Read Other Places 1: Shortcuts for Free Online Page A

certainly, but a hardship for me since I'm the one that would have to do all the paperwork."
    She waved as she left, taking all the little cups and even the napkins with her. For the first time in weeks he felt comfortably full. A little hyper from the sugar, sure, but that was a side effect that Zack had to kind of welcome. He turned to mopping the floor again to make use of the energy. It meant pulling the little yellow sign that cautioned people about the wet floor from its plastic wrapping. It took several goings over and nearly three hours of repeated work to actually get it clean. Just as it was about to finish drying the first customer of the day came in. It was just before two, but a slightly seedy looking man sprinted in, his shoes leaving prints on the fresh floor.
    At least they'd come up easily enough. As long as the man didn't go over the whole room for hours, looking for just the right thing. He ran directly to the back room and pounded on the office door. Which made a nice straight line of footprints. Carefully Zack moved toward him, looking for the dry spots, hopping from one to the next, figuring that it was better to be safe than sorry. On the good side the back of the room was almost totally dry.
    The frantic looking man pounded harder, looking at the front, where a second man stood, a very sharp looking knife in his hand. It was decently long, nearly ten inches and had a nice gleam to it. Shiny.
    "Come on! Let me in Lisa! You freaking carpet munching lesbo! Let me the fuck in! Asylum! I claim asylum as a guild member in good standing!"
    He cradled a backpack to his chest, looking scared as the whip thin man started to make his way back. Finally the seedy looking man with short hair and a receding hairline pointed at Zack.
    "You! Protect me!" It was, oddly enough, a command. Zack had never really done well with people giving him orders. It was a thing he had. An issue.
    He sighed.
    "Shut up. Come with me. To the front counter." He gestured to the other man, who looked to be in a murderous rage. "You too, please. Notice how I said please , instead of just barking orders at people? That's the polite way of doing it." He glared at the first man a little when he said it, not trying to be funny.
    For some reason that got a strange look from the man with the knife, who put it away. Then the knife man pointed at the first guy and did his own evil staring for a bit.
    "I've come to kill him. He stole from me and lied. He can claim asylum all he wants, but that don't make a bit of difference unless you're going to die with him too, that your plan?"
    For some reason Zack laughed. He honestly couldn't help himself.

Chapter three
     
     
     
     
     
    That got both men to freeze. The more dangerous looking one, the thin guy that had the knife, looked a little worried for some reason. Zack wondered if it was the nice clothing he had on throwing the man off. That could do it at times, if you looked rich or powerful, people thought you were. Most wouldn't even question it.
    "OK. Give me the situation here. I have to fix the floor, so I don't have time to put up with a bunch of stupidity. Don't lie, just tell the truth and if this is about one of you sleeping with the other one's girlfriend I swear I'm going to try really hard to lodge my foot in someone's ass." The words just popped out, Mirror Him taking control of his mouth for some reason. He almost never did that anymore. They had a deal. "You, snake man, tell me what this dumb fuck did, and we'll go from there."
    Zack cringed inside as the one on the left, the man that wanted protection, glared at him. He started to speak, which got Zack's left hand to come up.
    "Ah-ah. No . This other one first, then we deal with you. Go." He nodded to the thinner man who actually nodded back firmly.
    "I was called in on a job. A heist, you know, a security office, which no one would ever think to take on, right? So, he told me that he needed a snake to go through the ventilation