Deception with a Twist: The Broken Circle

By Rei Rosenquist

A stray lightning bolt slices the sky. The glint of a space tether's nanoscopic line flickers into sight.

A high end officiate in a neat suit steps from the elevator with a pocket full of special drugs.
The plan? A deception of nano-robotic limitations.
The goal? Freedom from corporate bullshit.
The twist? Grapefruit, just a little bitter.

Will Charcoal get the sample they've come to District 6 for or will Lithograph refuse to play along?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rei Rosenquist
• Release date: Oct 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201454869

Rei Rosenquist

Rei Rosenquist first remembers life as seen out the high window of a hotel balcony. Down below is a courtyard, swarms of brightly dressed tourists, the beach. The memory is nothing but a blue-green washed image. Warmth and sunlight. Here, they are three years old, and this is the beginning of a nomadic story-teller’s life. Over the years, they have traveled to many countries, engaged many peoples, picked up new habits, and learned new languages. But, some things never change. For them, these are stories, food service, and traveling. These three passions have bloomed from hobbies, studies, and jobs into a way of life. These days, Rei can be found in between Tokyo, Kailua, and Bellingham, Washington pouring beautiful latte art, baking off a batch of famous savory scones, and cozying up with a laptop to obsessively write mountains of dark speculative fiction. You can find Rei’s stories and blog at reirosenquist.com. You can also reach them via email at [e-mail] or connect via Facebook (Rei Rosenquist), Twitter (rylrosenquist) and Instagram (rylrosenquist).

Book preview

Deception with a Twist

Deception with a Twist

A Broken Circle Novelette

Rei Rosenquist

Copyright © 2021 by Rei Rosenquist

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Contents

Entry

Transit

Deal

Deception

Results

About the Author

More from the Broken Circle

Lithograph

λίθος: 'stone'

γράφειν: 'to write'

Gravity

The natural attraction between physical bodies.

Charcoal

A black, porous, carbonaceous material produced by the destructive distillation of wood.

Entry

A bright purple blaze cut across a darkening sky. A stray stroke of lightning left over from yesterday’s electrical storm. The light sliced across the blackening sky like a lost epiphany. No one noticed.

Glinting behind the flash, a thin almost invisible string of carbon nanotubes descended from a geosynchronous space elevator station down to the surface of the earth.

Attached to the nanotubes, a bubble. Inside the bubble, a small fragile-looking human being gazed out at the fading dusk below.

No charming colors remained painted in the sky. Only, a disappointingly matte grayness, like a low-end stock-printed blanket draped across the sprawling tangle of District Six.

The textureless night turned both ugly cookie-cutter office buildings and overdramatic spires of Central Command Castle into a bas relief of reality.

Darkness, Charcoal mused, evens everything out.

Neutralized disparity. Coated the district in a sheen of pretend equality. Dressed the world in false fair play; worn like a cheap cloak draped over death-rotten arms.

Don’t be fooled, Char-Char.

District Six is still the desperate, divided place. A hopeless ghetto jammed up against heartless glass mansions boasting tasteless fake marble foyers and robotic Mait’r Dees serving watered down booze to people who think they matter.

They don’t. Nobody does.

Not the boring office jockies. Not the mid-lat workers with big shoulders. Not the high end officiates with big heads. Not Charcoal and Lithograph, officiates at the top of the world.

Not even the bitter rebels hiding in the cracks of busted concrete where violence festered like a disease. A wound to be explored. Something to be exploited for personal gain.

One day. Not today.

Today is for high-end seduction. And expensive deception.

The bubble jolted. The nanotubes released, recoiling back into space. An announcer began to give disembarking instructions and safety tips in a prim voice.

Charcoal ignored this. They got busy smoothing out the series of chest, arm, and leg straps that the airship seat provided. They hit the release override a moment too early. The bubble’s system revolted, aimed at keeping the unruly passenger in place. Manufactured anti-gravity dug nails into Charcoal’s stomach.

Luckily, there was no contents to upend. So all that resulted was a bit of dramatic wretching.

Then, the seal of the ship hissed, gravity returned to normal, the cabin re-pressurized, and Charcoal landed flat on their face on the vaguely carpeted airship walkway.

The airship door slid soundlessly open.

There was a breeze, but