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Business as Usual

Business as Usual

By: Tanner D.

My eyes dot frantically beneath electric light. Peering through the neon geometry of my hud overlay, I trace a path back to a frequently used audio file in my specks’ on board memory. A binaural beat. A beta wave around 30 hertz. The first of an entourage of aspects to compile my business face. My specks immediately interpret my double blink as the activation code for the file. In the space of a synapse, the micro-amps in the base of my synthetic skull drop the break-beat techno and employ the soft hum of a binaural pulse. I backtrack to my specks main screen to find the file on my contact. Got to make sure I am in the right place at the right time ya know?  After all, the life of a hitman isn’t all blazing guns and explosions like you see in the movies. Yet in my case it happens like that more often than not.

I’d probably be dead by now from all this violence if it wasn’t for a particular ace up my sleeve, or should I say under my skin. I should be dead. But one life-changing story later and here I am with a body filled with so much techno-junk that I don’t think I’ll see death for a very long time. Even in my particular field. And be that as it may, I have also found it takes quite well to a large sum of abuse both externally and internally.

This brings me to my second and final phase of my business face. My hand slides into the chest pocket of my blazer with well tempered accuracy.  It finds what it is looking for with ease.  A baggy of pills. Everything I need to make the perfect cocktail. Abrums, Vamp, D-9s, and a few pharmaceuticals to ween off some unwanted effects by these fine drugs. As if having a teched-out super body wasn’t enough, I throw it into overdrive with these pills. The pharms first, then the D-9. I wait to drop the two Abrums in thirty seconds intervals and seal the deal with the Vamp. It all gets washed down with some Flavor 4 soda pop to boost the D-9s effect.

As I wait for the drugs to kick in, I finish up scanning through the file on the contact. I close all the windows in my hud and focus my eyes on a symbol in the overlay. A symbol aptly named “Business Time”.  I double blink again and suddenly feel my body tingle.  That’s how I know it’s on. Both the guns tucked under my arms let out a short vibration to let me know they are active now too. I stand with my eyes closed, take deep breaths and wait for a very distinct feeling.

Suddenly the feeling of a bubble inside me pops, exposing a new person. His eyes dazzled by the electric light pouring into his iris. The binaural frequency throttles his brain. He feels the electricity in his body. Now the Vamp hits hard, pushing him to feel faster than time itself. As he swiftly darts out of my shell he exposes himself true. Meet my business face.

He tools over the last vestiges of his former reality, wondering about the style in which he executed former contacts. Two dead and his gun’s four shots shy of a full clip. Not feeling that today. As he palms both his guns he thinks about all the exciting things that are about to happen. With one firm blow, his foot levels the door and he smiles.