One week later Grady is in his father’s office waiting for his father to join him. His father awoke him hours before, as he has for weeks now, and told him to do exactly what he is now doing. Grady has the feeling something big is about to happen. He isn’t sure what but his father has been on the phone a lot over the past couple of days. In some strange way Grady expects a recruiter from the organization his father works for to show up at the house.

Grady sits in a chair in front of his father’s desk. He fiddles with his fingers and he looks at the books that stand behind the desk. He listens to movement on the floor above him. Someone has arrived at the front door and he can hear h is father’s muffled voice welcoming someone. The footsteps move over Grady’s head and march towards the door to the basement. The door opens and footsteps come down.

“Hello, Grady. I’d like you to meet someone.”

Behind his father is a man with dark hair, dark eyes and darkened skin. Everything about the man seems dark to Grady. He has a long gray coat on and is holding a hat in his hands. He is dressed in an immaculate dark suit with a tied that has a perfect dimple at his throat. Grady wonders if maybe this is some kind of robot with how perfectly he is dressed.

“My name is Jeremiah Donovan, Grady. Your dad asked me here to talk to you.”

“Hello Mr. Donovan.”

Grady shakes the man’s hand. His hand feels cold and slimy like he has just shaken a fish. Grady manages to hold his smile in place and continue shaking the man’s hand. The man smiles back and his teeth are also perfect and white. Grady wonders why his father is not utterly repulsed by this man and his fears about the people his father works for grows.

“I understand your father has been training you to use your abilities. According to him you’re a fast study. He also says you may be more powerful than he is. That would be something. Your dad’s the best we’ve ever had.”

“Yes, Mr. Donovan, I’m sure he is. I’ve known he was unique from the time I was quite small.”

“He wants me to talk to you about what it is we do and why we want you to come work for us.”

Grady sighs. He feels tears spring out behind his eyes. He feels like his father has betrayed him and hasn’t listened to him at all. He had hopes he was getting through to his father. Now he knows his father never had any intention of letting him make his own choice.

“I don’t think my father has been entirely honest with you, Mr. Donovan. I have no intention of doing the same work my father has been doing.”

“Yes, well, he has informed me of this as well. I still thought I might talk to you a bit. Maybe I could change your mind.”

Grady looks at his father. His father stares back at him without blinking and without showing any emotion. Grady wants to reach out and hit the man. Instead he just nods to Mr. Donovan.

“Can I have a moment alone with Grady?”

Grady’s father nods just once and promptly turns and heads back upstairs. Donovan walks around to the back of his father’s desk. He takes off his coat and tosses it on the back of the chair. He pauses and studies the books behind the desk. He picks one out and flips through it for a moment. He laughs slightly and then puts the book back on the shelf. Nothing in his movements makes Grady think any better of him.

“Grady, we are an organization more secretive and more powerful than any intelligence agency around the world. There are people at work for us with power beyond your imagining. I’m talking about real power. I am talking about people who can cause lightning to appear in this basement. I am also talking about political and monetary power.”

He turns and smiles at Grady and stares at him as if he expects this declaration to impress him. He is troubled for a moment when Grady shows no reaction. He quickly shoves it aside and brings another smile to his face. He puts his hands behind his back.

“Grady, the job we ask of you and your father is an important one. It’s vital, in fact, to our operation. It’s the entire heart of our operation. That means you and your father get higher pay and benefits than anyone else. Heck, you’d have higher pay and benefits than I get myself.”

Grady nods at this. Donovan again seems disturbed that this does not seem to impress Grady.

“You and your future family would be taken care of for the rest of your life. Your house, car, clothing and food would be paid for. In fact, everything would be paid for. If you want a vacation you just need to ask and your family can visit anywhere it wants. All of the paperwork for your travels are taken care of by us. All of your transportation for assignments is taken care of by us. You fly first class. You take boats first class. If you have to take a damn rickshaw we make sure it is a first class rickshaw. The meals, hotels and whatever else you may need while you are on that assignment is taken care of by us. Not a bad deal, is it?”

“No, I suppose not, Mr. Donovan. It sounds great. There’s just one problem. I don’t like the idea of working for some shadowy super-secret organization. I don’t understand your motivations or the motivations of the people you work for. I don’t even know who you work for technically. As far as I can see you don’t even have a proper name for your organization. All of that adds up to a lot of crap. You can dress up that crap with as much stuff as you want, but it still looks, sounds, feels and smells like crap.”

Donovan’s smile fades but it only fades for a moment. He clears his throat. He sits down in the chair behind his father’s desk and wrinkles the top part of his coat.

“The inner workings of this organization are not for you to know. You just need to trust us, Grady. We are on the side of right and good. I can assure you of that. The man who started our organization is very old and very rich and very powerful. He wanted to gather people of power together with the sole purpose of trying to influence the world through the use of unique powers and abilities. He wants to influence the world in a good way. He thinks good can triumph over evil by bringing people together who want to do good.”

“Who is he?”

“Pardon?”

“This person you speak of. Who is this old, rich fellow?”

“That’s not important.”

“It is to me.”

“You don’t need to know.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Understand what?”

“I’m telling you that I do need to know. I’m telling you that without knowing I am not going to work for you. I’m telling you that you are a rude man who thinks he can sit behind my father’s desk and look through his books and smile at me and that will make everything perfect. I’m telling you that I don’t like you and I don’t want to work for you. I’m telling you that I want to live my own life in obscurity with my future wife and raise children and not have to fly off to parts of the world no one has ever heard of to hang out with sick and dying people.”

Donovan’s mask cracks completely. His face turns from confusion into defensive and then into outright anger. His face turns red. His mouth turns down and then twists into a snarl. He slams his hands down on the desk.

“No, it’s you who doesn’t seem to understand. There are more powerful things at work here than your comfort and career goals. Everything in this house was bought and paid for by the people I work for. That means, for all intents and purposes, this is my desk and this is my chair. This isn’t your decision to make. The decision on your life was made the moment you realized you were different from anyone else. The only choice you had was doing this the easy way or the hard way. I can make it happen the hard way if you want. Like I’ve said there are powers at work within our organization that can be very persuasive.”

Grady feels his own anger rise. He knows his face is turning red. He leans forward.

“No, I don’t think you are getting where I come from. From where I stand it seems I hold all of the cards. I have an ability and you want it. I’m telling you that, right now, you can’t have it. If you ever want it, then you’ll let me do what I want and for as long as I want and you’ll leave me and my family alone.”

He slams his hands down on the desk. He is very happy when Donovan flinches.

“If anything happens to my family I am going to find you and everyone you work for and I will kill them. If you think that I won’t then you just have to go ahead and give me a try. I know things you can only dream of, Donovan. I can find you and I will find you. I will find you and your family and your family’s family and I will kill each and every one of them. I will murder them all in their beds. I will do everything I can to take down your organization. Something that far in the dark would probably wilt in the light and I will make it my life’s mission to shine as much light on you and your people as I can. Dear God, you will think the sun is a light bulb when I get through with you.”

Donovan leans back. His face gradually returns to a normal color. He smiles again. He stands and grabs his coat and puts it over his arms.

“Grady, it has been a pleasure meeting you. Your threats are noted and they will be considered by the people you just threatened.”

He extends his hand toward Grady. Grady stares at the hand. Donovan smiles another of his perfect smiles and gives a strange little bow. He turns and walks away. Grady waits until he is well upstairs and listens to the footsteps as they make their way toward the front door. When he hears the front door open he quickly moves to the side of the desk and then vomits into the garbage can.