THE FIXER

"Hello Levi," came the voice from inside the black, well kept Bentley Mulsanne. Levi smiled and answered back to the greetings with a respectful salute. Levi knew this gentleman since he was a little boy riding in the back of his fathers Impala. That was how long he had worked as a gate soldier for the infamous Edison family. He was already old with silver hair that only remained at the back of his head. He had seen many come and go but he remained at the gate. He was even offered free education so that he could actually work inside the huge company that started off as a robot toys company just to grow into a modern day high robotics company dealing with everything from prosthetics, to assistant robots, to modern day hospital equipment. EDISON ROBOTICS was not just famous for its high end products and creativity, it was famous for the help it gave to the soldiers and poor people who lost their legs or arms by fitting them with prosthetics for free or for just a low cost. That may have something to do with the fact that the family was all rich or with the fact that doing so was the only way to keep the memory of Edison Mayer alive. The man died twenty years ago when his only son was six and starting to enjoy the sweetness of life. Rumors has it that Ed was killed by jealous opponents as he was rising way too swift way to first.There were not many opponents back then but the competition was always heated. Media and police said that Ed died of an accident but close relatives and Levi knew otherwise. Back then, Levi was Ed's driver and best friend so when Levi said his bosses death was not an accident, he knew what he was saying. Since then he stayed close to the family and never left. Now Levi works on the gate of the huge company where he was the head of gate security and parking. Not that he was the most qualified guy for the task, he just happened to be the one person Mrs Ed trusted with her security and that of her company and son. That same son who Levi had saluted respectfully a minute ago as he was leaving the company heading home. The sons name was Vincent Edison but to Levi, his mother Anne Edison and aunt Dawn he was always Vinny. Dawn was Vinny mother's twin sister and the only family he knew. He had grown looking up to the two women and knowing uncle Levi as the only male who came close to them. Vinny grew up to love Robotics and it was only easy to guess that he would follow into his mothers footsteps. The family was long done with politics and they chose a life of helping whenever they could and making money every opportunity they got. They were not just influential, they were powerful and loved as well. The kind of family any one would have loved to grow up in. Every evening, the three had dinner together inside the family mansion and later Vinny would go to his own mansion on the other side of town. The twenty six years old however always seemed to be in a hurry. He was always looking on his watch and hr drove almost dangerously. That was however not all he was, he also happened to be the most private and secretive man Levi had ever seen. No one knew exactly where he lived except his family and of course Levi who was family at this point. He carried his liquor to take at home and he was either at work, at his mom's or in his house, if he ever went out, no one knew where or when. Levi only saw him twice a day, at five in the morning when he got to work, and four in the afternoon when he left work. They sometimes talked but most of the time they just exchanged a simple hello and a salute and that was it. Sometimes he was extremely happy and cheerful while other times he was just there, not happy, not sad, just there. The only other place he was ever spotted was in a charity kitchen at the other end of town where he went to volunteer. That was the place where most people went to if they needed to communicate with him. He would spend sometime helping in the kitchen and other times he would just be there telling this epic explanations about robots to kids who always made sure to be there to listen. He deed that on fridays. No one could really describe him or his personality for sure, all they knew was that Vincent was a savior. That monday afternoon however, Vinny was a bit different, he didn't seem to be in a hurry and he was not even looking at his watch with every minute that passed by. He was well composed and sober. Levi noticed it the very moment the smooth "hello" came out of the window and it was not rushed nor did it sound urgent. There was something about his voice that sounded unsettling and it reminded Levi of something dreadful. However, he smiled to the young side and saluted him as usual. He concluded that the reason why he thought Vinny was a bit different was because it was the anniversary of his fathers death. Levi remembered at that point that he needed to leave work early like he did everything twenty second day of June every year. He needed to visit his best friend at the very place where they laid him to rest. Levi locked the gate after young Vinny left before going back to his tiny gatehouse to get changed. Vinny drove slowly while tapping his fingers on the steering wheel with the beats to the soft music coming from the super sophisticated machine. He was even smiling to the words. Everyone thought he was a handsome young man but there was something about him that made me feel he was more than just that. There was this look he got when he watched news that involved murder or kidnappings. I can only describe it as a dark, cold look. The kind I had only seen in the movies and were mostly on the faces of killers. Vinny was anything but ordinary, and I very much knew there was more than the innocent look on his handsome face. He drove all the way home to his beautiful mansion which was not even guarded by humans. The house sat on a two acres piece of land surrounded by a green landscape. A few trees scattered here and there and they added to the beauty of well taken care of flower bushes. There was a huge netball court at the front of the house next to the garage and a huge swimming pool at the back where he spent most of his free time. A huge outdoor gym completed the