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Lina Khaldi (Meerkat, LVG GM) was someone not used to the persistent form of frustration that came with the job of handling a struggling professional sports team. During the off-season soon after she was hired as General Manager of the Las Vegas Wildcards, she brought in players such as Julio Onca (Panther, F/C) and William Keen (Coyote, G), maneuvered the FBA Draft to earn her three straight picks in the second round, and brought back Li Ho Fook (Red Panda, G) with the team's longest contract to date. But halfway through the season, the team only managed to earn just 14 wins and is now on a seven-game losing streak. After a successful career in banking administration and as an assistant to a General Manager of a Developmental FBA League team, this kind of frustration was humbling to say the very least. With only the sounds of her heels clacking on the floor, Lina walked through a hallway of the team's home stadium, Fremont Palace, and entered her office only to flop onto her corporate leather desk chair with a heavy sigh. Another day, another loss, another headache.
Her eyes glance toward the coffee machine across the room with a sudden spark of eager anticipation, but seeing the pot with just a narrow layer of the black nectar left, she huffed and remained on her seat, pivoting it to face her desk and her eyes turn toward the small stack of paperwork in front of her. Just as she settled to deal with the paperwork for the day, a tall spotted hyena opened her office door to step in with a huff of anger, closing the door with a startling sound that provoked Lina to jump back on her seat in surprise.
"Goddamnit!" The hyena barked, massaging his forehead. Although dressed in a business suit, the clothes looked misplaced as if tugged out of position just a few inches too far especially around the collar, and sweat stained the area under his arms. He flashed a disgusted look toward his boss. "Have you been seeing what they're doing out there now?!"
Once her nerves settled down from the shock, Lina's ears flatten against her skull and she frowned. "Knock when you enter my office, Jayce Blackson. You may be the head coach now, but that's no excuse for you to storm into my office like a raging bull with a hernia."
Jayce rolls his eyes and rudely tossed his clipboard onto a guest chair before crossing his arms, glaring back at the white-furred meerkat. "Have a fire sale, Lina. Trade away the whole team, especially that goddamn William Keen... I would rather work with a scrub from the D-League than to deal with him. And Swinton (Pig, C)... he showed up late for practice again today."
"That's nothing new," Lina shot back with borderline sarcasm.
"He was late by an hour this morning! And still he spent more time eating and robbing the vending machine than at the court practicing drills."
Lina leaned back on her chair, hearing it squeak softly. "And Keen? What about him?"
Jaryce shook his head, pinching his muzzle with his fingers for a moment. "Have you been watching the games lately? He's been stinking up the court far too often, missing like three-quarters of his damn shots. And during practice sessions, he would take his shots from anywhere and make almost every single one of them!"
"The pressures between an actual game on the court and practice sessions are far and wide apart. You know that, Jayce."
Jaryce growled. "It's like he's stinking up on purpose. Like he doesn't care anymore... even when I shoved him, he just shrugged."
Lina head-tilted, trying to mentally digest what she just heard and she leans forward from her seat. "... You shoved him?"
"Whatever, there's no one video-taping and I was pissed off."
"You don't touch my players like that, understand?" Lina narrowed her eyes. "I know you just got the job as headcoach and we're dealing with this nasty losing streak, but you don't shove and berate my players! You keep this kind of shit up, I'll be more than happy to drag Rolf Korber (Doberman, ex-HC) back from retirement and reinstall him as head coach. Wouldn't that be interesting, considering you harassed me for months to kick him to the curb just so that you can take his job!?"
Jayce pressed himself against the other end of the desk to lean toward her closer, pointing accusingly at her. "I've worked up the ladder for far too long for you to cut me at the knees like this."
"Don't be stupid."
"Oh I'm being stupid now?" Jayce stands straight, grabbing his clipboard from the seat next to him.
"Yes!" Lina spat back. "You're implying that I'm sabotaging this team, and why the hell would I do something like that? I hate losing too, you know... more than everyone else in this team, that much I can say with certainty. Keen's just going through a slump... he's been Player of the Game multiple times. It's temporary... and you're new at this position. You've only been head coach for two weeks now..."
