A Highwayman

A Highwayman

“Driver-6278…. Driver-6278….. Driver-6278.” Driver 6278’s alarm rang in a semi-mechanical woman’s voice. Driver 6278 opened his eyes as the drive-pod’s artificial sunlamp shined brightly onto his forehead. He turned off the sunlamp and turned on his drive-pod’s purple ambient lighting. Pulling down the vanity mirror he was greeted by an immovable metallic mirror covering. He reached for the twelve-inch touch screen in the middle console and paid for his hourly mirror subscription to the Nexel Corporation, selecting the automatic payment renewal option that would stay on until his drive-pod was re-docked at the end of his shift. The metallic mirror covering retracted sleekly into the visor, while the rear-view mirror lowered down from the glass ceiling and the side-view mirrors popped out to the sides. Driver 6278 smiled to himself and pulled out an index card from the inner pocket of his purple driver’s vest which he always wore proudly, his name “Diver 6278” embroidered in gold lettering on the right-hand side.

Holding the index card carefully in his left hand, he reached over again to the center console touch screen tapping play on a saved audio file. An endearing and enthusiastic voice came through the drive-pod speakers.

“This is Johnny Rollins! Johnny Rollins here to tell you- IT’S POSSIBLE! Take a look at me, now I’m sure you all know my story by now and if you listening to this recording daily, LIKE YOU SHOULD BE! HAHA! Then you’ve heard it all before. Johnny Rollins the guy who started as nothing more than a highwayman! Johnny Rollins born right here on the superhighway of Las Vegas! Johnny Rollins the seven-foot-tall highwayman turned founder and owner of the first-ever Denny’s Hotel Megaplex! Las Vegas’s own fifty-seven-story Luxury hotel that is- All Denny’s All the Time! I started out just like you- a nobody, just slobbing through life with no direction. Until one day, my seven-foot-tall body cramped up in my drive-pod couldn’t take it anymore! And in my moment of great mental and physical desperation, I invented ‘The Memoir Affirmation Method’! Now ‘The Memoir Affirmation Method’ is all about three things- Where you came from, where you are, and where you are going! YEAH! It’s simple just write down an on an index card a short description of just that, where you came from- the origins of you. Where you are- what’s going on with you and your current environment that you want to move away from. And lastly but most important- Where you want to be, the life you want to move towards!

Now once you have that written down, every morning simply recite this personal memoir affirmation and get ready for a MASSIVE LIFE SHIFT! YEAH!

Now before I let you go, there are some of you who are real ANIMALS! YOU’VE GOT THAT LIFE PASSION! THE ZEAL! THE FAITH, THE CREDENCE, THE CONVICTION! To realize your dream life even faster! And to all you ANIMALS out there I say- YEAH! And I recommend to you “The Memoir Mediation Acceleration Method” available for purchase at my personal website as well as the Denny’s corporate website for only $75.75. Johnny Rollins ringing off, and just remember I used to be nothing but a highwayman but now they say the neon yellow glow of my fifty-seven-story Denny’s Hotel Megaplex can be seen from space! Now that’s MASSIVE, Johnny Rollins MASSIVE!”

Driver 6278 smiled and took a deep breath. Holding the index card at eye level, he began to recite the text out loud.

Driver 6278’s memoir affirmation

“I’m just a Highway Man. Some people consider that a bad thing, but not me. I take pride in what I do- the facilitation of citizens across the highway in the greatest city in the world, Las Vegas, is an essential profession! Some of my fellow highwaymen don’t take pride in what they do, in-fact they resent it. For them each day is an arduous task filled with discontent and restlessness. They spend their days wasting away their income on various chemical concoctions from their PodStraw Hydrator, consuming mixtures of pleasure-inducing amphetamines and liquid Xanax to take the edge off the amphetamines and make it easier to sit all day. Some of them even turn to hazardous body implants like The Pleasure Modulator, an electro-stimulator placed at the base of the spine to keep themselves in a bliss state all day long. BUT NOT ME! NO! My body is pure! As is my mind! I will not waste away! Neither physically nor financially! I am Driver-6278! Son of immigrant parents. My father a Romanian party bus driver and my mother an Ecuadorian party bus maid. Born and conceived right here on this highway! I know these roads like my own blood. My father, a caring man, immediately applied for my membership into the Highwayman Union upon my birth. Soon after I received my name Driver-6278! I conserve myself and my money for the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal of paying the toll to get off this highway and getting a job at the Denny’s Hotel Megaplex! Fifty-Seven stories of greatness, I will start as a janitor, my cousin has a job ready, eventually I will work my way up to waiter at the rooftop infinity pool! Driver-6278 from highway man to Denny’s Megaplex infinity pool waiter! And a fine one at that! Driver-6278 is going places and going places fast!”

