The Idiot Tax

The raving agent turned back to Sasha, his eyes setting into a hard stare. "I had everything worked out. They didn't know what the fuck was going on, because the fix was put in before that IT bitch got hired. Her wimpy predecessor did what he was told. It's just too bad the idiot couldn't keep it in his pants around his boss' wife.

"The Commissioner was easy to fool. He never knew what was going on, and that bimbo of a lawyer could only snoop around. She really didn't have a clue."

Sasha spoke up then. "The one thing I never figured out was how you rigged the drawings. How did you get them to pop the numbers you wanted? Those machines are so old."

"Yeah, that was her job," he said, briefly looking at the masked figure on the floor. "She rigged the balls themselves with a magnetic device, each ball having a different code. She would pre-program which ball would move up the tube, the rest would remain in the bottom. We actually had one drawing get messed up, when the wrong ball pushed up. Anyway, we set it up so that the system would save a few number combinations from quick-pick, and after all the manual entries were tabulated, we'd slide in the winning combination ourselves."

"Slick. That still doesn't explain your involvement. Are you really in this much shit just for money?"

"Well, first off, it was for a fuck-ton of money! That and... for her..." he said, sadly. He looked up, suddenly, and a white-hot rage seemed to come over his features.

"I'm going to enjoy watching you die," he declared, raising the rifle to his shoulder again, taking aim.

"DROP IT AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" a yell came from down the hall.

Agent Ortega hesitated, then looked at Sasha with contempt, whipping around to face the voice down the hall.

Several loud clicking noises could be heard as he was tased from both the front and back. His body shook as the rifle fell from his arms, his body crumpling to the floor. He shook for at least another twenty seconds and then went still, curling into a tight ball.

Jared walked over to the masked figure still laying motionless on the floor of the room, pulling the hood off the prone intruder. Both he and Sasha weren't all that surprised to see it was Tara, the ALC stage manager. She wasn't moving, but Jared felt her neck for a pulse anyhow, just to be sure.

"She's gone," he said solemnly.

"Good riddance, she'd have killed us both," Sasha declared.

Just then, more officers poked into the room, weapons drawn, instructing them to put their hands up as well.

"Are you agent Consuela?" asked one of the uniformed officers.

"Yeah, and this is my boyfriend, Jared Stone."

After verifying their identities, they were told they could put their arms down, but not to go anywhere. Retrieving her phone from the bed, she put it back to her ear. "Boss, you still there?" she asked.

"Holy shit, Consuela. What the hell happened there?" he asked loudly enough that Jared could hear him clearly.

"Two people just tried to bust in here and kill us. One was Ortega and the other was an employee at ALC," Sasha replied.

"I'm glad I called in a favor with the Sheriff's office to have some extra patrols stay around that building," he said. "The fact that Ortega was involved makes that whole office suspect. The Director has already ordered a top-to-bottom investigation to be started immediately.

"We will get warrants out for the arrest of everyone suspected of involvement with the scheme over at the ALC, thanks to you both. After a full debrief, I think you should take that vacation you've been threatening me with."

"Gladly, Sir," she replied. "Thank you."

She disconnected the call and turned to her boyfriend. "Well, I don't know about you, but there's no way I'm going back to sleep. How about we get our shit and just go?"

"That's the best plan I've heard in a long time," Jared replied, pulling her to him in a warm embrace.

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A week later, they were enjoying the warm breeze coming in off the water. The early evening sunset had begun, casting an orange hue over the distant horizon as the sun made its descent. Jared wrapped his beautiful girlfriend in a hug from behind, enjoying the light lavender scent of shampoo in her hair. The couple had been enjoying their getaway, and each other, as often as they could manage.

Sasha let out a deep sigh, one that spoke volumes for how happy she was in her life at that moment. Jared squeezed her a little tighter, also happier than he'd ever been. He slowly loosened his grip on her, moving around to her side, lowering down onto one knee before her as she turned to face him.

"Sasha, you mean everything to me," he began, as he pulled the small velvet box from behind his back. "You are my soulmate, my other half in everything that I do. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

Tears were openly running down her cheeks as she said, "Yes! I love you, Jared, more than you could possibly know."

The beautiful agent and her nerdy boyfriend had been through hell but came out of it stronger than ever.

**********************************************************

Well, that's the end. I don't have anything else planned for this cast of characters at this time, but who knows where the future will take them. I hope you enjoyed this long story, as it took me a while to get through. I gave a little hat-tip to one of my favorite GEEK movies of my youth, HACKERS. While the activities in that movie were totally made up, it was still so cool to see a movie about a group OTHER than the "in crowd" in a normal school setting. I've always felt akin to Crash Override.

Please vote and comment if you want, and know that I usually leave all comments, even negative ones, as long as they aren't just blatant attacks against me, my editors, or other commenters.

Stay safe and take care of each other. If you see someone that looks unhappy, give them a smile. You never know just how much they might need it.

RNebular