"And out of the nine games so far as HC, I've only won once. ONCE!" Jayce snapped and banged a fist on her desk. "Make some goddamn trades already and get rid of the waste. Like Kelvin Lennon (Cocker Spaniel, F), or Vishnu Cross (Cat, G), or that damn dog Shou Masaru (Shiba Inu, G) that seems to care more about his girlfriend than being focused on the court."
"Don't tell me what to do with my own team... and of the three players you just mentioned, it's not like you've been giving them chances."
"Because I don't like them!" The hyena muttered loudly and bewildered.
Lina sighed and scooted off her chair, walking around the desk to face him closely and she gently grabbed his shirt collar to readjust it back in its proper place. "Calm the hell down, okay? I've been working with trading off Lennon, but last I heard the deal is being placed on hold."
"Why?"
Lina simply shook her head, speaking in a soothing voice. "You don't need to know. I want this team to be strong and be competitive, and for you to be happy with what you have. Consider this as a hiccup... a very long and painful hiccup, but a hiccup nonetheless." Her paws smooth down his shirt as she continues to look up at his face.
"Lina I swear... if you've been working to get rid of me underhandedly, I will tell everyone, especially the media, your secret..."
Jayce suddenly gasped as Lina shot up her paw to grip entirely around his muzzle to forcefully silence him and he muffled a grunt. Lina firmly gripped him there, her head slowly tilting with her eyes growing darker in expression. "I've done far too much for you, Blackson," she said, her voice changing from soothing to a harsh whisper. "I brought you in as an assistant coach despite your lack of experience. I sent Dayron DeBose (Dingo, F) to frigid Alaska because you told me to. And now, I fired a beloved coach, Rolf Korber, a man that the team adjusted to and is well-liked... because you want his job. Do you know how hard it was for me to make that kind of decision, Jayce?" Her paw remained firmly gripped on his muzzle and roughly shook his face around. "DO YOU?!"
Jayce growled through his clenched fangs and reached up to grab her wrists, but Lina's claws bury into the flesh, keeping the grip intact. "I've bent over backwards to the point where it hurts even me... and after all I've done for you because you're blackmailing me, if you just come out and tell everyone the secret and endanger my father like that... I will gut you like a fish. Borro gardanettoh beshkahn..." She finally lets him go.
He rubbed his sore muzzle, the whiskers twitching in pain. "Hrumph... I love it when you insult me in Farsi or whatever language you're using."
"Want me to give you the translation then?"
"No..." Jayce scoffed and then turned to walk toward the door, opening it. "I've worked too much to get this job. I'm not leaving."
Lina hissed curtly and then sat back on her chair. "... Is Onca around?"
"Meh, he's up there on the bleachers watching us practice and brooding. He's taking the injury hard."
"Tell him to come to my office... now please, leave my sight. I don't want to see your ugly face again."
Jayce rolled his eyes with a scoff and finally leaves the office. Lina sighed and leaned back on her chair, muttering in Farsi. Once again the coffee machine caught her attention, but now she's too flustered mentally to even bother walking across the room to deal with it. After ten minutes has passed, a knock on the door alerted her and the tall and massive Julio Onca walked in, dressed in simple street clothing and a sling around his arm. Soon after Jayce took the head coaching job, Julio fell hard during a game and sprained his shoulder. Despite his bullying tactics and an even nastier reputation, his lack of presence on the court deeply affected the team, and their performance suffered as a result. Standing almost two full feet taller than the petite Lina, he grunts a greeting to her.
Lina just smirked, accustomed to his tough appearance and behavior. "How's the shoulder?"
"Healing nicely..." His voice always carried a fuming growl, like there's a permanent spirit fuming inside of him, waiting to lash out at the world like he did to Buck Hopper (Rabbit, G, DAK) in 2007 that earned him a season-long suspension from the FBA. He loosened the strap of his sling to take it off and straightened out his arm. "In fact, I want to report to my doctor that I'm ready to return to play as soon as the next game."
Lina paused for a moment and then walked past him to lock the closed door and then closed the blinds of the office window. "You will not do such a thing."
Julio frowned. "Excuse me?"
