“Zoe, you’re early,” Tony said instead of greeting her.

“Jimmy told me yesterday that you wanted me to make another bank run and Henri didn’t have anything for me again today, so, here I am,” Zoe shrugged.

Her runs for Cartier had dried up to less than two a day the last three weeks unless Henri had some long runs nobody else wanted. Zoe felt she was being pushed out but couldn’t figure out why nor had Henri offered an explanation. Zoe felt it odd that her jobs for Cartier Transport got less as the mob wanted her to work more for them but couldn’t prove anything other than that Henri and Vincent knew each other. If not for her ill-gotten gains and police scanner sales, Zoe wouldn’t have been able to afford her eat, much less her rent.

On top of that, Lionel, Rita, and TK had stopped talking to her at all. Lionel and Rita, she understood since they didn’t like her. TK not so much and he wouldn’t say why. That hurt since she considered the beastkin a friend. Cee and Henri weren’t talking to her as much either, which also hurt. Thankfully, Terr, Vee, and Newt still hung with her during lunch at her place most days at least.

“The kitchen isn’t open yet, but if you want some brunch, we can arrange it,” Tony said.

“No thank you. I’m not hungry,” Zoe replied.

“Well, park your keister at a table since you’re still not old enough to drink at the bar,” Tony said grinning at Zoe.

“Right, we wouldn’t want to give anyone that walks in any wrong ideas,” Zoe said returning the grin.

“You got it kid. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Tony said starting to walk to the kitchen doors.

“Mr Capone isn’t in?” Zoe asked.

“Nah. Nucky is trying his hand at golf again this morning. He and Vinny both,” Tony answered shaking his head.

“They didn’t invite you?” Zoe asked walking to a table and slipping her backpack off. She sat it on the table so she could take sips from the camelback straws.

“They did, but I declined the offer. Walking all morning chasing around little balls is not my idea of fun or relaxation,” Tony laughed turning to face her. “I had hoped we had saw the end of that sport 25 years ago when it fell out of popularity, but it’s back in vogue once again.”

“Golf doesn’t sound like fun to me either,” Zoe replied taking a seat. Tony’s eyes went to Zoe’s knee-high boots.

“You really like those boots, huh?”

“Yep! They look great with almost anything and are super comfortable!” Zoe gushed. Tony laughed.

“Anyway kiddo, I’ll be back in the kitchen until Sal gets the data ready for you seeing if the shrimp have been delivered,” Tony said.

“Shrimp?” Zoe wondered aloud as the word tugged at a memory from her childhood.

“You know the little underwater bugs that people love to eat,” Tony answered.

“I know what shrimp are,” Zoe replied as the memory gave way to inspiration. She would use a character from an old movie’s obsession with shrimp to complete her new daemon. “I just hadn’t ever seen shrimp on the menu.”

“We only get them in when Nucky is in the mood for fried shrimp,” Tony shrugged. “Our cooks know how to cook them just right though, so they’re normally fantastic.”

“I see. I’ll leave you to it then and sit here working on some things,” Zoe replied. Tony nodded and walked into the kitchen. A moment later she heard him shouting at people and smiled since the mobster’s ire was directed at her.

Since Zoe hadn’t been doing much work as a courier the last couple of weeks, she had been spending time running and coding. She had been working on a daemon that would take over communications as a prank and not do any lasting damage other than forcing the targeted system to be rebooted. Tony mentioning shrimp had triggered a memory of her grandparents talking about the movie Forrest Gump. They had loved the movie and insisted she watch it along with their other grandchildren.

She had always thought the Bubba character’s obsession with shrimp was annoying and had hated that part of the movie along with Jenny’s childhood. If thinks had been different, Zoe’s childhood could have been like Jenny’s. She shuddered and shrugged off those dark thoughts. Zoe felt Bubba’s obsession was perfect to add to her new prank daemon.

Zoe scanned the net until she found some video clips from Forrest Gump. Zoe ripped the audio files of Bubba talking about shrimp and added them to her prank daemon and compiled the code. A few minutes later and the program Zoe dubbed “Bubba” was ready for testing.

Zoe found a handful of vulnerable advertisements near Capones’ and sliced into them. A few minutes later and all of them were espousing the wonders of shrimp as Bubba took over the advertisements’ communications systems. Street cameras showed people laughing at images of dogs, women, children, and cartoon characters talking about shrimp in a man’s voice. Zoe burst into laughter.

“I hate to interrupt, but it’s time to get you out of here,” a male voice said. He frowned a little as Zoe didn’t jump or react to his appearance or voice. Her angel had already alerted her to Sal’s presence. “Something funny?”

“There’s ads extolling the wonders and virtues of shrimp instead of their normal spiel,” Zoe replied. “It’s pretty funny.”

“Depending on the ad, I could see that,” Sal agreed.

“One was for KB MILFS,” Zoe said. Sal snorted a laugh.

“Yeah, that one would be funny,” he replied. “Anyway, let’s get you loaded and over to East River Savings and Loan at 244 Court St.”

“Sure,” Zoe agreed. She recognized this Sal from before but didn’t let it show. She just hoped he wasn’t giving her another bomb or whatever it was she had carried to the triad.