Chatter | short story
The world is a lonely place. It only seems to be getting lonelier. For one scammer named Kidlat, he's banking on that loneliness, but soon he will learn just how much lonelier the world will become.
The cracked screen of Kidlat’s smartwatch flashed on as the device buzzed around his wrist. It was enough to rouse him from his shallow sleep.
His body jerked instinctively, unknotting the thin sheets from around his nearly-nude body. The apartment high-rise was sweltering as usual, awash with the muffled sounds of children playing and workers busying themselves in the cramped halls and courtyards, preparing for their days. Kidlat peered in the darkness, shot through with beams of light leaking from the cracks in the walls, down at his wrist through the mesh blanket.
It was his handler. Kidlat groaned.
He saw too that there was a string of missed texts on his WhatsApp. Swinging his legs over the side of the bunk, he pawed for a pair of shorts balled up on the ground nearby as he swiped to answer.
“Kumusta?” he said, hushed, into the watch face.
“Kid, I need you to sign in to Audrey,” his handler said, their throat sounding dry on the exhale. Kidlat imagined a plume of peach-scented vapor pouring from his mouth as he sat poolside in Miami, a place Kidlat had never been and had no illusions about ever getting to.
“Ok,” Kidlat replied in his robust Filipino accent. “Same guy?” he asked, pulling a tank-top over his head.
“Same guy,” his handler answered. “See if you can get him to bite.”
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