03 - And Business Is Good

<< Killing Is My Business

Protected By The Damned

Sit Down Shut Up And Pull The Trigger >>

No plan survives contact with the enemy. Especially when the enemy has capabilities you didn't know about. T'Chezz is upping the effort with the war and unleashing an unbound Demon on San Diego while Katie / Pandora and Calvin happen to be in town. However, to save Calvin, Katie is going to have to divulge more abilities that could get back to Korbin. With the special weapons taking a toll on his plans, T'Chezz finds out he isn't the only one who has new capabilities. So, he decides to increase the burn. Katie and Pandora are having to learn how to work together...and yet make sure that Korbin believes Katie isn't being taken on a ride by a Demon with centuries of guile under her belt. Join Katie and Pandora as T'Chezz starts to understand the people of Earth don't want him.

PBTD 03/1 T'Chezz and his Plan

T'Chezz was angry. Angry at the politician, who hung, spreadeagled, tortured, in Hell. T'Chezz had chosen him to perform on Earth, as a valuable plant, protecting the demon's interests. He had failed, and was being punished. T'Chezz considered Earth to be his world, and the "killers" were interfering. It was time they learned who their real master was. The politician closed his eyes a moment and when he opened them, he was back on earth, fully clothed, in no pain. Only this time, things were different. His existence and survival hinged on what came next. No more screw-ups allowed.

03/15 Demon's Report: The demon reported the incident in San Diego, telling of the unknown weapons, Katie's unknown demon, etc., T'Chezz will be sending him back immediately, at which point the demon thinks, “Maybe T’Chezz should go to Earth and get stabbed.Then we’ll see how enthusiastic he is to go back.”

Miscellaneous Items: The team liked to watch the Soaps and sports, as did Pandora, so Katie went to talk to Joshua about the business. Katie received a book, purchased on eBay, hoping it would tell her more about the 72, as she was going to have to battle one of them sometime in the future (Pandora's brother, T'Chezz), and she was looking for information that might help her in that endeavor. She wasn't sure she could trust Pandora completely, and so was trying to "hedge her bets", and be ready, with or without Pandora's help. Pandora had agreed to help in one way (as she needed to keep Katie alive). She will tell Katie if the book is wring. If correct, she won't say anything. PBTD03/2 Katie spars with Eric, who is feeling stronger now that he has been infected. Katie him that the demon will ultimately try to take him over. Eric knows better, and is not worried. Will need watching. demon isn't too big yet, so still not fighting for control. PBTD 03/3 Katie has a strong desire for Italian food, so decides to go out by herself (not interested in chicken with the team). Korbin gives her permission, and asks for a canoli in return.(Bootlegger Italian Bistro on Las Vegas Blvd. See Locations for info). As she is leaving for the restaurant, she sees Joshua get into Mamcita's little red sports car, and wants one of her own to drive, and shrugs. Dead people can't own cars. She and Pandora eat all evening, Pandora upping her metabolism when she starts to feel full. But it didn't work, as Katie was moaning the next morning, couldn't sleep, etc.

TIME OUT

03/11 Damian takes Katie to a church, showing her the type of spirituality he is comfortable with, and ask her bout her fight with the demon. Katie confesses that she had not told the whole truth, and Damian senses that she is not yet ready to do so. So he took her out to breakfast (Katy's Coffee, Imperial Beach), and they had a comfortable time together, almost like tourists on vacation. On the way back, Katie sees an occult store she wished to visit, so she drops herself off there, and will take an Uber back to the house. Katie meets Alice, the store's owner, and gives Alice her name, in case she finds anything Katie might be looking for. "I am looking for anything real or even sort of real—I have a very good nose for sniffing out good versus garbage. I just want to get enough information to fully understand some of the things in my life that have to do with the occult and some practices.” Pandora falls for the Uber driver, an refuses to accept that he is gay.

THE NEW BUSINESS

PBTD 03/1 Katie's Problem: Joshua had upped production to two knives a week, and was trying to solve problems about casting the bullets, but even with the infusion of capital from Korbin, she was going to have to start off-setting the costs, and she didn't know how to do that. PBTD 03/2 There are two knives she is going to take to Korbin, asking for his help. (He LOVES them! What kind of help? Need to cut expenses. Maybe help Joshua with ordering? Negotiating prices? Reinvesting any profits in mare materials, rather than distribution? Korbin will look at book, try to help.

