Click on image to enlarge.

	Regular				Club
You Pay:	$0.49				$0.42

eBook Category: Dark Fantasy Nebula Award(R) Winner
eBook Description: Imagine a world where people could be paid to do your suffering.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Amazing Stories, 1999
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2002

116 Reader Ratings:

Great	Good	OK	Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [26 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [33 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [12 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [60 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [13 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [64 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [83 KB] , hiebook (KML) [60 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [40 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [10 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [14 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [41 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [21 KB]
Words: 3912
Reading time: 11-15 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

The wonderfully chilling "The Cost of Doing Business" will come back to bite you again when you realize Leslie What is just telling it like it is.--Ray Vukcevich, author of "Meet Me in the Moon Room and Other Stories"

The big man sits across from Zita, brow furrowed, black eyes fixed upon the desk. He strokes the mahogany finish while he's talking, touching it rather absently, as if trying to smooth things out. Every now and again he glances up to make certain Zita is still paying attention to his story. There are two thugs outside, waiting for him in the parking lot. Can he hire her to take his place, deal with the thugs, so he won't have to? There isn't much time to decide, and certainly, from his view, no choice.

Zita scribbles a few notes. She is grateful he doesn't stare at her like a lot of customers, who give her an I-can't-believe-I'm-really-here look and expect her to find their naivete charming. When customers stare at her long legs or dress cut low to expose skin smooth as a white chocolate shell, it isn't really Zita they are seeing. Her perfection is only skin-deep, skin-deep being all anyone can afford, even the big man.

She notices his gold Rolex and his suit sewn from fine wool. Like her, the big man wears his riches on the outside.

"This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me," the big man blathers. "At first I didn't know what to do, but then I looked up, saw your billboard. That's why I'm here."

Driving to work this morning he was carjacked. "I'm a lucky man," he says, really lucky. The thugs were curious types; they agreed to let him hire a surrogate victim in exchange for an extra couple of bills and a contract promising immunity. That's the way things are done these days, when people act reasonably. Fortunately for the big man, the thugs are reasonable men.

Zita listens as he prattles off twenty reasons why he needs to hire her instead of facing things on his own.

She's tempted to correct him, but doesn't. The excuses are all part of the game. She knows why he wants to hire her, has known from the moment he walked into her office. It has nothing to do with his suspicious wife, or a job he can't afford to take time off from, or even his heart condition. Sure, the big man is afraid of pain--who isn't?--but there's more to it than that. The big man has sought Zita's services for the same reason as everyone who hires a surrogate victim. He'd rather see someone else suffer.

Something terrible has happened to him; he can't turn back the clock, so he might as well make the best of it.

He won't admit that there's a reason he'll pay a premium to hire her instead of that balding Mr. Tompkins on the second floor: hiring a young woman instead of a middle-aged man makes the deal a little sweeter.