Blog 34: Free Pass

Idiots used to say that crime doesn’t pay. No statement has ever dated so badly. That might have been slightly accurate when organised crime accounted for only one percent of the worlds economy. Now it’s more close to ten percent and they even invented the universal free pass. Anyone would kill for one of those cards, and be killed for their insolence.
Governments were once the highest authorities in the land but now they play second fiddle to the gangs. They are the caretakers who handle the business the gangs can’t be bothered with. I work in a tailors where I see them all the time and they hand me the card. I have to stop myself from drooling at the prospect of owning one of those cards. I just swipe it and the company takes the hit of whatever the costs of the suit were. I’d lose my job if I made any fuss about the freebies the local mobsters ask for. No company wants to risk reprisals from the ruling class. One there was the monarchy and the church, now we have the gangs. Triads and Cartels run the South and up here its Yakuza. The Italian Mafias were run out of town here years ago during The Invasion of the Eastern Gangs. Yakuza sadly don’t have the same taste in suits. They want their suits made from the most expensive material whether it suits them or not. It reflects poorly upon us what they wear whether they paid for it or not.
Consider as we never do just how ingrained the corruption has to be for a card to simply say to the till ‘this one’s on you.’ A company openly prints those cards and all of the tills know not to question them. It’s not like it’s even shoplifting, the card legitimises the whole process.
Everyone wishes they were in the gangs, with the Mafia you have to be in the family but the Yakuza often adopt children to join their crime family. Every small child wishes they were orphaned for the chance to join the gangs. I’ve spent endless nights imagining the how I would spend my days if I was in one of the gangs.
I’ve wanted one of these cards for so long and I have one in my hand it just scares me. I’d have to move hundreds of miles south just to use it and any slip ups would get me and my family killed. I’ve seen the burnt out shells of buildings where the families of those caught using the cards without permission. We all turn a blind eye to that, I did. We accept that which is too terrifying to change.
I could give it back, if I do it now then I might even get a reward. He just left it in the old coat, that’s how rich they are, he left a top quality coat in a shop for the new one. I spent days on that coat and the rich tattooed moron just left it here for the new one and walked away.
I will not pass up my free ticket to life. I have enough money to take me to another territory. My new life begins here. It might not last long.