Finder's Fee             

It’s a gig, workin for the devil, gotta have a gig, gotta pay the rent. Trouble is, it’s a crowded field nowdays, lotta competition rounding up those souls. Got to keep on your toes, keep your eyes open, know where to nose around.

Like this hot shot Clancy, been keeping tabs on him for months now, waiting for him to ripen. The Big Guy doesn’t like it when you try to bring ‘em in under-developed. Not only do you lose your finder’s fee, you can lose your job entirely if it happens too frequently.

Clarence O’Hardy, known as Clancy on the streets, dumb, lard-ass Irish bastard with a whole lot of luck, he had a good heapin helping of six outta seven of the deadly sins. Just throw in Sloth and he woulda had a perfect score. But Clancy wasn’t lazy, nah, never could call him that, sucker put in a lotta hours at the mill, and made it damn near to the top of the particular shit-hole called the Glyson Corporation. Lot of luck, like I said, but a lotta hard work, too.

Now six deadly sins, granted, that sounds like a lot of sins, but you gotta take into account the overall balance of things, and this particular son of a bitch also managed to hang on to five of the goddamn heavenly virtues – Fortitude, Charity, Justice, Faith and Hope. Screw Prudence and Temperance, not in Clancy’s lifetime, but you can see my dilemma. Six sins, five virtues, just too close to call. Break-even. Believe me, I been in this business a long time, and it’s always the close ones that’ll come around to bite you on the ass.

The way I see it, the way I know it's gotta be, is we either need to add a sin or lose a virtue. I been on a long dry spell, so it’s tempting, ya know, it is tempting, but what can I say that hasn’t been said before. The guy just wasn’t ripe.

Okay, forget about Sloth, like I said. No reason to dwell on it, somethin like that just doesn’t happen over night. The virtues, though, maybe I can help along, nudge things on a little bit. That’s fair. No laws against that, and if there were, well, a man’s gotta make a living.

You can’t just give a fellow a hot-foot, you know what I mean, piss’m off and then accuse him of Anger. Wish you could. Would make my life one hell of a lot easier. So I gotta work on the virtue side of this proposition, cause in my experience – and like I said, I’ve spent considerable time in the business – it’s easier to give up a virtue than it is to develop a vice. Just the nature of things.

I’m gaming on Hope. Hope and Faith, they’re a lot alike when you think about it, with one big difference. Faith isn’t based on the tangible world, it's kind of an abstract thing, that Faith. And I’ve never done quality work in that particular neighborhood, so I don’t feel like stretchin now, not with all the competition breathin down my collar, leave it alone. Hope, I mean, shit, that’s based on just opening those peepers and takin a look around. So I’m banking on Hope.