Chapter 9: Gunslingers, Gangsters and Hackers

Jonathan, dark-skinned, wearing a somber-filled black straight jacket hiding underneath a passionate red shirt, paired with blue ripped jeans and open-toed sandals is typing on his dark red laptop with extreme focus on a gray square table inside a small gray room with on ceiling fan light on a light gray fan shining its light in the dark room. A black USB is plugged into the left side of the laptop.  The screen on its right is a screen of a  Vulnerability Scanner with the logo on the top right side of the screen XENA, in red letters. Below it on the white Screen are the white letters, Scan 1. Below it are the words Vulnerabilities in black letters, below it is a large Sunburst chart in the middle of the screen. The left side of the chart is a light green, with a small black line coming out of it with the words Secure on top of it. The left side of the chart has triangle slices throughout. A medium-sized red triangle on the upper left with another small black line with the words Critical Condition: Debian Packages. Jonathan’s main target was his hack since it contained all of the business files he needed to deliver to his underworld boss through Mikey.  A small orange triangle next to the other triangle with a small black line coming out of it, with the words High Risk: Multiple DNS implementation vulnerable to Cache poisoning, and the smallest triangle being a yellow triangle below the orange one with the words Medium Risk: Samba Badlock Vulnerability. On the right side of the laptop screen, all of the business files started to pull up through the Starlight Breakthrough Files he hacked.  Yes. I was getting worried. I need to get this to Mikey in a few minutes or I might end up in a body bag.  Jonathan looks through the open files quickly until he sees the files he was looking for. The 3D modeled Marketing Strategy Bar Chart, the AI-generated Consumer Data Area Chart, and the PDF with the front page title Everglades City: Bringing A New Tomorrow in bright green letters on a dark green-yellow page. Jonathan makes a cynical smile. A new tomorrow for them, another day for us. He copies and pastes the files into his USB folder. He takes it out and places it in his pocket. He breathes a sigh of relief as he gets up from his chair and walks towards the door.  His phone rings in his pocket. He looks at his phone and sees on his flashing blue screen is the name, Mikey. He eats it nervously and picks up the phone. 

“I got it-”

“ I was wondering what was taking so long. You better have put it on the hard drive.”

“ Yeah, I did. I definitely don’t want any traces of our activities on the site.”

“ Good. “

Jonathan is walking towards the door, going outside, revealing the back of the Fresh Southern Chicken restaurant. Full of long pipes connecting machines and fans of AC condenser units running with shuttering speed. Jonathan heads towards the small parking lot that has only three parking spaces. Right in the middle of it is a jet-black Ferrari with yellow rims shining bright on the solemn night. Standing inside the driver's seat of the car is Mikey, a pale and muscular caucasian man with a bald head and an impatient, frustrated expression on his face.  A brown serene straight jacket with an icy dark blue large-sized Slim Fit shirt. Dark brown shirt and black cowboy boots. Jonathan hastily gets inside the front seat beside Mikey. Mikey drives the steering wheel and drives off. They head towards the front of the restaurant a few minutes away.

“You do know we don’t have time to waste.”

“ I was making sure everything was clear before I went back in.”

“ Shouldn’t everything be clear by now?”

“ They could always straighten them again. Hence a recheck”

“ I see why our boss keeps you around. He did say you got a good eye. I sometimes wondered why he’d trust you with this when Graham bailed out last minute. “

I really think you should be more appreciative of what the heck I’m doing for y’all……… God, I wish I didn’t take so long. 

They park at the front of the Googie-style pristine white restaurant building. It has a sweeping bright red butterfly roof on top of it. On the roof are words that say Fresh Chicken, shining in bright red neon lights. Inviting customers in its quick flash. Jonathan prepares to get out of the car when Mikey places his hand on his shoulder.

“ Have you forgotten the protocol? We wait till all the employees are gone.”

