As promised, more free fiction, to keep you going whilst you wait for your copy of No Good Deed. Excited? I am. This very short flash is from about 2009, so a very early effort. Maybe you'll be able to tell. Leave a comment, if you like, just to show I'm not talking to myself.

Beta Max

[Image by Rob Bixby - JaxZoo_12-16-12-4579.jpg edited to b/w in gimp licence CC by 2.0]

Max looked at Vic; sketched in the fur around the just-perceptible jowls. Vic's mouth was moving, the jowls were on the point of jiggling. Six months and they would be, he thought. The flat palm crashing on the desk shook him enough to catch the last few words. 'Shape up, or ship out!' Max stifled a snigger. Vic must have been the last man in Leeds to be wearing red braces. Still, it went with his corporate-speak, didn't it? Max would have bet Vic listened exclusively to 80's music. Max was almost out the door when Vic asked for the notebook. He gave it to him. Vic riffled the pages. Naturally he found the drawing. More a caricature, really. 'Look, Max. This just won't do, I mean it. It's dog eat dog. The alpha male leads the pack. Get it done.' He tossed the notebook back. No surprise that Vic hadn't recognised himself in the drawing of the bonobo. He didn't see much that was right in front of him, Max reckoned. The door swung wide; Laetitia stepped back guiltily; gave Max a half a smile. The bottom half. 'Don't worry, Max. He's just feeling his oats. Younger wife, eh? Mrs Hunter was on the phone for half an hour, when he came in.' She said. Max went down several floors to his office. Fewer floors than when they'd all been in The City. The corporate entertainment suite was still there: the top floor of the old head office. Vic was going to be entertaining some Saudis in The City for a couple of days. Max trotted the last few yards to his office. He wanted to be in when Mrs Hunter, Sally, called. He'd knock off early and pick up the flowers and a bottle. The alpha male leads the pack, all right. The female bonobo enjoys sexual relations for pleasure, though.