The sun shined brightly throughout the café, giving the people there a perfect day. But one man frowned, he would have preferred a cloudy atmosphere for what he was about to say. He checked his gold-plated watch for the time, it was 3:58 pm. He had told the man to meet him here at 4 on the dot and judging by the recommendations, this man was never late.

A cup of coffee and a plate of chocolate biscuits lay forgotten next to the man. He had drank only a tiny bit of the coffee and had not even touched the biscuits; in any case he had no appetite. He looked around to make sure he was not being watched, a young couple sat at a nearby table flirting and an old man was reading a newspaper while he ate a croissant. But was he just an old man he thought? His palms started to sweat; he slowly reached inside his bag. There were only 3 things inside of it: his smartphone (a new model released only the previous week), a package containing over $500,000 and a Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol in case things went wrong. He didn't anticipate them to go wrong but he had to be ready.

The old man got up from his chair and his hand reached the pistol's handle. The old man finished the croissant and left, his hand left the pistol. He was just nervous. A minute later his nervousness was confirmed, his watch beeped loudly as it reached 4 pm. He flailed around and almost kicked his bag over.

"Careful there."

He looked up quickly. A man in a business suit holding a briefcase looked down at him. He was shocked but got over it quickly. Whispering almost, he said "Are you-"

"I prefer not to use my job title in public Mr. Richards, and yes I am the 'man'." He said. Richards was a bit taken aback at the usage of his name.

"Please sit down." He said offering the seat, "Can I get you anything- waiter!"

"Water will do Mr. Richards." The man said quietly.

A waiter walked over and Mr. Richards called for a water. A minute later it was delivered. The man in the suit took a long drink while Mr. Richards watched anxiously. The man in the suit set the glass down, ¾ of it drunk already.

"So Mr. Richards, about the job…" he said.

"It is a simple one for which I am offering a large sum of money for."

"I still need a few more details for my team and I." he announced.

"Very well. As you know I own a large international company that mass produces weapons."

The man in the suit nodded his head.

"Our competition is taking over the market and we have already suffered from many financial losses, I've had to fire 30% of our factory workers. That's almost 10,000 people."

"Go on."

"With my immense wealth, I learned a few months ago of a government base in Antarctica, I have some business in Antarctica myself as I run cruise lines there. Anyways, one day I was informed of a man who was found walking across the ice. He was mentally and physically exhausted and appeared to have been walking for a few days. We have no idea how he survived."

The man in the suit gave a sign to go on.

"All we ever got out of the man was his talks about some creature, some Thing, that attacked a base he was working at."

"And you took his word for it?" asked the man in the suit.

"Of course at first I didn't believe a word the man said. But I was definitely intrigued at his origins so I did some research and it all checked out. There is a base there and contact with it was lost. We know that they found something."

'Why not just send one of your own teams to see what's there?" asked the man in the suit.

"I did as a matter of fact. I sent the team nearly a month ago, they haven't returned." He said firmly.

The man in the suit raised his eyebrow. "They're missing?"

"Yes but they're nothing to me, just grunts." Mr. Richards said dismissively. The man in the suit did not react to this lack of care for workers, he was used to it by now though it wasn't the way the man in the suit treated his workers.

"I suppose you don't want me to find the missing men?" asked the man in the suit. Mr. Richards let out a small laugh before clearing his throat.

"No, I want you to find out what they found there and bring me a sample. It would benefit my business and destroy the competition."

"Right, so how much will you pay?"

"$500,000 now and $500,000 when the job is done. One million dollars, more than you've ever been paid I'm sure."

The man in the suit twirled his glass of water before setting it down again.

"I'll accept the job."

"Excellent, I expect the sample by the end of the month. Here is your initial payment." Said Mr. Richards. He slid over the package. The man in the suit opened the briefcase and placed the package inside; Richards saw a handgun before the man in the suit closed the briefcase.

"I'll have your sample by the end of the month Mr. Richards."

"Great, see you then."

The men shook hands and parted ways. Richards hailed a cab while the man in the suit vanished in the subway, both men unaware that their meeting had been watched. A blonde woman watched the cab in which Richards was in drive off. She pulled out her smartphone.

"How quickly can we get to Antarctica?"

In the distance a storm cloud approached and blocked the sun.