Chapter 7: Unlocking a New Enablement

After Cody’s adventure to the casino, he realized his income problem was solved. He could return to the casino, or target other establishments for cash when his stash ran low. The real problem was how to explain his income to his parents. He investigated data entry jobs that were advertised online and found that they were work-from-home. The pay was shit but there was little oversight, and it would give him a paper trail for his income, even if it was much lower than what he spent.

Cody started his new job at Data Domain Experts in mid-December. He was to log into his account every morning and look at the available files. He would claim a file, download it, and them manually transpose the data from the file into form fields that were created to match the file’s data. Most of the files contained free-text responses from online surveys or transcripts with phone calls to support centers.

It was boring laborious work that paid $1.53 per kilobyte of the file size downloaded. After working for a week, Cody did a few calculations and found that he was doing on average about ten kilobytes per hour, or roughly $15.30 per hour. As mind-numbing as the work was, he tried to do twenty-five to thirty hours of work per week. He realized that he had access to a trove of personal information that someone could parlay into a large payday if they were so inclined. He was not. This was just a cover job to explain his income.

When not mindlessly entering data into a form, Cody was always thinking of ways to improve his methods. With his teleport enablement he was able to grow his previously defined pattern of expanding circles and cities. His new heuristic was still based on random selection, but he was not limited to the practical limitations of physically traveling to his target locale.

The week after his first teleportation, Cody went back to the casino to meet Jewel. As promised, she was there when he arrived and seemed genuinely happy to see him when he sat in the empty chair.

“Hey stranger,” Cody said as he sat.

“Larry,” exclaimed Jewel.

His faced must have registered his confusion because Jewel immediately looked startled. As if she had called him by the wrong name.

Cody chuckled. “Larry, right. That’s actually my middle name. I go by Cody. Sometimes, on a lark, I’ll introduce myself as Larry. Then I’m usually confused when someone actually calls me by that name.”

Jewel was smiling and nodding her head. “I do the same thing. Of course, I don’t use the name Larry. My go-to-name is Eunice.”

Cody could not hold back his laugh.

“Right?” she said. “Without warning, most look at me like you would expect – as a ninety-year old woman.”

“I can see how that could turn off any would-be suitors right away.”

“Exactly,” she said. She lifted her glass and drained what beer remained and motioned for the waitress to bring her and Cody another round.

They only stayed at the bar long enough to finish their next round of beers when Jewel cut through any pretense and asked Cody if he’d like to come to her place for a nightcap.

“Sounds great,” he said with a grin and helped Jewel to her feet. They were parked on opposite sides of the lot so Cody walked Jewel to her car and let her drive him to where he was parked. He then followed her to her apartment.

“I love your apartment,” he said sincerely. It was a small two-bedroom apartment with an open floor plan for the kitchen, living room, and dining room all rolled into one big space. A couch separated the space and helped define the boundary between the dining room and living room.

One wall was dominated by a four foot by seven foot painting. It appeared to be Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the original sin. They were nude. Adam had his arm over Eve’s shoulder, her arm was around his waist. They were watching the sun rise over a mountain ridge and there was a soft yellow glow to the image.

Cody stood transfixed at the image, then his head cocked and he looked from the painting to Jewel, and then back to the painting.

“Is that you? Eve?” he asked.

Jewel stood next to Cody and looked at the painting before speaking.

“Yeah,” Jewel replied. “My roommate in college minored in art. She needed a model for her final project and talked me into posing.”

Before Cody could ask, Jewel continued, “And for your next question, the guy is no one in particular. He is a combination of what we, early twenty-something undergraduates, considered the best male specimen. As you can see, I was into broad shoulders and tight abs. Renee was fascinated with big dicks.”

Cody looked and saw that Adam was indeed very well endowed in the painting.

“I told her not to overdo my boobs. She ended up underselling Eve’s chest. It looks a b-cup. I’m a c- to d-cup. She also added a bush since I was hairless through college.”

Cody stole a glance at Jewel and confirmed that the mounds on her chest proudly stood out much further than what appeared to be represented in the painting.

“Artistic interpretations aside, it is a great painting.”

Jewel had left Cody’s side and returned with a glass of wine. She handed it to him as she looked back at the painting.

“She’s been offered ten-thousand dollars for it. I won’t let her sell it. At first, I didn’t want anyone to see it and know that it was me that posed. Now, I’ve fallen in love with it and won’t part with it for money.”

“Did that create a sore spot with Renee?” asked Cody.

“No,” laughed Jewel. “It inspired her to paint more nudes. She’s probably made a hundred thousand dollars on her Garden of Eden nudes over the past several years.”

Cody raised his eyebrows and whistled.

“And to top it off, painting is only her hobby. Her day job is a graphic designer for a marketing firm.”

Jewel went for the opened bottle of wine, then led them to the couch. They talked comfortably for over an hour, discussing current jobs, hobbies, families, and relationships. Cody downed the last of the wine in his glass and his gaze returned to the painting. He was mesmerized.

“Penny for your thoughts?” asked Jewel.

Somewhat glassy-eyed, Cody looked back to Jewel and asked, “Can I see them for real?”

At first, Cody and Jewel saw each other about two times a month. At that rate, it was easy for Cody to continue meeting his obligations for The Onyx. When they started to get serious and see each other more frequently, it became harder for Cody to execute his daily kills. Luckily, he got a new enablement that made his tasks much easier.