PBTD 03/5 Korbin thinks that Joshua does not know how to negotiate metals prices, so asks Mamacita to show him how, by example. Has her call two companies, and get materials for 25% of what Joshua had agreed to pay. Korbin tells Mamacita she's hired, and walks out. Mamacita decides she'll get back at him, and work for him, HER way. She starts by beginning to train Joshua in negotiations. 03/6 Mamacita decides she needs some better dress for a vertical business,and for a man she thinks she has a crush on. 03/10 Mamacita stops Liza from pestering Joshua. Liza has expressed an interest in learning to forge metal, etc., do things with her hands. Mamacita tells her to not bother Joshua any more about it. 03/13. Korbin was concerned that, with more government people involved in their activities, that he had to keep the government away, or their secret weapons wouldn’t be so secret. Or theirs.

03/14 Korbin and MamacitaKorbin had just lied to more politicians about things, and was upset. Needed a breather,for everyone to understand he was chasing demons, not playing politics.Went to see what Joshua was doing, met Mamacita, tells her of his problem. She helps him with ideas of disguise, and they decide to turn it into a real whorehouse, with the house built around the forge. What politician would want to come into such a place, with cameras, etc.? A perfect disguise! “Maybe you are right,but Lord help me, I have no idea how I am going to explain this to Katie if I decide to make this happen." “You explain it as you doing what is best for your team, and for humanity,”

THE POLITICIAN

PBTD 03/4 The Demon The politician visits Alejandro, in San Ysidro, San Diego county, at his drug house. Wants to rent his house for a summoning. Alejandro likens himself to the politician. “We both give people what they want. I’m just a bit more transparent about not giving a shit about their health. You… You try to put on a sly face, but I can read right through it.” Starts to prepare - sits with demon, drags druggies into center of floor, blue dust on the floor, repeated an incantation four time, when large demon started to materialize. Not T'Chezz, but a partner. Has mission to accomplish.(See Creatures - Demons, Summoning) Demon hadn't come to Earth to chew on drug addicts. He was free to do as he wished - no one was going to take that away. 03/6 A druggie comes to Alejandro's house to buy, and finds all of the bodies and the blood the demon left. Tells the cops, cops find it's true. 03/14 Calvin and Katie surmise that the person who called the demon was from LA (because LA people hate San Diego people), and didn't want the incident to be local. Human had demon tendencies. 03/16 The politician is having had a good interview with reporters, in which he proposes tracking devices on all school buses, paid for by the government. (He has interests in the companies bidding) Suddenly he receives another mental blast from T'Chezz, telling him that there has to be another summoning that night, to let loose a small nuclear demon. Arrange it !The politician heads for Inglewood. 03/24 His name is Senator Woodruff.

CHARLOTTE GUTHRIE

PBTD 03/5 Intel: Katie and Calvin tasked with going to San Diego and interviewing Charlotte, a reporter for The Seeing Eye, an alternative newspaper (conspiracy theory paper). They publish a lot of stuff about the Damned, true or false,. Korbin wants to know what she might have heard about demon activities. Must be on-topic and careful the entire time.” “Your cover: you are a very rich couple who have come to town for business.” Kathie and Calvin land at San Diego airport, in their private jet. 03/6 Go to restaurant, Hamilton's, for beer and food. Small, but with hundreds of tap handles. Beers from all over the world, or in a bottle. They have a good meal, looking forward to Guthrie. Calvin has the Beachwood Red ale. 03/12 Katie & Calvin to stay in San Diego, meet with Guthrie, investigate, try to find out who local is who summoned demon and why. Team to return to Las Vegas. Calvin and Katie meet with Charlotte, go out for donuts. Charlotte said that she had "uncovered some seriously hidden stuff, but on the other hand, I can’t seem to get close enough to them to solidify the evidence.” Her aunt, Chloe Perry had disappeared without a trace, and she wanted to find out about the four teams she sensed existed. Calvin agreed to help find her aunt, if she would do some investigating for them. They needed her superb research abilities. Chloe was the second on the Hitmen team in the Northwest. 03/15 Charlotte is interviewing people in the area of the drug house, asking if they had seen anything. General answer was no. But one old homeless man told he had seen a black-out Mercedes arrive, with some kind of special tag. Charlotte also finds a local neighbor with a camera (thieves stealing her amazon packages) which had no information, but she got a warning to be careful. She noticed a pawn shop down the street, which had cameras out in all direction. She offered to trade her own camera for footage from theirs. 03/24 Charlotte's Report: The summoner is a Los Angeles politician, specifically a Democratic senator. He is known for his sideways politics. He gives the public what they want, as long as his hand is in that cookie jar too. His name is Senator Woodruff. Community favorite, made his way up from the slums. A real rags-to-riches story.” Calvin fulfills his side of the bargain, and lets her speak to her Aunt Chloe, after swearing her to absolute silence on pain of death of many people.