compound. It was crazy to think he lived there all alone. He went in and parked his car next to the other seven cars and the lamborghini truck. He then got out and took his time to look outside before walking inside house. "Tecna," he called. That was the name he had given this AI he was creating. So far, Tecna was only active in the house and he spoke through the speaker outlets. He could also perform the basic tasks like opening the gate and opening gates and doors. He also was responsible for making sure the alarm system and the soft security cameras worked right. He was a million dollars worth project but Vinny had no plan to let him out to the world. In fact, he was just making him for a single purpose only, and he had not said it out yet. Inside the house, Vinny just showered and changed into more comfortable clothes which no one could really have expected to see him wear. He slipped into a pair of black sweatpants and a red tshirt. He grabbed a black hood from his gym clothes closet and a black cap. He stopped in the kitchen for a water refill and he was out. He had no problem picking the black, old fashioned but all kept Impala. He seemed to have planned the day to the very end. He lifted the boot door for a second as if he was confirming something and after he was sure, he locked it and walked in. For the first time since morning, he looked at his watch and made a little frown. He however didn't go on to driving dangerously. He put on some really old music and this time he let his head join in to the music and his mouth moved along with the music. He seemed like he was happy about something but then just as he was about to show it, a shadow of sadness overlapped the happiness. At some point, he looked over to the passengers seat and some really sweet memories took over his cloudy face. He remembered how he would sit right there years ago watching his father drive. He still remembered his voice singing to Charly Prides music. That was right about when Vinny started to sing along and even to this day he still did. He would have kept remembering but his phone rang and sent his thoughts back to the moment. "Hello, I was told you are the person to call with class three critical problem?" the voice on the other side came immediately Vinny picked up the phone. "384 code white?" he asked. No one had a clue what that meant except the two men talking and maybe those who were into whatever the language meant. "No, 384 code black," the voice answered. Vinny looked at his watch and made some funny click noise with his mouth tilted a bit. "Okey, I will check it out in three hours. Drop the details, and don't call, I am the one who will call you when the job is done." The seriousness in his voice showed just how he meant every single word he said. There was no hint of the usual Vinny on his face either. He drove for another thirty minutes before branching to the direction of the city cemetery. He drove for five more minutes and he was there. He took one look on his watch and it was a few minutes to six. "Perfect time," he said. He then went in and parked the car right by the gate before walking to his fathers grave. It seemed old but the names "Edison Mayers, Beloved husband and father," were still visible. Three bunches of fresh flowers were laid on the stone and Vinny knew exactly who they were from. They were all roses. He smiled and sat on the stone. "Red roses hah! Papa, I don't remember much but you should have at least told her you would prefer a park of dunhill cigarettes over these rosy petals any day. Anyway, I don't even r remember much about anything so I will assume you like the efforts. I brought the cigarettes but I know you don't care for them, neither do I, it is the very same park you used back then, the one I bring with me every time. I would have brought the car around but the new guy they have here is a jerk so you won't be seeing her today. I could cry a little to shoe you I still care but I just turned twenty six and I know better, o came to tell you that I am starting on that little job I told you about six years ago. I don't know how it will turn out, but I will sure as hell make it work," He said as he reached his pockets for the cigarettes. "I don't have much time as I already received my call and I also have to check on your sweet lady. I wish you this conversation was not single sided, I always wish so. Anyways, buy for now papa, I will check on you later," he said and then got up, tapped twice on the stone just as his papa used to tap him at the back, he put back the old pack of cigarettes in his pocket and walked away. He had not brought any flowers and he never intended to. Back in his car, he took out this old black covered book and opened it, it was his fathers journal and no one else knew about it. He opened at the very back page and let his fingers run through the writings which he didn't even bother to read anymore. He knew that book in and out and could recite every single word from the very first to the very last page. He had grown up reading it. No one else knew of existence and those who did thought it was lost somewhere in the history and that gave Vinny the very time and peace he had needed to grow and learn of his fathers ways. He also knew the journal was part of the reason why his father never came home for Vinny's seventh birthday party. Carefully, he returned the book to its perfect hiding place under the passengers seat where he had placed a hidden compartment just for the book and a few other things he thought would be important in his next walk of life. He started the engine and drove off to his mothers house at the other side of the city. He turned on the radio and it was about seven ten, just about the time state news were read. He was not sure he needed to listen to the news but that was a thing he had grown up with to a point it became a routine to listen to the seven pm news. "Welcome and thank you for tuning in to Gherto radio I am your host ...," the news host started and that was all he actually heard. Luisania State was one hell of a place where everything was dictated according to the government wishes. People only heard what the government wanted them