UnWholly (Unwind Dystology 2)

It makes Ashley blush just a little bit. “Just try to keep a low profile, okay?”

Still beaming charm, he says, “It’s what I do best,” and serves her a nice heaping portion, all the while calculating how she might secretly play into his plans.

“You’re a hard guy to read,” she tells him. “I’d really like to get inside your head.”

To which he responds, “The feeling’s mutual.”

- - -

Each night, during “the stork hour” at the Rec Jet, Starkey plants tiny seeds of discontent over games of pool and Ping-Pong. Nothing so blatant as fomenting a revolution, just innocent suggestions to encourage certain directions of thought.

“I think Connor’s done a good job for a guy who’s not all that smart,” he tells them offhandedly. Or, “I really like Connor. He’s not much of a leader, but isn’t he a great guy?”

Starkey never shows any open defiance; that would be counterproductive. It’s not about tearing Connor down, it’s about rotting out his roots. He won’t even suggest that he should be the one taking Connor’s place. That suggestion will eventually come from other storks—and all on their own, without any prompting from him. He knows it will happen, because he knows that every storked kid, deep down, dreams of a world where they’re not considered second-class citizens. That makes Starkey more than just the leader of a club. It makes him the hope for storked salvation.

Part Three

Windows of the Soul

Collected on the Internet, October 2011:

Kidney and other organ prices on the global criminal markets are based upon publicly available reports and are quoted in U.S. dollars. The price represents the amount either paid to the seller of the organ or the price paid by the buyer for the organ.

Average paid by kidney buyer: $150,000

Average paid to seller of kidney: $5,000

Kidney broker in Yemen: $60,000

Kidney broker in the Philippines: $1,000 to $1,500

Kidney buyer in Israel: $125,000 to $135,000

Kidney buyer in Moldova: $100,000 to $250,000

Kidney buyer in Singapore: $300,000

Kidney buyer in United States: $30,000

Kidney buyer in China: $87,000

Kidney buyer in Saudi Arabia: $16,000

Kidney seller in Bangladesh: $2,500

Kidney seller in China: $15,000

Kidney seller in Egypt: $2,000

Kidney seller in Kenya: $650

Kidney seller in Moldova: $2,500 to $3,000

Kidney seller in Peru: $5,000

Kidney seller in Ukraine: $200,000

Kidney seller in Vietnam: $2,410