Driver 6278 smiled broadly as he placed the index card back into his vest’s inner pocket and then tapped play on another audio file stored on his center console.

“WOOHOO! Johnny Rollins here, I can see you are a serious player so let's get to it! Now close your eyes, I want you to take a deep breath and picture an orange circle. Now I want you to picture your future self in that orange circle, the version of you that you want to be inside of that orange circle. Focus now, stay with me now, deep solid breaths of for-ti-tude. See the orange circle with your future self, enhance it, be it, feel it. Enhance it even more, even brighter, now that orange circle with your future self gets so bright, so vivid that the color shifts to yellow, Denny’s yellow! Oh yeah! Your future self rotating now in the yellow circle becoming a sphere, the sphere of power is now within your sphere of reality. Do it. Be it. Feel it. Now open your eyes on a deep inhale, look in the mirror and give me a YEAH YEAH YEAH with a Power Punch!”

Driver 6278 inhaled sharply through his nostrils and opened his eyes wide, looking straight into his glowing brown eyes he screamed “YEAH!YEAH!YEAH!” and then punched powerfully with his right hand into the open palm of his left hand.

“WELL AAAAALLLLRIIIGHT! Now that’s what I call a dream accelerator! Imagine in under fifteen minutes a day you can create a MASSIVE SHIFT in your life! Now that might be the one better deal than the Sunday breakfast special at Denny’s! HA!HA!

Now one last note before I let you go. For those REAL ANIMALS out there! I have a special Night-Time Power-Pack Mind-Hack program! And for only $95.85 you can shift yourself into even higher gear! Just something to consider, available for purchase on both my personal website and Denny’s corporate website. This is Johnny Rollins ringing off!”

Checking the time on his center console Driver 6278 smiled, the clock read 3:47am, he had some time to enjoy before his shift. He quickly selected the stand-up setting for his drive-pod and watched as the reinforced glass dome, which made up both the roof and windows of every Nexel drive-pod, rise about four feet allowing him to stand up completely. Getting up from his seat he stepped outside onto the drive-pod’s small extendable deck area. Driver 6278 gazed out into the night sky, filled with Las Vegas sprawl, just far enough away from center city to get a good view of all the big players. Stratosphere a cool blue, The Denny’s Megaplex piercing yellow, The Luxor hotel pyramid lit up red along it’s edges tonight while shooting a purple beam into the sky. Towering above them all, was the T-Skraper building which had found a way to almost glow black, the building was treated with an unknown type of paint that made it appear to be built out of obsidian stone, that made it seem like it was both reflecting and absorbing all the light around it. Las Vegas’s very own vortex abyss. Driver 6278 stared into that abyss, his mind quiet and blank until a familiar voice startled him.

“Ey NARU!”

Driver 6278 looked over to the neighboring drive-pod. “Good morning Driver 5369” he said with a wave.

Driver 5369 rolled his eyes. “How many times I tell you kid? Call me Lenny, stop being so formal Naru.” Driver 5369 or “Lenny” said with a slight Romanian accent. Driver 5369 a man of average stature, a slight gut, and shoulder-length light-brown hair leaned against his drive-pod smoking an analog cigarette and occasionally flicking the ashes into the five-story free-fall below him.

“It’s amazing none of us ever jump don’t ya think?” Lenny said looking down far below at the access road.

“Why would anyone jump? They would surely die its at least fifty feet down from here.”

Lenny sighed. “Never mind Naru. You’re just a naive kid aren’t you.”

“I prefer Driver 6278!” Driver 6278 said and pointed to the corresponding gold embroidery on his purple driver’s vest. “I am not ashamed of it!”

Lenny shook his head and flicked the rest of his cigarette into the access-road abyss below “A number is not a name kid.”

“Well that is what you used to make up my name anyway isn’t it? You just correlated each number to a letter for what would be on a classic one through nine numbered key-pad and made up a name for everyone, I don’t see how that is any different or better!” Driver 6278 said confidently. “Why is Lenny any better than 5369?”

