Free The Diabolical Conspiracy by Bryan Smith Page A

proud of it.
    She removed the key from the ignition and tossed the key ring to Mike. “It’s like Nadia told you last night. Just give yourself over to this. Embrace it. You truly have no choice. And don’t think of warning your loved ones because we’ll definitely get wind of it.” She smiled and touched his knee again. “You can pick me up at six tonight.”
    “ What?”
    “ Pick me up at six. At my place. Is there a problem?”
    “ Um…” He sighed and shook his head. “No problem…so to speak…I’m just curious as to why I’m picking you up. You guys aren’t having another meeting already, are you? I couldn’t handle this shit on a nightly fucking basis, no matter what.”
    “ Relax, there won’t be a meeting for a while.” She squeezed his knee and winked at him. What the fuck? “You’re picking me up because you’re taking me to dinner. And then to a movie. My choice, of course.”
    Mike had no idea what to say to this. A real date with Marnie was the thing he had wanted most for many months. But now that it was actually happening, it was just about the last thing in the world he wanted. It was strange how the world turned sometimes. Actually, it was pretty fucked up. How in hell was he supposed to make polite dinner conversation with someone who had just threatened to murder his entire family?
    She touched his face, stroked his cheek with her fingertips. “I know what you’re thinking and you need to relax. You’re only getting what you always wanted, after all.” She leaned toward him as her hand slipped behind his neck and pressed him closer. “Now kiss me, bitch.”

     
    He kissed her.
    There was nothing else he could do. It was like she said, he had to embrace what was happening.
    The kiss became heated, unexpectedly passionate under the circumstances. She broke it off briefly at one point and searched his face, her eyes blazing with intensity. “Say you love Satan.”
    He told her what she wanted to hear.
    “ Say it like you mean it.”
    So he said it again, striving to infuse his voice with a conviction he didn’t really feel. She made him repeat it several more times.
    And each time it got easier to say.

10 .
     
    Three months later…
     
    The last call of the day came through at six minutes before quitting time. Mike knew the person on the other end of the line would be a problem caller before she even uttered a word. Three and a half long, soul-killing years on the job had honed his instincts to a sharpness that bordered on telepathy. It was very similar to the way Nadia seemed able to read the minds of conspiracy members, except along a narrower, more specialized path. He heard it in the quick little intake of breath the caller took before launching into a high-volume, barely intelligible tirade about supposedly poor customer service. The moment he heard that he knew what was coming and knew chances were strong he wouldn’t be clocking out for at least another half hour. And he was right. Of course he was. By now he knew every customer type so well he could almost recite everything they might feasibly say ahead of time. This included anticipation of inflection of voice and at which juncture in the conversation they would insert certain stock phrases, including--but certainly not limited to--all-time top-of-the-charts favorites such as “I want to speak to a manager!”, “Isn’t there anyone there higher up than you?”, “I’m reporting you to the Better Business Bureau!”, and (his personal favorite) “I’ll never do business with your company again!”
    One could only hope.
    Thirty-five hellishly tedious minutes later he was able to wrap the exchange up after offering the customer free shipping on her next order and a one-time use twenty percent discount code. He counted this as a personal victory, as he always did any time he was successfully able to avoid allowing a customer to badger him into giving them something they didn’t deserve. Because he did consider