Episodes 60-63 of The Coup Conspiracy (dystopian cryptocurrency nov...

Hi guys! As promised, here are episodes 60 thru 63.

Previous Episodes

The United States is in slow-motion economic collapse. The Three Strikes Act funnels the unemployed masses into a national network of work camps for the most trivial of infractions.

Lando Cruz is a scrappy rebel who risks his final strike on the streets of Philadelphia by trading illegal currencies under cover of a burrito stand. He spends his days bribing dirty cops, fending off undercover federal agents and shepherding his little sister through adolescence.

Lando is getting by until beat cops seize his savings and kidnap his sister for ransom. He has thirty days to raise the hard cash he needs to free her before she is sold into sex slavery. His only chance is a lucrative job offer from the black market rebellion's paramilitary startup, the Core. He risks both his life and his principles to get his sister back before time runs out.

Episode 60: Puff Bang

“So, we’re going to make contact with the hackers,” said Jerry. “And you guys … ?” The group sat in the office module now.

“Alexis, Ryan and I will scope out the camp,” said Lando. “We’ll watch the shifts change, take photos — a regular stakeout!” He grinned.

“My uncle is in there,” said Jerry. “Maybe he can make a little something happen on the inside while we hit it from the outside.”

“In Eastern State?” asked Lando. He cocked an eyebrow. “That’s a great idea to look at when we get closer,” he said. “So that’s you and Takoda. David, I want you to contact the Free Aid people and see if they can design a transition process for these people. You know, help them start agorist businesses, find —”

David tightened his face. “I don’t like this plan and I don’t want to work on it.” He stood up.

“But you’ll hand malt liquor to a maniac with a gun, won’t you?” said Jerry. He stood up. His chair hit the ground behind him.

David’s face got red. “That’s not fair!”

“Just get out,” said Lando to David. He pointed towards the living area. “Go watch some TV or something.”

Takoda snickered.

“We’ll contact Free Aid when we get back,” said Lando. “Let’s hit the street, guys.” He turned to Ryan. “Would you mind leading the way out?”

Ryan led them out of the office and into the cellar. It smelled of mildew. Alexis brushed cobwebs out of her hair. Ryan turned on a small screen. The alley above appeared on it. Three different perspectives cycled.

“You really have all your bases covered,” said Lando to Ryan.

Ryan brushed past him and opened the cellar doors. “Up and out, folks. Move it. Make it quick.” Harold closed the doors behind them and stayed below.

Lando rubbed his palms on the sides of his pants. “Good luck, guys.” His face darkened.

Jerry and Takoda shook hands with Lando. “It’s going to be cool, man,” said Jerry.

Lando rubbed his head with both hands. “Be safe, guys. Whatever you do, be safe.”

Takoda grinned and waved an arm at Lando. “Whoever gets back last buys dinner!”

Lando watched them walk down the alley. He turned and looked at Ryan and Alexis. “Okay, then.” They rounded the corner onto the main street. Lando turned around to face Ryan. “Do we have access to transportation?”

“Oh, do you need a car? You never said anything to me about it,” said Ryan.

Lando narrowed his eyes. “Really? And you tell me I have a bad attitude?”

Ryan continued on past him down the street. Lando shoved his hands into his pockets and studied the broken lines of the sidewalk. They walked in silence for four blocks.

Alexis stepped in front of him. “This is all wrong,” she said. “It’s not too late to call it off.” She held his hands between hers.

Lando shook his head. “Maybe you should go back?” He caught up to Ryan. “Do we at least have a budget?”

A puff of smoke appeared on the ground in front of Lando, then a flash of light. He brought his arm in front of his face and a bang deafened him. Ryan hit the ground a few feet forward.

Lando turned to look for a cause but his body got hot. What the hell is going — He screamed. The heat overpowered him. He lost consciousness and hit the cement.

Episode 61: Strike Three

A rough hand jerked his shoulder. Lando sat up and took a deep breath. He looked around through half-open eyes. Lando sat on a thin steel slab that shot out of the wall at a right angle.