“Ok kid you win.” Lenny said with a shrug.

Driver 6278 smiled. “I can feel it 5369. Someday soon I’ll be off this highway and working at the Dennys Megaplex!” he exclaimed.

“Call me what you want kid, but my real name will always be Lenny. And sorry to burst your bubble but no one gets off this highway, man. Nobody. The toll is too damn high. The system wasn’t set up for us to leave, we are highwaymen. Stuck here with only a little bit of relief from whatever poison pleasure we can sip from that PodStraw Hydrator or get from a pleasure modulator.”

“Johnny Rollins got off this highway!” Driver 6278 proclaimed.

Lenny rolled his eyes “I bet Johnny Rollins doesn’t even exist, I bet he’s just a virtually generated image, yeah just some A.I. Generated image and personality made to sell self-help crap and get more people to eat at Denny’s. Who the fuck is seven feet tall?!” Lenny laughed.

“Johnny Rollins is!” Driver 6278 declared happily. “Anyway it’s time to start my shift, I’ll see you tonight 5369.” Driver 6278 gave a goodbye wave and quickly got into his drive-pod, the glass dome lowering back over him as the four cylindrical steel beams that supported it retracted back into the sleek metallic body of the pod.

Lenny shook his head and lit another analog cigarette “See you tonight kid.” he muttered with the lit cigarette in his mouth, watching as Naru’s drive-pod was hoisted up off of the side of the highway dock by the powerful vacuum-powered suction machine which attached directly onto the reinforced glass-roof, a similar system to those old ice-cream vending machines where the vacuum hose picked up the ice-cream bar and dropped it off for purchasers enjoyment.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Driver 6278’s drive-pod landed with a slight thud onto the shoulder of the highway and the powerful vacuum suctioned to the roof released itself and retracted back into the sky. Driver 6278 merged effortlessly onto the thirty-lane highway. He traveled fast this morning, with little traffic occasionally reaching a top speed of one hundred and eighty miles per hour. Racing along from one shuttle pick up to the next, occasionally making it to the far end of the highway where there was less demand for his services in which case he would pull over to the inner shoulder of the highway, pay the highway directional transferal fee and the vacuum suction mechanism would swiftly descend from the sky and transfer his drive-pod from the thirty lane highway heading south to the thirty lane highway heading north or vise-a-versa. The vacuum transporter rotating him one-hundred-eighty degrees each time. Throughout the day the insect compressor attachment on Driver 6278’s windshield wiper system dutifully collected any insects and processed them into a paste with twelve different flavor options. Driver 6278 would snack on this paste throughout the day, at the push of a button a straw emerging from his steering wheel for easy enjoyment.

Soon enough it was evening and Driver 6278 was watching the sunset as the steel cables latched onto his drive-pod for its nightly dock hanging off the highway overpass, five stories above the ground below.

Driver 6278 put his headphones on and tapped play on the Night-Time Power-Pack Mind-Hack audio file.

Upbeat electronic music started to play then the voice of Johnny Rollins came on with a vigor “ALL RIGHT! YEAH, IT’S GROWTH TIME! IT’S PERSON POWER TIME! IT’S TIME FOOOOOOOR…….. FORCE!” The music cut off. “How’s that for an opener? Now I hope I got you excited because it’s time for the Night-Time Power-Pack Mind-Hack! But first I want to thank you, I want to thank you for showing up. For being you. For being the animal who wants more! I salute you! In fact, go ahead and salute yourself! Right here, right now salute yourself in the mirror.”

Driver 6278 gave himself a self-salute in the vanity mirror which was already covered by the metal covering for the night.

“Now tonight is all about force! And in order to have force you need movement, physiology leads psychology, to feel big, to move fast in your life, and on your goals, you’ve got to move fast physically. YEAH! Now, this exercise is simple, I want you to run as fast as you can whether on the ground or a treadmill.”

Driver 6278 got out of his drive-pod on the driver’s side and onto his treadmill attachment.

“Now I want you to run for thirty seconds as fast as you can, but I want you to close your eyes and envision that next version of you! The better version! And as you run I want you to scream as loud as you can, scream your old self right out of your body and break through to that new self! On three, one, two, three, GO! POWER-PACK MIND-HACK!”

Driver 6278 bolted to top speed on his treadmill, screaming at the top of his lungs, eyes shut tight visualizing his old self exploding into his new self- Denny’s infinity pool waiter.

