Bottle Born Blues by Conor H Carton

Author:Conor H Carton [Carton, Conor H]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beyond Time Books - A Next Chapter Imprint
Published: 2019-10-31T22:00:00+00:00

When I entered the Losers Lounge, I saw Lincoln wave. She was sitting at the same table we’d used before, which seemed fitting since I was bringing bad news again. At least the food and drink (not to mention the view) would be good.

Nanteer greeted me as I sat down, put a big mug of Top Drawer on the table, and went off without waiting for a food order.

“I’ve ordered for both of us. Food first. Then tell me about the trouble we’re in.”

That casual “we” was, in spite of severe competition from food and drink, the single best thing about the whole day. Once the food was gone and plates cleared, Lincoln looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Zusak Sedge has given me a job,” I said nonchalantly.

“Zusak Sedge?”

I had an awakening, a moment when you find that you are in the same place but the meaning of everything around you has irrevocably changed because you were asleep and now you are awake to reality. I hadn’t been concerned that Lincoln didn’t know what a Brewmaster was or much about bottle-farm operations. She came from a different process and there was no reason for her to want to know about farms. Zusak Sedge was a different matter, however, because she was centre-square in the world that Lincoln moved in, she should be semi-public knowledge to lifeforms who travelled the dark corridors of the systems. Only now it was clear that Zusak Sedge was highly-specialized knowledge, only known to those who actively sought out said highly-specialized knowledge. It was deliberate knowledge, found in much less crowded locations where those who visited weren’t lost in the multitude.

The visitors came individually and, no matter how well-disguised, could be identified and tracked by watchers with the resources to track visitors to unfrequented areas. Watchers like the PR Agency. They’d not picked me at random for this task like I’d imagined; they knew exactly where I’d been, that I’d know who Zusak Sedge was and be delicious bait for her. There were others with even more resources than the PR Agency and they’d also simply watch and wait, but they wouldn’t have to find me because I’d simply walk into view. All the time I believed I was hidden, I was under a spotlight. All the time I thought I was hiding in darkness and protecting those I love I was walking a stage under a spotlight. It was the audience who were cloaked in darkness. The only relief was that I hadn’t crossed the line. Now, though, I’d have to take action.

Zusak Sedge and her Human Rights allies via the rogue PR agent had what they wanted, to start the war to achieve aims of blood, power and dominance. The PR Agency had what they wanted, an active line to Zusak Sedge. Those I could not even think about were closing in on what they wanted, delivered into their hand by myself. The outcome would rest on my increasingly tired and weakening shoulders. Ten wasted years to reach the point I had known from the moment I had held Petra in my arms.

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