KORBIN'S NEW TOY

PBTD 03/7 Derek and Korbin start a web-search(a program of spiders) that can crawl over the internet, pulling data about paranormal comments from social media. I need to open up new avenues for tips; ways we can find these demons before they massacre hundreds of people again. I know it’s really ‘Big Brother’ of me, but I only want the paranormal activity. Is that even possible?”You want to be able to scan the system to find every conversation that seems demonic in nature and send it to us so we can decide if we need to act on it?”But it is really important that the people who can use it are very restricted. I mean very restricted. The fewer people who have the ability to use this, the less likely it is to be abused.”“Right.” Derek nodded. “Well, I would restrict access to just me and you at first.” He was getting everything into place—everything he would need to be more up to speed on the whereabouts of these demons, what they were planning, and possibly how to stop an attack before it took place. He had never thought of using technology as an ally in the fight against this terrorist, but it was turning out to be one of his greatest resources. There were aspects of the job he had that meant he had to keep secrets even from the people who were closest to him. It was exhausting, but it was necessary.

THE DEMON

03/7 Katie and Calvin, having been alerted by the local police to strange incidents, come to house, and are recognized as the "D" Squad, the Demon Squad. they discuss matters of trust. How can people trust them when they have demons inside them that could cause the carnage they see by others? They can't. And that's not wrong at all. Katie and Cavin surmise many things from the clues they had found - Whoever it was knew what this guy or demon could do, and he feared that.”“Yes. He made a fail-safe, something that would give him time to get out before the demon did.”“That means the beast started out in the circle and knew already what to do to get out and to go out into society.” That means he is an old demon, someone who knows our kind very well. Someone who didn’t need a guide, just someone to push the buttons on this end to get him in.” Someone with a very big shoe,” Katie replied, looking down in front of her.“That’s a damn big footprint for a human.”That is not a human print,” Katie pointed out, “unless our human is bigger than Shaq.”“Maybe we were wrong, the demons, or at least the stronger ones, don’t need human bodies to survive.”“Okay, but could a human capsule arrive through this process? One who had been sent to hell?”There would be no human body in hell, just its soul. “So, here we had a demon who scared the person conjuring it so much they were afraid to stay and help it enter the world, but still thought it was a good idea to do so. A full-fledged demon came through whatever portal was opened, fed, and then went into the city. Why have there been no reports about sightings yet? Why are people not completely freaking out about this?” It hasn’t shown itself yet. It is hiding and growing in strength by eating anyone that gets in its way, but it is lying low. Waiting. Waiting for US. “It knows we are hunting its kind,” she told him. “It wants to grow an army to fight us.” The demon is close, so they take off to find it, on foot. Police follow them in the cars. 03/8 Katie is faster than Calvin and the cars, so turns on her earbuds to keep in contact. Meanwhile Katie ran after the demon’s scent, getting close. Katie thinks he is on top of a six-story building, which she will climb from a service ladder on the outside. Katie find him on the roof, as he jumps off to the street, where Calvin and the cops are. Calvin must fight it with the special swords, so cops cannot help. 03/9 The team gets ready, alerted, to join Calvin and Katie. Korbin, Derek, Eric 03/9 Calvin joins in battle. Katie asks Pandora about the demon - he's just a rodent, one of her brother's flunkies, not as strong or smart. They can take him, so Katie jumps off of the building, down to Calvin, with Pandora's help. Katie lands on his shoulders just as he was taking a swing at Calvin, driving two knives into his brain. Katie pulls her sword, shoves the knife deeper into its brain, and slides down to the ground. Katie get back up on its shoulders, and pulls the knives from his head, allowing him to escape back to Hell. It's not the last they'll see of him. Pandora upset that Katie let him go. 03/10 The police are warned to NOT talk about any of this to anyone else but their staff licensed therapists, as news must NOT get out about more demon raids. Calvin wonders how soon he will be back. Pandora says a minimum of 24 hours, and he will come back as a changed demon, not the same. They need sustenance, so get doughnuts and coffee at The Donut Bar, in San Diego. Pandora loves them Almost as good as sex. Katie and Calvin go the the team's San Diego house, Katie enjoying the ocean. Korbin talks to her about what had happened. Katie lies a little, thinking to herself, "I did what I had to do!" 03/13 Korbin and the Others: Korbin calls an emergency meeting with Amy Brown , Brian Hudson and William Hunt, to tell them of the upgrade in demons they might be fighting - ones who can walk the earth without the need of human capsules, in their own bodies, needing humans only for food. And we learned that if demons at this level are fatally wounded, they go back to hell. They just disappear from our realm.”“The higher-ups have given permission for us to work with the local departments,” Korbin relayed. “Go to the chiefs of police and bring them in on our plans. It provides more back up; more cover, basically, for the fights.” The others hesitate to involve locals, will need protection themselves rather than help, but Korbin strongly advises involvement, as it’s important for us to surround ourselves with as many people as possible, Damned or not. This is not your run-of-the-mill demon. From what I’ve been told, the one Calvin and Katie faced was just three levels below one of the Seventy-Two.” They all agreed, then. 03/14 Calvin and Katie surmise that the person who called the demon was from LA (because LA people hate San .D. people), and didn't want the incident to be local. Human had demon tendencies. The Gun shop Robbery