“And. STOP!” Johnny Rollins said with authority and driver 6278 stopped on a dime. “Good work. Welcome to FORCE! Now one piece of advice before I go, when trying to reach new levels in life it’s important to welcome new opportunities into your life. Don’t be afraid to bend the rules and be unconventional in your conquest of greatness! Think big, Johnny Rollins big! Johnny Rollins ringing off till next time!”

Driver 6278 retracted his treadmill extension and went out onto the metallic deck area on the passenger side of his drive-pod, smiling as he looked out at the night sky.

“You crazy kid.” Lenny sat, his legs dangling off the side of his drive pod's small metallic deck. “You crazier than all of us combined kid” he laughed. “You just let me know kid! You let me know when you ready. I got the new Sacrum LX350 modulator. I got the hook-up kid! Just had my own installed today, like lightning!” he laughed and laid down on the cold metallic deck. “ZANG! ELECTRIC PLEASURE RIGHT TO THROUGH THE BASE OF THE SPINE BABY!!” Lenny’s Romanian accent was coming on thick now. “JUST LET ME KNOW KIIIIIIID!”

“I won’t be needing that, thank you.” Driver 6278 replied indifferently, staring off at the Denny’s megaplex in the distance.

“WHATEVER YOU SAY KID” Lenny laughed uncontrollably.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Lenny

Lenny sat on the edge of his drive-pod extendable platform, staring down into the abyss as he lit another cigarette. “One day I’ll grow the balls to just do it.” he said to himself as he puffed his third cigarette of the morning.

“Alert! Alert! Driver 5369 one minute till shift start! Alert! Alert! Driver 5369 fifty seconds till shift start.” The mechanical voice rang.

Standing up Lenny sighed as he flicked the mostly unsmoked cigarette into the void.

“Alert! Alert! Driver 5369 forty seconds until shift start!”

“Shut the fuck up.” Lenny murmured as he shut the alarm off via his control console touchscreen.

He quickly closed the door, retracted the extendable platform, and summoned the suction transporter which swiftly picked him up. A shot of anxiety ran through Lenny as the shift countdown clock approached zero on his control console, he couldn’t afford another infraction. He sipped a heavy dose of Blue-Razz™ flavored amphetamines from his PodStraw Hydrator and screamed with euphoria as his drive-pod plopped down onto the highway with one second to spare. He ripped out onto the road with an aggressive smile. “That’s right motherfucka, Lenny wins it again today! Fuck you NEXEL!”

Lenny pulled into his first pick-up spot for the day, a man in a cheap three-piece suit exited the highway shuttle bus swiftly and slid into the back seat of Lenny’s drive-pod. Lenny watched as the shuttle bus disappeared back below the highway to the access road below, the steal cable pulley system rotating silently.

“Well howdy there my good friend, the name’s Johnny Johnathan. Two first names ’cause I never come in last!” The man with a comb-over laughed and slapped his own knee as Lenny zipped back onto the highway. “Heading to the ole Stratosphere hotel today, there’s a matradee job opening with my name on it! Dream job alert! Haha! Now enough about me, how is your….”

Lenny closed the privacy window and sighed. He slapped a VR eye patch over his left eye and opened up his Onlyfans account. He quickly tuned into a live workout feed of Cyndy Pink. Setting his PodStraw Hydrator to a mix of amphetamines, Xanax, and Viagra he relaxed into his seat and enjoyed the show. In one eye- the mesmerizing Cyndy Pink doing squats in her tight pink shorts and in the other eye- the Las Vegas sprawl endless and unforgiving. Lenny raced from pick up to pick up in his stimulated but relaxed stupor, occasionally rubbing his crotch with his arm as he drove. He couldn’t wait till lunchtime he had something special packed.

Finally, it was lunchtime and he was going to make the most of it. He dropped off his last fare and then raced to the nearest lunch docking station. He set the glass-dome windshield to privacy mode and it tinted a firm black. A soft purple light illuminated the inner perimeter of the drive-pod. Lenny lowered the privacy wall and took off his VR eye patch. Feeling a bit dizzy for a second, a slight cross-eyed vision effect of wearing the VR eye patch too long, he steadied himself for a moment taking a deep breath then he pounced into the back of the drive-pod. Pulling down the back seat to access the trunk, he pulled a life-sized sex doll out by the feet.

