Moral Degeneration

Back in my old life I was a mercenary. Most military personnel hated mercs. Mercs didn’t follow a lot of rules the military had, didn’t have to deal with the chain of command, usually had a worse drug problem, and got paid about 10 times as much for the same kind of work. Go extract this person, provide protection for that group, see if you can’t get me this guys head while you’re at it. 

 

When you start out your commanding officer had the plan and you followed it to the letter. It wasn’t long until my superiors noticed I was good at improvising. Not the, hey there is a shortcut this way sort of improvising, I tried to stay away from shortcuts. I was better at the more important aspect. If there were 8 people in the security detail I targeted instead of 4, I didn’t panic and did what needed doing. 

 

It wasn’t too long until I was the superior officer. I found out fairly quickly that all the plans I had followed were improvised as well. They didn’t have programs where they could punch in numbers and they were given the most optimal plan. Plans were often made on the fly, and improvisation was the name of the game. So I did. There were mistakes. I knew of mistakes I made and readjusted my plans to make up for them in the future. There was always the human aspect though. 

 

Errors were constant. You couldn’t plan for everything. I learned not to sweat the small stuff. If one plan didn’t work, it was onto the next, then the next. That’s why you had a team that you worked well with. People that could adapt to the ever changing scenario and world. And for once in a long time it felt like I was part of a team again. 

 

Taking off my black suit jacket I rolled up my sleeves. “What are you doing?” Penny asked. 

 

“Women find this sexy,” I assured her. Though I wasn’t bulky with muscle, my forearm writhed with thin strands of muscle as I flexed my hand. “Most of these guys are wearing suits. I need to stand out.” We were the only people left in the waiting room. The last bull out of the pen. I was doing catchup so I had to up my game. 

“Remember the plan,” I said. “Sip your drinks. Mingle. I’ll signal you if I need you. An easy method to remember is everytime you sip your drink you look at me. That will give me time to signal you if I need it so you don’t have to keep looking over at me.” 

 

“You’re giving me chills,” Penny said, her shoulders and chest shaking as we stared at the door. “I feel like I’m on some spy mission.”

“We are on a spy mission,” I reminded. “Our goal is to find and seduce one of about 10 women whose faces I’ve memorized. If one of the guys is already talking to them, or swoops in, our goal is to steal her. I might have to go home with her or something, so you’ll need to catch a cab.”

“Ugh, we slept too much today,” Luna said. “I’m not even tired. And we are supposed to be on vacation.”

The woman by the door still hadn’t come over to us. We had some time since the last guy was recently called. “It is your vacation. What do you want to do?” 

“I don’t know? Something crazy,” Luna said. 

“This could take all night,” I said, thinking. “I do know of this drug den near here. I befriended the lady that runs it if you want to go smoke some weed or something.”

The girls were silent next to me. I turned to Penny then Luna, both had a shocked look. “What?” 

“Smoke weed? Seriously?” Penny asked. 

“Yeah,” I said with a shrug. “What? Some people do it for fun.” I was from a time when almost a quarter of the US states had legalized marijuana. 

 

“I’ve never smoked weed,” Luna whispered. “Isn’t it…illegal?” 

“I mean yeah, technically,” I said. “You don’t have to. Just an idea. Not really my cup of tea but not much you can do at night anyway. Unless you want to hit a club, but who knows when this will end?”

The girls shared another look. Penny shrugged. “I’m game if you’re game.”

“Okay,” Luna said giggling. “Where is this place?”

“I’ll call her later,” I said as the assistant walked up. The woman with glasses on still had her clipboard and had been running in and out of the waiting room as she got calls on her radio. 

“Sorry about that. Super busy tonight. Apparently there’s a merger going on between a couple of big firms. Lots of women out there. Orlin told me about your deal.” She pulled a sheet from her clipboard and read it outloud in a rush. “Uh if you need help from security order the Old Tradition drink. I’m not sure what you’re used to in other countries. Here, eye contact is big. Breath mints and deodorant are a must. Be sure to grab your own, don’t trust anything the women give you. Protection is available here.” She pointed to a box of condoms at one of the tables. Then a stack of Altoids and line of deodorant by the door. I’d be offended but she wasn’t wrong, Europeans were different and the hygiene changed by the country. 

 

“But remember that’s a VIP Room sort of thing. New guys aren’t the best at pushing for it, so be sure you do since that’s where the real money is. You’re more than welcome to come back here and take a break. But with so many people we need as many out there as possible. There’s a light above this door, if it’s on, that means too many guys are in here and you’ll have to wait. Today is Tuesday so push the tequila since there’s a deal. We also have a birthday serenade where some girls pay extra to have all the guys at her table. I doubt that will happen, but it’s easy to spot and if you see a bunch of guys walking over to a table just do what they do. Do you need a script or anything?”

“Script?” I asked. 

“Yeah, new guys aren’t the best at talking to girls. We have a few topics to touch on listed here,” she said pulling out a small book. There were a lot of topics inside but it didn’t need to be a book. I guessed it was made that way to make the guys look smart if they were reading it out on the floor. 

“I’m good,” I said. 

“Good. We try to track who is drinking with who. But we really don’t start charging the clients until you get them to a table where you’re sitting down. So mingle with the girls, lure them to a table, alright?” I nodded. “Uhhh girls,” she said, turning to Penny and Luna. “I know it’s your first time here at least. If you’re comfortable with it, I recommend staying with Rory at the start, but once someone approaches, make yourself scarce. The other women will be mingling at tables, and of course drinks are free. Any questions?” 