The meerkat sighed and turned to lean her back against the door, knowing fully well the dangers of this proposal to someone proven to have a short temper. "I want you to put that sling back on and pretend that you are still injured." Upon hearing Julio's growl, her voice carried more urgency. "For ten more games, at the most."
"WHAT?" Julio roared, the black-furred muscular panther stepping in close to her. The sight of his hateful eyes up close sent a shiver up Lina's spine, especially due to his much bigger physique, but she cleared her throat and suppressed the fear as best she could.
"Let me explain..."
"Oh you better," Julio muttered, letting loose a rapid sequence of Spanish under his breath before backing off to give her breathing space. "Faking an injury? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Be honest with me, Onca... do you like the new coach? Blackson?"
Julio chuckled. "He is terrible. Berates the team, insults even the rookies behind their backs, and even shoved Keeneye just earlier today. A coach that does stupid things is a damn fool. Idiota..."
"What if I told you... that he is holding this team hostage to suit his own ambition?"
The panther blinked and then chuckled again, shaking his head. "Stupid. Why not just fire him? I won't mind Rolf Korber back, anything better than this stupid hyena dog."
"Honestly, I won't mind Korber back either... but I need your help and to do this for me. Don't do this for the team... your injury is deeply hurting the team itself, but rather do this for me."
"You're selfish," Julio growled back. "I want to go back to the court again, and you want me to keep out of it. I'm one of the best players in this team, and you're asking me to stay out of the court, even through the All-Star game. And all because of this hostage thing? No... not going to do it. I'm going back to the active roster again, and I'm going to get this team winning for once. Now unless you have a better explanation, you back away from the door and let me leave, got it chica?"
Lina remained standing in front of the door, despite her brain screaming at her to flee. "Promise me that what I'm going to tell you... never leave this room. Promise me that, and I will explain fully."
Julio bares his fangs in a flash of anger and then sat down on a guest chair, muttering. "I promise... this better be good."
"I mean it, Onca. There are actual lives at stake here..." Lina walked over to him, resting a paw on his 'good' shoulder.
"Humph... people think I'm evil but I'm not. Everything I do is for a reason... and I won't break promise," Julio replied, thankfully without biting Lina's paw off.
"How much do you know about my heritage?"
Julio glances back at her and shrugged. "You're a Muslim from New York. I don't care much."
"I'm a Shi'a Muslim, yes..." Lina said with a smile. "Iranian... both my parents were born in Iran and migrated to America. But if it weren't for the Revolution, my parents would still be in Iran, and I wouldn't be born in New York City but rather in Tehran."
"Is there a point in this story?"
Lina's grip on his shoulder tightens for a moment. "Before 1979 when Iran was turned upside-down, both my parents were strong loyalists to the Shah, or King, of Iran. The Pahlavi Dynasty that ruled over the Iranian kingdom for half a century. My father was an agent of SAVAK. You ever heard of them?"
When Julio shook his head silently, Lina continued. "Sāzemān-e Ettelā'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar... they were the secret police and intelligence agency and they worked for the Shah... my father rarely spoke of it, but he did tell me once that he knew the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, quite personally. Much of SAVAK consisted of humans... but of course there were a few furres in the agency, such as my father. But... they've done things that can make even you pale, Onca. Torture, putting political enemies to prison, savage beatings... they were experts in 'making people disappear'. My father never said outright, but I can hazard a good guess and say that he took part in those evils time to time..." She sighed. "And the people turned against the Shah and overthrew the monarchy. When the Pahlavi family fled Iran, my parents 'immigrated' to America to flee the country as well. They changed their names, and changed their past... for if the world found out that my father partook in those crimes as a SAVAK agent, he might be hunted down. Maybe even killed. There was a rumor that SAVAK agents were killed during the Revolution's aftermath... he doesn't want to suffer the same fate, and neither do I."
"What does Blackson got to do with all this?"
