[Fiction] Bad things come on threes

[Kultra]

February 25, 2009 9:00am (-6:00 GTM)

The pain was unbearable; Jose stumbled through the back alley, clutching his side. Lifting his hand to the light from a street lamp, he could clearly see it. He was bleeding, profusely.

This was turning to be a horrible night, a horrible night.

----

Jose "Polymath" Rivera, as he was known to some Novas, currently was going simply by Jose. Doing his daily work and daily routine.

Going over figures, making sure the 5 year plans were being followed by investors and conference calls with the owners of several small companies that Mexcon was trying to buy.

All in all, this was a typical day until an urgent call from the Accounting department came through.

"Mr. Rivera, I have urgent news!" The owner of the voice on the other side was Fernando, an old worker who Jose had kept on the company roll more for his experience and connections than from any particular skill he possessed.

"What seems to be the problem Fernando?" Jose 'Polymath' kept his voice in the best even tone he had, years of practice helped him manage it.

"Your stock sir! The stock of the whole company! It's price on the markets! It's...it's plummeting!" Panic on his voice, of course he would panic because of his contract a lot of his money came from the shares of the company he held, a plummet on the otherwise stable price of the stock would prove fatal to his checking account.

"Check again and find out how this happened! How could the price of our stock drop like that? It's not possible!" Jose, in a moment on anger tapped into the raw quantum energies that were held within his node and by the simple act of slamming down on the speaker phone button, the whole button and part of his desk crumbled into splinters under his Nova strength.

Polymath wandered his office, staring at screens that showed the world markets, his stock was plummeting in all of them, and he couldn't find rhyme or reason to it, it was like a ghost influence was destroying his company.

"Rosario! Find me Rolando and Felipe, This is going to hell and I need backup in this place!" Polymath did something he hadn't done in a long time, he walked up to his desk and took out one of the cigarettes he had stashed in there every week, lighting it up and taking a long drag. There needs to be a reason for all of this, I just can't seem to find it!

-----

February 26, 2009. 4:00am (-6:00 GTM)

Jose walked through the parking lot to his office building, incredulous of the last 22 hours of his life. In less than a single day, he had lost almost all of his fortune, he had lost financial security, and he had lost a big part of his company as well as his pride on it.

He got on his car, a Jaguar LX, knowing that he would feel slightly better after returning home; sighing deeply before putting the key on its slot, and pushing the ignition button, Jose waiting to listen to the purr of a finely tuned German car.

But the car had other ideas, and the purr never came. The car wouldn’t start no matter how much he tried to start it, almost like mocking him and saying he didn’t had enough money.

Jose slammed his forehead on the wheel “This is just not my day…not at all.”

Getting off from his car, he walked towards the street, wearing an expensive suit, an expensive watch, with a leather briefcase. He might as well have stamped a “victim” seal on his forehead that night; it was the only thing that was left to happen to him.

Signaling a Taxi right outside of his building, he got into it. A Volkswagen Beetle, without the first passenger seat, Very common on Mexico, he sat on the back.

“Jardines del Campestre, Calle Ocho. There shouldn’t be a lot of Traffic” Jose sighed at his luck today, the Taxi smelled funny, and he probably stepped or sat on gum when he got on, but he didn’t care he just wanted to get home.

“I don’t know Mr. Rivera, that looks like a very long trip that you won’t manage to end” the driver told him before stepping on the gas and taking the Taxi to it’s top speeds and into the uncrowned fast lanes of Monterrey.

“What- … How do you know my last name?” Jose was understandably shocked by this turn of events, had he been marked for a kidnapping or a robbery?

Jose never got an answer, the Driver slammed into the breaks just at the end of a T intersection. Because of his position and lack of a seat belt, Jose was sent flying through the windshield, landing on his head and back in the curb.

“I’m afraid I was paid too well for you to know that information Mr. Rivera, let’s just say you have made many enemies in your years.” The man talked with a slight glee to his voice, the funny smell that Jose had detected earlier he now knew the source; the man was carrying concealed guns he had not noticed. “If it makes you feel better, I was told to keep you alive Mr. Rivera”

Time froze for Jose, looking down the barrel of a gun. He could feel the whole world pass through his mind when he saw it, feeling the cold grip of dead on his neck.

BANG BANG

Two shots ranged in the night, Polymath barely managed to move, not to avoid but to lessen the damage. From the pain, and quantity of bleeding, he knew he was in for it. Location indicated liver damage on the first shot, and he might have gotten shot through the external iliac artery, he was going to bleed to death unless he did something.

“So unbecoming of you Mr. Rivera, you should have allowed me to do my job, it would have been much easier” Polymath was in pain, the gun was not a normal gun, and while he was not a fighting war god like Revenant, Jager, Cade or Long, he was still more resistant than normal humans. “Now, be a good target and let me finish my job Mr. Rivera”

The man walked towards Jose, ripping open his shirt, he took a small signet ring and put a couple droplets of ink on it “This will hurt, a lot.” And it did, driving the ring into Jose’s chest until the wound and ink took.

Taking then a camera out, he looked at his handiwork and started taking pictures. “Oh, this one will sell very, very well” The man laughed at the situation, feeling over prepared. “Here I studied your every move for months before I pinned down the exact time to trash your car’s engine and ambush you. I thought you would be much more of a good prey Mr. Rivera”

Jose couldn’t help but look down at his chest instead of listening to the man, the loss of blood making him very dizzy. Upside down on his chest, or at least from his perspective, was what seemed to be a horned smiley, the red ink slightly blurry for a good identification of detail, the mouth was twisted into a grin and it had a big cross over it.

Jose, tapping into his quantum gifts during a second of clarity was no more, as Polymath stood up, still bleeding but with much more energy than before. “If it is a fight you want, I wouldn’t have proble-“. Polymath was cut short by what might just be the most powerful blow he had felt on his life. It seemed like it would go through him, and he spit blood when he finally managed to regain control of his muscles, falling to his knees arms crossed over his stomach, this was not a punch any human could land.

“I was told to not kill you as part of my contract, and I got paid as soon as I sent the pictures. So I guess I don’t have to stop myself from killing you right now” For the first time, Polymath noticed it, this man smelled of blood and death, not like Revenant whom he crossed on that Chicago bar, but like the stink of a pig that just rolled on it’s own mess.

Fear took hold of Polymath’s brain; he couldn’t think straight, he couldn’t die here, not with his wife and kids waiting for him at home.

A flash of his whole life passed through his mind’s eye, and he did the only sensible thing to do in that moment. Run, Run until you find shelter and stick to it.

And thus, Polymath ran.