CHAPTER 11

Dear diary,

      Sometimes I wonder how it would be if life were normal. I would have had normal parents, would have finished high school and college, would have gotten a job and then..... What's the point here anyway? I'm here now, may be some parallel universe version of mine is living a life like the couple billion of normal people on earth. I gotta do what I gotta do, isn't it? *wink.

I'm not a pervert though.

      Love, Sam.

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"What on earth are you doing with the city map?"

Samantha snapped her head up to meet a frowny Avery. She knew, seeing her with the city map is as rare as bird poop dropping on the head while walking.

"Nothing much, just checking out other places here. I was hoping if we could start a delivery service."

"Yeah, it's not a bad idea." She thought by herself for a while. "In fact, it's a brilliant one Sam! Now we can gain some extra money from lazy people! But who's gonna break Stevens' nose if he disagrees?"

She never expected a random brain fart to get Avery's attention this much. Samantha was proud to utter 'that would be me' inside her head when a customer entered the bakery.

"Welcome to Camille's! What can I get you?"

Being the cashier there, Samantha didn't pay much attention to what the obese teenager would increase his rate of heart failure with, rather her mind turned back to the vast network of streets in Las Vegas.

There has to be some connection between the marked areas the Black Pegasus has chosen to be their hot spots. She has checked for a common place from where the spots would be of same distance, only to find out an open space for fairs and school carnivals; she has looked for buildings and blocks nearby the spots only to discover the localities she has imagined happy people roaming by; also, she has double checked the places to find out any escape route out of the country, or at least out of the sin city - All of that based on just an assumption - dead end everywhere.

There is a huge possibility that the places marked were all false information. It's no doubt that Atticus has a great underground network who are capable of finding the particular sand grain from the coast, but here he submitted the task to his prized soldiers. If not anything, the Black Pegasus is probably the only organization that is capable of rivalry in secrecy and efficiency with the Eirineftis.

Samantha remembered what Gustavo said that day at the base. Drug dealing, organ trafficking and natural resources smuggling - if these three are the main actions they are going with, it shouldn't be a very tough job to arrest that. If only they try to look at things from a different angle....

Then again, one question was burning inside her head - why are they trying to steal people from the Eirineftis? And who in their sane mind are accepting that? Has money making become more important than protecting the society?

Samantha laughed inwardly at her own lines of thoughts. Who is she kidding anything? This is a planet where brothers kill one another for property. At times, she also thinks that it might not be the same in her case too, may be she's also doing everything just because she likes violence; with no sympathy for people whatsoever, especially for people like her five foster parents of her previous life.

At least she didn't hope that their own people will betray them like that. And what's the point? They were eliminated anyway.

With an annoyed groan, she flipped the paper close and attended towards the cashbook.

She would talk to Gustavo about it. Only he has the guts to approach a different way than what their leader has told them to.

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It was not Samantha's idea to shout their lungs out and threat him with resigning when Stevens denied the delivery proposal with one sweep.

"I mean seriously! That fucking son of a bitch! Isn't he the one who lectures us about customer satisfaction and spreading the confectionery's name and all.... You know what fuck him! ANOTHER ONE HERE!"

The bartender almost jumped and dropped the bottle when Avery banged her glass of shots on the table.

"Is she okay?" He asked innocently.

"Leave the bottle here or I'm gonna hit you! And I'm gonna like it!" Avery gulped the liquor and cringed at the bitterness.

"Sorry about that!" Samantha said nonchalantly.

"No worries! My bar's capable of handling more that just hiccups!"

"Guys, we need to do something about it! We own the confectionery as much as he own it! We have every right to make some changes! And what's the big deal with hiring some new employees? We will be there to cook and they'll deliver it!"

"And who'll pay them?"

"Doesn't that asshole understand? It's a fantastic way to earn some extra money! I already have some new recipe popping up inside my head but no one care! No one has the guts to make revolution!"

"Chill the F out Aves, get yourself a second hand laptop. It works the same!"

"Coming from someone who already has one!"

"It's broken!"

"Whatever!"

Samantha was not in her sarcastic mood today. With the whole Black Pegasus thing going on, she was also moving her eyes around the bar with an inconsistent hope of catching the glimpse of a certain individual. She had no idea why she was thinking about that nameless stranger now, almost feeling funny about it and then Jill said something that turned the funny feeling into embarrassment.

"Who're you looking for?"

"What?" She almost snapped back.

"Oh my gosh! Is this what I'm thinking?"

"What are you talking about?" Samantha hid her heated cheeks behind the glass of scotch.

"Hey, Joves! Have you seen a handsome man in suits crashing in here recently? Blue eyes, shoulder length brown hair, blade jawline?"

Boy O boy, those details. Can anything slip past these girls?

"Not that I remember, suit and tie are not very common in here." He replied cleaning the glasses.

"You guys are insane." Samantha said in a monotone. "It was a one time thing! I mean, what's the fuss?"

If only.

"You're rambling! O goodness, I'm going to explode!"

"Shut up morons! Joves! A scotch here!"

"Coming right up!"

Before Avery and Jill could pull her ponies anymore, the news channel drew her attention.

".... news are coming from all over the hospitals around. Viable organs are being taken out from patients in coma from under the security system of the hospitals and the strangest thing is that there is no record of anyone operating or attesting the organ harvest in the hospital records. It is highly suspected that people inside are involved in the act of organ robbery. The families of the patients have filed complain against the hospitals and the gravity of the situation is increasing every day. If this goes on, question will be raised about the safety of lives in the hands of doctors in the.... "

"Fucking son of a bitch!" Samantha couldn't help but exclaim in excitement.

"This is nuts! It's not anything we've seen before! Organ stealing! Wooooooooh!" Avery screamed in her drunk voice.

A couple of thoughts rapidly passed through Samantha's head as she finished her drink with very stable hands, contrasting to what was going on inside her mind right now. She needs to get out of here as soon as she can and send a message to Gustavo.

"Guys, I should get going."

"Why now? We've just started!"

"Actually I need to pick up my cousin from the station."

"Ohh, is it 'that' cousin?" Jill air quoted.

"Yeah! 'That' cousin!" Samantha gave a side smirk and dropped her share on the table, leaving Avery and Jill to wonder about 'that' mysterious cousin of hers who helps her to find an excuse to get out of situations like this.

She never believed in luck but deciding to go at Joves' against her will was not a bad call after all.

She may have found a lead.