“Another lottery winner has just been captured and turned over to Suki Corporation for a 10-million-dollar reward,” said the dark-haired social influencer with the China People’s Propaganda Organization (CPPO). Sam and Jen watched the influencer’s video channel passively as they waited for their informant to enter the building across the street. They had been in Piong Yang, China for about 6 months on an intelligence gathering mission. They were supposed to have already left over a month ago, but the Agency kept making excuses for pushing their mission timeline.

“Those poor ‘Lottos,’ calling them ‘winners’ is like some kind of sick joke, but that CPPO lady is pretty hot though, she looks like your type.” Sam said, nodding towards the video, while he continued to work his voice interceptor and crypto decoder.

Jen was monitoring the wireless networks in the area and replied “Yea, I can’t imagine what Suki Corp will do with that poor guy. He’s a dead man walking.” Jen turned from her desk and glanced at the video again, “You’re right, she’s pretty hot, but I bet she’s wayyyy high maintenance.”

Sam and Jen had been teamed up together in the agency for almost 5 years now. After arriving in China, they had rendezvoused with an agency contractor team. The contractors provided them security while they gathered intel on a Chinese company that was suspected of extorting secrets from a U.S. Senator.

Jen looked over at Sam as he was quickly digging through lines of encrypted messages, and said, “Something bothering you?”

“Yea, I think the agency has screwed us!”

Jen Pushed back from the office window and said, “Anything solid you can point to, or is it just that gut feeling of yours?” She respected Sam’s gut; his intuition was part of what made him a legend at breaking encrypted messages.

Sam was clearly frustrated, and said, “I can’t break it out of the encrypted code…yet, but the message to the local police I just intercepted, is giving me serious gut pains. You’re the boss, your call.”

Jen didn’t hesitate, “Chen, come in here!” One of the security contractors stuck his head through the door, and Jen ordered, “Prepare the emergency exfil. We leave in 10!”

“Yes Ma’am” Chen replied as he immediately radioed his team members downstairs to pack up immediately.

Just after Jen and Sam finished packing and started driving away in one direction, and the contractors were splitting off in the other direction, a drone rocketed past overhead, firing multiple missiles into both the building they were just occupying and the buildings they were watching. The concussion and debris from the missiles’ impacts slammed into their car, knocking it over on its side.

Jen was hanging sideways in her seatbelt, and looked over to check on Sam; he had a nasty cut, and it was seeping blood through his graying hair. “Sam! Sam!” Jen hollered, as she unbuckled her seatbelt. Sam was dazed, but he started releasing his seatbelt too.

“What the hell! Are you gaining weight!” he grunted after Jen fell down from her seatbelt landing on him. She reached for the steering wheel to pull herself back up and out of the side window.

Jen inwardly thanked the gods that Sam was OK, even delirious he made stupid jokes. She had been trained on what to do in this kind of scenario, but this was the first time anything like this actually happened to her. Jen’s hands were shaking, but she looked around to get a handle on the situation while forcing herself to calm down, and said “With the whole block on fire, I think we can get away with blowing the car and all the crypto equipment; just grab our bugout bags before you climb out.”

A few minutes later, after she finished setting the charges and started walking down the street, Jen ordered, “Let’s go!”

Sam pulled the bags over his shoulder as he rushed to catch up with her, and while holding his hand to the back of his head he complained, “Damn, my head is ringing like a church tower.”

“You better plug your ears, old man.” Jen said, as she pulled Sam into a small alley and pressed the transmitter. The car rocked up into the air turning into a hunk of flaming metal, but it was just another explosion among the other cars, gas lines, and propane tanks that were cooking off from the fires caused by the drone strike.

“Shit! you’re supposed to actually give me a second to plug my ears,” Sam grumbled.

“You’re just getting slow in your old age,” Jen retorted.

Jen’s phone rang, she looked down at who was calling before raising the phone to her ear, and said, “Chen, you OK?”

“Yes, and you?”

“We’re good. See you when we see you.”

Sam was walking next to Jen and overheard the conversation. He looked at her and said, “At least those contractors didn’t try to use any code words. Nothing sounds more absurd than someone asking about groceries after an entire block was just blown up. Anyways, what now Boss?”

Jen scowled at Sam. She was technically the boss, but he knew exactly what they needed to do; he just liked to make her take all the responsibility. She glanced back at the collapsed and burning buildings with relief showing on her face. “Thank goodness for your gut!”

They were the best at blending into most environments. Jen was half Chinees and Sam was half Vietnamese, so they could play husband and wife, father and daughter, or just about any other scenario to fit in. They were good-looking people, but didn’t dress or act in a way to draw anyone’s attention. While they were both in great physical condition, neither of them looked the part of some giant body builder.

Then, just as she was about to get into local character for heading to their safe house, while placing her phone in her pocket, Jen felt something strange against her hand, and pulled out a piece of paper. It was a ticket that read, “Congratulations, you have won the lottery. You have been randomly selected for transfer to the Seven Decks, where you have a 98% chance of certain death!” Before she even finished reading the ticket, a giant rainbow with fireworks shot from the sky covering her entire body.

Sam immediately pulled Jen close to him. They were nose to nose, and he growled, “Select me! Select me right now, god damnit! Hurry! Do it Now! You can’t wait, we need to run!”

Jen was in shock, there were words scrolling across her vision, and Sam was acting crazy. She mentally thought towards the strange screen in her vision, “I want Sam to go with me”

Just then, text suddenly covered Sam’s vision: “Jennifer Cho has asked you to join her party and travel to the Seven Decks. With you as a companion, you both have a 95% chance of Death. Mentally select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to join her party.” Sam immediately thought “Yes, I want to join her party!” and another giant rainbow with fireworks shot from the sky covering him.

The lottery rainbows could be seen from miles away, day or night. Jen’s focus returned to the danger they were in. Before the lotto rainbow that landed on Sam even dissipated, they were moving and blending into the chaos caused by the missile strike, and heading towards their safehouse.