The Hammer and Fat Finger Freddy

They called him The Hammer and anyone who had been around for a while knew why. It wasn’t so much a nickname as it was a reputation and on this day he was slouching in his leather office armchair behind his huge oak desk. It was sunny outside but the blinds were drawn and only cracks of sunlight seeped into the gloomy dark office to illuminate the room through the thin smoky haze left by his last visitor.

There was a bit of extra light emanating from the countless computer screens that were scattered around. They were periodically flashing and blinking in that kind of passive aggressive way that only a computer screen can, but he wasn’t paying any attention to any of that. He was deep in thought and he grunted to himself as he leaned forward to pick up the phone.

The other end picked up almost straight away. Calmly but gruffly he growled into the phone piece.

"Print us up a few billion would ya. I wanna give the metals a good slap."

There was silence in the room for just a moment and his brow furrowed with irritation at the response coming down the line.

"Look, the TA monkeys are all hanging by a thread waiting for a signal. We’ve got them right where we want them. A good slap here and we might keep this shitshow going for another few months."

Again he paused, an audible sigh slowly turned into a soft groan as he gritted hit teeth before unleashing.

"I don’t give a fuck! Blame it on Fat Finger Freddy again for all I care! It worked last time!"

He slammed the phone down without waiting for a response and turned to the largest computer screen which was positioned front and centre on his desk. For minutes he barely moved as he sat stony faced, glaring at the screen. It had stopped obnoxiously blinking at him and he waited in silence before a slow grin began to creep across his face. The numbers on his screen were jumping up. He picked up the phone again and spoke with a cool unwavering tone.

"Yep….Same as last time....Take some shorts and I’ll pull the trigger soon."

It was almost time for the Hammer to drop. The stakes were getting higher than they’d ever been before but he’d been playing the game for a long time now and he wasn’t the type to flinch.