"He knows the secret... his father, Michael Blackson, was a CIA agent, and it was the CIA that originally trained the first crop of SAVAK agents when it was formed. In fact, it was Jayce's father that helped my parents to flee Iran and change their identities so that they can live safely in America. My father regretted what he did... it's why he wanted all this to be the darkest secret in my family. So that's why Jayce is doing this to me... he wanted to be a head coach of a professional sports team, and once he found out that I was hired as General Manager, he immediately hovered this... dark cloud over me, to force me to give him what he wants."
"... He wanted Coach Korber's job? He forced you to push Korber into retirement?"
Lina nodded affirmative and then drops to one knee beside him, grabbing his closest wrist. "I want him to crack. Understand, Julio? If he cracks, he will reconsider this job and he will finally leave. Or beg for me to get rid of him with a contract buyout so that he can have his money anyway. I want Blackson gone, but I want him gone without spilling out this secret and endanger my father. Once he feels so damn frustrated that he realizes all this shit is not worth it, he will leave and will have no justification on doing what he had threatened me for months to do."
"Humph... he might still do it anyway. Especially if frustrated..."
"It's a gamble, I know," she said and stands up. "He's even thinking that I'm... sabotaging this team's success." She snerks, amused suddenly. "Which... I am. Indirectly with you... but you understand why though? My parents' lives are at stake... maybe even my own life may be in danger because I'm the daughter of a SAVAK agent in exile... my father might still have a bounty on his head, I don't know."
"This is a very underhanded way of doing this, Ms. Khaldi... surely there are better ways."
"There might be... but with Blackson, I have limited time and options. I want him to quit, and I want you to help me make him quit. And then after that... who knows. Maybe I'll bring Rolf Korber back. But for now..."
She grabs the sling and hands it back to him. "Put this back on and pretend to be injured for nine or ten more games. Then you can go back to the court and raise all the fucking hell you like. Put this back on. Please."
Julio mulled it over, his eyes staring at the offered sling. With a loud sigh, he stands up to his full height and grabs the sling to calmly put it back on his 'bad' arm. "This better be worth it, Khaldi."
"Oh it will," Lina said with a smile. "This is a huge gamble, Onca... if he finds out, he will go down in the fire, and bring the rest of us clawing and dragging down with him. He will drag you, myself, my family, this whole team, down the drain once he realizes that he's being set up as a fool. Now go."
Julio grunted and turns to leave the office. Once again alone, Lina bellowed a sigh and finally walked over to the coffee machine and sniffed the pot. The pungent scent provoked her whiskers to twitch mightily and she quickly dumps the old coffee. "Can't even get the coffee right..."
*End*
Julio Onca and the FBA created by :
BuckHopper:
Jayce Blackson created by :
RydenMcClure:
Her eyes glance toward the coffee machine across the room with a sudden spark of eager anticipation, but seeing the pot with just a narrow layer of the black nectar left, she huffed and remained on her seat, pivoting it to face her desk and her eyes turn toward the small stack of paperwork in front of her. Just as she settled to deal with the paperwork for the day, a tall spotted hyena opened her office door to step in with a huff of anger, closing the door with a startling sound that provoked Lina to jump back on her seat in surprise.
"Goddamnit!" The hyena barked, massaging his forehead. Although dressed in a business suit, the clothes looked misplaced as if tugged out of position just a few inches too far especially around the collar, and sweat stained the area under his arms. He flashed a disgusted look toward his boss. "Have you been seeing what they're doing out there now?!"
Once her nerves settled down from the shock, Lina's ears flatten against her skull and she frowned. "Knock when you enter my office, Jayce Blackson. You may be the head coach now, but that's no excuse for you to storm into my office like a raging bull with a hernia."
Jayce rolls his eyes and rudely tossed his clipboard onto a guest chair before crossing his arms, glaring back at the white-furred meerkat. "Have a fire sale, Lina. Trade away the whole team, especially that goddamn William Keen... I would rather work with a scrub from the D-League than to deal with him. And Swinton (Pig, C)... he showed up late for practice again today."
"That's nothing new," Lina shot back with borderline sarcasm.
"He was late by an hour this morning! And still he spent more time eating and robbing the vending machine than at the court practicing drills."
Lina leaned back on her chair, hearing it squeak softly. "And Keen? What about him?"
