Fueling His Fire

[Sage]

The walked to the corner in silence. Sage wanted to look deeper into his head, but walking into things was never a fun course of action so he had to split his attention. Once well away from the coffee shop Brian asked, "You all right?"

Sage nodded. "Right as rain."
It was a lie, but it wasn't something he wanted to share with Brian either. His emotional baggage was not something the older man needed to see on top of his zoning. Brian would insist upon Sage seeing a shrink again. He'd done it before to the point that he scheduled a doctor to do a home visit. Which really only served one purpose - to piss Sage off. It had landed Grim a few shit hole assignments that came into the den. That's what the collective was for Sage - a place to send all the things he didn't want to do himself. Sometimes other hackers in the community did things on behalf of the collective on their own, but not usually. Sage was okay with that - just another aspect of his business model. Something he never thought he'd be - a business man, but basically that's what it came down to.

Brian took Sage to back to his apartment. The other man lived in a dive. He could afford to stay at the den, but he liked his digs he'd told Sage on many occasions. So be it but it was a shit hole.

Sage stood as Brian took a seat on the love seat that served as the only seating in the studio apartment and started stabbing away at his computer. Grim was one of the few hackers Sage let use the protection of the collective without actually being at the collective. "Sit down, dude, you make me nervous."

Sage looked dubiously at the red plush upholstery and frowned. "I think not."


Brian looked down at the grim encrusted cushion and rolled his eyes before flipping it over. "Better?"

With a sigh Sage sat down next to Brian. "Not much."


For the better part of two hours Grim jockeyed around a hidden server somewhere someplace that Brian refused to tell Sage. For two hours Sage watched as his mentor hacked his way no where. Two hours of wasted time...Two hours of his attention being on the screen in front of him instead of watching the periphery inside his head...