dimitry pulled out four tokens from his pocket and handed them to Felix.
Taking the plastic circles, Felix realized there was no going back from this point. Closing his fist around them tightly, he went into the restaurant.
“See you in three months, Felix Campbell,” Dimitry murmured with a shark-like grin.
The skin on the back of Felix’s neck prickled at the use of his last name.
Getting out of the cab, Felix walked up the driveway towards his aunt’s oversized SUV.
He tried not to use their vehicles since they weren’t technically his.
Opening the rear door, he tossed in the thirty-three thousand dollars in a briefcase and then shut it.
“Where’s your car?” Ioana asked from the corner of the garage, startling him. He hadn’t even seen her or realized she was there.
“Sold it. There’s an auction that’s going to start. They’re selling… slaves. I needed money so I could participate. If I can get more supers, I can make money faster.”
Ioana wrinkled her nose at that, yet said nothing. She eased herself back into the chair and ignored him.
Felix darted into the house for a quick change of clothes, something a bit more professional and anonymous. Put together in a simple black business suit, he slipped into the large black SUV with its tinted windows.
His aunt had disliked being seen.
Looking over, Felix found he wasn’t alone.
Kit waved from the passenger seat, dressed in her street clothes.
“I’m going! You’ll need me anyways. You’ll need to set my power to about twenty percent, I bet. We should probably stop and get me some clothes to match your own. You can spend a few points to fix up what the clothes can’t cover.
“Miu and Ioana have offered up one eye each, their left arms, and their toes to get me presentable.”
Felix cringed at the morbid nature of the discussion, but then sighed and nodded his head.
They’d been quick to convene and discuss it since he’d only been home a short while.
“Fine, let’s get this over with.”
At least it won’t be painful for anyone.
Felix gave his name at the front door. A paper was checked and he was allowed in after a cursory pat-down.
The building they’d been directed to was a large thirty-floor building that served multiple governmental needs.
One of which was apparently auctions on slaves.
“It’s almost like an industry,” Kit murmured, walking along beside him.
She’d chosen a simple black dress with long sleeves. They’d only had to do some minor work to restore her exposed skin.
She was also functioning at thirty percent of her original power, as she’d suggested.
“It isn’t like an industry, it is one. This is where debtors, prisoners, and other malcontents who meet certain qualifications end up. I imagine the bulk of the money generated here ends up in the hands of the government itself.” Felix moved at a regulated pace. This wasn’t a normal auction, per se.
All of the “goods” were on display on different floors and rooms. From what he understood, after a few hours, everyone would be asked into various meeting rooms. Everyone would be given a simple button remote that tied into the Wi-Fi and would register their bids.
Everyone would be anonymous. He imagined it would help to increase bids and prices. If no one knew who won an auction, he figured it was better for everyone involved.
“No,” Kit said, as they walked by a glass-walled conference room. Inside was a number of men and women seated in chairs with placards in front of them. “None of them will be worth our time. They’d only work against us.”
Us?
Felix was taken aback momentarily at that statement. Kit had always been supportive, oddly so. He didn’t like it. It didn’t make sense to him.
Nonetheless, he had to agree. From the look of them, they all valued themselves highly and would be accordingly attributed so. They weren’t for him.
Kit turned her head slightly, as if she were looking into the roof.
“Two floors up, that’s where we want to be. Everything above that isn’t worth our time, and everything below that will be out of our league.”
“And how do you know this?” Felix asked casually.
“Powerful enough to be useful, smart enough to fall in line, not prideful enough to raise problems. Trust me.”
He didn’t like that. Didn’t want to. Trust wasn’t easy, wasn’t really in his vocabulary or his dictionary.