The Unexpected
Copyright© 2025 by Technocracy
Chapter 25
Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 25 - "If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out, and difficult." -- Heraclitus of Ephesus
Caution: This Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Consensual Heterosexual Fiction Science Fiction Violence
Carla’s Restaurant, Needham, Ma - 7 March 2010
Carla and her husband sat with Andrea, Doris, Harry, and Benny. Benny and Andrea were their most treasured customers, but not due to their wealth and frequent patronage, but because the unusual couple appreciated and relished and willingly sampled all offerings, providing sincere praise where due, and insight where they may have come up short of their culinary arts.
Harry, although not among the most favored patronage, remained a respected customer, as he was profuse with complements and of a largess in tips when their cooking was able to put Harry into gastronomic ecstasy. As was the case on this fine Saturday afternoon.
“Carla, I gotta say, this mole sauce is the best. Just like home. And where did you get these side habeneros?
Carla smiled at her husband, with an unsaid request to reply to Harry.
“My cousins and Carla’s cousins grew this back home.”
“Cuba or Puerto Rico? Where y’all get the seed?”
“From the habeneros and Jalapenos from your grower in Texas. I would say that Caribbean island soil seems to be much better than what is in Texas.”
“Yeah? Makes sense, we grow mostly melons and grapefruits, some strawberries, and a lotta cactus in that sandy, caliche loam. But mostly, we grow cattle in south Texas. So we got Texas peppers in Cuba and Puerto Rico? Texas will slowly take over the world, Benny.”
“I doubt that. Texas politicians and citizens are too busy drinking beer and watching football and raising cattle and pumping oil to effect any world domination through agriculture ... Carla, Harry was supposed to ask, but as he is not a dependable businessman while eating your food...”
“Bite me, Benny.”
“Such eloquence.”
“Double bite me, Benny...
Harry swallowed the mouthful of fish taco before continuing with his company arrangements.
“Anyway, we’re gonna have another SIG shindig in a month or so. So we need to know which Friday would be best to put on your schedule. I was thinking ‘bout setting up a full rig, and doin’ a pig on double spit. And fish tacos, and arroz con gandules, uh ... and something like that plate of carne frita con mofongo and vegetables I had last week ... oh yeah, and make sure y’all put that sofrito on stuff.”
“Did you not know?”
“Know what?”
“We will close at the end of the month. We can no longer afford this place. The new lease is much more. And business is down because of layoffs everywhere.”
“Say what?! ... Those clowns are increasing rent during a severe economic downturn? What the heck is wrong with people, Benny?”
“Uncertain, but I do agree, Harry. It makes no sense. Carla’s is a reliable tenant. In this economic climate, it would be difficult for the owner to find another tenant ... Doris, what do you know about this property?”
“Last I looked, most of the buildings on this block are severely leveraged. There are at least two that are extremely distressed. Many owners have removed much of the equity, such that the banks will get jingle-mail.”
“Deed in lieu of foreclosure?”
“Precisely, Benny.”
“What will the bank do in such case?”
“Most likely, nothing. They’ll just sit on their properties with non-performing loans in an attempt to prop up real estate valuations, while hoping that their ledgers don’t get reviewed by the FDIC.”
Benny and Harry exchanged looks of determination. Harry nodded to his friend to go ahead.
“Doris, if you would, please see Robert about registering a new REIT. Perhaps the time is right for our internal portfolio’s return to the commercial real estate business, at a much larger scale ... Carla, would yourself and Alfonso mind working for me?”
“Work for you? I do not understand, Benny. You would buy our restaurant? Why would you buy a business that does not own anything other than twenty-two tables and a hundred chairs?”
“Doris, you would be better, please explain the business particulars.”
“I believe that your land-lord is in a panic situation and isn’t thinking long-term. He’s probably desperate to service his debt. We would propose to buy the owner’s debt, in direct, per the title; that is, via a simple quit-claim. We’d also buy your business debt, for consideration of your corporate good will and any copyrighted material or trademarks. But there would be imperative terms, principally, you and Alfonso must both agree to stay for a while. You and Alfonso are central to the success of this place.”