PBTD 03/16 Katie and Calvin, on the way back from San Diego, stop in a gun shop to get information son making special ammo. They are referred to a place in Las Vegas, just as the shop was being held up. There were 5 cops there, all armed, as well as the owner, so it was not successful. But Katie noticed that one of the young robbers was possessed,a nd wanted to talk to him.

03/17Katie wants Pandora to kill it, freeing the boy. Will need Katie, a chair, and a metal trash can. Perp in the chair, Katie slipping in and out of Pandora's control, cops far enough away to be safe. Pandora reached through the kid, with Katie's hand, and pulled the demon out. heavy!. Katie pushed hm into the trash can, and broke its neck, lighting up the can, which whooshed up with a mighty roar. The demon screamed and howled in pain, going to Hell. Pandora said he wouldn't be able to come back for at least a decade. Katie shocked by the way the cops has reacted to her. “They were fucking terrified of me, Calvin. They looked at you like they pitied you for having to be in the same car as me. None of them cheered or congratulated me, or even shook my damned hand. They were absolutely, completely, and totally scared out of their fucking minds by me.” they will come around—you’ll see. They won’t be scared of you for long. Soon enough they will be begging you to show up and help them.”Finally she couldn’t take it anymore, and started to giggle. She realized in that moment that this was her life, like it or not. The pity party had to stop. Pandora starts in about the size of black men,Calvin joins in, and Katie must volunteer to do the internet research. Pandora thinks it's funny - I think that would be the best tribute to you, actually. Pandora giggled. A musical montage of your dick size search results., etc.

The Second Time Around

03/18, After Katie and Calvin choose to stop in a motel for the night, and Katie has had a long bath, and fallen asleep, Pandora wakes her up, with the message that they need to go out and fight the demon again, probably the same one they had fought in San Diego. Katie asks Pandora why she is helping, and Pandora says it's because she wants to find about all she can about her brother's plans, because when he comes there will be more at stake than just your life. He’ll take out, conservatively, everyone on the planet. Well, then let’s kick this one’s motherfucking ass and get some information out of him. Preach it, girl. Preach it! her demon responded.

03/19: Calvin calls Korbin, tells him of confrontation. Will have Eric and Damian there in two hours. Stay cool, hold off if you can until they get there. They get in the car, start to go south on the 5, as Pandora says they will be able to sense him when they get close. Misty, rainy night, thunder and lightning, but something inside her felt at home. And Katie felt the darkness in her soul. As Katie and Calvin drove along, she felt as if there was an awakening happening, an awakening that no human on Earth would survive if it weren’t for people like her and Calvin. They had to stand strong.To be there. To fight until they couldn’t fight any longer,and with their last breaths, to continue to swing their swords until death found them. And Calvin had lost his fear of death.

