Broke and Famous

by Elizabeth Gannon

  Wyatt blinked at him. “Wow, Pete. You’ve managed to change a motivational story about doing your best into…”

  Peter smiled and cut him off. “A fable about doing your best, only in reverse. The fable isn’t meant to be motivational, it’s meant to be a grim warning about not doing your best. It’s a cautionary tale. You just sit around waiting, instead of doing all you can do, and your enemies will destroy you. The hell with slow and steady; run as fast as you can, every race. Play to win.”

  Wyatt made a low whistling sound. “Okay… super. Thanks for that, man. Really cleared some shit up for me. You should be sure to tell the rest of the team too, I’m sure they would appreciate it.”

  Peter shook his head. “I don’t want them to win any races.”

  Wyatt laughed, again. “You’re really down on the rest of the crew today, huh? Jeez. They’re your co-workers, dude. How about a little company pride?”

  Peter smiled humorlessly. “Yeah. I’ll get right on that. This place is filled with people who have already made the very same decision that you’re going to have to make. Whether they made the correct decision or not depends on who you ask, but they made their choice, and you will make yours. The gun has sounded and the race is now under way. If you want to ‘help people’ the Dauntless way, then stay here. If not… well, there are other options for you out there.”

  Wyatt squinted, trying to understand where his brother was going with all this. “But you’re staying here?”

  “Don’t have a choice. Don’t worry though, I’ll still help you out from time to time.”

  “And I’m going to have to do all of this… when exactly?”

  Peter laughed. “Only when you’re ready. Don’t worry. It’ll all work out. Trust me.” He stood up. “Well, we better get going if we’re going to get to that call in time. Busy day. Have an appointment to keep, after all. Don’t want to keep them waiting.”

  Wyatt opened his mouth to question what Peter was talking about, when the computer sounded the alarm, indicating an emergency.

  Peter smiled. “Told you.”

  They both ran towards the jet, meeting up with Kristine along the way. They were the only three on duty today, but it was only a minor problem, so calling the rest of the team in shouldn’t be necessary. Hell, they wouldn’t come anyway. They were off on another self-promotion endeavor trying to get the stock price up. Wyatt still didn’t believe a heroic organization should be a publically traded stock interested in making a profit, but no one had asked him.

  They entered the hanger bay and ran up the gangway.

  Halfway up, Peter slapped his forehead. “Dammit! I forgot my utility belt in the War Room! I’m going to need that! Dude, can you go grab it real quick? We’ll wait here.”

  Wyatt nodded and took off back to retrieve it.

  Peter called out to him as he left. “Be careful, Bro. See you soon.”

  Wyatt turned and smiled. Another creepy moment courtesy of Peter. Whatever. He raced through the command center, and into the War Room. He looked around for the missing belt.

  Let’s see… where was Peter sitting?

  To Wyatt’s surprise, in the spot Peter had formally been occupying, he found a large stack of numbered envelopes and a sheet of paper. He picked it up and read the two lines of text:

  Silly Rabbit, I’ve never forgotten anything in my entire life. What happens isn’t your fault. Like I said, I was born knowing all of this. Take it easy and good luck in the race, P.

  Wyatt swore and ran back towards the hanger bay, only to find the jet gone.

  Shit. SHIT! SHIT!!!

  Wyatt had no idea what was going on here, but it was certainly out of the ordinary. And out of the ordinary was not good when you were talking about Peter. In fact, he was pretty sure it was bad. VERY bad. Whenever his brother used his weird creepy powers like this, it always meant trouble.

  Always.

  Fifteen minutes later, Wyatt was arriving on the Liberty Cycle to the scene of the robbery. He always preferred taking the jet, because he hated even being seen on the bike. He felt utterly ridiculous. Why couldn’t they just have regular cars? WHY did they have to drive such stupid looking ostentatious things around?

  He got off the bike and made his way through the parking lot, telling himself to relax. It was a fairly ordinary call. Certainly nothing to get too worked up over. Kristine and Peter could handle it themselves. It wasn’t like this was…

  And that’s when he saw the blood.

  Lots of blood.

  Three and a half minutes later, the screaming started.