His torso shivered. His hands froze into fists. His feet sucked the iciness from the concrete floor into his bones. He stood up. A deep ache ripped into his thigh and he crashed down again.

Ryan paced the breadth of the tiny concrete cage. He stopped. “They shot you with a rubber bullet and knocked you out with the phaser. You actually withstood it longer than most. But just be still.”

Lando arched his neck back. He modulated his breathing, in and out, to counteract the pain. His skin was dry and tight. And everything was swollen. Outside the rusty bars, there was only more gray concrete at the ceiling, floor and wall. “Where are we?” he asked.

“Philly Police, third district,” Ryan said. He started to pace again. One step and a half, then he turned and repeated the rhythm.

Lando rubbed his head. “Alexis?”

A shadow darkened the cell. “Well, hello there little buddy. How nice to see you again.” It was Sarge.

Lando massaged his head with both hands. He groaned.

“You know this guy?” Ryan turned to Lando. He looked at the floor.

“This asshole ripped off my bitcoin and put my family in a cage.”

Ryan leaned against a wall and looked down.

“How are they doing, kid? Maybe I should go check on that sweet little sister of yours,” said Sarge.

Lando looked up at him and narrowed his eyes.

“They got terrorism charges on you, kid. Strike three. Looks like we’ll be spending more time together, eh?” Sarge sneered.

Ryan inspected his fingernails.

“Let’s see now,” said Sarge. He pulled out a tablet and tapped it. “Yes. Strike one was attempting to enter school without legal papers. But that was before we started counting strikes. And there’s something here about shoplifting. Tsk tsk.” He shook his head.

Lando turned his face away from Sarge and bumped his thigh against the steel shelf. A buzz of pain hit him and he winced.

“Like that?” Sarge jammed his thumb into his chest. “My handiwork. Takes a lot of range time to land a shot like that.”

“Fuck you!” Lando yelled.

Sarge laughed. He looked down at the tablet again. “So the real strike one was possession and transport of pirated pharmaceuticals. And when that didn’t work out, sale of pirated movies for your second strike.” He looked up from the tablet. “You still got a connection there? I’m looking for that latest one from —“

“Why don’t you just get to it,” said Ryan.

Sarge raised his eyebrows.

“If you’re done, Sergeant, then we need our prisoner,” said a voice in the corridor.

Sarge looked to his right and grimaced. He snapped his fingers above his head. The cell door screeched open. He pointed to Ryan.

Ryan turned and looked down at Lando. He got a faraway look in his eye, then turned again and walked out of the cell.

“Move it,” said a voice. The cell door crawled towards the wall. A mechanism clanged and sealed it shut.

Lando’s upper body muscles pulled taut. He closed his eyes and his teeth ground together. Just don’t react. Just don’t feel. Just be. It —

“Wake up, Cruz!” yelled Sarge. “You’re going to be in here a while and I don’t want you to miss a single second of the fun.”

Episode 62: Lawless

Ryan sauntered back into the cage and it closed behind him. He shook his head. “These little …” He looked up at Lando. “How’re you holding up?” He stretched his neck from side to side.

Lando exhaled. “Well, a little better now that you’re back, to be honest.”

Ryan smiled. “Worried?”

“What happens now?” Lando asked. “Did they offer you any kind of a deal?”

Ryan shrugged.

Lando sighed. “You know, you never told me how you became an agorist.”

Ryan bared his teeth. “It’s these people who steal. They just piss me off. You work so hard for something and they steal it from you.”

Lando cocked an eyebrow. “I hear —“

Ryan made two fists and punched the air. “It drives me mad! You work so hard for something. You sacrifice. You invent something new, you build something where there was nothing, and then they just take it from you without a second thought. And they claim it as their own.” He turned his face towards the corridor and yelled, “It’s the sheer audacity!”

