Greg paced the pool area with his phone at his ear, looking annoyed.
"No, you are not listening to me...one reservation, hold on a second." Greg said looking annoyed. "It's like they don't hear words."
Did I miss something fun?" asked Abby
"I get a one-day pass to Horus and I can't even get a good breakfast reservation. Hello?" he asked holding his glass-pad up as a phone. Is this the manager?"
"Hello sir. What can I do for you today?" asked the manager.
"I got one day of freedom and I need a special lunch reservation to start the adventure. You still have the "fire in the hole" challenge?" he asked.
"Yes we do, it is the world record hottest taco. You must finish 2 of them in 5 minutes to complete the challenge-"
"Yea I want 14 of them." Greg interrupted.
"A challenge for 14 participants?"
"No, just 14 tacos."
"The challenge is 2 tacos, so do you want reservations for 7?"
"Listen carefully, Pedro." Greg said slowly. "I don't care about the challenge or the time or the t-shirt, I just want some stupid-hot tacos. Just make 14 of those lil bastards and bring them and I'll give you money...no challenge, just food."
"I think the tacos are part of the challenge and not a regular menu item, you have to sign a waver for the challenge-" the manager said.
"I'm not taking a challenge, I'm just eating them, I plan to eat them all and enjoy them reasonably paced. There is no timer; I don't care if you put my picture on the wall of people who will probability die-of-rrhea in 20 minutes. Just make the damn tacos, charge me the money, and I'll sign the waver, I'll sign it 7 times, why is this so difficult to understand. You make the hottest tacos, a mere mortal considers 2 a challenge, I want 14 of them and I'm just gonna eat them." he growled.
"So you just want tacos, not the challenge tacos, just regular spicy tacos?"
"Imagine a customer walks in to your store, where you make food and sell it to hungry people. Imagine he picks up a menu and says, boy I'm hungry as hell, I think I will eat 14 tacos. Now go back to make that order, except make the challenge tacos instead. Make 14 individual tacos, like you would for 7 challenges and just put them all on a big-ass plate. Then bring me the waver, write a 7 on it somewhere, I don't care. Then take that price of the challenge and multiply it by 7, make me a receipt. I'll give you a 50 percent tip. You open at 7:30, I'll arrive at 8, reservation for one table, one person, 14 tacos, mucho El tip, I eat all the tacos. We good?" he asked.
"You gotta sign the waver before we make the tacos, the challenge is 2 tacos."
"Nope, screw this, I'll make a reservation at Casa Del Sanchez. This is going nowhere." he said, flinging his phone into the pool and waling away.
"I can just make tacos here and serve them naked." she offered.
"Don't make it weird." he sighed, shuffling off.
"Dad, I don't like this." said Sasha.
"Of course you don't, it's highly illegal." Greg muttered, handing her his encryption pad. "But they only gave me one day out of the cell, so you need to loop the sensors while I'm gone." he explained to her
"You really think they're gonna not notice a planet-sized ship being smuggled through the sector?" she asked.
Not when I'm known for taking trouble with me, randomly, and the grid is already in power-save mode while I'm away. They will be so focused on me, they won't be watching the prison planet. I've been setting this up for years, Sasha. They don't even know I've been importing printer parts because Charlie has been mislabeling the equipment that goes defective. It helps having a son in construction. Now when I'm gone, you just pull the backup power node from the prison planet and put it in the Shiva's primary power grid. Switch on the stealth systems. They wont even know, because I'll be the thing all security is on, pointed the opposite direction." he assured.
"What about Izzy?" she asked. "She's staying behind?" she insisted.
"Not if she doesn't have a room to stay in." he smirked.
"Dad, it's a mansion. She can just move rooms. How can you ensure she leaves for the full day?" Sasha asked.
"Oh I have a plan for that. Rika has been making great progress at the environmental controls security system. Believe me, Izzy won't have a room to stay in, and after today...she won't be reporting me, because if she reports it, I'd have my one day pass revoked, and she'll be so pissed at me that she will welcome the time off. Her failed report will account for any suspicious security glitches, covering the real reboot and loop of the security sensors. Trust me, Sasha...I know Izzy well enough to play her like a bassline. You just get that ship ready and the power grid online."
"Okay. I trust you. If there is one thing you know better than pissing of Izzy, it's general mayhem and destruction." she said half smiling with excitement.
"Let the games begin."
Izzy pulled up the screen to report to Christophe.
"Good morning Darling, how is dad?" he asked with a smile.
"Good, we had a bit of a breakthrough actually. He really opened up, and I think we're making some progress. Some days he seems to backtrack a little, but every other day I honestly believe my work is helping him mature a bit."
"Well he has been pushing for a day out of the habitat. Maybe the break will be good for him. Unfortunately we need every eye on him while he's out. You got plenty to do while he's away?" Christophe asked.
