I had little choice but to ignore the cry from below as the monster who now controlled the fate of my child appeared once more.

“I trust we have your attention, Mr. Lawson”, he went on. “Further instructions will soon follow. Remember, a word to anyone and it will be young Nicholas that suffers the consequences.”

My wife is going to kill me.

Her kidnapping four years ago was the very reason she was so dead set against me accepting this position in the first place. Whenever we have dinner guests she always manages to bring up the night she spent as a “guestâ€? of the Crimson Fist on Serpent Island. I’ll never hear the end of this one…

Think Phil.

BioWeps and GlobTrak had been bitter rivals since the early days of the Coalition of Nefarious Distinction and now my family was in the middle of it. With no other recourse, I dialed the number of my union rep. After all, now that I’m a Level 4 Overseer I’m fairly sure that the charter clearly states my family can no longer be used in coercion.