He grunted aggressively as he pinned the sex doll down on the back seat, he quickly took a sleek pair of red VR goggles out of his jeans pocket. He strapped them on tight. Loading a torrented black-market deep-fake porn of Cyndy Pink he inserted himself into the doll in a frenzy, almost howling in pleasure.

Suddenly a piercing alarm sounded, and Lenny came in a panic while halfway out of the doll and fell to the floor of his drive-pod. Ripping off his VR goggles quickly to see what was going on. Then a voice sounded:

“Alert! Alert! An unregistered sex doll is detected! Alert! Alert! Unregistered sex doll detected. You are in violation of your Nexel Corporation User Agreement. Section three, paragraph six ‘The Nexel Corporation and T-Skraper Sex-Doll Exclusivity Agreement’”

“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Lenny yelled as he pulled his pants up trying to gather himself.

“We have detected you may disagree with our analysis.” The mechanical voice replied. “Would you like us to notify the authorities to have a third-party arbitrator? Please note the authorities will search your vehicle and digital materials for any additional illegal contraband. Or would you like to simply undergo internal mitigation with the Nexel Corporation?”

Lenny looked at his VR goggles which contained all types of torrented illegal content and he knew he was had. He sighed and replied, “Internal mitigation will do.”

“Confirm internal mitigation by replying yes.”

“Yes.” Lenny replied defeated. Then added “You fuckers violate a man's privacy, his one reprieve!”

“Internal mitigation process initiated. We’ve also detected a privacy concern.” The mechanical voice continued, as Lenny climbed back into the driver's seat so that he could interact with the center console. “The Nexel Corporation cares about your privacy! As per your updated user agreement which went into effect midnight tonight, we now are able to monitor for unauthorized sex doll activity using our new patented A.I. body scanner, the A.I. body scanner interprets all images as simple bits, and all your data is stored in an encrypted bit format that can only be read by the A.I.!”

The mechanical voiced pause. Then said “Have we addressed your privacy concerns?”

“Yes.” Lenny replied.

“Great.” The voice replied. “Please turn to your center console to accept or dispute the terms from our internal mitigation team.”

Lenny looked at the screen and saw a number that made him sick. But he swallowed his despair and knowing there was no other choice he tapped the “Accept Infraction Fee” on the touchscreen.

“Thank you for your compliance.” The voice said. “Please place the unregistered pleasure device on the incinerator tray for disposal.” Lenny climbed back into the back seat and loaded the doll onto the incinerator tray on the left side of the trunk.

Climbing back into the front seat he tapped the “Start incineration” option and accepted the incineration disposal fee along with the excess exhaust tax charged by the city of Las Vegas.

“Incineration complete. Please note we also detected undesirable bodily fluids in the backseat of your Nexel drive-pod, please accept the deep cleaning fee to comply with the Nexel Corporation’s cleanliness standards.”

Lenny cursed under his breath and accepted the cleaning fee on credit. Two mechanical hands emerged from the trunk and went to work quickly scrubbing the entire back half of the drive-pod.

He just sat there for a moment sipping down liquid amphetamines, hands tense and white-knuckled gripping the steering wheel, then he made the call.

A grinning bonny face appeared on his console. “Lenny, my man!” the nasally voice said.

“How you been Skud? I’m in a bad place man, the debt these fuckers just got me with I’m gonna be eating bugs out of the fucking insect compressor for months!” Lenny said exasperated.

“Ah fuck man let me guess they got you with that new sex-doll reg?” Skud laughed and ran his hand over his shiny shaved head. “You’d be the third this morning who called me.”

Lenny nodded “These fuckers, I need help man. I need an operator, and I’ll take some work if you got anything lined up.”

Skud smiled “Whoa good guy Lenny needs an operator, we talking spinal here or..” Skud winked and tapped the top of his head with two fingers.

“Definitely spinal man, you know I’m not into that crazy shit.” Lenny said shaking his head. “And what about work, you got anything? I’m talking off the books here obviously.”

Skud nodded “No other way to do it. Tell you what I got a guy he’s got something special going, something fresh.” Skud said with a grin. “You still got that same encrypted line?”

Lenny nodded.

“This guy is a real operator, only works off encrypted lines. In fact, he’d probably burn me just for mentioning him on a normal line. I’ll put in a good word he’ll get you set up on both ends, spinal and work-wise.”

