Chapter 28: Chapter 27

I appeared in a small street in Chicago, beside a sandwich shop and looked around for what I wanted to find.

Following the signs of magic, I spotted it in an adjacent alleyway, parked behind a dumpster, thick with the scent of mystery.

There.

[Where? The taxi?]

Yup.

[Your mentor is a taxi driver? What are you planning on learning? How to shoot up a school?]

I snorted with laughter and shook my head.

No. We're not here for the mentor, but for a related reason.

A gift. After all, I can't just go to my new teacher empty handed.

[I thought the angel grace you stole was the gift.]

It is. I just want to make a more ....concrete impression. Anyone can get angel grace. What I plan on bringing in is far, far more substantial. And personal. Something no one else would ever think of bringing in.

[Ah. So it's that, isn't it.] PK realised as the taxi and its occupant appeared before us, stuffing a 12 inch meatball sub down his gullet.

[You want to make an offer they can't refuse.]

Hehehehe, you know me too well.

I walked over to the cab door and opened it, sliding into the backseat.

"Hej! Noh ofen fo buinez." The man swallowed, absent mindedly chiding me away, "At least let me eat my lunch in peace pal. Find another cab."

"But I have an itch only you can scratch big boy~" I moaned softly by his ears and that shocked him awake from his deliciousness induced stupor as he snapped to attention.

He turned around and gave me with a weird look as I smirked and raised the bottle with the smidgen of angel grace in it.

"Do I have your attention now or would you prefer to go back to gobbling balls?" I joked.

He looked down at his meatball sub, his face twisted in disgust.

"Don't say it like that... " He sighed, "What do you want?"

"It's not what I want, Ajay. It's what I can do for you." I closed my fist around the angel grace and translocated it back into my pocket, disappearing it.

Time to set up a little seed of thought in him for the future. I had a role for him in my plans too.

"A solitary reaper. On the run from Death. Inching by with your little taxi. Tell me Ajay, don't you ever dream of something more? Doing more? Being more? Do you want to spend the rest of your life like this? Driving errant assholes around till someone shanks you to... " I giggled at the irony, remembering his end in the show, "death?"

He wasn't pleased by the pun.

[Clearly he's not a punny man.]

"Look, I don't want any trouble. Just leave. I am not-"

"Rejecting my offer before even hearing me out?"

"No." He shook his head decisively, reaching behind the seat to open the door for me, "I know your type."

"I'm not a demon, in case you're wondering..." I argued.

"I know. I have met demons and yet somehow I get the feeling that you're far worse." Ajay deadpanned.

[He's a sharp one.]

Shutty.

"Ajay, Ajay. My man. Where's your fighting spirit? Where's the reaper that rebelled against Death?"

He let out a tired sigh at my dogged soliciting, and looked into the middle distance with a dead eyed stare.

"He shrivelled up and died the hundredth time I had to clean some drunk bimbo's vomit off the backseat after getting yelled at all day over pennies and coppers. After struggling to make ends meet, brown-nosing my landlord when my rent was late, bearing my wife's abuse when I didn't remember some stupid anniversary or forget to change a diaper because God forbid I get some sleep after working my ass off all day, and after I betrayed everything I stood for, all to save her life. Our child's life." He said, a little choked up, nostalgic and regretful, a man torn down by life.

"So no. I don't think I want to be part of some limited time offer or grand plan or scheme or whatever else you're selling. I don't know you and I'll-"

"I'll pay you with Forbidden Fruit." I interjected, stopping his rant in its tracks.

He looked at me with surprise.

Yeah. That got him.

"Bullshit." He scoffed, skeptical.

"Maybe. But if I'm not, and seeing as how I managed to get my hands on angel grace-"

"That little wisp barely counts as grace." He pointed out.

"There's more where that came from." I leaned forward, over the seat as I summoned the little bottle of grace back to my hand, "A lot more. And just imagine...how much will a Forbidden Fruit go for? A magical ingredient that's extinct and inaccessible. The only one of its kind on Earth. I imagine Plutus will pay a god's ransom for it. Enough to give your wife, your child the life of a king. Everything they ever wanted. Everything you ever wanted. Imagine that. A mansion, a levy of sports cars, your beautiful wife-"

He scowled at that.

Okay.

"Or... Or, you could divorce her. Get a mistress. The hottest, latest models. Babes galore."

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Yeah, that was much more his tune.

I smiled.

"As I said, anything and everything you ever want. There's nothing money can't buy. Even love had a price, as you've clearly learnt."

"It's worth more than life. At least more than that ungrateful bitch's life." He grated.

"Exactly." I patted his shoulder, "And you know what, let's skip all that big picture stuff you're worried about. Let's talk small. A casual little job. Nothing serious."

I'll start small and work him up to what I want slowly. I have the time. He'll fold once he gets a taste of success and understands that I can give him more.

Ajay narrowed his eyes.

"I have a bad feeling about this but.... " His eyes glinted with greed.

Ah, money. Truly, you are the greatest social lubricant.

"Hear me out. Won't cost you a cent." I shrugged.

"Yeah... Go on." He nodded, more to himself than to me, as if reassuring himself.

I smiled and produced an envelope from my coat, handing it over to him.

He gave me a queer look and tore the envelope open, reading through the pamphlet before he laughed.

"This is an easy job?! This?"

"What? It's just a small trip. In and out, twenty minute adventure." I dismissed his concerns.

"Twenty minute- Do you know what heaven is like this time of the year? They will skin me alive if they catch me trying to pull a heist in their backyard."

"Oh come on. They won't even notice. Just one soul. Bring her out, have a little field trip, and then put her right back into place, with none the wiser. Call it a spell, if someone asks. Lot's of spells do that. Besides, you ferry paying customers across realms behind their backs on the regular. You're telling me you don't have any backdoors or contacts in there? Someone you've bribed to turn a blind eye?"

He swallowed his words and clicked his tongue.

Yeah. Trying to scalp me for more than you're worth?

Heh, you're a hundred years too early.

"Four Forbidden Fruit."

"Are you mental? One. And you stay on retainer."

"Three and I stay on retainer for two more jobs."

"Half and you better be grateful for that." I snapped.

"Two?" He put forward tentatively, hesitant from my outburst, only to be glared down.

"One whole Forbidden Fruit." He finally relented and specified like I was some malicious genie, ready to twist his words in the worst way possible.

A wise choice.

"And another half to keep you on retainer." I sweetened the pot, extending him a handshake.

"Deal." He shook my hand and stuffed the letter I gave him into his glovebox.

"Great." I smiled, "Oh, and I'll pay you at the end of the month. You are on retainer after all, like a salaried employee."

He frowned.

"I knew it." He spat, defeated, as he gave me a dirty look, "I've seen demons with more integrity."

"Yes, yes. I know. But like demons, I keep my word."

"You better. Or else..." He summoned his scythe to his hand with a burst of dark, colorless miasma. A wordless threat.

"Very scary~" I chuckled, opening the door, "Deliver the package to the location I designated and wait for my signal. See you soon."

"Wait, you don't need me to drop you there?" He pulled out the letter and checked the location I gave him again, "It's on the other side of the country."

"Nah. I have my means. You..." I poked his nose, "...should focus on the job at hand. Clock's ticking. Be there on time, before time even. I like to have my grand gestures on tap." I snapped my fingers and the door to the cab slammed shut behind me and I disappeared into the street.

_________________

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