Two shots espresso
“They are onto me, I am telling you, the world is not ready for what I have to reveal. It’s bigger than me, bigger than my company,” he told me while panting, a drop of sweat slipping down his temple to the floor, seemingly evaporating in an instant in the heat of this scorching Italian summer. “You have to give me something. I can’t expose myself like this without any evidence. I need a hint, some kind of proof that you’re serious about this. Frankly, I don’t know if I should believe you at all. I’m here because of our old friendship.” Disappointment, annoyance, then sadness flickered across his face as he locked eyes with me, grabbing my sweaty arm. He spoke words I’ll never forget: “It’s big coffee, it’s a scam, a multibillion-pound scam. Everyone is in it, from the farmers up to the podcasters. It’s the biggest lie and health hazard post… you know what.” He had lost me at “big coffee”. My mind wandered to the actual coffee; we had met there for a cuppa, I was a regular at that place, and he had suggested that I shouldn’t change my habits abruptly. We sat in the private corner with the small table, just to have some privacy or at least the illusion of it.
“I’m gonna order a coffee, do you fancy one?” I asked casually, perhaps I should have waited for him to finish his train of thought, I felt a bit like an idiot but I really wanted a coffee. I couldn’t function in the morning without one or two. “I knew it, you are in it as well. You’re with them!” he exclaimed, standing up quickly as if I had pushed him, his chair falling behind him. “What are you on about? Relax, mate. I just ordered coffee, just an espresso, not a big one like the ones you seem so afraid about!” I joked, trying to calm him down and touching his arm in a friendly manner. It was then that he punched me, straight on my nose. “Ouch, motherf…” I exclaimed. I touched it and I was bleeding. Looking up, I saw him running away. As he crossed the road, I saw the waitress with my coffee coming towards me. A moment of relief, I won’t lie, but then she screamed. As she raised her hands above her head, she dropped the small tray with my coffee.
“Noooo!!” my words blended with her horrified scream.
A big black car, possibly a Range Rover or one of these huge American trucks hit him and ran away, just like that. It happened so fast.
The police arrived soon enough, even too soon if you ask me. Someone pointed in my direction and, long story short, I was going to be escorted for a quick interrogation about what had happened.
I really needed the toilet, so off I went, and one of the cops joined me. I had to go for a number two and he, instead, stopped at the urinals. I did my thing and as I went to pull up my trousers, I noticed something in my pocket, something alien, that I didn’t recognise or had seen before. It was a piece of paper, some handwritten words and a diagram. It was my friend’s handwriting.
“Caffeine simply increases the heart rate of subjects” “No health benefits, everything is propaganda” “It shortens lifespan” “It's an illusion” “Big coffee is the cartel of all the producers and distributors all over the world” “B.C. had pawns everywhere, police included”
Lots of short sentences like this, a long string with twelve words, perhaps a crypto wallet? And then a QR Code circled with the words: IPFS PROOFS beside it.
Knock Knock! “Oh, bollocks!” I instinctively thought out loud. “You already flushed once... Are you done in there?” the cop asked me, his feet very close to my door and his face scanning for anything odd. I looked as if I was still doing my business. “Almost done, sorry, coffee does that to me! Eh eh,” I nervously answered while I pulled out my phone to scan the QR Code.
As I scanned it, a PDF file opened. 545 pages. I typed a random page number: 420, and there it was, all true, the evidence was all there on just one random page!
Then it happened. I looked up, and the cop had been observing me for a while. He had entered the toilet next to me and was just standing there, looking at my phone and everything else.
“You should have just enjoyed your coffee, but you wanted to play the hero. Now, take this double espresso.”
Bang. Bang. That was it.