to hear but they didn't actually know that since the citizens were made to believe that they lived in a free, Democratic and independent country. However, there were powerful forces leading the country from behind the curtains and they were actually the people who held the information to be given out on their palms. Only a few people like Vinny knew that and that was one of the reasons why he could not bring himself to believe in most of the things the media houses said, especially in matters concerning politics and national and international security news. The other reason why he could not get himself to concentrate was the fact that there was an oldnew thought in his head that kept on rolling and rolling. He had waited for this particular day for so long but now that it has finally dawned, he was not sure whether he was ready or not. He kept on driving as he knew the city like the back of his hand and he didn't have to think about the turns he Made. He was at the gate even though he could not actually explain how he got there. He made sure to park the car so that it was ready to go before he walked into his mom's house. By now he had lived with the two women long enough to know they had prepared some childish birthday party for him and he expected the lights would be off. However, this time he was wrong about a few things but he was right about the lights. He walked in ready to act all surprised. He called for his mom and aunt but they didn't answer. He waited for a minute but there was still no answer so he headed for the switch. He turned on the light and his heart almost stopped to the sight of over twenty people hidden I the room waiting out for him. "Happy birthday!" they all said. Just then his mom and aunt came out dressed in the same outfits and with the same make up. It took him a moment to tell them apart but by then he had known them enough to know the difference. The two sisters were like a copy of each other and it had taken Vinny years to tell them apart back when he was younger. Until his fifth birthday, he believed his mother had some super power or something and she should become two of herself whenever she wanted. "I didn't know you invited people over mother," he said with a smile as he went over to hug the ladies who were then standing right in front of him. "Yeah, it is your twenty sixth birthday son, that means I will be fifty in three months if is time I prepared you to take my seat, here, my gift is the first one," she said handing him a well wrapped box. He opened it up and inside was a level five clearance card to the company, papers that said he owned the most shares in the company and also and picture of his new office which indicated he was the co CEO of the company. He looked at the contents of the box and then at his mother and repeated it for a while. At the end he just hugged her and thanked her for trusting him that much. The whole group clapped and the party started. There was food, there were drinks and of course there was his favorite music, the cool R&B's and a little bit of country music. The party went on for a couple of hours at which point he excuse himself saying he needed to check on something and left the group to their drinks and happiness. He still had no idea why he had to celebrate his birthday on the very day his dad died. He got into his car and drove with his then usual crazy speed. His first stop was at the Gilmore City's biggest and most secure bank. You would have thought he was there to get some cash to go enjoy his birthday at some exotic club or something, but he wasn't. He didn't even walk into the bank through the front door, no, he went into the building next to the bank. A building he owned, or rather his father owned back in the day. On the ground floor, it was a huge dinner called Dixcies, the place he love to eat and get his take out from there he was well known and respected. He walked to the counter, ordered something and then walked to the back of the dinner through the door that lead to the washroom. He went to the gents washroom and opened the one that had an old sign saying it was out of service. Inside, he opened another door that no one knew of and made sure to lock it behind him. He turned on the lights and the place came to life. It was a huge place. on one side, there were books of all sizes and shaped, on the other side, there ware shelves filled with files that one couldn't quite tell what was inside of them but I would bet Vinny had gone through all of them. Then there was the wall at the far end of the room which had a few deposit boxes with numbers on them. That was the wall that divided the building from the bank. At the center, there was a desk with three computer screens, two were off but one was showing the videos from the banks deposit boxes which were right on the other side of the wall. Amongst those boxes, was the box numbers 384W, 384B, 373G and 373R. The same boxes that could be seen from Vinny's side of the building. That meant that Vinny could access the four boxes without having to go to the bank and I was sure the bank management had no idea but with the looks of it, he was not doing it illegally as rumours had it that the private bank was his mothers. It seemed the young sir was planning something big, something he planned to do from the shadows. Whatever it was, he had prepared for it in over ten years as the room would have suggested. He walked to the the boxes and opened 384B. The box had an pink envelope which he opened and took out a note. He read the note, nodded his head for a moment and then placed it on the table. In the place of the note, he put some money in the envelope and returned it into the box before locking it again. He took out a tiny piece paper from his sweatpants pocket and wrote something on it. He then took out a lighter and burnt the note before leaving the room the same way he had gone in. At the dinner, he picked up his order and paid up and off he went back to his car. He had been to his own party but he didn't eat anything. He just had a glass of celebratory champagne and slice of cake and that had been it. He didn't eat right away after getting into the car, instead, he just drove