Jaryce shook his head, pinching his muzzle with his fingers for a moment. "Have you been watching the games lately? He's been stinking up the court far too often, missing like three-quarters of his damn shots. And during practice sessions, he would take his shots from anywhere and make almost every single one of them!"
"The pressures between an actual game on the court and practice sessions are far and wide apart. You know that, Jayce."
Jaryce growled. "It's like he's stinking up on purpose. Like he doesn't care anymore... even when I shoved him, he just shrugged."
Lina head-tilted, trying to mentally digest what she just heard and she leans forward from her seat. "... You shoved him?"
"Whatever, there's no one video-taping and I was pissed off."
"You don't touch my players like that, understand?" Lina narrowed her eyes. "I know you just got the job as headcoach and we're dealing with this nasty losing streak, but you don't shove and berate my players! You keep this kind of shit up, I'll be more than happy to drag Rolf Korber (Doberman, ex-HC) back from retirement and reinstall him as head coach. Wouldn't that be interesting, considering you harassed me for months to kick him to the curb just so that you can take his job!?"
Jayce pressed himself against the other end of the desk to lean toward her closer, pointing accusingly at her. "I've worked up the ladder for far too long for you to cut me at the knees like this."
"Don't be stupid."
"Oh I'm being stupid now?" Jayce stands straight, grabbing his clipboard from the seat next to him.
"Yes!" Lina spat back. "You're implying that I'm sabotaging this team, and why the hell would I do something like that? I hate losing too, you know... more than everyone else in this team, that much I can say with certainty. Keen's just going through a slump... he's been Player of the Game multiple times. It's temporary... and you're new at this position. You've only been head coach for two weeks now..."
"And out of the nine games so far as HC, I've only won once. ONCE!" Jayce snapped and banged a fist on her desk. "Make some goddamn trades already and get rid of the waste. Like Kelvin Lennon (Cocker Spaniel, F), or Vishnu Cross (Cat, G), or that damn dog Shou Masaru (Shiba Inu, G) that seems to care more about his girlfriend than being focused on the court."
"Don't tell me what to do with my own team... and of the three players you just mentioned, it's not like you've been giving them chances."
"Because I don't like them!" The hyena muttered loudly and bewildered.
Lina sighed and scooted off her chair, walking around the desk to face him closely and she gently grabbed his shirt collar to readjust it back in its proper place. "Calm the hell down, okay? I've been working with trading off Lennon, but last I heard the deal is being placed on hold."
"Why?"
Lina simply shook her head, speaking in a soothing voice. "You don't need to know. I want this team to be strong and be competitive, and for you to be happy with what you have. Consider this as a hiccup... a very long and painful hiccup, but a hiccup nonetheless." Her paws smooth down his shirt as she continues to look up at his face.
"Lina I swear... if you've been working to get rid of me underhandedly, I will tell everyone, especially the media, your secret..."
Jayce suddenly gasped as Lina shot up her paw to grip entirely around his muzzle to forcefully silence him and he muffled a grunt. Lina firmly gripped him there, her head slowly tilting with her eyes growing darker in expression. "I've done far too much for you, Blackson," she said, her voice changing from soothing to a harsh whisper. "I brought you in as an assistant coach despite your lack of experience. I sent Dayron DeBose (Dingo, F) to frigid Alaska because you told me to. And now, I fired a beloved coach, Rolf Korber, a man that the team adjusted to and is well-liked... because you want his job. Do you know how hard it was for me to make that kind of decision, Jayce?" Her paw remained firmly gripped on his muzzle and roughly shook his face around. "DO YOU?!"
Jayce growled through his clenched fangs and reached up to grab her wrists, but Lina's claws bury into the flesh, keeping the grip intact. "I've bent over backwards to the point where it hurts even me... and after all I've done for you because you're blackmailing me, if you just come out and tell everyone the secret and endanger my father like that... I will gut you like a fish. Borro gardanettoh beshkahn..." She finally lets him go.
He rubbed his sore muzzle, the whiskers twitching in pain. "Hrumph... I love it when you insult me in Farsi or whatever language you're using."
"Want me to give you the translation then?"
"No..." Jayce scoffed and then turned to walk toward the door, opening it. "I've worked too much to get this job. I'm not leaving."
