An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) Read Online Free Page B

their own safety zone . The pair ambled up to a small food vendor , who se face went ashen .
    “ Pagueme el seguro , ” one of the cops ordered in a no-nonsense tone.
    “I don’t speak Spanish.”
    “You spoke it well enough last week, bitch . Insurance now or we ’ll remove this unlicensed stall from the premises .”
    Sonya stood behind and watched, nibbling on some dried tomatoes from an earlier purchase .
    “I only have half,” the proprietress complained , quickly handing them a handful of small plastic bills . “Business has been off .”
    The taller of the two tongued his mic . “Dispatch, I have a forty-three sixteen, illegal merchant without a permit . Our twenty is Rose Garden Arena, grid fourteen . We are removing it now .”
    The smaller of the two Metros tossed over a huge boiling pot, spilling the contents all over the ground . Several unfed urchins scampered around , licking the bounty off the cracked floors . They scooped up chunks and put them inside their filthy clothes to eat later.
    “Please don’t!” the vendor screamed . “This is all I have ! I can’t feed my children ! ”
    “Stand aside or be destroyed with it .” Both men took up lasing weapons and aimed at the fuel source, an old propane container .
    The woman moved around to shield the tank, begging desperately. “Don’t . I can’t…”
    The first one struck her with his right fist, bowling her over onto the wet ground . Both reached for their triggers , but something stopped them . They couldn’t squeeze . Sonya closed her eyes and muttered ungrammatical Latin to herself before the two officers put away their weapons and moved on .
    No one saw anything . No one heard anything . Later that evening t he two officers would probably have a splitting headache and wonder why dispatch thought they ’d removed an illegal vendor .
    The Metros ’ own statistics showed crime at the street level — minus their own thuggery, of course — at two murders, sixteen rapes, eight robberies, sixty-four assaults , and eighty-four muggings per city block per day . Those stats vastly understated the true numbers by at least a factor of two, if not three or four , because Nil victims don’t get counted.
    Being the white knight could suck you dry doing it each and every day . For every one you saved , you lost seventy or more others . Sonya knew that being the hero didn’t change the world . It never had and it never would, but in this case it made her feel better.
    Sonya didn’t wait around. No one noticed her involvement . No one noticed her leave.
    * * *
 
    Despite his Metro-assisted excuse to skip work today , Tony couldn’t avoid one related responsibility , much as he might want to . After a quick check of the guest list , t he Kendry’s doorman, a substantial Hispanic with no obvious body modification, invited Tony in .
    “May I take your coat , Mr. Sammis?”
    “Yes, thank you .” Tony slipped off his full - length , faux mohair coat and offered it without a thought . He brushed his cobalt blue suit to smooth the wrinkles and checked his ruffled blouse .
    “If you ’d step through to the parlor , the other guests are gathering there.”
    “Thank you .” Tony wandered toward the general murmur of conversations and muted music .
    Knots of people meandered around the large , open room, breaking and reforming in the classic manner of all cocktail parties throughout history, swaying to the classical strains of Enya . The women each led a trail of fabric from their dress like the tail of some prehistoric beast , while the men, like Tony himself, straitjacketed themselves in an ancient suit called a tuxedo, all determined by the current fashionistas for this season . One of the most famous, Simon e, had decreed that dresses in the front barely cover half the thighs and carried high-necked bodices, ruch ed up tightly against the throat . The color and details on each person seemed to indicate individuality , but Tony saw only a sea