BLANK VENDETTA

Chapter 03: The Third Musketeer

Blank Richard was awakened by the sound of a motorcycle zooming over his apartment. He threw on some clothes, grabbed his switchblade, and ran up the sub-basement ramp of the old Network 23 building.

"Stop!" he called out to the couple on the Honda. "This is private property!"

But they either didn't hear him or were just ignoring him.

Blank Bryce and Blank Cadenet ran up the stairs to the thirteenth floor and through the door that led to the corridor.

In the old Research and Development lab,they fell together onto the first Bryce Lynch's bed, both kissing as they hit the mattress.

Cadenet began to unzip Blank Bryce's vest, but she stopped him.

"Someone's in the hall," she warned, scrambling to her feet as the door opened again.

"You two are trespassing on my property," Blank Richard said.

"Does the name Bryce Lynch mean anything to you?" Cadenet asked.

"Bryce Lynch is dead," Blank Richard said. "My father told me about him when I was ten. Before I ran away from home."

"Bryce Lynch was my father," Blank Bryce told him. "And my namesake. Come on. Let's get out of this lab. If I can't get laid I at least want to have the cigarette."

She strolled out of the lab while Richard and Cadenet watched her in disbelief.

"Nice girl," Richard remarked.

In the car park, Richard and Cadenet caught up with Blank Bryce.

"What are you two up to anyhow?" Richard asked.

"Can't say," Blank Bryce told him.

"Look, I won't rat," Richard told them. "I have no love for Tyrant Ellis. Hypocrite shuts down TV because he claims it was too controlling. Then there's a mandatory Sunday Matinee about how great our new government is every week."

"Why don't we just skip out on the next one and meet back here? Surely we can miss one stupid movie." Cadenet said.

"You didn't hear the radio report about the busload of school kids and the driver who missed the last one because their bus broke down, did you?" Blank Bryce asked. "They were taken to the asylum and lobotomized. All of them."

"It's true," Richard said. He'd also heard the report. "Once you've missed a week of conditioning you're seen as a threat to national stability. They will hunt you down and do exactly what they did to those poor kids."

"If I can get the nanite program back online," Blank Bryce said, stepping out her cigarette, "There may be a way to stop all that."

"Easier said than done." Cadenet said.

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