The Office was open. Yet again. Hopefully they’d be able to get some work done, with rent fast approaching. Just one or two good jobs would do it. Yes, sure, he had the money he was loaned to start up, he was sitting on a pretty good sum. But he wanted to get use to setting a goal for himself in the event that he ran out of that money.

  Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it, after all.

  There were three types of contracts that Fixer would take: There were assignments directly taken from Associations or fellow Offices. Those had yet to come in, no Associations were looking in their direction yet. The second type of job was Open Contracts. These were ones that were thrown up by the Associations, Nests, and even Syndicates, for any Office to pick up; these were the easiest for small Offices like them to pick up and therefore the most common. The last one were Contracts started by someone just walking through their front door. These happened from time to time, but usually weren’t the most profitable; there weren’t really any rich people in the Backstreets or people who had the most exciting assignments. But, if someone was in the right part of the Backstreets and the client had the money for it, it was a good option to take these.

  Emilio fiddled with a pen on his desk, staring at Heidi who sat on a folding chair in front of him. In front of them was a tower of cards, that he and Heidi were stacking up; he could put up one or two cards, she would put up some. The one who caused it to fall was going to pay for dinner tonight; that and it helped keep boredom at bay. Next to them was a full ashtray, both of them being smokers. No one had walked through the front door all day, so it looked like it was time they would be grabbing some Open Contracts. Beggars can’t be choosers after all…

  “Careful…” Heidi said, putting out her cigarette in the ashtray. “You’re putting the cards down too hard, it’s gonna fall.”

  “Come on, this is how I did it back with buddies in District 22.”

  “They must’ve not been very good at making house’s of cards.”

  “Can it.” Emilio said, ready to put down a pair of cards at the bottom of the pyramid. That was when the front door opened, the bell at the top jingling. Both Fixers looked over to see a familiar pale faced man walking in. The change in pressure, the wind from outside, and Emilio’s foot lightly nudging the desk, caused the tower of cards to collapse with an unceremonious whoosh. “Ah dammit…” He said looking at the cards, before looking back to the man. “Oh, hey, you…”

  It was the man he delivered groceries to the other day. He wore a plain green sweater, his hair had a massive bald spot that was covered by an unconvincing combover.

  “So you left the house and didn’t even get mugged on the way here.” Heidi waved; she had a particular way of having to people, only moving her hand and not her arm. Her mechanical arm making it even more obvious.

  “Y-yeah…” The man said, looking between the two Fixers. “I’m… Looking to get a job from you two.”

  “Alright, I guess you want us to deliver groceries to you on the regular?” Emilio asked. Not even sarcastically, he assumed that really was what the man was about to say. Maybe he didn’t do such a bad job last time!

  “No, no, nothing like that. I think I’m getting brave enough to leave the house on the regular.” He laughed nervously. “I’m, wondering if you two could do me a huge favor. I’m looking for someone who has gone missing.”

  People went missing every day, so it wasn’t anything special. But they weren’t about to deny the man’s request; they weren’t heartless like that.

  “Right,” Heidi said walking forward, her folding chair making a loud squeaking sound as she sat up. She pulled up another chair, putting it next to Emilio, leaving the empty one for the pale man to sit down in. “Who are you looking for?”

  The man hastily walked over, fiddling with something in his pocket, sitting down, he placed a piece of paper on the desk in front of the pair. It was… A decent drawing of a young girl, or effeminate looking man. It wasn’t too bad, they could at least recognize it as a drawing of a person, younger than the man. “It’s my little brother. He lives in the same room as me. But he went missing the days before you made that delivery. I’ve been trying to get my request to Zwei or the Seven, but they turned me down. Something about having to go through several steps before they could act on something.” He spoke with great nervousness, not maintaining eye contact for more than a second.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Ah, right…” Emilio nodded, rubbing his chin. If they were a big Office, this is where he’d say something cold, like ‘we can’t take every single missing persons case or hit job that comes through that door’ but they weren’t a big Office and even if they were, he wouldn’t turn them down. “Alright,” He reached into his desk and pulled out an official looking paper. A contract, with Runaway Office’s logo in the upper right corner. “Do you want a beer while you wait?”

