Good Riddance

Ever have an employer with too much money and barely a clue? Not only is programmer Leo Heinrich working for two nebulous goofballs with 1200 websites and 12 IQ points between them, he’s now dealing with an unnerving change of plan and income. His dream job of $500 a week, a spacious apartment, and a million-dollar incentive on launch have turned into $250, a dumping ground for kitschy antiques, and a big assignment listing crappy old magazines for an unknown duration. Alleged mastermind Justine Launders has called Leo off any pretense of programming and bailed for the Bahamas with her whipped sidekick/spouse-in-name-only Dieter. Someone able to leave the country for a week’s vacation MUST have some kind of notion about how to keep the money coming... 1200 websites all ending in Wowzers can’t help but earn Leo a good living and webmaster portfolio, right? Leo’s not so sure anymore. He’s seen Dieter get verbally destroyed to the point of heart trouble for offering the only voice of reason. He’s seen Black Unicorn, the bookstore beneath his apartment, turn into a snow-sealed mausoleum, with only a 1980s “all circuits are busy” phone voice to keep him company. The bathtub is slowly turning thick green from normal use again due to the hard water, driving Dieter crazy every time he stops in smarting from another one of Justine’s aristocratic tongue-lashings. The kitchen is becoming bare due to diminishing income. Leo is staying patiently isolated, having come out of a recent hostage situation with a woman who claimed she was the landlord but only let him out to work to stave off the real owner. Chapter 8 is a slow, uncertain point in the podcast for our hero, just before things become undeniably bizarre. Please subscribe or check out the ebook on Kindle - just search for “The Network That Never Was”. Thanks!!!