Lina hissed curtly and then sat back on her chair. "... Is Onca around?"
"Meh, he's up there on the bleachers watching us practice and brooding. He's taking the injury hard."
"Tell him to come to my office... now please, leave my sight. I don't want to see your ugly face again."
Jayce rolled his eyes with a scoff and finally leaves the office. Lina sighed and leaned back on her chair, muttering in Farsi. Once again the coffee machine caught her attention, but now she's too flustered mentally to even bother walking across the room to deal with it. After ten minutes has passed, a knock on the door alerted her and the tall and massive Julio Onca walked in, dressed in simple street clothing and a sling around his arm. Soon after Jayce took the head coaching job, Julio fell hard during a game and sprained his shoulder. Despite his bullying tactics and an even nastier reputation, his lack of presence on the court deeply affected the team, and their performance suffered as a result. Standing almost two full feet taller than the petite Lina, he grunts a greeting to her.
Lina just smirked, accustomed to his tough appearance and behavior. "How's the shoulder?"
"Healing nicely..." His voice always carried a fuming growl, like there's a permanent spirit fuming inside of him, waiting to lash out at the world like he did to Buck Hopper (Rabbit, G, DAK) in 2007 that earned him a season-long suspension from the FBA. He loosened the strap of his sling to take it off and straightened out his arm. "In fact, I want to report to my doctor that I'm ready to return to play as soon as the next game."
Lina paused for a moment and then walked past him to lock the closed door and then closed the blinds of the office window. "You will not do such a thing."
Julio frowned. "Excuse me?"
The meerkat sighed and turned to lean her back against the door, knowing fully well the dangers of this proposal to someone proven to have a short temper. "I want you to put that sling back on and pretend that you are still injured." Upon hearing Julio's growl, her voice carried more urgency. "For ten more games, at the most."
"WHAT?" Julio roared, the black-furred muscular panther stepping in close to her. The sight of his hateful eyes up close sent a shiver up Lina's spine, especially due to his much bigger physique, but she cleared her throat and suppressed the fear as best she could.
"Let me explain..."
"Oh you better," Julio muttered, letting loose a rapid sequence of Spanish under his breath before backing off to give her breathing space. "Faking an injury? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Be honest with me, Onca... do you like the new coach? Blackson?"
Julio chuckled. "He is terrible. Berates the team, insults even the rookies behind their backs, and even shoved Keeneye just earlier today. A coach that does stupid things is a damn fool. Idiota..."
"What if I told you... that he is holding this team hostage to suit his own ambition?"
The panther blinked and then chuckled again, shaking his head. "Stupid. Why not just fire him? I won't mind Rolf Korber back, anything better than this stupid hyena dog."
"Honestly, I won't mind Korber back either... but I need your help and to do this for me. Don't do this for the team... your injury is deeply hurting the team itself, but rather do this for me."
"You're selfish," Julio growled back. "I want to go back to the court again, and you want me to keep out of it. I'm one of the best players in this team, and you're asking me to stay out of the court, even through the All-Star game. And all because of this hostage thing? No... not going to do it. I'm going back to the active roster again, and I'm going to get this team winning for once. Now unless you have a better explanation, you back away from the door and let me leave, got it chica?"
Lina remained standing in front of the door, despite her brain screaming at her to flee. "Promise me that what I'm going to tell you... never leave this room. Promise me that, and I will explain fully."
Julio bares his fangs in a flash of anger and then sat down on a guest chair, muttering. "I promise... this better be good."
"I mean it, Onca. There are actual lives at stake here..." Lina walked over to him, resting a paw on his 'good' shoulder.
"Humph... people think I'm evil but I'm not. Everything I do is for a reason... and I won't break promise," Julio replied, thankfully without biting Lina's paw off.
"How much do you know about my heritage?"
Julio glances back at her and shrugged. "You're a Muslim from New York. I don't care much."
"I'm a Shi'a Muslim, yes..." Lina said with a smile. "Iranian... both my parents were born in Iran and migrated to America. But if it weren't for the Revolution, my parents would still be in Iran, and I wouldn't be born in New York City but rather in Tehran."