away to a night club at the seventeenth street and ate his dinner inside his car on the parking lot before going into the club almost half an hour after he was done eating. He walked in with measured steps, making sure to look around at all the people having a good time. He chose a seat at the corner and sat there as he awaited his favorite waitress. Bitsie rushed to him the very moment she saw him seat, she knew she was just about to get the biggest tip of the week and she couldn't risk someone else getting to him first. "Hello handsome, the usual?" she said with a provocative smile. He took his time to scan her from head to toe with his eyes. He noticed the red tiny cap on her head, the tiny white blouse that only went down as far as her bellybutton, the tiny red skirt, he stopped there as he noticed she was beginning to get uncomfortable. "Yes Bitsie, the usual, and would you please seat with me as I drink, it's my birthday and I don't want to be alone," he said. "I will see what I can do," she smiled and walked away just to come back a minute later with three beers. She could not drink during her shift so she just sat there with him and listened to his eyes which were the only one that seemed to speak. Every ten minutes, Vinny would check on his phone and say the time out loud so that even Bitsie heard him. Then he was quiet for another ten minutes and then he would repeat the process. Two hours later, he paid up, tipped his girl and told her goodbye as he headed out. He went straight to his car but he didn't get inside for a few more minutes. Once inside, he called his mum to wish her a good night but he ended up listening to her drunkenly talk about her life and how she missed his father. Vinny felt for her but he knew there was not much he could have done so he just listened to her mother talk until she fell asleep abd started snoring out loud. He hung up the phone after telling her he loved her even though he knew she couldn't hear him. He smiled and started the engine shortly after. He got home almost three hours later and jumped into the shower before anything else. He then took the clothes he had been wearing and cleaned them before going to bed. He was not at all drunk and that would have made anyone wonder where he had been for three hours while the drive from the bar would have just taken him at most twenty minutes. Lucky for him, there was no one to ask him as he lived all alone and Tecna wasn't complete by then. He was exhausted, more exhausted than usual and for that reason, he fell asleep almost immediately after he got to bed. All night he seemed to be having some sort of a nightmare but he never woke up from his deep sleep. The night was short and Vinny woke up still exhausted and with a piercing pain on his shoulder his head felt heavy and his eyelids were almost too heavy for him to keep open. He dragged himself to the bathroom for a morning shower before getting half dressed and hearing to the kitchen. A mug of coffee was due but not even the caffeine was strong enough to spike his strength. He picked up his phone and called in to inform his mother that he was going to be a little bit late to work but he also assured her that he was okey. He seemed to have something important to do and he was a little bit tense about it. He looked at his watch, a cold sweat broke from the top of his face. He was supposed to be up three hours ago but for some reason he didn't hear the Alarm even though the damm thing was loud enough to wake the dead. He was not sure how to proceed so he sat on the dining table trying to figure something out. For a moment he was lost in his own thoughts. From the way he bit on his fingernails, one could clearly see he was nervous about something. He got back from his thoughts and a thought to turn on the TV hit him so he reached for the remote. He turned on Channel five news. There was nothing special and his relief could be felt from across the room. Quickly, he grabbed his car keys and a shirt. It was almost seven thirty but he hoped he could make it in time. He took the Impala, something he never deed before. For all he could remember, he only drove his dads favorite car on his death anniversary which was the previous day. It was supposed to be clean, serviced and back in the garage where it would be for another year, however, I was the car he chose to drive that morning. Everything about his behavior that day was wrong. Everyone would have expected him to drive like crazy but that was not the case. The young sir was driving within the legal limit and that would have everyone asking a question but no one cared enough to. He also didn't turn on the music and he seemed tense throughout the two hours drive. He had never driven a quiet car before. He was also not a fan of the forests but he seemed to be heading into the woods. A place he always said have him the creeps. What had gotten into him? Did people just decide to change overnight and actually did so the next morning? No, he was not the kind that would change all that easily. For all everyone knew, Vinny was a creature of habit and his schedule was nothing more if not predictable, or at least he had let everyone believe so. There was always something about him that made him appear different, the fact that he behaved like someone wit obsessive compulsive disorder. He loved things done in a certain way and he would never settle for less. He would be glued to the board all day and all week all just because a certain logarithm won't work the way he needed it to. He arranged his office in a certain way and would get mad if anyone messed it up. His house was also neat and well kept and he wouldn't let anyone in because he wouldn't bare to watch that neatness messed up with. It was therefore concerning that he had broken all his daily routines just to take a hike into deep creepy woods. When he was satisfied with the distance he had planned to cover, he left the main road and started his way up the woods through the hiking routes. Ten kilometers in however, the paths narrowed so much that the car would no longer fit and he had to walk the rest of the way so he took to his heels. He was in a hurry, maybe more than usual.