Every Man Has His Price

This short story was submitted to the setonwritersclub.net website on September 2, 2011.  This story made it into the top ten!

The following were the requirements for the story:


- Select a word or phrase from the story prompt list and write a short story that somehow relates to it.
- 1,000-3,000 words.
- The prompt you choose should be a major part of the story. It cannot be a random item that you only mention once to say that it's sitting on a nearby coffee table.
- Refrain from insane, completely nonsensical stories about things like dancing bananas, pet pirañas, and squirrels that sing. Some humor is fine, but in moderation.
- Fanfiction is off-limits for this contest.

Prompt List:

Rain
Memories
Fools paradise
Saying "I am sorry"
Hand-in-hand
Teddy bears and baby blankets
Boxes of crayons
Sunsets
Just wanted to say hello
Upon a chair of gold
Clouds
Bookshelves
Every man has his price
Standing in the shadow of a mountain
Faith

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Every Man Has His Price

“Every man has his price,” I said to Brian S. Thompson, “You just have to find out what his price is.”

It was CalenYear 10000, known to some purists as 10,000 A.D.  Earth.  I was speaking with Brian, the CEO of the International Society of the Unity of Time and Space, known simply as ISUTS, which was the company that NASA reported to.  While NASA was into space travel, ISUTS was into the development of time machines.  Yes, time machines.  Believe it or not, that technology is normal nowadays.  It was discovered in the NCHR Years, which stands for No Complete Historical Record, which were the CalenYears of 5000-8000.  So why would ISUTS, an honorable, scientific organization, be looking for a tracker, but known in the underworld as, a mercenary?  I was approached in the seediest of places, by a secret representative promising great pay.  I, Matthew Smith, which or course was not my real name, was determined to find out.

“And just what is that price for a simple ‘Catch and Bring to Me Alive’ mission?” he asked, sitting in his chair in his very well kept office, which shelves of DataLinks.  Some DataLinks were labeled “History” and others were labeled “Time Travel.”

“I normally do not do this kind of assignment, so the pay will be more.”  I thought for a second in the chair, during which I could feel his tension, until I finally stated, “10000 Digits.”

“Out of the question!”

“6000 is how much I charge for the basic ‘Shoot and Kill, No Questions Asked’ assignment, which is what I am used to.  These ‘Catch Me a Fish Alive’ assignments, I do not do often, but be assured that I can get the job done.  Hence, the 2000 extra.  The other 2000 is for me to keep silent.”

“Keep silent?  Ha!  If you reported what you did, you would be imprisoned for the rest of your life!  Unless the judge you have is for the death penalty, that is.”

“You think I don’t know how to cover my tracks?”  I retorted.  “Look up my name in the files, and see for yourself!”

Brian was silent for a moment, just staring me in the eyes.  He then typed something out on his desk in front of him, obviously, my name.

With a surprised look, he turned to me and said, “According to Official Records, you don’t exist!”

With a smile, I responded, “Exactly!  That is not my real name.  My real identity is one that people look up to, and whom the police believe every word of.”

“Then why would you be a mercenary, if you are a respectable person?”

“As I said, every man has his price.  Every human being on this Earth, gets so desperate, that they will do anything for a Digit.”

“But you have no record of your past completed missions, ‘Mr. Smith.’  How do I know that you will get the job done?”

“Relax, Mr.Thompson,” I said with a smile.  “I’ve got a story for you.”

*****

“I fought in the ‘Nonsense War’ in CalenYear 9994.  It is now the war that the UN wants everyone to forget.  Remember it?  The war between the UN and Russia, over a supposed technology that the Russians had that could destroy the Moon₂?  After all we did to rebuild the Moon, we would not let it get destroyed, so the UN declared war on Russia, the first time the UN ever did so.  Then when we conquered them, we found out it was just an empty threat.  They possessed no technology to do so.”

“Yes, yes, I remember the War, but that is not what I wish to know about.”  Brian said impatiently.

“Patience, Mr. Thompson, and you will soon find out the point of this.  During the War, I made a friend, a very good friend.  His name was Kilver Walton.  We became almost like brothers, during that War, and afterwards, we still remained friends.

“To shorten up the story a little for you, I became a respectable worker at a very high-end company and became very rich.  Until I married her, Sheila Meinhart.  She was very beautiful, and I loved her.  That is, until I returned home one say and found her gone.  A note on my computer saying that she had left me and had taken all of my money, and had reported to my work that I stole thousands upon thousands of Digits from them, which I hadn’t.  But, the faked evidence was on the table when they arrived.  Little had I known that she could easily hack Digits so well, that even the FBI could not tell the difference.