Carla sat stunned. She was unable to say anything. Her husband did reply with business issues.
“Benny, this is most ... it is unexpected. But how will we, and my employees, be compensated? We have no working money to run the business.”
Benny raised his ‘Spock’ eyebrow to his friends. Harry did not hesitate with a generous offer.
“Tell ya what, Alfonso. How ‘bout 100k in US legal-tender samolians for you, and 120k for your wife. She is the better cook. And we’ll match your existing employee pay package and benefits.”
“We have never been able to provide any benefits to our workers.”
“Yeah? Ya know what, Benny? What if we make ‘em all SIG employees? Like we did with the bakery. Then they get in on our benefit package. But more important, if we’re the owners, they’ll have to keep making burritos with cilantro and peanut butter and Doritos.”
Carla did a mock blanch, thinking of Harry’s whimsy per his ritual desecration of her masterpiece grilled-pork burritos. But times were tough, and ‘painful’ concessions to her art would have to be made to the restaurant’s new employers. She also well aware that Benny and Harry had saved the livelihoods of a dozen people.
SIG, Needham, Ma -
Benny was puzzling over the combination dead-bug and wire-wrap boards that the two new techs had produced. Only one of the three was built per his schematic, and the one that was correctly built, did not use the type of capacitors per the BoM, and had substituted a low-grade LM324 for the specified LT1014 op amps. But what really frosted Benny was that the chips had been soldered in, instead of using machined IC socket tails. Benny was livid. He said nothing as he left the lab to find Doris.
“ ... I do not care, Doris. Remember what I said when you and Mike found these people?”
“Yes, but they have been here less than a month. Maybe they just need more time to adjust.”
“Give them time for what? Adjust to what? Adjust to doing what they are told to do? If we give them more time, then they will waste more of my time. Immediate termination, Doris. I’ll have Henry put someone in your office for security.”
Doris shrugged acquiescence to Benny, then requested Cindy Havershime to bring the two erstwhile technicians to her office.
Cindy delayed a second, unsure if it was her place to speak.
“Uh ... Doris?”
“Yes, dear?”
“I know some people that just graduated from Bunker Hill. I don’t know much about electrical stuff, but I know both of them, they’re in the neighboring apartment. They’re pretty smart. They completed the two-year engineering transfer program, but can’t afford to continue in a four-year school.”
Doris shrugged, thinking it was worth a try. Mike Frothers had warned Doris that replacing Mason Johnson would be, yet another, sisyphean task. Doris had nothing but more time to lose, so she resigned herself to talking to these two unknowns.
“Okay, tell them to call me. Now let’s get this over with. Go to Benny’s lab and bring them to my office, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The acridly sweet smell of burnt flesh was starting to annoy Harry. A frequent occurrence when Benny became impatient and careless with the soldering iron.
“ ... Benny, it’s a lot different than just three or four years ago. They’re too many pretenders out there for any of this to be predictable. Everybody, and their dog, is trying to play our HST game.”
“Why should we care? It is an open market.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying for almost two years. It’s too open. And with the fed’s ‘easing’ policy, there’s too much cash pouring into the system, so ETF-induced bouncing is going global. Everybody wants an easy piece of the pie.”
“Global? In what manner is quantitative easing affecting global cash flows?”
“For starters, the downward pressure on the foreign exchange value. Which is why Doris pulled out funds remaining in currency-trades accounts, and some of the equities that depend on specific types of imports.”
“Why?”
“Every time the feds flood us with cash, exchange rates tank, so we get upward pressure on foreign asset prices.”
“Again, so what?”
“You’re making this hard, Benny. Quit playing stupid. We’ve been talking ‘bout monetary policy for at least ten years.”
“So what is our risk?”
“Short-term exchange crashes. There’s too many idiots playing roulette with automated high-speed trades, and none have the fancy stops or synchronized feedback loops that we built into our systems.”
