7

KANE This isn’t the first, the second, or even the hundredth time I’ve faced such a scene. It won’t be the last either. But it never manages to penetrate me. Not the screams, the gurgling of blood, the stench of fear mingled with the absolute realization that they’ve fucked up. And that it’s the final time they’ll ever fuck up. “Listen…listen…please hear me out…” the vice-chancellor, Fred, begs on his knees, his belly bulging from between his shirt’s ripped buttons, his ugly purple tie tight, turning his face red. Jude, Preston, and I asked Fred to join us for a ride after school. He smiled with delight, thinking we were presenting him with an opportunity. It’s not every day that a mere vice-chancellor gets a private meeting with three Senior Vencor members who’ll become de facto Founder members as soon as they graduate. And Fred, like any Vencor member, knows that only we who are born into the four founding families are granted the Founder position. So we’ve always held monopoly on th