In light of my week spent in anti-terrorism class, here’s a snippet from Twilight. Valenica, one of my antagonists, makes her first appearance here. Merlin, my primary antagonist has been introduced earlier, but that entry has an NC-17 rating (US system). Today’s entry has been slightly modified (mostly in language terms) to keep it at the PG-13 level.

I suspect it’s too infodumpy, and I’ll be looking for a way to make it less so during revisions.

NOTICE: This material is copyrighted, first draft, certainly contains errors, and possibly not even going to be in the final draft of anything. Do not quote or repost anywhere or in any format. Thanks.

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Tuesday, May 18

Valencia scanned her email, paying close attention to spam. She found the key she was looking for, opened the message, performed a few simple operations, and saved it to a file. She moved the spam message into a special folder. The rest, which, to her anyway, were true spam, she deleted. When she opened the file, she found a complete recon package — exactly what she was looking for — pictures of the company, hiring practices, type of work they did. They had a 90-day temp program. They were very clear if you didn’t work out for them or pass your background investigation — very thorough they said — you would not obtain permanent status. They maintained this policy was due to the sensitive nature of the research they conducted for some of their clients. Race, religion, gender, even sexual orientation, was not a factor. Sound character was essential. Well, she’d see how sound the character was of all their people. She already had an inkling that wasn’t completely true. Merlin had said his source indicated Pete Suckow was in serious need of oral stimulation. She knew she could make this Pete guy feel like he was the greatest stud on earth. Once she did that, she was confident he’d give her everything she needed. She surveyed her apartment, chosen for the two master bedroom suite set up, the private two-car garage below with private entrance. Merlin could work undetected by both outside sources and the mark while she kept him otherwise engaged. They’d worked a few small jobs before and been highly successful. She saw no reason why this time would be any different. The package contained a link to the on-line application for temporary work as a research documentation clerk. That meant she’d do whatever shit work the regulars didn’t want to do until she’d proven her worth. She hated taking shit from people who thought their shit didn’t stink while she got the mark’s confidence. Once she had the mark hooked, she could leave the company and return to her own lucrative line of work. And that wasn’t screwing lonely guys to get sensitive information out of them, although she had to admit that’s what it looked like on the surface. For now, she was an espionage technician in Merlin’s organization. Once he’d verified her references, checked out that she could pass the intellectual requirements for the job, he’d apologized but said he had to verify her other qualifications as well. Merlin was a gorgeous hunk, if she had to endure a hardship for that test, she’d do it. She’d smiled, crossed her legs, leaned toward him with just the right amount of cleavage showing, and said, “Sure. Are we talking about an immediate demonstration or something a little more subtle?”

Merlin had glanced over her shoulder at the passers-by in the mall food court and suggested they might want to go for more subtle.

She’d nodded with satisfaction, “That would have been my recommendation, too,” she’d said, “But I wanted to make sure I had our parameters clear.”

For the first time in their interview process, Merlin had given a genuine laugh, “Would you have initiated here if I’d told you immediate?”

She’d looked him straight in the eye, “You’ll just never know, will you.”

“I guess not,” he’d said, and settled back into his chair to sip the rest of his latte, watching the surroundings.

She’d decided he was waiting for her to make the next move, and she was losing his attention fast. She reached across the table, lightly rested her hand on his arm, and said, “Would you like to take me for a drive? I have a place in mind you might be interested in seeing.”

Merlin had cocked an eyebrow, “Sure. Let’s go.” She’d gotten the job.

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