“Hello?” He called out, hoping a guard would walk by. “There must be some mistake. I shouldn’t be here. Hello? Let me talk to the police. Let me call my family. I don’t even know why I’m here. You can’t keep me here like this!” He waited, but his voice had been lost in the cacophony of the prison.

He heard a laugh and looked across at the opposite cell. There was a woman lounging there. She was pretty but in a kind of unremarkable way. Someone you’d notice once but not think about twice.

“Sure they can. And they will. And you should enjoy it while you can,” she motioned around her. “What comes after is much, much worse. We have it pretty good here. If you’re lucky, you’ll be here a while.”

—-

I’ve been working on a short story about the future of technology and the evolution of the black market and corruption. It’s a work in progress, but I figured I’d post a tidbit here.