“Again, what is the risk? Give me a number, Harry.”
“Wouldn’t be hard to crank the Dow five percent in a few heart beats. Maybe ten percent if you loop it for thirty minutes or so.”
“None of the western exchanges have anything that would slow down or disconnect these high-speed ETF sequences?”
“Are ya kidding? My cats could walk on my keyboard and cause thousands of front-running trades, and none of the exchanges would notice. At least not until it takes a big dump.”
“So my initial conjecture and resultant proposal would be correct. We should go over fifty per cent real estate. And perhaps park more in cash?”
Harry paused to stare at Benny, wondering if maybe his friend had, once again, hit the nail dead on the head. He knew that Benny denied it was gut instinct, but at times, denials of his using intuition conflicted with his lack of supporting data for such cases. Harry had never ignored Benny’s measured recommendations. They had never missed a ‘Big Move’, and Harry was not about to mess with their record.
“Yep. Hafta agree that’s the best route to take. Doris and me will talk to Robert after we review the reports on those San Jose and LA buildings. We’ve also started looking at San Diego and Austin ... Ya know what? The heck with all this preliminary goat-roping. I’ll have Robert start on two more REIT registrations tomorrow.”
“Am I supposed to be surprised and ask of your sudden reconsideration and exiting ETFs?”
“Nah. No need to get dramatic ‘bout it. But your hankering to change our investment vehicles didn’t happen over night. What gives?”
“Andy gave me a few ideas. Then I had Lizzy write me a front-end to the Market Relaxation databases. It was ... well, it was disconcerting. And I have been watching Berkshire Hathaway.”
“Yeah? So what’s the old man from Omaha saying?”
“They have had no large acquisitions for almost two years. His silence is deafening. Remember when you sent me his speech on the problems with sovereign debt?”
“Yep. And?”
“So, I looked at more than just his premises for investing, I wanted to see Buffet’s patterns. He likes insurance, but not equities. He likes bonds, but not currency. Why? What have we failed to measure properly, or what have we failed to measure at all? Buffet does not miss anything important, so we must have; I fear that we may have failed to observe something important.”
“You’re not giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling ... I dunno, Benny. Ya need to back away and give yourself a bigger view of this circus. Buffet is playing a different game than us; so he’s gonna have different metrics. And here’s the kicker, Buffet buys the company, he ain’t just buying their stock.”
“A platitude? That is not much of a market analysis.”
“Not platitudes. It’s a truth. Watch him, but don’t go hog wild on what Buffet does or doesn’t do. We’re not in the same business, Benny.”
Benny gave his friend a knowing smile, thinking that Harry had, again, made it obvious that Harry was the economist, and he was only the engineer. Benny knew when to leave well enough alone, and get back to his circuit-design efforts.
SIG - 06 May 2010
Harry and Doris abruptly pushed in the double engineering lab doors and came streaming into Benny’s holiest of places.
“Benny, I could kiss you!”
“Please do not.”
“Ya watching this crazy stuff going on?”
“Do you see a TV in this lab?”
“We just had a flash.”
“A what?”
“Flash Crash. Dow dumped a kilo-point in less than fifteen minutes. And nobody knows why. It was freaking beautiful.”
“One thousand points? What was the close?”
“Dunno, last I looked, it had bounced back fast, and was over ten point five thousand. The S&P500 was down around eight percent, but came back to less than a one per cent differential. So, everything mostly recovered. But think about it, a freaking trillion in market value vanished, then mostly reappeared. This is so wild.”
Benny was uncertain as to the basis for Harry’s economic glee.
“What is Wall Street saying?”
“They’re sucking their thumbs and crying for mommy.”
“To use one of your previous analogies, did someone’s cat walk across a keyboard?”