“I was devastated.  No job.  A little of the money that I had from selling my home.  I was to spend 6 months in prison, until Kilver came and bailed me out.  To this day, he was the only one who believes I was innocent.  I stayed with him, who was unmarried, and lived with him for a while.  But, I ended up living on the streets of New York when he had to move to Iowa for a job.  He offered me to come with him, but I declined.  I could not leave this place.  We had not seen or spoken with each other in over a year or maybe more.

“No one would ever accept me for a job when they found out what I was convicted for.  After living on the streets for about a month or two, I then decided to do what I did in the War, kill.  Yes, I murdered people so that I might take the money that they had.  I was so well at doing it, I was never caught, and no one knows who was doing these killings.

“I found this secret organization, where we could be hired as mercenaries, and so I  joined immediately, but first, I had to complete a test for them.  This was the test: to find and eliminate someone who was on their way to uncovering the organization and reporting them to the authorities.  I accepted.  Then I found out who it was.  Kilver Walton.  My friend.

“I was shocked.  Of the 2 billion people on Earth, why did it have to be him?  But knowing the money I would finally be getting, I agreed.

“I wanted to maybe have him fake his death, but I remembered who he was about to uncover.  And my name would be on the records.  So, I resolved to go visit him and play it by ear from there.

“Long story short, I went to Iowa and I surprised Kilver by showing up at his front door.  We were so happy to finally see each other again after so long.  I found out that he was married and had a little daughter as well, who was a month old.  But, I never met his wife, nor his child; they were out on an errand.  So, we talked.  I told him my story, leaving out the parts pertaining to the organization, and he spoke of his life.  Kilver told me all about his wife, Kari; how they had met and so on and so forth.  He then told me about his little daughter, Angel; that was what she was named.  He told me all he planned to do with her, taking her to parks, teaching her the ancient art of fishing, but instead of with the fishing catches we have, he said he would use the ancient fishing pole, an art, an art in which he said, would teach others patience.

“During his story, I said I needed to use his restroom.  As soon as I closed the door, I began crying.  How could I, his longest friend, kill him, a man who was a father and a husband.  A man who had the entire world in front of him, and I, who decided to take the dark alley.  So I was going to tell him everything, about the organization, about how I had joined under another name, and that I was sent to end his life.  Never once did I have the idea that that act, could have cleared my name.

“As I came out to tell Kilver my story, he did one thing I had not counted on, he brought up the war.  Saying how we had met, and fought in the “Nonsense War.”  How we had discovered what had been taught to us as children in school, that when you fight in a war, you join for the ideal and what the war is truly for.  But when you are on the battlefield, you forget all of that.  On the battlefield, you fight for the person next to you.  You fight to survive.  It is only after that battle that you realize what you were fighting for, all over again.

“By myself being reminded of that, it made me complete my mission.  I told myself, ‘I am fighting to survive.  Eliminate Kilver, and I will be able to make my way in this world again.’  It was at that moment, that I turned into the emotionless person that I am now.

“I stood up and told him, ‘I am glad we both agree on that, for you have now justified what I am about to do.’  And I then pulled out my Plasmatic-Laser gun and fired a lethal shot right at his heart.  I knew that nothing could justify what I had done, and maybe I just need to tell myself that everyday, but not anymore.  The look on his face, when he died, was a look of shock and even a look of disbelief.  I remember clearly, walking out of the house, with no emotion.  I remember staying in that town for a day, just to read about what had happened in the ElectroPaper.  How they told about how a man had died and left his wife alone to raise his daughter, but no one knew who killed him.  People immediately suspected the organization for killing him, as everyone knew he was on their trail, but, after a while, no one cared anymore.

“And so I realized this very truth, that every man has his price.  His limit.  They may not like what they do for a living, but they feel forced to, so they can make a living on this rock called Earth.

*****

“And that is my story.  Of how I became the emotionless person that sits before you.  Of how I became the person who can get the job done for you.

The silence seemed like hours, but was only seconds until he said, “A storyteller you are not.  If you have said that story to every person who has ever hired you, I am surprised you have ever gotten employed.”

“I admit it it not my best telling of the story, but I swear, on my life, that every aspect of the story is true.”  I, of course, had left out certain parts of the story.  How I became an emotional person afterwards, and even went to his funeral.  I had even had some very extreme thoughts of taking my own life, as I could no longer live with myself afterwards, but I knew if I said that, Brian would throw me out of the building.

“Alright, you are hired for 10000 Digits.  No more.  No less.  You are to accomplish a simple “Bring Back Alive” mission for me.”

“Who is the target?”  I asked.

“Here,” he brought up a screen on the desk which showed details of a person along with pictures.

“John Newman?  Who is that?” I asked.

“Professor John Michael Newman.  He is a teacher at the University of History, right here in New York.”

To be continued...

END NOTES

If the ending confuses you, rest assured, it will be revealed.  This is just part of a larger storyline.  The story is told in the series “The Future Historical Records,”  which will be published in 2016.