Chapter: 01
Sleeping as dead on a sofa with a debt of 5 million was not a doddle for everyone but Ray. Even after being threatened by local mobsters quite a few times, he acted like he don’t care although every time they made sure there was a knife at his throat. It wasn’t only Ray who couldn’t pay the debt back but almost one-fifth of the residents of Kosamea were in bad debt. It wasn’t an actual debt, it was theft. Almost a year ago, various gangs from Waspes came to small towns like Kosamea and started demanding money from the working-class in name of tax. Mostly, they took it from teenagers and those who fail to pay will be entitled to pay next week or next month. There was no actual system made up by these gangs, everything was random except the money you didn’t pay. There was no specific gang or no specific amount of money they demand but if you didn’t pay, your unpaid amount would be counted systematically as it piled up. In a small town like Kosamea, people could hardly get basic rights. Austria faced financial problems even after getting European Union membership. The trade-in in big cities like Waspes may have increased but the benefits of a strong economy were yet to reach locals. Despite struggles, many people were still safe from these gangs and their stupid debt game because they never demanded anything from them. They seemed a disciplined group that was targeting people randomly. Another strange thing was they never killed anyone despite their death threats, they just make sure the person doesn’t remain employed or if he was running a business, it must shut down. So, now when everyone was unemployed and stressing over what to do except seeking leniency from gang bosses, Ray was chilling as a lost butterfly on a farm. He was in fact a butterfly, worked as a clerk for two years after school. All he knew was to put entries on a register of multiple things. He was sure nobody will even touch him but was baffled too. “If we can’t pay them when we had a job, then how will we pay if we don’t have one,” He thought. But it wasn’t the only confusion. Why did they set up this whole debt scam on poor teenagers? and Why don’t police or Austrian authorities arrest them? And if they don’t want money from us, what do they really want?
“Hey, Ray! Wake up you lousy brat” it was Jason, Ray’s only friend, and the guy with 10 million of debt but unlike Ray, all this debt thing was fuming over his head. “Did they come again? What do they want now?” Ray mumbled amid sleep.
“Instead they called us this time”
“Wait, What?” Ray reluctantly pushed himself out of the bed.
“This morning, someone left a letter on my doorstep which says to attend some event at central cathedral’s park. And there was one at your doorstep too” Jason couldn’t swallow his afraid emotions. Ray quickly grabbed the letter from Jason’s hand and opened it. It had a bold heading of his name in the center with “WE ARE PLEASED TO INVITE YOU FOR RECRUITMENT IN MAPLE INTERNATIONAL” below.
“Maple International, ever heard of it”
“Maybe they will just kill us, that’s why they choose cathedral. The cemetery is next to the cathedral. We’ll be killed and buried at the same place” Jason looked terrified.
“But why use this stupid Maple name?” Ray was curious.
“Maple
is associated with Canada and there is nothing here that remotely
relates to them”
“Exactly, but why they are pulling up
this? We should go and find out” Ray put all his optimistic energy
in that sentence but Jason wasn’t buying it.
“Find out?
Find out? Ray! Are you crazy? They will kill us. It’s obvious, we
can’t pay the debt” Jason was now shivering.
“They would have done it anyway and besides we don’t have any other option. Let’s get going”
Author: Hanzala