  “No, no, please, my brother comes first.” he said. “I don’t even drink.”

  “Groceries too, apparently.” Heidi mumbled under her breath.

  “Heidi, be nice.” Emilio said, “Since you want us to find him right away, do you want to skip all the reading and just cut to the chase? We’re not really good at tracking people down, but we’ll see what we can do.”

  “Yes, that’d be good.” The man nodded, pulling the contract forward and writing his name on it. It was just your typical work contract. ‘We’ll work for you, you pay us, you will be reimburse if we failed,’ that sort of thing; the catch with that failure part, is that usually the failure condition was death, which in the event of that they didn’t really have to pay. The man’s name was Huey, which meant they could finally stop referring to the man and ‘the man’ or ‘the guy.’ With a signature, he pushed the contract over to them. That was another huge plus of being such a small Office, the face to face contracts were so much simpler. “I… Know where he last was, like where he said that he’d go before he disappeared. So I can take you over there.”

  “That works. But, keep this in mind, I am only saying this because it’s better to say it now than to find out later after getting your hopes up. If he went missing a few days ago, then he is probably not in the same spot he went missing. Wherever he is, it’s probably not pleasant. I’m just letting you know that, but I’m sure you’re already aware.”

  “That’s why I stay in the house most of the time, yes.” Huey nodded. “I was afraid of going out one day and getting snatched up by some Butcher or worse.”

  “Good, good,” Emilio said, “In that case, the Contract is settled. We will find your brother. If we do not find him within, say, a week, you will be reimbursed with a full refund.”

  “Your initial pay won’t be refunded though,” Heidi added with a smile, putting the house of cards back up. “We gotta charge for parts and labor.” Such a valuable contribution to the conversation, she was.

  “Yes, that.” Emilio side eyed Heidi, “However, you should know, in the event we find him dead, you won’t be reimbursed.”

  “Why is that?” Huey asked.

  “Because that is still technically ‘finding him.’” Emilio said as he signed his part of the Contract stating that he agrees to work for Huey.

  Huey hung his head low, not sure how to respond to that.

  “Don’t give him that look,” Heidi said. “Most Offices hide this sort of thing and don’t tell you the fine print. We’re just telling you how it is.”

  “No, it’s okay.” Huey looked up, “Do we go now?”

  The day was still young, a dreary cloudy day. Night wouldn’t be falling for a long time. Emilio got up. He wasn’t wearing his jacket, the Office’s uniform, so he went to grab it. “I mean, you said you know where you last saw him? Might as well.”

  Huey nooded got up, saying “By the way… I don’t have any money on me. But I have some back home. So I can’t quite make the initial payment…” he said, mumbling his words, ashamed of himself. He spent the rest of his money on food and rent.

  “Wait, what?” Emilio furrowed his brow. It wasn’t often that he got annoyed or angry, but because of the lack of payment and Huey’s constant wishy-washy attitude, he was at the end of his rope. “In that case, we can’t get to work until we receive the initial payment, we need to be compensated for our effort, you know.”

  Heidi picked up the contract and looked it over, then she realized it, her eyes widening. “Emilio… You’re an idiot.”

  “What’d I do?!” Emilio said.

  “You signed the Contract. He signed the Contract.” She said, holding it up. “You’re suppose to collect the initial payment before the second step.”

  “In other words…” The wheels were turning in Emilio’s head.

  “In other words, he has no obligation to pay the initial fee.” She walked up to him, before giving him a strong flick on the forehead; usually didn’t hurt that much, but coming from a woman with metal arms, it sure as hell stung. “Dumbass.”

  Emilio placed his hand to his forehead. Not just from the pain, but also scolding himself. Always being use to being a follower, rather than a leader, he had much to learn about this whole Operator role…