03/19 Katie directs Calvin to turn off the 405. There were screams coming from the Inglewood Park Cemetery. As the got out of the car, they found scores of people running around the cemetery, and sirens in the distance, rapidly approaching. “This isn’t going to stay under the radar,” Katie said, looking at Calvin. “Not our fucking problem at the moment, missy!” Calvin grunted as he pulled out a heavy satchel. “That large motherfucker ahead of us is our goddamned problem right now.” Katie stepped out from behind the truck and scanned the cemetery, tilting her head to the side. Standing even taller than last time was a very angry, very fiery demon. His eyes glowed bright red, and his hands and arms were swathed in flames. She took another step and her mouth fell open slightly. Pandora hadn't known of that affinity, and didn't want to have Kaie's body burned, so will have to think of something else.“I feel like I need to do something, but the scene is just so unreal,” Katie remarked. “Snap out of it, crazy. We need to get in there.” Calvin chuckled and ran toward the demon. Step One, get the human away from him (The demon did that, smashing him numerous times on the ground) Step Two, keep the demon in the cemetery, so he wouldn't hurt too many people. Both Katie and Calvin, went up to him, firing their guns as they went, Katie into his belly, Calvin into his head. Got his attention, but didn't hurt him much. Katie sees all of the dead bodies around, and reminds Pandora the humans FIGHT. Fuck with us at your peril,because we fucking bite back.” The demon kept lobbing headstones at them, as they dodged. They decided they couldn't wait for the team, they'd have to act soon. The cops that had arrived knew of them, and were broadcasting a warning to leave Katie and Calvin alone - that they were necessary for the survival of the group. Do not fuck with these two, especially the woman. Do not piss the woman off.” Calvin's Demon :Pandora had agreed to help, so she went over to Calvin, shoved her(Katie's) hand through his chest, awakened his demon, and said “Shake a leg and help your human,or so help me I will make your life here on this plane a living hell.” 03/20 Eric and Damian are met by Sergeant Avery, who would take them to the scene. Damian calls Korbin, they will be airlifted to the scene, hope they get there in time.

Demon still throwing headstones, sculptures around, last one killing two cops and demolishing their car. Demon threatens to go after children in the neighborhood, and Katie takes out after him, with her special knife. slashing at his legs, then running back to the car. It clasped its mighty claws together and roared again, blowing Katie’s hair wildly around her face. Pandora and the Demon: The demon laughs at her, and starts to walk away, whereupon Pandora calls out to him, calling him a coward, and challenging him to fight. The demon responded to Pandora, saying that T’Chezz has put a price on my head, and since it is such a small head he doesn’t see why taking it is such a big deal.

The Team Arrives: Calvin is getting ready to enter the battle, pulling his short sword from its sheath, when he hears helicopters, and sees Damian getting ready to attack with the gun turret on the helicopter. Calvin yells at Katie to get down. The guns blaze, the demon is momentarily stopped, but gets up and throws a headstone directly at the helicopter, knocking off its tail. A rough landing ! Because it was at a low altitude, the pilot was able to land it with having it only flip over. Damian and Eric survived. Now they just had to keep going.

03/21 As Pandora said, That was some good flyin'! The demon saw that it had survived, as well, and was coming toward it wih more headstones, intending to demolish it. Katie saw its intentions, and ran forward, with her swords up. Shots hit the demon's eyes, and Katie saw Calvin firing round after round into the demon's face, keeping the demon's attention away from the helicopter until they could evacuate. The demon threw a headstone at Calvin, and one of its pieces knocked Calvin down, crushing some bones in his chest. Katie runs over, and Pandora again speaks to Calvin's demon, telling him to ship up or she would make him miserable. he did so, healing Calvin as best he could, and allowing Calvin to survive.

Calvin and Katie headed back toward the demon, firing shots to draw its attention away from the cops it was currently tormenting by the cars.Slowly she started to walk toward the demon, bobbing and weaving as she approached him with an evil smirk on her face. She was tired of being pushed around by this thing. It was time for him to step up or go the hell back where he came from.Katie start to attack the demon wherever she could reach - legs, ankle, neck, knee, the demon screaming all of the time. Pandora gets into it, taunting him with insults. Katie jumps up and stabbed the demon in his shoulder, at which point he swipes at her, sending her down onto a pile of rocks. she cannot move. The demon removes the sword, comes at her again. Katie rises, firing bullets now into his stomach. They do nothing.

