The Protagonist Speaks

Dear readers, tonight we print an in-world encounter between two characters from this literary speculative fiction collection.

Helen sits alone at a small table by the window of the busy coffee shop, her silver hair short and neatly cut, reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose as she holds the paperback open with one hand. She sips her latte and turns the page. Her back is to the wall; by long habit she has chosen a spot with a full view of everyone in the room, and all the exits.

A stern, powerfully built woman with an ex-military bearing enters the café, scans the tables, and cautiously approaches Helen, who smiles, places a bookmark in her paperback, and greets her.

Oh, I’m so happy you got in touch, dear. I’m sure you have all sorts of questions. Won’t you sit down?

The woman narrows her eyes and sits across from Helen, spine stiff. A waiter takes her order – coffee, black. She has a thick Russian accent.

~~~

Who are you? Your group is government, NGO? Private, maybe?

Helen Rosenthal, pleased to make your acquaintance. We had so little time to chat when me met last time.

Little chat time because you tased me with tricky knitting device! And stole from boss. Former boss.

Oh, yes, well, you did have a Glock pointed at me, dear. And I’m sorry if our little operation cost you your security position with your… unpleasant former employer. He’s still in federal custody, isn’t he?

Yes, sure. Unimportant now. Business card from you had no details. But you said maybe job. Merc?

Not exactly, no. We’re indeed private, as you surmised. We take on security-related engagements for a variety of groups. Corporate, private, occasionally government when they need something with plausible deniability. And you showed excellent instincts, we’re always looking for new faces, but it’s a far cry from mercenary work. Our assignments usually require subtlety and eschew more pedestrian wetwork.

Subtlety. Hah. You broke into safe and stole money.

Oh, the cash was a spur of the moment decision. I ended up giving that to the nice young man who ran the front desk at that hotel. He didn’t know it, but all the trouble I put him through proved essential to gaining access to the penthouse suite where you and I met. The actual target of that episode was the thumb drive in that safe, which contained enough incriminating evidence to put your horrible boss away for a very long time.