Novels by Shmodo

Another day doing the same old routine. Aria had just clocked in and changed into her uniform. Mary was chattering away about some more nonsense that Aria was pretty sure never happened. Today’s tale was about how she had gone to a club and met a man who looked like a Greek god. Blah, blah, blah. Same old story. Stories about meeting famous people like it was the most amazing thing ever, but Aria never really cared about whoever Mary thought was amazing. She talked about meeting businessmen, like the CEO of BMW and the ambassador of Australia. Like really, who cared? Aria didn’t. She just wanted to get done with work and go home. An expanding world that included other people wasn’t something Aria desired nor deserved.

Flynn sat on a window ledge with his long legs dangling outside, swinging back and forth like a kid trying to get a swing moving. Today was a colossally fucked day. Like most days since his life went to shit, he had varying degrees of bad. They went from bad to fucked to super fucked to colossally fucked. On colossally fucked days, he ended up on ledges. The question was, would this be the day he finally ended his pathetic puppet life? Would he finally grow some balls and cut the strings? Descend into the sweet embrace of oblivion.

Stupid Bash Brolin. What made him think he could just call and Mest would give a crap about whatever stupid shit Flynn Sylvan got himself into. He already tried to talk someone off the ledge before and failed, he wasn’t going to be bothered to do so again. Mest returned to the piles of paper on his desk. He was working on a high-profile case. One for a man who loved to carve up women. The man was guilty, but Mest didn’t care. All he cared about was winning. He could have gone into business law like his brothers had, like his father and uncles had, but something about criminal law spoke to the darker part of Mest. He didn’t care about what his clients did, all he cared

Bash sat in his office, exhausted. He had spent the last six months working nonstop on a humanitarian project to help poverty-stricken communities in Southern Asia. He chose this area, not because he knew they needed help, but because of Aria. Much of his life’s decisions were made because of her. Although he had given up openly searching for her, he still hoped that he’d run into her again. Since she was half-Korean, he had hoped she would be hiding in Asia. It was the whole hide a tree in a forest scenario. He knew she spoke some Mandarin and Cantonese, which would make the chances she was hiding out in China or some smaller country in Southern Asian more probable than her

Moar sat in his seat as his plane descended into the Hong Kong International Airport. He was there for business. It was always business with him. A little sad really. His entire life revolved around work. Against all his high ideas and plans, Moar had turned into the one thing he hated the most: every member of his family. It was all about the money to them. Smooze and woe clients, destroy the little guy and rule the corporate world. The Lights have managed to do this, and now they were moving on to the political sector. Moar’s older brother, Simon, was running for congress in New York State. This left complete control over Light International to Moar.

Aria sighed as she scrubbed what had to be the hundredth toilet of the day. She had to keep reminding herself that it was a job. It wasn’t the most glamorous job, but it was a job that paid her in cash and asked her no personal questions. The best kind of job for her at the moment. Doing mundane tasks were best, as it didn’t require her to think too much. It was never good to think. When she thought, her mind inevitably brought up the past. A past she would rather forget. Why remember that which she can never have again? It hurt more than it should. “Lex,” Mary said from the hallway. “Aren’t you done yet?”

One Day Ago… “Sir,” Hartley said. “Did you find her?” Ralphe asked, excited. He could not believe it. After over two decades, he had finally located Number 1. “Yes, she’s in Pandora,” Hartley re

One Week Ago… “What do you mean she’s not there?” Shannon asked the nervous looking man sitting before him. “Agent Thistle is not in Chaos, she’s heading towards Pandora,” the man muttered. “On

Two Weeks Ago… Shannon waited. Ever since he let Tallulah go, he had expected Rachel to call him, but he had had no direct contact with Rachel for months now. What was she up too? His new assistant tapped on his door. “Yes?”

Three Weeks Ago… “Have you found her?” Ralphe asked Number 18 as he entered his office. “No, Doctor,” Number 18 replied. “She had been relocated again before I got there and no one knew where she went.”

One Month Ago… “What’s wrong?” Tallulah asked as she sat down in one of the chairs facing Shannon. “What do you mean?” Shannon asked, pretending to be concentrating on the paperwork before him.

Two Months Ago… It took him over a month for Ralphe to finally finish his work on Number 18. Using a rare afternoon when Hartley was gone, Ralphe brought Number 18 in to give him his objectives. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” Ralphe asked as he finished ordering Number 18 to locate and retrieve Number 1.