Cookie and Mills were in the bar, drowning their sorrows, pissed that they both just lost their licence. The pair was, or were medics at the local hospital until a few hours ago. In the past few years they had cooked up various cunning plans to 'redistribute' a lot of valuables from the hospital to their bank accounts. The pair had built up quite a rep in the 'secondary' market. Whatever you need and couldn't get, Cookie and Mills are your guys.
They dealt mainly in medication, there was always a big demand for the little blue pill. Making people happy is a noble deed, that's their motto. Organs also. Mainly kidneys coz it was easier, you didn't have to kill for it. Occasional they'd do the odd liver if the price was right. There's always a price for everything. At the beginning of Covid, facial masks and PPE proved extremely lucrative, they shifted quicker than hot pancakes. And more recently the Covid jabs. They redistributed and sold them to the rich from developing countries. All done in the good name of helping developing countries they said. Nothing wrong with that.
Their luck ran out a few months ago when they were caught red handed with a batch of Pfizer in their backpack. The hospital reported them to the medical disciplinary board and they were finally struck off today. That's the end of both their medical career and their road to fortunes.
As they sat cursing and pondering their next move over their beer, suddenly, they overhead a conversation from a couple of dudes on the next table.
Alec and Oakley were working out the details on their latest venture
"Tonight's the perfect timing. We're gonna need all hands on deck. If not, we're gonna miss the boat. ' says Oakley
"Yeah, need to get every bit of juice out of them bang on time. Juice ain't worth nothing if not fresh. Then your blood bank will be bloody useless" grunts Alec
"Problem is finding the people. It's such a delicate job, not everyone has the skills to extract the juice quickly enough. Plus need to keep a low profile, don't want the news to get out.."
"I'll see if I can find anyone right now." Alec only had a few hours spare to meet his new girl this evening, and he didn't want anything to eat into those precious few hours.
Blood bank. Skills to extract the juice. Keep a low profile.
Cookies and Mills starred at one another. This sounded like a hush job right up their street. They'd done blood in the past. Whenever they get a big order for a particular blood type, and there wasn't enough stock in the blood bank, they'd go round the hospital to find the right patients and tell them they needed to do blood test and get more blood that way. This job sounded exactly like what they used to do, and they were bloody good at it. Plus any job that needs to stay low profile always pays well.
"Oi mate, you looking for people for a job? we're qualified medics" says Cookie to Alec and Oakely. He was careful not to mention they'd been struck off today. "We got the experience and skills you're looking for."
Alec took a good look at the pair. They weren't the type of guys they normally work with.
"You guys done this before?" asks Oakely. "How much experience you have?"
"We're the best in the market. Just ask around, Cookie and Mills. That's us "
Oakely was impressed but Alec wasn't convinced. Oakely is new to all this, but he's been in the business since he was sixteen. And he'd never heard of Cookie and Mills. But then they were really running out of time to find people and he only had his rendezvous on his mind.
"Right. Come round tonight at ten thirty." Alec told them. "Take the A38 till you get to Sotplot, turn down the lane by the church. Keep going for 5 kilometers till you see a house on your right. Turn left and keep going till you see the gates. We're there. We got 300 beds to go through, and we only go 12 hours, so don't be late.."
300 beds!!! That's 300 people. That's more than what Cookie and Mills had ever done before but they don't need 12 hours to do that. Whatever. Black market blood isn't as lucrative as other jobs, but it's easy. Jab in jab out, easy. Seems like they weren't totally out of their luck after all.
So what's this place? Mills couldn't resist asking.
Blood Oranges. We developed a new breed that is best juiced within a specific 12 hour time frame which is tonight.
Sorry guys, if this is a bit meh. Trying some creative writing today. 😅