“Probably not. I’d bet that some self-appointed genius found a way to game the system, doing puts too fast then immediately buying on the bounce. Some of the analysts are trying to say it was only a panic sell-off because Greece is not handling their debt, but they’re blowing smoke because they don’t want the SEC to further regulate ETFs, not to mention all the makers that are running with layering and stub quotes. Ain’t computers just freaking wonderful?”
“Did we incur significant losses?”
“Nah. All three funds are essentially in a cash position, mostly because we’re pending the fourteen buildings that Robert is working, and Doris set aside a bucket of money for the bonus distributions. Getting back into real estate and holding cash was your idea. You’re the man, Benny.”
“Actually, the general idea originated from Andy. Go tell her. She’s feeling somewhat depressed today. Inform Andy of her investment genius ... Doris, what will remain of the general pool once we return the gains to Stewart and Google?”
“Assuming the seven per cent load, plus yours and Harry’s contractual cut, then bonus money, I’ll estimate a little north of 700 million. That’s after we close the land and building deals. But Harry said that Stewart is still making noise - did Robert so inform you?”
“Robert said something yesterday to Andy and me about setting up off-shore accounts to enable direct transfer of federal monies. I do not like the idea, it reeks of a modality used by organized crime and by tax evaders. Andy agreed with me. We do it using Google’s internal corporate investment account. Everything will remain clear and in the open, or we do no business with Stewart. I still believe that the man is attempting to avoid accountability to the taxpayer.”
Harry shrugged at his friend, with an emphasis on a dismissive hand-wave that accompanied his response.
“Geez, quit being so puritanical. Ain’t no one pure as the driven snow.”
“One would think that wind-driven snow, as compared to a vertically-frozen precipitate, would have the most impurities, per the atmospheric path such that...”
“Bite me, Benny.”
Benny sat on the small couch next to Andrea’s desk, watching her closely as she read the quarterly report compiled by Doris and Robert. Benny was committed to ending his wife’s low mood. He adored her too much to allow Andrea any manner of depression.
Benny adored the way Andrea flicked the errant strands of her silken black hair. Her long hair oft strayed into her eyes. Benny considered that her reading glasses added, exponentially, to her cuteness factor.
“Stop, my love.”
“Stop what? I remain seated. I have not spoken.”
“I cannot think when I feel that from you. You know that. Go into the lab.”
Benny smirked at his wife, closed his eyes, then concentrated on the many things he liked about Andrea.
“Benny! No! ... Cannot read more...”
Andrea pushed up from her chair carefully making her way around the edge of her desk to sit next to Benny.
“You are mean.”
“I love you, Andy.”
Benny reached above his shoulder to close the blinds of the office window, then pulled Andrea onto his lap. After a few kisses, Benny carefully placed his hand under her blouse, cupping an impossibly soft and warm breast.
Benny could ‘hear’ Andrea’s mind opening to his. Leaving his hand on her breast, Benny pulled Andrea’s head closer with his other hand, so that their foreheads were touching. Benny’s intense feelings of hunger for Andrea, coupled with a sense of profound affection, washed over Andrea. Benny pulled his wife’s brain further into an avalanche of neurotransmitters; a synaptic surge of dopamine-induced rapture.
“Não! Demais.”
“You are never too much, Andy. Eu não me canso de ti. Amo-te, Andy.”
As Andrea’s involuntary convulsions started, Benny held her tightly, hearing and feeling the intense emotive explosions in Andrea’s mind.
Benny could feel Andrea’s strong heart pulse. He could feel her muscles tense and the deep expansion and contraction of her lungs. Benny’s ardor drove him to feel everything about his woman. There were few modern humans that had ever felt the totality of their mate. Benny sought such totality of these feelings from Andrea.
Needham, Ma
Brandon Hayes drove an SIG company van into the alley, parking under the apartment stairs.
“Going to work the bag tonight?”
When Benny did not answer, Brandon looked back to where the couple were seated, voicing his concerns.
“You two okay, doc? You’re both quiet tonight.”
“We are a bit tired. Good night, Brandon.”
“See ya, doc.”
