Gundar stood behind the bar as close to the heater as possible without touching it. Around him the club was alive with humans, music played loudly, lighting flashed, naked women and men danced, but most importantly they all drank. The club was large, but with the working day over and night starting to fall it was now full to capacity with a line outside that wound all the way down the street. He would have to start plans on either moving to a larger location or starting a new club nearby.
There was a commotion at the front doors suddenly. Gundar paid it no mind, his bouncers were well paid and the best in the business, even if they were humans. To his surprise one of the bouncers appeared at the bar in front of him.
“Yes Max”, said Gundar through his translator unit.
“Sir, there is a guy at the door insisting he needs to see you urgently about a business deal with the club. I was going to clobber him, but he said he was from...”.
A burst of music drowned out the last few words, it didn’t matter Gundar knew who he was.
“Let him in and send him to me.”
The bouncer left and brought back the man. He was a slim fellow, conservatively dressed in a deep blue suit, slicked back hair and carrying a black leather brief case.
“I’ll make this easy for you Jeremy,” yelled Gundar across the din, before the man had a chance to even open his mouth. “I’m not prepared to sell this club or the formula to Lik lik.”
Jeremy smiled nervously.
“You haven’t even heard the new offer. This time it’s not 2 million its 10 million.”
“You tell your bosses NOT FOR SALE!”
Jeremy glanced nervously around him as the crowd pushed from every side. His eyes quickly came back to Gundar, he put his brief case down on the floor in front of the bar, then took a deep breath to calm himself.
“I was told to tell you that this is their final offer and that if you don’t sell they are going to play hard ball.”
A great puff of air expelled from Gundar’s blow holes, it was his species way of shrugging.
“My business is legitimate, you already tried that one.”
“We know that lik lik contains addictive components. We take you to court over that and you’re through,” yelled Jeremy, the heat of the club causing him to sweat.
Gundar casually put a claw into his jumpsuit pocket and switched on a personal scrambling unit that would render any recording devices in the near vicinity useless.
“Come now Jeremy, you know that it would take you years to have enough scientific proof to substantiate that claim in court. Besides, it would set a precedence for me to do the same thing to your bosses. We both know what is in their products.”
Jeremy mopped the sweat from his brow with a silk handkerchief and shook his head in frustration. The bluff had not worked and he knew it. Finally, he threw up his hands in defeat. “Fine, have it your way, but don’t blame me about the consequences!”
Gundar gurgled to himself as he watched the man struggle as rapidly as he could through the crowd and out into the street. Humans were so inept at business and corporate takeovers. Perhaps the market would not be as hard to break into as his employers had believed. Gundar did not notice that the Jeremy's briefcase was still sitting on the floor in front of the bar.
No sooner had Jeremy disappeared out of the club than Gundar felt a tap on his shoulder. He spun around to see Garlak, blow holes puffing and looking distraught. Garlak was the advertising operative for his club and the other one they had started in the northern hemisphere.
“What is it Garlak?” asked Gundar in their own gurgling clicking tongue. Garlak's blow holes whistled as he took another deep breath.
“Not here, outside.”
Without hesitation Gundar followed Garlak, out through the service entrance and into the alleyway behind the club. They continued to walk along it toward the main road as they spoke.
“The whole mission is in grave danger, they have joined forces!”
“I was aware of that, but we can still succeed with some minor adjustments to the operation.”
“No! You don’t understand. They are no longer against each other, they are focused on us alone and they have NO tolerance.”
“Then what would…” Gundar was interrupted by the pinging noise of Garlak’s mobile. Garlak answered, spoke a few words, but mainly listened. At the end of the short conversation his claw went limp and the phone dropped to the pavement and shattered. Garlak turned to Gundar stunned.
“The other club is gone.”
“What?!”
“They blew it up, everyone inside is dead, there is nothing left.”
Gundar’s mind churned quickly over the meeting with Jeremy.
“We have to get everyone out of the club!” he yelled. Before they had taken two steps toward the service entrance they were met by the shockwave of a massive fiery explosion. Gundar was blown off his claws and landed heavily on his back. Garlak was not so fortunate, a massive piece of brick crashing into his skull, killing him instantly.
Gundar scrambled onto all fours, a mass of flames was billowing toward him. The heat was invigorating, but deadly. It was too late to help Garlak so instead he leap to his claws and ran down the alleyway until he reached the street. As he turned onto the street he was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight before him. At the end of the street sat two limousines side by side, one red with white writing on the side, the other red on the top blue on the bottom with a curving white strip dividing the two. Standing between the two cars were three men all in suits. The two older men shook hands briefly then climbed into their respective cars. The third man was younger and dressed in a deep blue suit. He looked down the road directly at Gundar and shrugged before he too climbed into the red limousine.
Gundar could only stare at the blacked out windows of both cars as they passed him by. There could be no recovery from this. Gundar expelled air from his blows holes in a shrug and pulled out his mobile deep space communicator. He had to walk around the street a bit until he could get a good signal.
“Hello, yes this is operative 2ZB, put me through to the war department…”
End
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