May Speculative Fiction – One Hundred Million Dollar Man

Pixabay image by Brigitte Werner
One Hundred Million Dollar Man
He gazed in the mirror, examined the right side of his body. The crisscross intertwined wires on his arm and hand resembled the veins and blood vessels. Screws joined the wires at the junctures of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger joints. The metal on his right chest resembled the rib cage except it extended to the waistline. Inside the rib cage was a mercury-like lung. He smiled and switched the focus on the right arm, beamed with the left eye, zoomed in and out to magnify the images. He blinked and the zooming was gone. He blinked again, any movement of the dust in the air caused an acute alertness.
“Honey, your manager Mr. Pacheco is here.”
“Thank you, dear. I’ll be right there.” He folded the right hand into a fist with a squeeze, the skin on the face and the right side of his body closed with no trace of wires and metal.
“Hi Ron.”
“Xylon, let’s step outside to talk.”
Xylon crabbed a shirt to put on while walking outside.
“For the next fight, Mr. Marlow wants you to do a knockout in 15 seconds. That would put you on #1 of the Heavyweight Knockouts. He doesn’t want to mess around with the sissy exchanges.”
“No problem, Ron.”
“He also wants you to blow his brain out.”
“I can’t do that. His wife and my wife are friends.”
“You don’t have to kill him, just make sure he doesn’t bounce back.”
“I can do that much. I’m just not a killer.”
“You’re lucky. When the car crashed into the side of our car, it smashed half of your body. I phoned Mr. Marlow, and he instructed me to take you to Dr. Lebedev’s lab. Doc’s experiment was 1% from being perfect but Mr. Marlow wanted him to fix you anyway.”
“I’m thankful Doc saved my life.”
“We’ll take you to Dr. Lebedev for maintenance once a month. We can’t guarantee what you got is all you need to be alive. Mr. Marlow made a one hundred million dollar investment on you. He also made an investment on Dr. Lebedev’s research to perfect you.”
“I owe Mr. Marlow my life.”
“You do. He has great plans for you. He wants to pay a visit to the Federal Union Bank next Tuesday. Your eye will come in handy and you’ll unlock the code for the vault within 30 seconds.”
“This is going too far. I’m a fighter, not a criminal, Ron.”
“You don’t want to argue with Mr. Marlow. He saved you and wants your family to have a comfortable life.”
“What does it have anything to do with my family?”
“This is the end of our conversation. We’ll pick you up next Tuesday at 1:00 p.m.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This post is written in response to Diana Wallace Peach‘s May Speculative Fiction #Writingprompt. If interested, click the link to find out how it works. You have until May 23rd to submit a response. Happy Writing!
May Speculative Fiction – One Hundred Million Dollar Man
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I love what you did with Diana’s prompt, Miriam. The story deftly uses science fiction to illustrate the power of corruption: Mr. Marlow and his agents speak in code.
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Sorry, I hit enter too soon: although Ron breaks with it the code toward the end.
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Yes, Rob, money is neutral, it’s people who makes it evil. Thank you for your comment!
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You’re welcome. 🙂
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🙂 🙂
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Thank you for reading, Rob. I’ve seen on news of parents as agents of the movie star grown-up child and basketball player grown-up child, they seemed to be as greedy as any agents or sponsors, money gets the worse side of human being.
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What a great story!
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Thank you for stopping by and comment!
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My pleasure!
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🙂 🙂
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Killer instinct i meant;) Not sure how I feel about boxing, although I loved the Rocky movies. Have a great weekend Miriam.
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My brother did boxing in his early years. There was one fight when his match was around 11:00 p.m. He felt asleep waiting and woke up for his turn. He wasn’t wide awake and got big blows. He quit after that. I couldn’t go see the fight.
Happy Mother’s Day to you, Denise.
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Happy Mother’s Day Miriam!
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Thank you, Denise! Enjoy your day!
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Ah, yes, There is no free ride! I enjoyed every moment of this story. Poor Xylon sounds like originally he was a nice fellow. I think he’ll start wishing he wasn’t “saved” soon. Excellent story to Diana’s prompt!
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Thank you for reading and comment, Pam. My husband went to see boxing the night I wrote this. His instructor was in the ring but lost the fight. It reminded me so much of fighters, singers, and actors having agents and sponsors. It’s a crazy world out there.
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Crazy, yes. To keep sane, we need to continue writing about that crazy world out there! 🙂
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It’s true, Pam. We hear and see unbelievable things every day, yet they do happen. 🙂
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Thank you, Anita and Jaye for sharing!
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Well done, Miriam!
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thank you for reading, Bette! ❤
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A compelling and dark story. This image seems to have stirred many of our darker thoughts.
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Yes, indeed. Diana always finds great images. Thank you for reading!!
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My pleasure.
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🙂 🙂
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Ooh, such a vicious world this guy lives in!
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I know. So much greed and self-served! Thank you for reading, HRR!
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This was wonderful. Sadly, he learned for some people everything has a price.
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Yes, this is sad. It’s always a catch when someone has an agent and a sponsor!
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Reblogged this on Myths of the Mirror and commented:
From Miriam – A hundred million dollar man who’s in a lot of trouble. I hope you enjoy the story!
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Thank you very much, Diana! ❤
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You’re very welcome! It’s a fascinating story, Miriam, and has a great hook. 🙂
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Great story, Miriam. What a situation for Ron. I have the feeling that things are going to get a lot worse for him. The poor guy. You really grabbed me with this story and it makes me want more! Thanks so much for taking up the prompt!
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Thank you so much for your comment. It was a midnight writing. I wish to have made it a longer story.
I’m glad to see the different takes on your prompt as usual!!
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It’s a perfect length for the blog, but what a tease for something more. 😀
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Thank you very much, Diana! 🙂
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Terrific take on the prompt Miriam..xxx
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Thank you for reading, Sally! 🙂
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Scary! A great story Miriam.
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Thank you Brigid for reading. Are you back from your blogging break? Hope you had a great time! 🙂
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Officially back tomorrow Miriam. Catching up on reading today.
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Welcome back, Brigid! 🙂
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I hope there will be more Miriam 🙂
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Oh Brian, It would be an interesting story, I hope. 🙂
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They own him and he doesn’t have the killer in him like them. Great story Miriam.
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Thank you, Denise. The fighters are not killers. My husband’s boxing instructor had a fight last Saturday. He went to see him, I didn’t.
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