"Is there a point in this story?"
Lina's grip on his shoulder tightens for a moment. "Before 1979 when Iran was turned upside-down, both my parents were strong loyalists to the Shah, or King, of Iran. The Pahlavi Dynasty that ruled over the Iranian kingdom for half a century. My father was an agent of SAVAK. You ever heard of them?"
When Julio shook his head silently, Lina continued. "Sāzemān-e Ettelā'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar... they were the secret police and intelligence agency and they worked for the Shah... my father rarely spoke of it, but he did tell me once that he knew the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, quite personally. Much of SAVAK consisted of humans... but of course there were a few furres in the agency, such as my father. But... they've done things that can make even you pale, Onca. Torture, putting political enemies to prison, savage beatings... they were experts in 'making people disappear'. My father never said outright, but I can hazard a good guess and say that he took part in those evils time to time..." She sighed. "And the people turned against the Shah and overthrew the monarchy. When the Pahlavi family fled Iran, my parents 'immigrated' to America to flee the country as well. They changed their names, and changed their past... for if the world found out that my father partook in those crimes as a SAVAK agent, he might be hunted down. Maybe even killed. There was a rumor that SAVAK agents were killed during the Revolution's aftermath... he doesn't want to suffer the same fate, and neither do I."
"What does Blackson got to do with all this?"
"He knows the secret... his father, Michael Blackson, was a CIA agent, and it was the CIA that originally trained the first crop of SAVAK agents when it was formed. In fact, it was Jayce's father that helped my parents to flee Iran and change their identities so that they can live safely in America. My father regretted what he did... it's why he wanted all this to be the darkest secret in my family. So that's why Jayce is doing this to me... he wanted to be a head coach of a professional sports team, and once he found out that I was hired as General Manager, he immediately hovered this... dark cloud over me, to force me to give him what he wants."
"... He wanted Coach Korber's job? He forced you to push Korber into retirement?"
Lina nodded affirmative and then drops to one knee beside him, grabbing his closest wrist. "I want him to crack. Understand, Julio? If he cracks, he will reconsider this job and he will finally leave. Or beg for me to get rid of him with a contract buyout so that he can have his money anyway. I want Blackson gone, but I want him gone without spilling out this secret and endanger my father. Once he feels so damn frustrated that he realizes all this shit is not worth it, he will leave and will have no justification on doing what he had threatened me for months to do."
"Humph... he might still do it anyway. Especially if frustrated..."
"It's a gamble, I know," she said and stands up. "He's even thinking that I'm... sabotaging this team's success." She snerks, amused suddenly. "Which... I am. Indirectly with you... but you understand why though? My parents' lives are at stake... maybe even my own life may be in danger because I'm the daughter of a SAVAK agent in exile... my father might still have a bounty on his head, I don't know."
"This is a very underhanded way of doing this, Ms. Khaldi... surely there are better ways."
"There might be... but with Blackson, I have limited time and options. I want him to quit, and I want you to help me make him quit. And then after that... who knows. Maybe I'll bring Rolf Korber back. But for now..."
She grabs the sling and hands it back to him. "Put this back on and pretend to be injured for nine or ten more games. Then you can go back to the court and raise all the fucking hell you like. Put this back on. Please."
Julio mulled it over, his eyes staring at the offered sling. With a loud sigh, he stands up to his full height and grabs the sling to calmly put it back on his 'bad' arm. "This better be worth it, Khaldi."
"Oh it will," Lina said with a smile. "This is a huge gamble, Onca... if he finds out, he will go down in the fire, and bring the rest of us clawing and dragging down with him. He will drag you, myself, my family, this whole team, down the drain once he realizes that he's being set up as a fool. Now go."
Julio grunted and turns to leave the office. Once again alone, Lina bellowed a sigh and finally walked over to the coffee machine and sniffed the pot. The pungent scent provoked her whiskers to twitch mightily and she quickly dumps the old coffee. "Can't even get the coffee right..."
*End*
Julio Onca and the FBA created by :
BuckHopper:Jayce Blackson created by :
RydenMcClure:
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 45.7 kB
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