Mikey turns to his left, and Jonathan turns there as well. They both look at a brown and rusty station wagon. Full of scratches and seems to represent the state of the owner, holding onto dear life even as it gets closer to becoming a corpse. Johnathan and Mikey turn at the front. Staring at a young caucasian man seemingly around his age wiping the Standard Dining tables with a washcloth and spray paint. He’s wearing a red cap with the cartoon chicken in the middle of it, a red shirt, black jeans, and brown-toed shoes. Jonathan turns his eyes to the front of the drive-by. 

 In front of the drive-by is a red pole with a screen projector of three fresh fried chicken on a bright red tray at the table. His eyes turn towards the projector as it switches to a pale woman wearing a gray jacket savoring the taste as she eats the fried chicken on her plate with a large bowl of mashed potatoes and a large soda cup with the restaurant logo in the middle of the cup, a cartoon chicken smacking a confident smile, thumbs up and angry eye’s.  the red door as the projector switches to said chicken in animated motion. Sigh, their chicken is pretty good. I have to admit. I could see them being as addictive as his drugs. I wonder if…..wait never mind, that’s none of my business. I’m just here to do my job to pay my bills. Don’t want no trouble. The chicken places its right hand behind its back revealing a tray of two pieces of fried chicken with steam coming out of it. The chicken stops as soon as it gives a thumbs up on its right hand with the logo. Do I get free Fresh Chicken again as a reward hehe. 

“ Did Abram, Judas or even Bong call you at all?” in an irritated tone. 

“ No.”

Usually, they are not this late.

“ Not Tamar either.”

“ No.” 

Mikey takes out his phone and starts dialing numbers when a green AMC Rebel Modern comes in through the front of the driveway and hastily parks next to Mikey’s car from Mikey’s side. Mikey looks at the window with cold sternness as both of their windows lower. Jonathan looks on with a combination of curiosity and fear.  The front seat window reveals Judas, a dark-skinned man with an average build wearing black aviator glasses that hides his spiritual tiredness,  box braids, stubble beard, ripped jeans, and white adventurous running shoes. Next to Judas on the driver's seat is Tamar, a caucasian woman of an average build with a white Mantilla veil underneath her bummed-up brown hair, wearing black-stripped striped pajamas and black running shoes. 

“ You're late.”

“ We’re here. Hope that’s enough.”

“ Enough to put both of your bodies on swamp waters. Sure. This isn’t the time for lateness today.” 

Jonathan looks on with apprehension. Now isn’t the time to be snarky. I know you guys got a lot going on but I’m not about to pay for it just because of your screw-up. 

Tamar’s eyes widened in fear, her jaw tightened, she quickly took an exhale and inhaled. Gaining back her composure and looking Mikey’s cold gaze back with stubborn firmness. 

“ We can’t afford to screw around with time like this. This information we give can either make us or break us. Now tell me at least you got the stuff.”

“ I got it.” Tamar takes out a couple of Ziplock bags full of white powder with streams of rainbow all over it. 

They all observe as the young employee leaves and heads to his car. He gets in and leaves the restaurant.  As soon as he leaves the building Mikey, Jonathan, Tamar, and Judas leave their respective cars. Bong, an Asian man of average build, wearing a casual brown shirt, old and tired blue jeans, and gray running shoes comes out along with Jennifer, a Hispanic woman wearing a veil hiding her fiery red hair, a deep ocean blue sweatshirt, black nihilistic skinny jeans and energetic yellow running shoes, and Abraham, a caucasian skinny man with a casual dark green Cuban-collar shirt, dark brown long paints, and decaying dark gray running shoes. All of them were strapped with guns on them. Mikey, Johnathan, Tamar, Judas, and Jennifer all start walking inside. Bong and Abraham stay behind to keep watch against anyone potentially intruding on them, especially rival gang members. They head towards the bright red door and enter the dining area as the AI camera scans each one of them silently, walking through the tables across the bright orange walls and walking across the wooden slick floor. They go to the back of the chicken, they all go through the swinging door, and proceed to go through the Commercial Kitchen door. Walking through a medium hallway for a minute, heading towards the door facing them that has the small black name tag with the words Crane’s Office. The office of the owner and founder of this restaurant and their boss. 

