R'lyeh and Angelo: Wine and chips

Angelo-

Angelo looked at the papers again, and then at R'lyeh. "We did the best we could." He said quietly. "Your information on Landwhere was accurate but my understanding of their options was limited. I failed to make us the money I hoped. Sorry."

Smiling easily, if a bit wan, Angleo tipped the bottle and poured them another round. He held up his thumb and pointer finger, just scant millimeters apart. "We were this close, my friend. This close! I felt sure they would chose...well...no use crying over spilled wine. Per the terms of our agreement we are done."

"However." He leaned forward and looked into R'lyeh's shades directly. "I do not forget my friends." He gently reached into his pocket and pulled out a small hide folded case. With his usual ease Angelo pulled out a parchment business card. One of his ever present pens appeared quickly and with a flourish that R'lyeh had seen before Angelo physically wrote on the back of the card before fanning it, flipping it over, and sliding it across the small table..

"One day times will be better for me, my friend. If we meet again, and I hope we do, you may return the card."

They drank for a while, and talked. Angelo did most of the speaking and let R'lyeh fill in as he saw fit. There was some comfort gained from a shared venture, even if it went other than planned. With time moving forward the friends moved on, as in life. R'lyeh still had the card safe, with Angelo's flowing blue script.

"IOU"

R'lyeh touched his glass to Angelo's and said: "Cheers", taking a drink, holding the wine on his palate and taking a breath, it was a good vintage. "You know there is an old saying from a Sol nation once called China, or so I have heard: if you meet someone you like, you shall meet them again. To the future my friend." What Angelo didn't know, and shouldn't know for the danger to him would increase, was that R'lyeh was not a representative of Helbvedev Armaments; Angelo was most likely wise enough not to ask either if he had his doubts, some things are better not known. The deal was broken to begin with, the odds fixed by the service, when R'lyeh uploaded the transaction to the commerce central processing center, his ID had a key for a Trojan buried in the system. For what R'lyeh didn't know, like a bishop moved on a board for a future stroke, his was just to be there. The trojan did it's work, and as R'lyeh left the starport, the RFID in his passport not only identified himself to the security, but through all the datastreams flying through the air took information. Like some ancient coded morse, a bit here and a byte there missing, made the dots and dashes in the solid datastream broadcast, only miliseconds passed to get what it needed, the trojan went for a self delete. Like an expert plastic surgeon, a virtual nip here and tuck there, attaching itself to the front of an innocuous program on the data roundabout, it swept it's trace clean, the last to change the registry on R'lyeh's ID. R'lyeh smoothly handed the data over to the Roomba checking ID on his flight, and who would have known the card entered in the slot was different than that which was spat out? Officially now, R'lyeh had never been there, no trace left in his passing and without even the knowledge of what it all had been for; later on the promenade he turned Angelo's card over between his thumb and forefinger looking at the flowing script. "We shall meet again, my friend." He silently toasted to Angelo in the reflection of the stars through the viewscreen.