The Darkness

36

As soon as Morgan Isaacs got off the subway to head home, his cell phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, but picked it up anyway, figuring after all the money he and Theo made that day everything in his life was taking a turn for the better.

He couldn’t believe how well this new drug, these small black rocks called the Darkness, were selling. It seemed every customer had either bought recently and needed a refill, or heard about it from a friend and wanted a go. It thrilled Morgan to no end that he was carrying a product that was so desired. It made him feel powerful again, for the first time since everything was snatched from him so unfairly.

To Morgan, he wouldn’t trade that feeling away for anything. And he would do anything to make sure it never left him.

The sun was beginning to descend, and the Manhattan skyline looked a gorgeous dark blue in the evening sky.

For months, Morgan wondered how long he would be able to look at that view, if his lack of employment would force him to relocate, take some job outside the city where he’d be a nobody, a nothing, working for a company that the Wall Street Journal barely knew existed, a company whose CEO wore a cowboy hat rather than a three-piece suit. Where the offices were decorated with shag carpeting and the secretaries were all fifty and overweight.

That was a world Morgan refused to live in.

So he took in the crisp air, and remembered why he fell in love with this city in the first place. And he thanked his benefactors for giving him the chance to stay.

“Hello?” he said.

“Morgan, it’s Chester.”

“Oh, hey, what’s up?”

“Just wanted to let you know I talked to Leonard, and he told me you and Goggins cleared almost twenty grand today. That’s quite a haul.”

Morgan smiled. He was well aware of how much money they were bringing in, but he’d learned one thing in business and that was never to brag to your boss about how well you were doing. At the end of the month, when all the receipts were tallied up, you’d get all the praise you needed. Braggarts were so nineties.

So to hear this from Chester during his first week of work, to Morgan that was all the praise he’d need for a month.

“I know you haven’t received a paycheck yet,” Chester said, “but you deserve a bonus.”

Morgan’s jaw dropped. He stopped walking and leaned up against a mailbox. Then he had to move when a man asked him to move so he could deposit a letter.

“I…I don’t know what to say… Thanks, I guess.”

“You’ve earned it,” Chester said. “But you will need to do one thing for me.”

“Anything.”

“I’m glad to hear that. And if you do this for me, you’ll get a hundred grand on the spot. I’ll need you to sign one piece of paper, for tax purposes, but you’ll have six figures to play with by the time you’re hungry for dinner tonight.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Yes, I’m kidding you. In fact, we never want to see you again. Goodbye, Morgan.”

“Wait! I was kidding, too!”

“I know, stupid. Be on the corner of Thirteenth and

Avenue A in half an hour.”

“I’ll be there.”

“One more thing, Morgan.”

“What’s up?”

“Do you like the suit you’re wearing?”

“I guess so. It was one of the first ones I bought when

I got my job in banking.”

“Too bad. Because you’re never going to wear it again after today.”