They enter the small office that has a moldy dark brown on the wall, they all face Crane Crossfire, a slightly bulky man with skin pale as bones, clean shaven with a Faux Hawk haircut, a red button-up shirt, red tie, black jeans and brown dress shoes. He’s looking at his laptop on his large and dark brown Executive desk with organized stacks of papers next to him when he looks at the group and gives a wide false smile as he scans each one of them like a lion waiting patiently for a meal. 

‘ Right on time.” said in a calm manner

He looks at Mikey.

“You keeping them updated”

“ Keep them updated. I didn’t even need to call them at times.” Mikey makes a small chuckle. 

Crane makes a chuckle as he makes a sly smile.

“ That’s good…..and bad. Good means they can’t wait to get what we got.”

Crane’s expression becomes serious.

‘ Bad because if we don’t deliver then a lot of us……might have to change plans.” Crane starts looking around at Judas, Jonathan, Jennifer, and Tamar with a lion's searching eye. Everyone tries to remain stoic even as nervousness engulfs them all. “  That wouldn’t be the best thing to happen to any of us, is that right?” He turns his eyes back to Mikey who stares at him with a casual coldness. Crane makes a wide smile. 

“Alright. Show me what you got.” said in a plain tone. 

Mikey looks at Johnathan, Jonathan takes out the USB hard drive and hands it to Mikey who hands it to Crane. Tamar takes out the ziplock bag and hands it to Mikey and he delicately places it next to Crane on his right. Crane places it on the USB plug. The file opens up, revealing the files  The 3D modeled Marketing Strategy Bar Chart, the AI-generated Consumer Data Area Chart, and the PDF in that order. Crane clicks on the first file and scans the 3D Bar Chart AS the bars move in motion at the Chart. The horizontal lines, it showed each Bar in order of various lengths, the first being VR Ads. The second is Social Media, Mass Media and the last one is Fairs.  Crane scans the horizontal line that went from 0 to $60,0000. He observes the 3D purple bar goes all the way to the top for VR Ads. Social media’s bar has 40,000, Mass Media has $25,000 and Fairs have $35,000. 

“ This is shocking. I assumed that they’d at least invest more in Mass Media, that’s a proper investment, at least for me. You’ll think you’ll want everyone to at least see the newfound city as the Paradise you make it out to be. Well, their slip-ups are good news for our client.”

Seems like corporations always think they're smarter than they actually are. 

Mikey slowly walks behind Crane and stands next to him. Jonathan and Tamar motions themselves to follow but Mikey gives them a stern look while nodding no. They both stay still. 

Crane clicks on the AI-generated Consumer Data Area Chart. The Area Chart showed the vertical line in order from WV meaning Website visits, Product Purchase, and CF meaning Customer Feedback with the horizontal lines being from 0 to 90% at the top. Crane carefully scans the chart as the top of the red mountain slope at the WV goes up to 70%, Product Purchase went up at 45% with a blue mountain slope and the CF went to 60% with a purple mountain slope. Crane places his mouse at the CF, revealing in white letters the words Mixed. He clicks on it, and the Area chart disappears and reveals three Donut graphs cut by two lines across it, leaving the right side dark green and the left side light green, and on the middle is 40% Approval. The dark green line had six small lines coming out of it. In order, one line had on top of it, complaints about poor maintenance, the second line stated electricity kept going out/breaking, the third line said houses were overpriced, and the fourth line said. On the green side three lines showed up, one line said, Customer service is always timely and efficient, the second line had the words above it said, Comfortable place to live in and the last line said, the neighborhood is always clean and quiet. Crane clicks off the screen and clicks on the PDF as the whole room is filled with the silence of an empty haunted factory. 