“Thank you Skud, I owe you man. I owe you big.” Lenny said shakily.

“I’ll need a favor eventually.” Skud said with a wink. “Listen I got another call, catch ya later.” Skud gave Lenny a quick salute and then the screen went blank.

That night after his shift Lenny got a call on his encrypted line. He flipped open the old-style cell phone.

“Hello” Lenny answered nervously

“This Lenny?” A raspy voice said almost in a whisper.

“Yes. Yes. This is Lenny, I need….”

The raspy voice cut him off “I know what you fucking need, just tell me this are you in or are you out? That’s the only thing that matters. Yes or no.”

Lenny hesitated then stuttered “Y-yes.”

“Never hesitate on me again. Only amateurs hesitate and I don’t deal with amateurs.” The raspy voice said venomously and then the line clicked off.

Lenny got out of his drive-pod unsure of what to do next. He sat down on the edge of his metallic deck, unable to see the road below because of a mild dust storm, the kind that often plagued the city. He lit an analog cigarette as his hand shook, staring down knowing this was his last chance to jump. His last chance to escape. Knowing that once he had the electro-stimulator installed he’d be hooked and it would be all he lived for.

Just then a man came sliding down one of the steel cables suspending Lenny’s drive-pod, landing with a thud on the metallic platform. Lenny frightfully stood up and moved back towards his drive-pod instinctively.

“The name’s Wasp.” the man said in a raspy whisper, as he unhooked his carabiner from the steel cable and hooked it back onto his belt which was attached to the black leather vest he wore.

Wasp stared at Lenny with a look of contempt who was still frozen in fear. Then faster than Lenny had seen anyone move Wasp was face to face with Lenny grabbing him by the collar of his red flannel shirt and holding a buckle knife to Lenny’s jugular. Lenny let out a whimper.

“Listen you fucking amateur punk, I should burn Skud just for introducing me to a nobody like you. I can end you anytime I want just remember that.” Wasp said looking Lenny straight in the eyes without blinking, face tense and serious before turning into a smile. “But hey I’m here to do business, I’m here to expand. So today must be your lucky day.” Wasp said letting go of Lenny and tucking the small blade backing into his belt buckle.

He stepped back, Lenny still frozen in place breathing heavily. Wasp removed his skull cap allowing his long brown ponytailed hair to fall out. Lenny noticed a steel bolt underneath Wasp’s hair on the top of his head and flinched.

Wasp smirked “What’s the matter, never seen a skull-fiend before?” he laughed and pulled out a thin y-shaped piece of metal with sharp tiny prongs sticking out of one side of it. “Turn around and pull your pants down.”

“Wh-what?” Lenny said finally coming back to himself.

“Don’t worry I’m not gonna fuck ya. This is called the Sacrum LX350.” He gestured to the Y-shaped device “Now where do you think it gets installed”

“Ah r-right” Lenny nodded and turned around pulling his pants down. He felt an ice-cold hand at the base of his spine, feeling for the right spot, and then he felt the metal device which was less cold than the hand.

“Right, now stay perfectly still.” The low raspy voice whispered. Then Lenny felt a firm punch to the back and the sharp pain of the prongs piercing his spine.

He turned around and Wasp laughed at him when he saw the tears running down Lenny’s face.

“Don’t worry the doctor is all done.” Wasp said as he tucked his brown ponytail back under his skull cap. He reached into the pocket of his black jeans and handed Lenny a small Y-shaped white remote. “Tap the orange button to test it, you’ll figure the rest out on your own.”

Lenny tapped the small rubber orange button at the top right of the Y-Shaped control and a wave of electric pleasure ran through him like nothing he ever felt before. His face went numb with joy.

Wasp grabbed the remote back from him and hit the orange button, turning the pleasure modulator back off.

“HOLY SHIT!” Lenny said panting “That was fuckin amazing!”

Wasp nodded “I bring you pleasure, but I can also bring you pain. Got that?”

Lenny nodded, the cold crystallized hate present in the eyes of Wasp sobered him back up with fear.

“Good. You work for me now. I got something new I’ve been working on.” He pulled something out of his back pocket. “Set of contact recorders, put these in.” He handed the tiny box with contacts to Lenny. “And this” he held up a tiny black cube “This device will glitch out your privacy window, you hold it to your center console for thirty seconds.”

