Morning light hung over the street as a cool breeze blew through the open seating area of the little café. The doors had no sooner opened than a slender woman in black seated herself at one of the more central tables. She ordered a coffee and waited. Within a few minutes a young woman wearing neutral business attire approached the table where the slender figure sipped on a steaming mug and greeted the newcomer with a smile.
"Thank you for meeting with me again, Alice," Said the woman in black, cheerfully.
"It's me that should be thanking you. That data you helped me find should be just the thing my department needs to expose this company for what they really are." Alice began to notice a grim undertone attempting, desperately, to be hidden by her contact's smile. "Is something wrong?" Alice was concerned by the unusual vibe that she was feeling from her acquaintance.
"Alice, there's something that you need to know." Alice blinked. Awaiting bad news is never something that she enjoyed. The woman in black looked her in the eyes and continued, "Our meeting at that computer crimes seminar was no accident; I planned, very specifically, to run into you." Alice's expressions flashed from concern to the practiced stonewall of a professional poker player.
"Such careful planning suggests a motive, so if you're not a disgruntled Pentex employee, who are you and why did you help us in our investigation?" The woman in black looked back down at her cup.
"Please, don't question the source, I want to see Pentex out of business as much as you do and I thought I'd help your father in his search for closure, as well." With hidden shock at the mention of her father, Alice looked at the woman in black for a sign of a lie, but found none.
"How do you know that my father is unofficially helping my department in this investigation?" The woman in black, staring into her cup, spoke in a hushed tone,
"There are things hidden in this world that exist along side the normal, every day people. These things would rather stay hidden and when they get revealed, bad things usually happen to those who expose them." Alice sensed that she was no longer the one "in the know", at the table.
"Most of the information on that disk you gave me points to hidden transactions and fronts for illegal operations, are you saying that there's something more at work here than a crime ring?"
No longer trying to hide her heart behind a pleasant demeanor, the woman in black said, coldly, "Oh, yes. Something more horrible than the most murderous of men lies at the heart of that company and even though you don't yet realize it, you may begin to bring it into the light, where it does not want to be." Alice was beginning to feel frustrated by the riddles her contact was speaking.
"You still haven't answered about my father. How did you know he was involved?" She asked forcefully. The woman in black looked, with scorn free pity, across the café table into Alice's eyes.
"Your father, for all his good intentions and disconnection, may be at the greatest of risk. Officials can be bribed, sleepers in your agency can destroy files, and those shell companies can be dismantled over night; but your father is a lone individual with immense talent and a driving need to know the truth. For all that, he may be a target." Alice was beginning to get a sinking feeling as she remembered where her father's interests lay in his hobbies.
"Why would you say he's a target?" The woman in black leaned a little closer to Alice.
Locking with her eyes, she spoke in a near whisper, "Because, he's someone who noticed them, and they noticed that he noticed. Now he's becoming a problem for them and they have the resources to take care of this kind of problem, very easily." Alice was sure she was worried, now.
"My god, are you saying that Pentex has that much power?" Leaning back, the woman in black grinned sarcastically.
She spoke in a harsh and markedly different tone, "Of course not, silly girl. We stopped talking about Pentex at least two minutes ago. Now we're talking about the thing that uses Pentex as a front to further its goals and you're just too blind to see it for what it really is." Alice was stunned, there was more to all of this than was visible to casual observation. Even this contact had more going on than she had first appeared. The woman in black shifted back to a more concerned, thoughtful expression and returned to looking, deeply, into the cooling coffee cup she held. "Alice, you should go now, please watch out for yourself and warn your father. I'll try to do all that I can to keep you and your father safe, but I can't make any promises."
Alice got up to leave, saying, "Don't worry, I can take care of myself and my father is not a fool either."
As she began to walk away, the woman in black called after her, "If I find out anything more I'll contact you, take care."
From behind the woman in black, a voice at another table asked, "What kind of game are you playing at this time, Ring-of-Stars?" The woman in black didn't turn to the speaker and continued her coffee vigil.
"I didn't see you come in." She said to the short man in the dark suit at the table behind her. "Neither did anyone else," he said pointedly, "but that doesn't answer my question. What do you hope to accomplish by using the government against Pentex?" Ramona, the woman in black, placed a ten dollar bill on the table under her empty cup. She carefully addressed the question.
"In order to drive the corruption in the world out into the open, you need to get it to reveal itself. When the agents of the Wyrm begin to move we will see where they hide and have a chance to move against them." The mystery man thought about what she had said.
"That does seem to be a good way to go about it, but remember that the ends shouldn't justify the means, so please keep your promise and protect the ones involved. I'd hate to have to reveal your continued existence to your enemies because one of your plots to bring them down resulted in more innocent blood being spilled." Ramona was angry, but knew he was right.
For all her power, he had her by the tail. In a false humor, she asked, "Watcher-of-Shadows, you're just about the worst friend anyone could have, do you know that?"
He chuckled, "And you're just about the most entertaining plaything I've found in a long time. So keep the collateral damage to a minimum, I'd hate to have to tell a few choice former employees of yours exactly where they could find you." Ramona spun around to protest, to attack, but found nothing more than an empty chair at the table behind her.