Jonathan stands still like a statue looking at the two with quiet nervousness, Tamar soothes herself by feeling her hands slowly on the silk of her pajamas. Let the clothing comfort her. Judas is on his phone distracting himself by playing Super Mario. Occasionally looking at Crane and Mikey with the resentful look of a trapped injured pigeon before taking a deep breath and continuing with his game.  Jennifer cracks her neck and starts squeezing a squeeze ball slowly and staring at it with curiosity with glazes of cold rage occasionally sparkling in her eyes only for it, making her squeeze it harder at a fast pace. Her angry expression becomes a resigned fear and she continues squeezing the ball slowly.  Crane looks at the PDF title, the front page title Everglades City: Bringing A New Tomorrow, and says “ Take me to Expansion Plans” The screen immediately goes to page 444 titled Expansion Plans. Crane is reading through it, he reads through these specific words from the very first paragraphs. 

We plan to expand to Miami by 2060. 2060 is a good time because, by the time we start constructing our floating city Seagate, we would’ve already been at least near finished with Everglades City. Having already made the risky investment of short-selling our stocks while at the same time investing in Disaster Assets in companies such as Linux during Hurricane Chaos 2 years ago.  All through our investment firm Crystal Investments. Resulting in a big return of 90 million by the end of the year.  Another flood is predicted to happen two years from now. We must take full advantage of this. There will be a great need for housing, especially when the Mayor inevitably wants to bring the city back to how it was since Miami is and has. As we’ll detail below, we have various strategies for preparing for and providing what people need while continuing to gain influence in the Miami area. 

‘Well, you look at that.”

‘ Looks like we found a goldmine. This will be useful not just for our client but for us whenever we need it.” 

Crane looks at the ziplock bags full of white powder with strips then he looks at Tamar. 

“ Tammy.”

Tammy looks at Crane. Crane gives her a warm Customer service smile.

“ So tell me. How will this product increase our revenue and put our business in the next direction?”

Tamar coughs. “ Ok um.”

Crane opens one of his cabinets on his right and gives Mikey a water bottle. Mikey goes and gives it to Tamar.

“ Take your time. I don’t want to interrupt you.” 

Tamar drinks the bottle of water in haste. She coughs a bit and begins to speak.

“ Well, I can tell you once people even get a sniff of this, they won’t be able to get their hands off of it.”

“ Have you added any extra ingredients?”

“ I have. Besides the mix of Ecstasy and Cocaine. I added Methenamine. Not just any Methenamine but the purest Methenamine there is. Made by creating methylamine from scratch and not just through the usual crappy pseudo everyone else uses. Don’t need any cheap medications for this. Because of its purity-”

“ The euphoria will last longer than usual.”

“ Correct. Combine that with Ecstasy and Cocaine and anyone who gets it will experience the greatest euphoric high they’ve ever gotten. Increased perception and energy through ecstasy, increased dopamine through Cocaine, increased activity through meth. It’s going to be a magical experience for them. That's for sure.” 

Crane nods his head and makes a small smile in approval. He looks at

“ As impressive as it seemed whenever I visited the lab.”

Crane takes one of the bags and looks at the powder with silent admiration. 

“ Once we start spreading this product around, it’ll be the highest demand around not just here but this whole country. From the top of mansions at parties to back-alleys at ghettoes, this product, Bliss, will make us one of the highest competitors of the game.”

Tamar bits her lips so as to not say anything that might cause her faith to downturn. 

As long as this helps me stay in private school. So be it. 

 Crane’s phone rings in his pocket. He picks up his Android. On the screen as it flashes light green, above it says the word, Craig Masters.

“ Speaking of competition,” Crane says to himself.

Crane picks up the phone. “ Hey, Craig. You called just in time. We got everything you need and oh boy do I got some juicy stuff for you.”

Through the muffled speaker Craig can be heard saying “ That’s exactly what we want to hear. We’re pretty excited at what you got. Are you ready to meet? I’m almost there.” 

“ Definitely. “ Crane says with a confident smile.