Pub Fare

   The pub, in an alley a block from Seattle's Pike Place Market, was an unusual place for a job interview. Not really private, but busy enough that any conversation would be lost in the noise.

   "What makes you think we'd be interested in you? We aren't the usual background check firm. And, to be frank, we don't get many applicants of your history, not that it it would preclude you from the position."

   The snotty thirty-one year old who sat across the table from me had an air of smugness. I knew all about the interviewer of course, a concealed identity, hidden from the usual internet scrutiny but one thing which hadn't been scrubbed was a flamboyant RPG history. It was a matter of pride, a weakness, it didn't take too long to get a life story once I had cracked the avatar. A small fortune made in on-line games, starting small when only a teen, then a lucrative algorithm turned game points into cash- getting out just before the Russians could catch up. Used the money to start this business, a legal "background check" service which did do the routine stuff but made more from supplying blackmailers, divorce lawyers and other grifters with dirt.

   "I am the person you want to be on your side, believe me, Alleystar."

   The mention of his online alias only erased the smug smile for a millisecond. A forehead vein started to pulse, nothing most people would notice, but something a card shark would term "a tell." I had the job now, the rest were formalities.

   "I see. What is it you really want?" spoken cooly, but that vein kept throbbing.

   "I want to work. And I want to work with the best." Pride was a weakness.

   "When I got the recommendation from your last employer I gave you an interview as a courtesy to an old friend. May I assume that you know what our business really entails?"

   "Sure. When I read the headlines about fraud in the financial industry, I know that you work for all sides, making sure that names stay out of the paper and the cash flow remains invisible- for a small percentage."

   "I ask again, What do you really want?"

   "I want to disappear."

   "You've got the job."




Fiction