Frank’s Office

Bling and Ian banged on Frank’s office door at the rear of the club. When the door opened a guard invited them in the dimly lit space. Seated at a desk inside, a large, middle aged man in a dark suit jumped up to greet them.

“Why, Rica? Why?” the man thundered in an Israeli accent. “Little girls like you should not dress like this, you’re too sexy!” he yelled, pointing at Rica.

Rica smiled with her hands on her hips, “Oh stop it, Frank! If I don’t walk in here cute how can I get you to do stuff for me, hee hee!” she chuckled.

Frank, the owner of the club, turned beet red as he stared at the underage Rica. He then glanced at the menacing Bling and Ian, who scowled at him.

“Aaaah, you’re learning the ways of women too early, and without nuance. But don’t worry, you’ll be as evil as the rest of your kind in no time hahaha!” Frank laughed.

“I’d say I’m already there,” she replied with a wink.

“Maybe,” Frank turned to Dan, “Hello, did you come in here with her? You do know Rica is a little girl and you cannot date her, yes?”

“Yes sir, I’m very aware of her age,” Dan replied.

“Yet you still show up to this place with her on your arm, which means you don’t know her,” said Frank with a wylie grin.

“Well, I’m learning a little at a time-”

“Time? Hahaha,” Frank and his bodyguard laughed at Dan, “What makes you think time is on your side, young man?”

Dan glanced down at Rica, who smirked at him. “Don’t look at me, this is between you and him!” she said.

He turned to answer Frank, “Well sir, consid-”

“Aaaah, I don’t care. But come here young man, let me tell you something.” Frank put his arm around Dan, “Do you see those two samurais standing next to her there?” Frank pointed at Bling and Ian, and whispered. “Now I’m telling you this for your safety, so listen. If those two men think for a second that you stepped out of line with Rica.” Frank pointed at Rica and made a slicing gesture, “Then they’ll cut your balls off and feed them to you in a soup! Hahahahahaha! Nah, I kid, I kid!”

Dan pulled away from Frank. Yeah, you’re a real funny guy.

While Frank laughed, Dan glanced back at Rica, who stood in front of her brute men, staring at Dan with an evil grin.

“Hey movie star. If you’re not Rica’s boyfriend then who the hell are you?” Frank asked.

Dan, on cue, reached out and shook Frank’s hand. “Hello Frank, my name is Dan. And I understand you have a problem with an accounting file,” Calm and cool.

Frank stepped back, “Oh? So you are the man Rica told me about! Good, because she says you’re a genius and know computers and such things, no?”

Dan smiled and looked at Rica, “Heh, it seems she flatters me, but I’ll do my best-”

“No, no, no, no best or try, or nothing like that, come, come!” Frank pulled Dan over to his desk to a laptop display. “Look at this file! What can I do?”

Dan lifted the laptop off the desk and squinted at the screen filled with jumbled numbers and patches of binary code, until he saw a pattern. And in less than five seconds, “I see. There’s an Encrypted File System placed on this spreadsheet. But fortunately these types of encryption don’t stick to files, and can be removed, sir.” He placed the laptop back on the desk.

“Oh,” said Frank, “So this means you can fix it?”

“Yes, I can fix it.”

“Eh?” Frank bellowed and turned to Rica, “Rica? This man says he can fix the file!”

Rica smiled, “I know, that’s why I brought him here.”

While they spoke Dan reached in his pocket and pulled out a thumb drive and displayed it to Frank. He inserted the drive into Frank’s laptop, and after a few minutes of coding he typed in a set of command prompts, and pressed enter.

Within seconds Frank’s accounting file appeared un-jumbled on the screen.

“Oh!” yelped Frank at Dan, “You did that in less than five minutes!”

“Yes sir, I did.”

“This is amazing,” said Frank, “So listen, I am sure Rica gave you the ten thousand to come here, and now I will give you another fifteen-”

“Twenty five,” said Dan.

“Excuse me?” Frank growled back and glared at Dan, “Now I was clear with Rica, I will pay fifteen-”

“Yes you were, and she was clear with me. But my price to fix your file is twenty five thousand,” Dan said.

Frank stopped smiling and balled his fists, “Why should I pay you this much money?” he snarled.

“Because what I did was worth it. And if you don’t think so,” Dan pressed enter again on the laptop. The file immediately re-encrypted itself. “You can hire someone else.”

Frank glared at Dan, and turned to Rica, “Rica, this man either has no fucking clue who I am, or big balls. So who the hell is he?” asked Frank.

She just smiled. “He’s Mr. Capra. And he’s amazing, isn’t he?” said Rica, staring at Dan, “So Frank, just give him the money he wants to fix your file, or don’t. It’s that simple.”

Frank turned back to Dan and took a deep breath,“Ok, ok! You are amazing guy, I give you the money.” He gestured to his bodyguard, “Baba, break him off thirty five from the safe.”

Thirty five? Dan’s eyes widened. “Mr. Frank, twenty five is fine-”

“Oh no, no, Mr. Dan. You see, in your macho display to up your price just now, you showed me that you are a genius with these computers, and so, I am giving you another ten thousand to do something else for me.”

Dan glanced at Rica and back to Frank, “Um, what else do you need?”

Frank wore a sinister smile. “Ah, Mr. Dan, the person who encrypted this file, my former accountant is, how do you say? No longer with us. And I fear I need to have this accounting file audited to make sure things are where they should be, do you understand?”

“Oh, I’m not sure-”

Before Dan could finish, Baba the bodyguard returned with a manilla envelope stuffed with thirty five thousand in cash. Dan took the envelope and felt the contents. Well, that’s lovely.

“You were saying you were not sure, Dan? No?” asked Frank.

“Oh, I-”

“Say yes, Mr. Capra,” Rica hissed, “The music is playing outside and I want to dance.”

As she spoke Bling and Ian stared at Dan with shit-eating grins.

“Say yes, Dan,” growled Ian.

Dan paused for a moment. I guess I put myself on the spot. Oh well, for this much money, what’s the worst that can happen?

Dan smiled, and shook Frank’s hand. “I’ll audit your file, sir.”

Frank smiled ear to ear, “Excellent, Mr. Dan!”

Chasing Time

After a few minutes talking business, Dan, Rica, and the gang all left Frank’s office stepping out to the pumping music. Under the flashing club lights, Dan lowered his head in thought.

I just made forty five grand tonight. Wow! That means I can get the education charity star-

“Hey!” shouted Rica, “This is my song!”

When Dan raised his head to answer, Rica, Bling, and Ian were already boogieing away to the track. In fact the whole club hit the dance floor. Dan felt left out, but Rica waved him over to her.

“Hey Mr. Capra, I want somebody who can take it apart!” she said while grinding against Dan.

Dan sheepishly got into the groove with her, but didn’t understand what she said, “I’m sorry what did you say?” he asked her.

“I said, stitch me back together and make me into who I wanna be!” she yelled.

“Um, I’m really not following you-”

Rica whipped her long hair, and pulled Dan’s face close to hers, and whispered, “Cause I’m born to dance in the moonlight, Dan!”

At that moment the song’s bass dropped, and the club patrons went wild on the dance floor.

Ohhhh! She’s singing the song lyrics!

Dan finally understood Rica, But now she held Dan close, and gyrated with him, hip to hip, dancing, touching him, and not letting him go.

..And he let her

….