“Okay,” said Lando. “Was there a particular writer or —“

The cage door swung open and a man in plainclothes motioned to Lando. “Let’s go, son. We’re going to have a little chat.”

Lando limped down the corridor and entered a room with a table and chairs. He took a seat across from another man in plainclothes.

“Coffee?” asked the second man.

Lando studied each one’s face in turn.

“Give it to him hot with plenty of sugar. He needs it after being in that cell. Did you know, kid, that it’s the coldest one in the place? It’s right next to the system. I’m Reilly, by the way, and my associate here is Lawless. We’re detectives.”

Lando grinned despite himself.

Reilly turned to Lawless. “It’s your last name. He thinks it’s funny.”

Lawless shrugged.

“So, you’re an agorist,” said Reilly.

Lando opened his mouth and the memory came back to him. Never talk to cops. He cocked an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s usually a smart move,” said Reilly, “to not talk to me. Except, in this case, you’re fucked ten ways to Sunday with these terrorism charges.” He sat back and interlaced his fingers behind his head.

Lawless spoke up. “I heard these IPEC guys are hot for him. Something about running an agorist bank outside the Fed?”

Lando struggled to suppress another grin. He ran his hands through his hair and slouched in the metal chair. He cleared his throat and sat up straight. “What about Alexis?”

“He has good taste, don’t you think?” Reilly asked Lawless.

Lawless nodded in approval.

Lando narrowed his eyes at them. “Is she okay? Or did you guys hurt her, too?”

“We had nothing to do with the fireworks display, kid. That was the boys in black,” said Reilly.

“Those guys ripped me off. They stole my bitcoin —“

“I don’t want to hear it,” said Reilly. He looked at Lando over a pair of reading glasses and wagged an index finger at him. “Can’t do anything about it. Don’t give a shit, either.”

Lando flared his nostrils and slouched into the metal chair.

“Now, tell us about this flag —“ started Reilly.

“How about some fucking medical treatment?” roared Lando. “Your dogs shot me when I wasn’t even conscious!” He crossed his arms and tightened his face.

“He wants to take a hard line,” said Lawless to Reilly. “He’s a street agorist. Gotta have a good story when he gets out.”

“He’s a terrorist!” said Reilly. He slammed his hand down on the metal table and stood up. “He’s not getting out! Listen, kid,” he said to Lando. “I’m the only thing standing between you and the feds. Have you thought about what IPEC is going to do to you?”

Episode 63: Snitch

“I tell all for fifteen to twenty,” said Lando. “Rat you and everyone else out.”

“Instead of?” asked Ryan.

“Life, of course.” Lando scowled at him. “You know how Three Strikes works. Three strikes and you’re done.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. He sat next to Lando on the steel shelf in the cell. “Right. I just hadn’t thought of it like that before.”

Lando bent over and looked Ryan in the eye. “You created … you know what … and you don’t think about sitting in a cage for the rest of your life? Are you kidding me?”

“And you do? You think about that?” asked Ryan.

“When I’m not worrying about my sister getting kidnapped, my dad dying or where the rent is coming from, uh, yeah!” Lando rolled his eyes.

Ryan stood up and paced again. “What’s the deal with your dad?”

“Cancer,” said Lando.

Ryan raised his eyebrows. “They have medication for that now. Just go to —“

Lando narrowed his eyes at him. “Not for illegals.”

“But I thought —“

“No,” said Lando. “It’s propaganda. They give us a Tylenol and a week later Homeland Security shows up at the house.”

“The black market, then.”

“You mean the agora? Expensive,” said Lando. “I’ve kept it at bay with high-CBD cannabis but he’s not getting that on the inside.”

“What are you going to do? Did they say anything about your family?”

Lando waved a hand over his shoulder. “They won’t do a damned thing for them. And we’ll win this thing before fifteen years are up. But I’ll be stuck in here the whole time, missing all the action and the fun.” Lando curled himself into the fetal position on the icy metal shelf.

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Episodes 60-63 of The Coup Conspiracy (dystopian cryptocurrency novel)