#122 : Melvin's Marauders -Job Offer

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“I’d say that was rather successful” Melvin said to the TigerMom’s drone. TigerMom had taken to keeping her body sequestered in her tiny cabin in Fluffy. “There were a few glitches but we managed.”

TigerMom had been doing the ‘books’. “Not only that but we’ve paid a big chunk of the ballon in just one day. Our accounts are solidly in the black. There’s a veritable train of crystal mantas enroute to .......to....the Banana Slug is it? I’d say we’re in good shape.

.... weeks or months later............

Melvin and the Marauders decided that it was time to take a vacation. They’d done good. They’d sent a very large number of Crystal Manta’s back to the Banana Slug. They all had hefty coin wallets. Perhaps it was time to go spread some wild Groats. Melvin programmed Fluffy to go home to the Banana Slug.

Fluffy reconfigured it’s tentacles into hydrofoils and accelerated to foil speed. Soon they were skimming across the surface at thirty knots. They were in no particular hurry.

About halfway there while TigerMom and Melvin were relaxing in Fluffy’s ‘wheel house’ drinking coffee and chatting they received a ‘video call’ . Melvin, by default, answered it. The head and shoulders of a young black couple appeared in 3D before them. The man’s skin was conventionally black as one would expect of a person of ‘american of african descent’, that is, it was dark brown. The woman was something altogether different. Her skin was blacker than anthracite coal. It was REALLY black.

“Hi there.” The man said “The Dragon Lady told me that you and your charges might be dropping in. I would very much like to discuss a proposition with you. Perhaps I can persuade you to stay awhile. I’m looking for workers. There doesn’t seem to be any available locally that are interested in doing what I want to do. My competition has scarfed them all up. He selfishly treats them so well that they won’t consider leaving his employ even though I offer them a better deal. Something about loyalty. Imagine that.”

There was humor in his voice and a twinkle in his eye as he spoke but Melvin got the distinct feeling that this guy was dead serious. TigerMom betrayed exactly zero emotion as was her norm.

The Black man-woman team persisted. In the sales business this would be known as a ‘cold call’, the most difficult type of sale. They were not very good salesmen. In fact they were pretty bad. The lady tried to break the ice and get Melvin and the TigerMom to loosen up. No luck. Finally the two glanced at each other and decided that it was ‘go for broke’ time. Lay the cards on the table.

“We’ve got jobs for you all, good pay, good perks.” She said. “If you think you might be interested I will tell you about it.”

“What kind of job?” Melvin asked, in spite of himself. Constantly moving about was taking a toll.

“Farm work in a manner of speaking” She said and frowned when Melvin stiffened. The Asiatic woman, TigerMom, sitting next to him remained inscrutable.

“We’ve worked on a farm.” Melvin replied thinking of the prison work farm. He and TigerMom had been Trusties. The kids had been the workers. It was as illegal as hell and he could just imagine the bribes the Prison Corporation had been paying to get away with what amounted to child slavery. Unfortunately the Prison Corporation had ‘the goods’ on him from a previous indiscretion. He was told to ‘put up and shut up’ or he’d regret it. He had no idea what kind of handle they had on TigerMom.

He and TigerMom had tried to keep as many kids alive as possible. Mostly they succeeded.

Karlee was sharp as a tack when it came to people. She was a poor salesman due to lack of experience. Sales is a learned skill that she’d never learned. She’d never needed to before now but she had the raw untrained potential. She could read people well and could see that something very ‘un-good’ had happened in their past.

She quickly added.

“This might not be the kind of Farm work you are thinking of.” She said. “as far as the kids are concerned it’ll be video games, all the time. They will be sitting in a comfortable chair inside a climate controlled room, possibly very similar to those seats they are sitting in right now. Their physical environment will be safe, secure and comfortable while they operate in a virtual environment.”

“The Game is an overlay. It’s an augmented reality not purely a virtual one. It’s an advanced form of telepresence. We can change it as need be if they get bored or for any reasons and individually for any participant. It’ll be a Point of View shooter game to start with and their job is to shoot the bad guys and report any infrastructure damage to control. The bad guys are insects and mold, the infrastructure are the crops.” she said.

“You’ll be in charge.” she finished “You do things the way you see fit. The goal is to kill bugs, mold and inspect the infrastructure while you’re at it. The ultimate objective is to raise food.”

Melvin noticed that TigerMom was was shocked at the emotion she had displayed. An eyebrow had flicked about a quarter inch.

“All of us?” Melvin asked.

“If you want” Sherry replied. “There are other jobs too, or you can strike out on your own and do something new. Just a guess, mind you, and I love him to death, but we only have one restaurant. Ernie’s is great food but a little bit of diversity might be welcome. Do you know anyone who can cook?”

Tigermom’s eyebrow flicked again, almost a half inch this time. Melvin was flabbergasted. He’d never seen TigerMom display so much emotion.

“If we do that for you what will you do for us?” Melvin asked. There wasn’t a subtle bone in his body and he tended to be blunt.”

“We’ll pay any fees you might encounter if you decided to accept our offer. Anything job related of course. We’ll pay all your utilities too and pay you and your crew as well. We’ll work out the exact price later but we pay well. Beyond that there other possibilities. Perhaps we can work out a deal to sub-lease your Fluffy.” Kamiko closed the deal.

“We’ll think about it” Melvin said “According to the GPS thing we should be there soon. We’ll let you know when we arrive.”

“Fair enough” Karlee said. YES! “I’ll see you then.”

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The Next Episode Is
#123 : Henry Drake - Here's the Plan…
The Previous Episode was
#121: Henry Drake -Shovel on the Coal…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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