Soulburn

Chapter 3 Part 1

TV at 4 a.m. was a different world than the evening tube Guyton had watched in life. Old TV shows like Hogan's Heroes and Adam 12 were staples—cheap to run for the stations, and likely to appeal to people who had been up all night and needed something light to unwind.

And sometimes there were leads among the commercials for trial lawyers, reverse mortgages, truck driving schools, house-flipping courses, and the like.

"Looking to level up in life?" one of these asked. "Motivational speaker Joey O'Stevens is sharing his secrets for Reaching Peak Success!" The voiceover continued, as Peak Success flashed at the bottom of the screen. The commercial faded to pictures of expensive watercraft, exotic cars, beach houses, then to a well-dressed man speaking at a lectern.

Guyton took notes as the commercial continued. "Seats for this special one-time event are going fast, so call now to secure your ticket to Peak Success! Only $19.95!" He jotted down the phone number and the website, both displayed and spoken many times over. "For the price of a fast-food dinner, you can put yourself on the road to riches! Joey is so convinced you'll level up, he's offering a money-back guarantee!"

"Blah blah whatever," Guyton grunted, his usually unspoken reaction to a higher-up chewing him out—back in his old life, anyway. His gut said this Joey O'Stevens might be a soulburn. And thus, a target.

Pulling up the website, it immediately tried to push a video in his face. But whoever had set this computer up was good—it displayed a notification and that was it. Not that the main page was much better; it banged on with the "Peak Success" theme, including many of the visuals from the commercial. But dead center were two prominent buttons: Books by Joey and Tickets.

Clicking the Books link, Guyton jotted down the titles; most of them included Peak Success in the titles. The website offered minuscule discounts for buying the books direct, but his browser had a bookmark for the local library. It would be best to not leave traces, though, which meant maybe paying cash at a local bookstore.

On the other hand, he would have to leave some traces to get a ticket. He punched the number into his cellphone.

"Good day, this is Meena with Peak Success Enterprises."

"Hi, Meena," Guyton replied. "I was hoping to get a ticket to Joey's next seminar."

"Talk. He prefers to call it a talk. Which city, please?"

"Atlanta."

"Ah. There are a few openings left for his talk a week from Saturday."

"Okay. I just need one, anyway."

"All right. Credit card number, please?"

Guyton rattled off the number, name, expiration date, and security code on the back of his card as Meena asked for each item.

"Good," she said at last. "Your ticket for a week from Saturday is confirmed. It's $19.95, plus $1.40 local sales tax, and a $7.95 processing fee. The total comes to $29.30. It will appear on your bill as RPS Enterprises. Does that sound all right?"

"Uh... sure. Sure. I'm looking forward to it."

"Wonderful. We have a special right now. You can get Joey's book, Peak Success, for a discount. Fourteen dollars."

That was the same price as offered on the website. "I already have it," said Guyton. "I'd have gone for it otherwise."

"That's wonderful. Have a good day." The line went dead.

"Those bastards don't miss a trick," Guyton opined. But if this O'Stevens character wasn't a soulburn, he would become one down the line. Meanwhile, there was plenty of investigation to do between now and next Saturday.