A Message

Sam woke up with a groan. His nose felt the size of a melon. Boris had "fixed him up" last night after half a bottle of Vodka and following that he had knocked back the other half and settled down for some family time with Tina. He rolled out of bed reached for his dressing gown. It was still covered in blood.

"Damn it." he threw the gown onto the top of his laundry basket, or as he liked to call it, his "someday maybe pile," and stumbled over to his wardrobe to pick out something. He pulled a black polo out and frowned down at it.

"Nope that does not bring me joy." he muttered and threw it over his shoulder. Several more items followed until he settled on a knitted woollen jumper with a large daisy on the front. It was too big but it was comfortable and he pulled it over his head.

As he walked into the bathroom Tina flickered into life sitting on the end of the bed putting on her stockings.

"Morning sweety." she looked up and greeted him.

"Oh hey." he managed as he started to take a piss. It seemed to go on forever, how much vodka had he downed last night?

"Remember you got that message from Sirius yesterday honey."

"Huh, oh yeah thanks." he took a look at himself in the mirror, a touched the white dressing that Boris had placed over his nose with a wince.

"Boris says you are to leave that alone." Tina chided as she followed him into the bathroom. "You going to take a shower this morning?" she asked.

"No.. no not this morning." he said walking through her back into the bedroom. She giggled as if it had tickled her.

He sat on the end of the bed and activated his AR storage to read the message from Sirius. There was a crackle of static as his systems approximated the young hackers voice.

"You keeping pigs as well as cows there now Sam? We need to talk..." brief and to the point that was Sirius to the core. So he had seen Rodriguez, shit that would take some explaining.

"Where's Boris?" he asked Tina and she cocked her head to one side for a moment as if thinking then answered brightly,

"Oh he's down stairs watering the plants."

Sam opened the door to the basement took a deep breath before walking down the stairs. He hated it down there, that was one of the many reasons he had hired Boris. Being underground gave him the creeps, like the earth could swallow him up at any moment. He should see a shrink, but any self respecting psychologist would probably report him to OSEC and get him locked up.

First door on the right was open revealing a sparse little room where Boris slept. He wondered absently where the guys went to the bathroom? One of lifes little mysteries he supposed. Stopping at a vacuum sealed door he punched a code into the nearby wall panel and there was a soft hiss as it opened inwards.

"Good morning Sam." Boris called cheerfully from between the rows of towering marijuana plants. He was spraying the green with a chemical concoction of his own devising. There came a loud "Mooooooooooo" from the far side of the room where Daisy stood chewing on her breakfast.

"Daisy, she is pleased to see you I think." Boris said as he put down the chemical hose and walked over.

"Yeah, good to see her too." Sam replied impatiently, "Do you get a chance to work on that AR module I asked for?"

"Ah yes, give one moment and I fetch." Boris hurried over to a computer terminal on the right hand wall and began to tap away at the screen. He began to chuckle to himself, "You are a funny guy Sam. Here we go."

He waved Sam over to place his hand on the upload plate, a small glass screen to the left of the main console. Boris tapped the upload command and Sam felt a soft buzz in the base of his spine and a tingle on his palm as the AR data-stream was engaged. When they were done he could feel the new programme nestling in.

"Thanks Boris."

"No problem boss." the big man replied with a cheerful smile.

Back in his office Sam settled in to compile a message to Sirius. He thought for a moment about the best location and then peering at the street cam monitor his eyes fell on a full screen ad for a basket ball game...why not? He tapped into his system and booked two tickets to the Stars vs Harlequins game that night. Crunching the data into an AR package he activated his new programme and a shaggy grey dog appeared on the ground before him and barked twice.

"Good boy!" Sam replied, now go deliver the message to Sirius. In a blink the dog was gone.

\*\*\*

Sirius looked up from his screen to see a shaggy grey dog standing in his room looking up at him. It barked and then paced back and forth as it waited for Sirius to acknowledge it. Satisfied it crouched and gawped up at Sirius with a look of wide eyed self consciousness as it laid a virtual turd on the carpet before vanishing.

The deposited item was of course more that it appeared to be and the AR package contained an E-ticket to that evenings Downtown Basketball game. Seat E7 and seven pm.