In Which I Face The Brewing Storm

It's hard to tell exactly when one becomes famous. There seems to be a time when one can look around and know that they've made it, but is there some benchmark to really reveal that one has indeed arrived? Yes, there is, and I have reached said benchmark. I received my first notice that there was a price on my head.

It went down like this: I checked my email, as I do every day. In my "emailbox", or whatever the kids call it these days, I found a message with the sender "deadlink". It basically spelled things out as follows:

"I have being paid $40,000 in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer, it's one I believe you call a friend."

Apparently, I have been followed for the past 10 days, but my would-be assassin has concluded that I'm innocent of the accusations. However, he still has a job to do, and unless I pay him 20K more than his employer, he's gonna rub me out.

I have to pay 30 thou in advance, which gets me audio & video evidence of the hit order. I'll be visited in my home or office soon (I prefer home, as my office, like The Fonz's, is the WC), and the deal will go down.

He ends the email by saying I really have no choice and that I should cooperate or "face the brewing storm".

So, to recap, I am big enough to have a 40 thou hit out on me. I believe that any publicity is good publicity, so I will take this as a compliment. But not only am I famous enough to warrant a contract kill, but I'm too good of a person for a hitman to just kill without giving me a chance for a buy-out. Now, I don't even have $1,000, let alone $30,000, and that is only enough to get evidence, which will do me no good if I'm dead. So, what's the lesson here? Fame comes at a price, and that price is $20,000 more than the amount that someone has been offerred to kill you.