 

“I don’t have any,” I said, surprised by how nervous I was. I thought I watched a documentary of the same sort of club like this in Japan in my last life, but kind of thought they were a joke. They made more sense in this world. 

“Nope,” Penny and Luna said. I could hear the nervousness in their voice. I couldn’t help but put on a smile. This is what I loved about my work. Doing something new and exciting. If this failed? Who cares? I’d try something else, go to my plan B. This right here would give me first hand look at another part of the world I had no idea about. Supposedly these sorts of places would be all over the world. If I had to do it again I’d have actual experience, can plan better, and was a great learning opportunity. Nothing was ever a failure, just another opportunity to improvise a win. 

“Good,” the woman said. She turned and opened the door. I grabbed a tin of mints and walked out to a dark and loud club. Compared to earlier the club was darker and colder. Only a few degrees, but it was noticeable. They didn’t want people to get hot and heavy in this area, they wanted that in the VIP room. 

 

My sleeves rolled up I studied the room around me as Luna and Penny stopped at my sides. Men were sitting at tables, laughing and talking to women in business suits and dresses. Most all of the men were paired off with a few older women. The clients were of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some fat, others thin, black, white, Asian, old, and young alike. 

 

As I studied the women trying to identify if they were my target I classified them fairly easily. There really were a lot of corporate ladies. I guessed at least 30. You could tell who they were by the clothes they wore, and general stance. There were also a lot of rich women there though. Trust fund girls, or much older women that had made their fortune and were living it up. 

 

I didn’t see anyone I recognized from the Hodgins website of executives, but the night was still young at only 9PM. After scanning the women I studied the men. They were in their element, most at least. It was easy to see who was green or uncomfortable around the women. They’d lean away slightly, or keep their drinks far away from the women. The more experienced were who I watched. 

Some had their own style. Their mouths wide as they talked over the moderately loud music. Others were listening intently. Their eyes always darting for someone to target next, seeing everyone as a dollar sign. I chewed my lip as I thought quickly. 

 

“Change of plan,” I said to the girls. 

“We had a plan?” Luna asked, her voice cracking. 

“Nope, but we do now,” I said. “You’re my pimps.”

“Pimps? Do I get to slap you around?” Penny asked as she perked up. 

 

“Maybe, we will see,” I said. “Instead of grabbing one or 2 like these idiots, I want to get all of the women. We will be casting out a wide net. I’ll converse with the women. You drag them all in. We stick to standing. We don’t need the money anyway. That big table in the corner, I want to fill that.” I pointed to a very large booth in the corner that could fit about 20 people. 

 

All the guys there were trying to focus on one woman at a time. Some were skilled to keep the conversation going with 2. The trick I’ve found in this world was to do the opposite of what most all the men were doing. If they took 1, I wanted 10. I’d gotten plenty of experience at parties lately. Granted they were high school and college girls, but women never changed. The corporate world was always full of drama like high school. I had to feed off that mentality. Yes these women were older, richer, and probably had more experience with men. But none had met me. 

 

“And how are we pimps in this regard?” Luna asked. 

 

“You are the hostesses. The gatekeepers to the rare commodity, me. We don’t want me getting locked into a VIP room with someone that isn’t my target. I need you to treat me like a tool. I can’t sit or stand next to a girl too long or she might want to go elsewhere. We need the party always moving. Always talking, and to do shit that these men are too scared to do.” 

 

“Oooooh, I’m liking this,” Penny said. “Like the first night at the Club?”

“Maybe, what was different about that?” 

“You sat in the lion’s den and talked a line of women to make out with you,” she said. “It was brilliant. Quite the bonding moment for all of us.” 

“Seriously?” Luna asked. “Everyone?” 

“Pretty much,” Penny said. “Most of us had never really talked to a man but Ru-Rory was there offering his lap to sit on and it kind of escalated.” 

 

“Why am I not surprised?” Luna asked. “Fine, how do we do this?”

I was about to answer but Penny cut me off. “Don’t worry about it. Just follow my lead. Russ, go to that table, put on the foreign charm and buy them all a drink.” 

“Buy them a-” I stopped myself. I did say we had to do the opposite of these guys. “On it.” I walked over to a table with 3 standing women. They had been eyeing us so their group opened right up for us. “Hello loves, I’m from out of town,” I said in my most mild English accent. I didn’t know the current lingo, but neither did they. In the loud bar I didn’t want them questioning what I said so I annunciated each word so they could understand me too. “I’m not quite sure how dey do it here, but I’d love to buy you lovely ladies a drink.”

“Buy us a drink?” One of the women asked, surprised. “Uh-” 

“How about we buy you a drink?” One asked. 

“Oh no, first ones on me,” I said, waving a waitress over. “I get to pick what you drink. What is that, whiskey? Ah a woman after me own heart.” I had slipped into an Irish accent and had to reign it in. “But no, if we are ta have fun, you gotta have a fun drink. 4 mimosas please.” 

“Mimosa? What is this? Brunch?” An older woman joked as the waitress ran off. 

“Brunch? Mimosa has champagne darling. You can’t put a time on that. Obviously you American girls could use a little foreign influence if the boys here let you drink the hard stuff right off the bat.”

“And-what are you English? They drink mimosas at night?”

“We drink at all hours of the day. Who cares what it is as long as it tastes good,” I said giving her a drink. “Now how-”

“Rory,” Luna said. “Make room this is Winny. She wanted a drink too.”

“Oh well make that 5!” I yelled at the waitress and stepped away from the table. Winny was an older woman, obviously a little lost by being dragged over by Luna, but she had a smile on her face as she was placed next to me. “Sorry girls, I forgot to introduce meself. I am Rory. If you couldn’t tell, I’m new in town.”