"I'll enjoy the silence for sure. I've got a few new books, some relaxing to do. The mansion is actually quite spectacular when he's not causing some form of mayhem and destruction. It's a beautiful house. The maids keep it very clean when he's not dirtying it up. So when he has his day-out, I plan to really enjoy the place to myself." she smiled.
Greg steadied the webcam and looked excited as he straightened his suit and tie.
"Hello, this is Chet Greggins of channel 99 news. Hurricane Izleena is still pummeling the coast of the penal paradise islands, but we have seen signs that it may be letting up. Unpredictable weather conditions this years, under the dome of souls, but as your first-on-the-scene anchorman, I'll be live reporting this for you ever step of the way. As you can see out the window, the eye of the storm is above us...but as the inner wall approaches quickly, I fear we may have some stormy seas to deal with." he smirked as the microphone buffeted with the wind from the rooftop. "Residents have evacuated, all except the Osirians, and of course myself, your very own, Chet Greggins." he finished as the live stream pushed through the internet filters and the rather ugly hack that Rika managed to get encoded past security.
"What the hell?" Izzy said waking up from her nap, noticing the weather getting aggressive. She went to close the windows and remembered Greg didn't put any in her suite. She briskly packed her luggage and stuffed them into trash bags in case of imminent flooding, stuffing them in the corner on a table and fastening them to one of the permanently mounted bookshelves. "Greg I swear if you are screwing with the environmental controls." she said, storming out as the storm began storming in.
Greg's slicked back hair pulled sharply to the left as the wind howled and he steadied his microphone, yelling over the gusts and rain as he held onto the shingles. Rika felt the light quiver of the storm front from her cozy basement bunker.
"And now back to Chet Greggins with the weather." she said, hacking the internet feed again.
"As you can see here, things have gotten really bad. Wind of over 120 KPH in a steady rush, sea level has risen almost to the front door, and the rain is pouring in like a waterfall. This would be a really terrible place to be for an uppity bitch who hates the rain, especially for those of you unfortunate enough to have no windows, and a massive open topped roof home. But that won't stop me from reporting the weather. Hell or high water be damned, I'll keep you reported on the progress. This one is gonna be a storm for the records." he said like a trusty anchor, anchored to the house and almost enjoying the rush.
"How do you lose a 700 pound man-child? He's gotta be here somewhere Izleena." she muttered to herself as the house filled with howling wind and loose debris from whatever wasn't held down. She slipped on the floor and landed ass-first in several inches of flood water on the main floor. She gasped, looking up at the open-roof, now an indoor water feature that was flooding the pool in all directions.
"So if Grampa Greg ruins his house...won't he have to clean it up?" asked Mari to Rika as she sat holding her laptop with Abby and snacks bunkered down to the side.
"Grampa Greg will be fine. He's got his man-cave and hiding spots all weatherproofed." She replied. "Aunt Izzy doesn't like the rain, so he can hold out longer than she can, especially if he refuses to clean the house and all the maids are gone.
"He's not a very good cook." Mari noted. Abby sighed, shaking her head.
"That's one of the reason he wanted me to stay." she nodded.
"He's gonna be upset that all his concubines are gone too." Rika noted.
"Yea." sighed Abby "Probably gonna be picking up that slack as well." Abby sighed half complaining and half bragging.
"OH COME ON!" yelled a drenched Izzy, searching for another living creature besides the wind-stripped plants floating around. "Where are you hiding, you gigantic douchebag?! SHOW YOURSEEELF!!!!"
Greg contained his pure immature enjoyment as the rain increased.
"Hurricane Izzy has increased her usual hot-air blowing to unprecedented levels! She's been elevated to a category 5 pain in the ass, but a professional reported such as me won't ever back down. Reports of flooding in the 4th floor balconies have been popping up everywhere, mainly due to some shotty contractor pointing all the drains inwards. A rookie mistake, if not intentional. With the guest suits under heavy bombardment and down flow, it's very good that all the guests have been cleared out long before the storm hit. Anyone left behind would be absolutely screwed right now. The bathroom shower drains could be next to suffer!" he reported.
Izzy slid down the stairwell, covered in shampoo from the overflowing showers on her floor.
"I'll kill you!" she roared.
"That is just weird." Greg shrugged, relaxing in the overflowed pool as Izzy paced and splashed her boots through the once-dry stone floor as the sun beamed down calmly.
"You did this intentionally!" she yelled, throwing a soppy book at him.
"Clearly the environmental controls are on the frits. I did report some system glitches before you even moved in. This is what you get when the prisons budget-cuts start to shift attention to security, rather than living conditions. Obviously without modern implant upgrades I can't even wirelessly hack the controls. It's a shame really. I could have stopped it before it got bad. This report will take forever for you to fill out, shame they will revoke my field trip so I'll be stuck here with you for the cleanup." he sighed.
Her eyes squinted and glowed.
"Oh you'll be going out." she growled.