Johnny and his father sat in the huge conference room at Dragonfly International Security and Consulting, gazing out a huge window at the Manhattan skyline. The posh office space was sparsely but tastefully decorated. From the outside looking in, one would imagine it to be a responsible security firm. Then again it probably was, just one with an assortment of add-on services one didn’t normally find in legitimate businesses.

Sarah had given them the rundown on what she knew of the company. They’d once given her an assortment of information when they attempted to recruit her. Johnny and his father had also both sat through the initial consultation and video presentation.

So far they’d only interacted with males. They appeared to be former military men and were wearing expensive suits. All of them were packing weapons beneath their suit jackets. No one had asked Johnny, his father or their men to leave their weapons at the door, so it was clear no one saw them as a threat.

Within moments, three well-dressed businessmen entered the room. One they recognized as a Mr. Peters who was their sales consultant and one of the remaining two was the CEO. Johnny recognized Mr. Townsend from the video they’d been shown which had showcased the company’s various services.

They stood and shook hands as the men introduced themselves. Sinking into a seat, the man opened a file in front of him. “I am given to understand you are requesting a particular female employee by name. Is there a reason for the special request?”

Don Carlo was wearing his deadliest mobster persona for the occasion, or perhaps it was it was his real personality. Even being his son, Johnny had difficulty telling at times. “Do you have the capacity to honor the request?”

“You have asked for her to be on permanent assignment with your organization. This is what some would call cost prohibitive.”

“Clearly, for my organization it is not.”

“What are your long term plans?”

“We would like a trial period to determine if she is a good fit for our needs. If so, we might be interested in buying out her contract.”

“That would be extremely cost prohibitive for most organizations. She’s one of our best operatives.”

Don Carlo’s voice became steely. “I think you should be aware that I am not used to being told no. Nor, I am used to having to explain myself quite so thoroughly.”

“Mr. Carlo, our company is in the business of crunching numbers. It simply isn’t feasible that an organization the size of your east coast operation could require the kind of services we provide for our international clients, nor that you could afford them.”

Don Carlo folded his hands in his lap. Glancing down at his watch, he sighed but did not speak. As the minutes ticked by, cell phones began going off. Someone walked in with an electronic tablet and spoke quietly with the CEO.

Mr. Townsend spoke quietly. “Sorry about the disruption.”

“Sometimes wealthy successful business tycoons develop an overreliance upon technology.” His father’s voice was casual, unhurried and carried a bit of smugness. Johnny could see the first moment the men realized that there might be more going on than met the eye. “Those of us with good common sense know that every security system can be breached.”

The CEO’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know we were having problems with our electronic security?”

Taking out his cell phone, the older man scrolled through his e-mails as he spoke. “For someone in charge of such a small east coast operation, I am incredibly well connected. With not much more than a phone call or an e-mail, I can make interesting things happen in Toronto, Dubai, London…”

“I get your point. What I don’t get is why.”

“That question has already been answered. You were apparently not listening, when I mentioned that I do not like repeating myself.”

“We won’t be intimidated by you.”

Johnny broke into the conversation. “We will have the woman. You can either make money on this transaction or you can lose it. The choice is yours.”

“She is worth millions.”

“How convenient. We seem to have it to spare for this particular venture.”

“How about a thirty day trial period for, say, one million per day.”

“Petrov charged you one million for her and the federal government provided her training. No woman is worth that kind of money, so how about you get real before things get ugly?”

The man sat back in his seat. Johnny could see the moment the light went off in his head. “Petrov has a big mouth.”

“Petrov had a big mouth. Now, he is dead. He kept meticulous records of all his business dealings, including the business he transacted with your firm. He also collected quite a bit of intel on his various business partners and their…weaknesses.”

“You may have the woman for thirty days for a fee of one million dollars. You have to admit that is more than fair.”

Johnny spoke up quickly. “That is acceptable offer.”

“We have a contract. It stipulates that you may not cause her physical harm or sexually abuse her. She’s a valued employee with a specialized skill set.”

“Again, we agree to those terms, if and only if we finalize the transaction immediately.”

“I can have her within three hours.”

The time passed quickly as the company’s legal team walked them through the lengthy contract. Used to looking at complicated legal jargon, Johnny found the wording off putting as it seemed to identify her as the product being sold rather than her expertise.

Once she arrived, he tried not to look at her directly, knowing that if she resembled Sarah too closely, it would be a trigger. The last thing he needed was to tear the place up right in front of his pops.