A brown UPS truck hissed up to the loading dock and stopped. The driver got out and waved to Spider on his way around the truck. Spider nodded to him, then took the cigarette out of his mouth. "Hey Jim, you got anything for me today?"

Jim stuck his head out of the back of the truck, "You expecting something?"

"Yeah," Spider was expecting some new gear, four Dell Blades.

Jim disappeared back into the truck. Spider stood where he was, smoking, his hands in his pockets. The rain was letting up a little, coming down in slow drops that splashed silver on the pavement.

Jim reappeared, climbing down out of the back of the truck. he set up his handtruck and began piling boxes on it. Spider noticed that the pavement in the rain acted like a mirror, and Jim seemed to be suspended in space, held in place by an upside-down Jim moving in perfect synchrony with him. As he placed each cardboard box the tower of boxes grew taller at the top and at the bottom both. Ah. The Dells were here. Spider watched as Jim stacked the cartons. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Six Dells was two Dells too many. Nobody at ZDI ordered any computer that wasn't cleared by Spider, nevermind a server. He flicked his cigarette into the gutter and coughed twice, a deep racking cough. Spider's mouth worked and he spit a thick huck in a low trajectory. It was white and yellow, and laced with bright red.

He turned and swiped his card at the door. It clicked and he went in to look at the paperwork.

Where in the hell was he going to get two grand in two days? Spider was worried.



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