Vaguely, he wondered if the woman was still out in the hallway. He remembered her tongue from last night. How had that woman learned to do those things? She was an artist. Just thinking about the things she’d done to him made his body react. He wanted another round. Hell, he wanted a few more rounds. That was why he’d told the woman she could stay last night. Unfortunately, he’d fallen asleep after that first round and…! He sat up again, looking around for his pants. Finding them laying on the ground, he quickly rifled through the pockets, then muttered a string of curses. “That bitch!” he growled when he discovered that the large amount of cash he’d kept in his wallet was gone.
He shook his head, gritting his teeth as he wondered where the hell the woman had hidden his money! She’d been naked when he’d kicked her out a few minutes ago. And that dress…surely there hadn’t been any pockets on that dress where she could have hidden the money.
Walking over to the doorway, he yanked open the door for the third time in less than five minutes. Yeah, it was two o’clock in the morning. So what if the people had been sleeping right across the hallway from him. He’d been robbed! They could damn well wake up and bitch about the noise, for all he cared!
When Scott realized that the woman wasn’t around any longer, he muttered more expletives as he slammed the door closed. “What the hell am I supposed to do for money now?” he growled. He’d spent every penny he’d earned so far, which was quite an accomplishment since he’d earned an enormous amount from this job. But he had needs! The watch, the prostitute, new clothes, not to mention this hotel room. Scott could have saved a bit of money by leasing a rental, but he didn’t like to be tied down. He needed to be able to just head out on a whim when he needed to leave. It was easier to get out of town when one only needed to grab a backpack. Plus, he went back and forth from the capital in Skyla to the work site in Citran, ensuring that everyone was doing their job properly. Hotels were more convenient all around.
Thinking of convenience, it was better if all of his body parts remained on his body. He didn’t doubt that Neville would hunt him down and do horrifying things to him if he left.
So he had to ensure that his plan would continue to work. Mentally, Scott sorted through his plans to get rid of the town’s residents, or anyone, that might either report the odd number of trucks on the roads to the government, or turn in the mining company’s operations because of noise or pollution, or in a worst-case scenario, get sick because of the toxic chemicals the mining company was using to filter out the minerals they needed from the rocks and dirt. It was similar to the way gold mining companies now used cyanide to leech the gold from the earth, and it wasn’t a happy result for the environment.
The efiasia his teams were digging up would eventually be used to make the microchips for computers. Yeah, there were better, more effective minerals the computer companies could use, but Harvey Neville was a cheap bastard, more than ready to make a knock-off, poorly constructed product if he thought it would expand the profit margins. Plus, as long as the data transferred properly through the whatchamacallits in the belly of the computer, the people who bought the computers didn’t want to know how it worked.
Lower costs meant higher profits. As far as Scott was concerned, it was a win-win for everyone. Consumers got cheaper and faster computers, and he got more money. Who cares if a few thousand people were forced from their homes during the process? This was progress, and operations like his had happened throughout the history of the world. The only people who were remembered during the evolutions of business were the people who made the money.
Scott was determined to be one of those people who makes a ton of money. And he didn’t care who he had to step on to get there!