03/22 Katie goes after him on last time.As they battle, Calvin comes in again, shooting, and, as the demon's skin isn't as thick and strong now, they are semi-effective, slowing him down. Katie was taken back at the heroic nature that Calvin displayed in the face of something so permanent, so finite as death. Her pride surging through every vein in her body like an uncontrollable fire. This was a new kind of intensity. A desire…no, a need to take this demon’s life. Katie needed to do it for herself, but she also needed to do it for Calvin. If he died, Calvin would see the demon go down before he did. Katie tore off all of her armor, threw down all of her weapons, and attacked the demon. She grew claws, inhuman strength, and beat him at the end, Damian threw her his cross, and she used it to burn him through, setting him on fire, ending him. And she disappeared, too. There were several explosions, clearing the fire - all was gone, including the demon. As they were taking a last look around, they saw Katie on the ground, inside a pentagon and a circle, giving the pilot the finger. all of the spotlights went out, and she could no longer be seen. Didn't like the light.

03/23 The End As the police stood watch, until they were sure everything was clear, they saw Eric and Calvin, and Damian, walking towards them through the smoke. And following them was Katie, her skin darkened from the ash and the red dissipating from her eyes. Everyone had seen what had happened, but none of them could explain why she was still alive, or what she was, exactly. They had seen the claws, the red eyes, the healing—everything—but nothing topped the ball of fire she walked out of unscathed. They left the cemetery after Damian confirmed he was the point of contact for the police until Calvin was capable of answering questions. Otherwise, the officers could and should talk to Korbin. They went back to the hotel to shower and collect Calvin and Katie’s things. After the showers and collection of their luggage the four Damned made their way back to the SUV and headed toward the airport, where the plane was ready to take them home. On the way home, they stopped for some donuts. Everyone grabbed some donuts, Katie deciding on half a dozen of her own. They all sat around the table eating; not really talking, simply being there with each other. The exhaustion was mental as well as physical. Calvin, they suspected, would need further medical treatment as soon as he got back. Katie had changed. Damian watched her as she left the shop, and stopped, talking to a homeless man sitting there. As Damian watched, Katie pulled a demon from him, gave him some money, and apparently wished him a good life. She was in her own little world, protecting these humans with everything in her—even when she was so beaten down she should have been just relaxing and regrouping. One thing he didn’t wonder, however, was if Katie was still Katie, because through the red haze he could still see her just as brightly.

3/24 Katie and Pandora talk, Katie asking her demon how she had survived. Pandora doesn't want to talk about it then, so , later. When Katie and Pandora DO talk about it, Pandora admits to helping Katie survive the fire, but was totally amazed when Katie went for the demon with no weapons. Katie explained her thinking, (read Chapter 24), and Pandora accepted it, explaining how demons fight each other. Pandora admits to one thing SHE does not understand. When Katie fought the demon, it was her claws that really killed him. But Pandora had not changed her hands.

03/25 Damian and Korbin talk . Damian knows what went on at the cemetery, and feels like he had become Katie's protector, in a way. Korbin began, "Without faith, humanity will fail. That is not a question or a maybe, it is an absolute. And I don’t necessarily mean faith in a higher being, though there is nothing wrong with that. What I am talking about is faith in people, in yourself, in the truth, and in the hard choices. Without that faith, humanity doesn’t stand a chance in the future. I just hope that my faith is not misplaced.”

Damian replied,“It isn’t, because no demon in control of a body would touch that cross, and Katie didn’t hesitate. Not for a second. She might be Damned, but she isn’t lost." “I really hope you’re correct,” he sighed. “Otherwise the humanity is as good as gone. You know that, right? “You’ve made the right choice.” Damian reached over and patted Korbin on the shoulder. “Trust me.”

Katie's Last Caper: Las Vegas, NV Mia, the owner of the club she was in, replied. Most clubs are fronts for something, whether it be for simple tax evasion or mobster activity. My club provides neither, as you know. And the service I provide , I suppose, would need a front, as it's not the most legal matter. The lady reassured Mia that she was not there for Mia, but, indeed for her service, passing over $50,00, for the papers. Mia pulled a stack of paper from the satchel. “Here are the documents for your new identity: your birth certificate, Social Security card, driver’s license with a number that is attached to the DMV in case you get pulled over, a passport where you just need to add the picture, and the credit card you requested in your new identity. They are all registered to the correct places,” Mia explained. “That is why we charge what we do. They are not fake ID documents, they are legitimate identities. Now that you have all of it you will be able to get a replacement license, buy a home, go to Brazil—whatever you wish to do,” “May I just ask one question?” Mia inquired. “Why did you want a new identity?” “I want a damned car of my own,” Katie said, as she was leaving.