Wasp handed the black cube to Lenny, who looked at him in bewilderment.

Wasp shook his head “Right, I’ll spell it out for you.” He said venomously “Glitch out your privacy window with the black cube, wear the contact recorders, record your passengers throughout the day. If you get anything worthwhile you get paid, you’ve got a week before Nexel will figure out how to fix the privacy window glitch, it will look like a bug to them so you won’t get hit with any infraction fees. Oh and by getting paid I mean owe me less debt than you owe me right now.” He tapped Lenny hard on the forehead with his middle finger “Got all that?”

Lenny nodded then confused asked “But what do you do with the recording how can they be of any value?”

“Deep fake porn, retinal data, bio-metrics. Don’t worry about what it’s used for just do it.” Wasp looked over at Naru who was running full speed and screaming on his drive-pods treadmill attachment. “What about that freak?” he gestured to Naru “I’ll give you a cut of anyone you recruit.”

Lenny shook his head “He's just a naive kid.”

“Here’s an extra set anyway.” He handed Lenny another set of contact recorders. “Oh and give me one of those cigarettes” Wasp grabbed a cigarette from the pack in Lenny’s shirt pocket, smiling as he lit it. “Analog” he said nodding at Lenny “Probably the only good decision you’ve made in your entire life.” then he tossed the pleasure modulator controller in the air and by the time Lenny caught it Wasp was out of sight.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Driver 6278 looked at the black cube nervously but excitedly. At first, he had said no to Lenny’s offer but then he remembered what Johnny Rollins had said about unconventional opportunities.

Driver 6278 held the black cube to the center console for thirty seconds, then tried to switch on his privacy window. Nothing happened, Driver 6278 smiled and popped in the eye contact recorders Lenny had given him, then headed to his first pick-up of the day. Traffic was a slow crawl as Thanksgiving was approaching but Driver 6278 didn’t mind he was excited to collect some overtime. He pulled into the pick-up spot and the most beautiful woman he ever saw got into the back of his pod. She looked like a blond-haired angel to him, Driver 6278 knew she must have been from the T-Skraper.

“Privacy window.” the woman said immediately.

Driver 6278 fumbled with the screen and gestured “I’m sorry but it doesn’t seem to be working” he said looking back at her and then tapping the screen again.

She rolled her eyes and sighed.

What seemed like two days later Driver 6278 finally made his way back to his dock, exhausted from the endless crawl of the Thanksgiving traffic. He spoke with Lenny who said the data he collected was already transmitted back to his connection and it was good material, he would get paid in a few days.

Driver 6278 went to sleep with a smile on his face that night and had vivid dreams of the Denny’s megaplex hotel infinity pool.

The next morning he awoke to a message on his center console, he opened the message “Driver 6278 privacy window infraction- Nexel Corporation find’s no fault on behalf of Driver 6278, no fee will be charged. Expect the maintenance team to stop by within the next few days once the software bug solution is found.”

Driver 6278 smiled to himself, it was just as Lenny had explained to him. He tapped play on his Johnny Rollins audio file, but suddenly there was another message blinking on his center console so he paused the file and opened the message.

“Nexel Corporation has determined Driver 6278 behaved inappropriately during one of his rides, infraction description ‘Inappropriate staring at client’ please see infraction fee below and pay it promptly.”

Driver 6278 looked at the infraction fee and his heart sank down into his stomach.

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“Driver-6278…. Driver-6278….. Driver-6278.” Driver 6278’s alarm rang in a semi-mechanical woman’s voice. Driver 6278 opened his eyes as the drive-pod’s artificial sunlamp shined brightly onto his forehead. He turned off the sun-lamp cursing it and fumbled with his pleasure modulator. “Driver-6278 thirty seconds till shift start” the mechanical voice warned. Driver-6278 quickly summoned the vacuum transporter and sipped a heavy dose of Blue-Raz™ flavored amphetamines. Working the pleasure modulator he screamed with euphoria as he peeled onto the highway with one second left before his shift start, avoiding the infraction. The sun hit him directly in the eyes and he felt the need to sneeze, he sneezed into an old index card that was in his vest’s pocket and then threw it onto the floor. Driver 6278 was looking forward to lunch today he had a ten-minute session scheduled with his favorite pay-by-the-minute T-Skraper sex doll. The Nexel Corporation allowed one such visit per week for indebted highwaymen such as himself, it was part of the union agreement.