Andrea smiled as Benny lifted her out of the van, thinking of the reason she had been slumped against her husband during the drive home. Bliss was a weak description for Andrea’s state.
At each intimate encounter with her husband, whether sexual or not, Andrea’s brain chemistry and pathways had become further modified for the production of oxytocin when in the presence of Benny. Andrea’s increasing bond to her husband was without equal. Her changing neural chemistry disabled any option she had other than for her unconditional love of Benny.
Upon entering their apartment, Andrea whispered into Benny’s ear.
“Meu amor, leva-me para a cama. I am for you, my love.”
Hearing his wife’s needs and her offering, Benny again sought their special connection. At such times, Benny’s brain had been incrementally re-wired to optimize acetylcholine production, heightening the connections to Benny’s frontal lobe. These extended periods of acetylcholine release, increased Benny’s skeletal musculature control and a response to the level of an olympic athlete, as per the augmented neural calcium channels. For the remainder of the evening, Benny put his highly-effective muscle-control pathways and enhanced axon releases to good use.
SIG, Needham, Ma - 1050 AM, 07 June 2010
Benny regarded Stewart with a masked scorn, mostly because the Marines had seen fit to promote the ethically-challenged man to brigadier. Harry’s disdain for General Stewart was not masked. He stood to support the company lawyer’s rejection of terms.
“ ... and ya heard Robert. We ain’t gonna do it. And if you shut us down, you’ll cook the goose that’s layin’ your gold eggs.”
Brian and Henry sat along the wall of the conference room, carefully regarding the two Marine officers. Brian remained rather smug, having been allowed to forcefully separate the young Marine captain from his hidden sidearm. Henry noted with interest that Stewart had acted as if he had fully expected SIG security personnel to disarm his errant officer.
“Doctor Spoons we are aware of the two locations that retain full documentation to your systems. And we know who has access.”
Robert stood to make his statement.
“General, if that is a threat, you would be ill-advised to attempt a retrieval of the computer tapes and DVDs. There are both mechanical and personnel fail-safes in place.”
“We have surmised of such precautions. And we do understand that any attempt to recover your documentation would be pointless. We further understand that both Doctor Spoons’ and Doctor Harrison’s cooperation would be required to build these trading machines. We do not seek to usurp your business. But we do need to monitor and control foreign access to your systems.”
“General, Henry van Doreen and our IT manager are doing just that. Your people need to provide specificity. You most inform Henry of these particular threats.”
“I will provide the one immediate threat. Alfonso and Carla Rodriguez. They have indirect ties to several anti-American nation-states and groups through both Cuba and Puerto Rico.”
“You cannot be serious. Alfonso is naturalized. He escaped from communist Cuba and must have been cleared to be granted citizenship.”
“Colonel van Doreen? Did you not inform your employers?”
“I did. There are no Carla Restaurant employees having access to this building. And they have no connection to SIG operations other than being benefited employees of SIG. What is the risk-assessment basis for any potential threat?”
“Captain, please leave the room. Doctor Harrison, I request that Mrs Harrison and Mrs Spoons also leave the room.”
Harry stood to make his point to Stewart.
“No. They stay.”
Doris, figuring that their physical presence in the conference room was not a requirement to hear any proceedings, calmed her husband.
“It’s okay, baby. Let’s go, sweety.”
The remaining men watched the captain and the two women exit the conference room, with much concern.
“ ... and that is not realistic. This is four degrees of separation, and what, thirty years ago? And I would not care if the man was even the son of Fidel Castro himself, because Alfonso is an American. He came over here when he was 10, on that Mariel boat-lift mess. As for Carla, more power to her cousin for being a supposed revolutionary - so was George Washington for that matter. Perhaps we should make Puerto Rico independent. They can’t possibly make it more nepotistic and corrupt than we did in the banana republics or the Philippines.”
While Stewart did not expect that particular political response from Harry, his rejection of the security rationale held no surprises.
“You have an interesting take on socio-political matters, Doctor Spoons. Do you agree, Doctor Harrison?”