Black Lagoon: The World Is Yours

Part 6: [Greenback Jane]

01:31 AM, June 5th, 1995

It was getting quite late that night. Jane and her remaining co-worker, Theo, were still in a slow process of printing away counterfeit money for the people who hired her. Unfortunately, the Nouveau Cartel had showed up at their workplace and were pissed off by the slow rate of their work. The Cartel were the sort of people who lacked patience and don't take kindly to people who aren't fast enough to get them what they want. Elvis, the crew leader of the Cartel in Florida, was especially not pleased with Jane's performance. Sitting on a wooden chair he borrowed in the room, Elvis already had his handgun out, impatiently tapping the barrel softly against his leg.

Elvis: Your selfishness is starting to become a problem, young lady. We're as interested in the quality of the product as you are. However, don't forget that everything time limit to it: Soccer, football, the stock exchange. Hell, even fucking.

Jane: You people are so short-sighted.

Jane turned on the desk lamp to inspect the counterfeited U.S. dollar note whist ranting back to her employers.

Jane: We're not there. We're simply not there yet!

She crumbled the fake dollar note into a ball and tossed it away. The print wasn't legitimate enough.

Jane: I'm sorry, but there's no way I can release these as they are.

Elvis: Look, no one's planning to pass these off the U.S. treasury department, alright? In fact, I bet outta all of us, you and your friend here are the only ones who even give a shit about any of that. You've gone over the budget by $200,000, but I guess that's the price of perfection, right?

Elvis lit up his cigarette and took a brief moment to smoke before carrying on with his menacing conversation with Jane. The man wore an expensive-looking suit, he even looked quite intimidating as a tough regional cartel boss. His black hair was combed back, sporting some facial hair on his chin and had some prominent sideburns, hence the name and the resemblance to Elvis Presley. Jane wasn't sure if it Elvis was this guy's real name, but that didn't matter to her. Her life was on the damn line.

Elvis: [exhales smoke] And this job was supposed to be finished two months ago. [waddles his gun about] Now personally, I have a hard time believin' this, but some of my "investors", they quote: "I think they may be tryin' to screw us over". As if you think none of us are not smart enough to figure it out.

Looking over Elvis, Jane noticed that Theo had stopped working because of the cartel's presence in the office and didn't type in anything on his computer keyboard for a few seconds. After the rest of the co-workers were shot by Elvis for not getting the job done quicker, Theo was the last colleague in the team. He was a quiet German guy from somewhere in Nuremberg. Not as bright as Jane, she thought to herself, but she didn't want to lose him. They were on a tight schedule, so she had to tell Theo to continue before something goes wrong for her.

Jane: Theo, just keep working. (Please don't die on me, you moron..!)

Theo: [nervously] Ja. S-sorry, Jane.

Elvis: I'm sure you can understand how upset that would make me.

Elvis cocked his gun back, a bad sign that something worse is gonna happen in the dark office room. Jane felt her heart skip a beat, she thought that Elvis was gonna shoot her right then and there. Thankfully, he didn't pull the trigger.

Jane: [gasps] (God... why did I agree to work for these assholes? They're not giving us a lotta time and I'm close to having my head on a silver platter.)

Elvis: But I wouldn't worry, sweetheart. Lucky for you, I don't believe a word on what they're sayin', and you better hope that I'm right. Cos if what they're sayin' turns out to be true, I'm gonna have to cut you in places where you do not want to be cut.