A worthy life is a working life.
Augustine's fingers stopped cold on the keyboard. Her father's words had infiltrated her thoughts as she sat at the computer working on her code. She'd paid for a half hour. That was all she needed to finish her exploit. It was barely coming in under the wire, but with this job she'd decided to be extra careful considering how important the factories were to the ghetto. Augustine had chosen to do the coding in small half hour bits every other day or so, meticulously planned out so that the work would be ready. She didn't want to draw anyone's suspicion to her activities if security got involved. And they would the second someone in management caught a whiff of the workers' dissatisfaction.
Her heart beat hard, and she took a second to rub at her chest. When she was little, her father had enjoyed his work for the most part. Her parents weren't rich, but it'd been a good life, secure and safe. But that had changed when corporate security became involved.
Dark memories invaded her thoughts. She let out her breath and peered around the room. Most heads barely cleared the monitors as people sat fixated on their own screens with minimal division between them. Except one. A large man sat watching her from the other side of the room. One bank of computers and users sat between them, but he was large enough that he could see over them all. He was not deterred by her noticing either.
A shock traveled up her arm. She had to fight to hold still and no allow her guilt to show. Augustine turned back to her work, saving it before removing the drive from the computer and stuffing it into her hoodie. Augustine took a breath and let it out slowly. It wasn't good to be seen by anyone in the slums, but she had an especially bad feeling about this one. Unfortunately, she stood out even in the slums. With her light brown eyes, almost golden and edged with green, her tanned skin with the dark freckles on her face, and her fuzzy hair, she would be much too easy to pick out of a crowd. He'd be able to find her just by asking around. She had to get away, and she had to be quick about it.
She bit at her inside cheek hard, her chipped front teeth sharply poking at her lip as she pressed them together tightly. Augustine couldn't bet on being able to run away from him. She didn't have the energy for it, plus he looked massive. He would outrun her easily.
Calmly, Augustine rose from her station and headed to the front door. It was her best bet to get outside as she didn't know if the building had any other exits- a massive oversight on her part. Her legs wobbled as she made her way to the front door and out onto the dingy street. Darkness had fallen, but with the last of the day's light she could just barely see. Quickly, she made her way into the alleyway next to the building. It had become an impromptu living space of its own for the homeless and the hopeless.
Just as she turned the corner, from her side vision she caught the movement of a large figure leaving the café. She didn't stop. Augustine hurried down the alleyway, ducking behind an overflowing dumpster and nearly tripping on the body there. With a gasp, she tried to right herself, quickly realizing that the body was dead.
From the alleyway entrance, she could hear the scuffling of footsteps. Her panic rising, she did the only thing she could think to do and burrowed herself into the blankets under the old, dead man. He wasn't warm, but he wasn't stiff either, so she moved him to lay over her and she flattened herself behind him. She was tiny so she hoped that it was enough. Being so close to the dead, the odor made her tear up. She couldn't gag even though the scent of his final shit was deep in her nose and she may have laid down in it. She made sure his blankets covered her then tried to pretend to be part of them.
With the blankets over her head, sounds were muffled, but she could still hear the footsteps drawing nearer and poking around the garbage can. As the steps got close, she held her breath and prayed.
"Are you here?" The man's voice called hesitantly. "I am not here to harm you."
Augustine tried to stay as still as the body over her while her heart raced. He seemed to be speaking to her, but she knew better than to trust him. A man like that likely only had two reasons to be interested in her -- either he was after her because she looked as if she might entertain him for a while or he was corporate security.
Closing her eyes tightly, her lungs burning from the offensive scents and her slowed breaths, she felt the body over her move before being dropped back on top of her. She refused to give up her position. The stranger moved on. Peeking out from the blanket, Augustine watched him nearing one of the smaller groups that had their own lantern out on a bucket. The outline of the man told her everything she needed to know. So tall and thick, muscular enough that his arms seemed to hang out from his sides slightly. There was no doubt that he was corporate security. She had to head out and warn her contact.
Augustine scooted out from the blankets, banking on his being blinded by his nearness to the light. For once she felt thankful that the rest of the slums was not so well lit. With a final look back, she took off out of the alleyway, her steps light until she turned the corner and then she bolted to another alleyway. Instinct told her that it was time to attempt to relocate again, but she had no idea now what she would do for her "work" now that the internet "café" would be off limits to her. He'd come looking for her again. Where would she get access to a computer now?
She hurried through the streets back to her building and headed towards the dark basement. Down below were the pods each made up of metal grating surrounding a tiny mattress and then stacked on top of one another. Augustine had lucked out and gotten one down low that she could reach easily and get into quickly. She just kept paying the daily rate to ensure her stuff was safe. Many of her neighbors also lived in theirs with all of the stuff they had collected. One person had so much stuff stashed in plastic bags that they had to sleep on top of it which didn't seem comfortable to Augustine at all.
Two skinny guys hung out in the corner watching her as she ripped off her coat and tossed it to the ground. She tried her best not to judge others too harshly when everyone was starving, but she'd come to realize that there were different sorts of hunger that her presence could fill. Desperation left people feeling powerless and angry and hurting something weaker could make the pain go away for a few hours cheaper than drugs.
She watched them carefully, hoping that all they wanted was her stinky coat. The idea of wasting it didn't sit well with her, but she wouldn't have time to wash it so if the guys wanted it, they could have it.
Augustine touched her card to the lock on the door to open it. On her bed was her hoodie, and she put that on right away followed by her backpack then she headed out to meet up with her contact and give him the bad news.
Next Chapter: The Corporate Hitman
