I woke up without really knowing that I was.
That moment where dreams and reality blend lasts forever sometimes.
But not when you wake up still wasted fully clothed and spooning with a large black man.
The scattered bottles brought scattered images from the night before.

Cheers . Cheers and shots, shots and cheers, repeat.
Not really celebrating not really happy. No not till we felt the warm embrace
of oblivion did the tension, and pain drain away as we stumbled through the double doors

I turned my head around again as my co-cuddler stirred to life., Shade
“Why the fuck are you spooning me?” came out before I really thought about it.
“Aw you’re just upset cause you’re the little spoon.,.bitch” Shade replied.
“Damn straight I’m upset about being the little spoon” was all I could come up with as I stood up.
More broken memories came as I surveyed the room.

Someone about something about tomorrow.
Some hot chick saying she’ll miss me, but I’m not completely into her,
but I should be cause she’s hot, level 70 night elf hot, and I brush her off, harsh.
A file now. Some Asian dude. Asian like Jason Scott Lee
not Bruce Lee Asian,,, kinda, and beer. And shots.

And beer cans are everywhere in the hotel room stacked all retarded just waiting for the cleaning lady to find and admire the architecture.
Confusion started to overcome my mind but a sharp knock brought the now into focus.
The knock, just one, threw Shade into action, he rolled while drawing a .380.
I looked him a question before checking the peephole.
“It’s just some Asian hitmen.” I said to Shade as if it was a friend of mine at the door named Asian Hitman, except plural of course.
Shade reacted similarly and put his weapon away.
“Drop the gun” “Oh, ah well just take the holster off now I guess.” yelled one of the hitmen through the door.
Probably the one with the millimeter wave radar apparatus, now that I thought about it.
“Also the MK9 and that ridiculous knife”
Shade complied, disarming himself slowly, almost sheepishly removing the Helicledes knife.
“Well, open the door” came through in the same voice.
So I did.

“Gentleman.” I said as I did a pathetic American imitation bow while
Shade managed not to bite through his lip, I think.
The techie quickly walked in running several scans with his personal surveillance system, whose display looked suspiciously like a moded PSP.
“All clear, no immediate threats, no radio, or other communications, no tracking devices” Tad, “techie Asian dude” said.
“Good” said the older Asian dude that had been performing his own visual inspection.
Followed by “He stays.” while pointing at Shade.
“He has to come,., we’re siamese twins” I replied.
He gave me a quarter smile, half of it evil, and shrugged a “whatever”.
We started to leave with them so fast one of them had to remind me to bring my brief case.
The case as I grabbed it, with half my mind saying “of course” and the other wtfing, looked to be of leather, but the feel was all wrong, it felt as hard as metal,
and was heavy enough to make me strain to hide the effort it took to lift it.

Seven of us entered two Lexus 460HL’s, and Tad got in an F series.
Me and Shade were facing two enforcers and Kag “killer Asian guy” with Kag surprisingly riding bitch.
The other enforcers got in the back of the other 460, so I assumed not only were there
drivers waiting on the other side of the reflective glass but also shotguns, possible pun intended.
So there were at least thirteen of them with up to nineteen possible.
I kept cycling between two thoughts “Holy shit what’s in this suitcase?” and
“How the fuck did I forget what’s in this fucking suitcase.”
A third more important thought came along that resonated throughout my conscious
“Fucking Tequila.”

The caravan eased away from the hotel.
“So how’s it going?”I said trying to seem calm and instantly failing
“Precisely as it should” Kag replied with a full evil smile. I wondered if he had any nonevil smiles.
“Sweet” was all I said as I tried to figure out how I got so dumb so fast.
“Our destination is?” asked Shade
“Rather discrete” said Kag.
The response caused Shade to work his jaw so hard I could almost feel his teeth grind.

We drove around for a while, twice literally. Most likely to check for surveillance, but possibly because the drivers were Asian.
Finally we exited at Queensbridge station.
Our initial numbers walked down into the overcrowded subway
while the drivers went elsewhere in their super sweet ecofriendly hardon inspiring vehicles.
I finally got to see Tad’s PSP screen and saw him cycling through five readings.
I was right about the MMWR. There was also a thermal readout, a strange looking screen
I thought might represent incoming and out going radio and other electronic transmissions, and a DBZ episode.
Both the heat and MMWR where in real time 3-D in the form of a third person mobile perspective
meaning there were many preplanted sensors in the area
and that the PSP had one hell of a graphics card. But Tad spent the most time on a screen where the sensors
scanned the faces of the crowd, obtained a forward view and a profile from another
angle, then attempted to match them to a database of similar perspective pictures
of what I assumed were dangerous people.
It hesitated and reexamined this one hot ska chick’s profile trying to obtain a clearer pic to match to.
While it hesitated a poor photograph of the girl from last night remained on the screen.
But then it got a full frontal, found discrepancies and moved on.
At that point I decided to finally quit drinking,., like for real this time.
We walked toward a platform that seemed to be almost blocked off in what would not look intentional if
I wasn’t growing steadily more paranoid and they weren’t anti-stereotypically large Asian guys.
Minding the gap we entered the train car and I noted an even higher concentration of Lags.

Kag motioned toward an older gentleman who looked rather comfortable.
His coolness might have disturbed me, but I forced myself to believe it was
simply because he was the only one actually seated in the car.
As Shade and I approached him he motioned for the briefcase.
I handed it to him and he unlocked it with some sort of smart skeleton key
before I could reach for my regular one.
A cold cloud arose as the he opened the case.
It dissipated revealing a grid of small test tubes on the right, with
the rest dedicated to the internal cooling system and its controls.

He then opened his own briefcase which contained a myriad of
testing equipment, the top holding a 24in LCD display., show off.
He pulled out a tube and syringed a sample in with an or multiple restriction endonucleases
and began an expedited digitized riflip test.
Results slowly appeared on the screen. Signs of recognition and conformation flowed across
his face as the numbers and graphs flashed.
He simply looked at Kag and said “Tests positive”
“Good” said Kag
And everyone just stood there like they were waiting for something, even Shade.
While I was bathed in confusion mixed with fear.

We came to a stop one man stood and turned towards us.
I recognize him. Holy shit I recognize someone.
It’s the guy from the file. He’s the reason this is happening.
My mind jumped into another gear a step ahead of my conscious that left no trail or wake to follow
but made my body jump to attention as endorphins were released creating a sense of certainty throughout.

The man was Dr. TRAN and all I knew was I had to stop this from happening.
He walked in the car and everything got more intense more exciting more real.
Everything slower everything faster at the same time, each moment creating more of the past
and destroying possible futures. Taking what could be and turning it
into to what is leaving a trail of what was.
The first step into the car I realized who Tran was.
During the second I realized who I was.
On the third I put the two together understood everything that
was going on exited my internal thought process and went with it.
Tran took Kag’s gear and placed a sample under the photoscope and watched for only he knew what.
He spoke “Second generation remains fertile. I thank you Mr. Kleman for placing personal gain over the welfare and safety of your nation.
I assume you’ve self administered the vaccine, but if I were you I’d still leave the country. More people will die from general panic than the virus itself.”
“At least I hope they do” he smiled.
Tran took out a vile with his left hand, with his right a syringe
neatly filling the syringe with the sample from the photoscope, removed the needle and pocketed it.
I knew that I was giving someone the ability to destroy our world.
I knew I couldn’t let this happen.
I knew I was hopelessly out manned.

I also knew I planned this shit out.

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