“Just hired some guy?”

“Just hired some guy.”

“That is stupid.”

“THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD DO BOSS—”

I would do that. I would call an agency and pay a guy to be Mr. Client. Like: Hi Sharona I am Bobby DeLindt from Highdown Casting in Santa Monica hi hi hi it’s good to talk to you hi. Yeah okay so we are doing a thing here. Stay with me Sharona. I know it’s outré but we’re doing a VERY bespoke reality game for a high-level client it is not our USUAL thing at all but you know money talks and we need a guy and he has to look legitimately top-drawer is what I’m saying because he is like the face for the game—

And so on.

And that would work fine.

It would be okay.

You’d maybe have to kill the guy right after.

You would not want him backtraced in a situation where you were assassinating the fuck out of a person with friends.

But still.

But that guy that I met—he was not that person. There was nothing in that guy that was for hire. There was nothing in him that said he was part of a plan. Any plan he was into would be part of him not the other way around. He was a boss. Not necessarily The Boss like no one is ever entirely The Boss.

But that guy…he was not anyone’s sock puppet and if you tried to make him that well that would be on you.

I tell Charlie to find Mr. Client and I go back to bed.

In fact I do not go back to bed because as I walk down the corridor toward the bedroom I hear a strange sound from outside. It is sort of conversational and gentle but it is also very very lonely and sad.

It is Rex talking to the pigs.

“Hi Rex.”

“O hi Colonel hi.”

“Just Jack is fine Rex.”

“Sometimes it feels wrong to me sir.”

“Sure man if that’s what you want.”

“Yes sir.”

“You having a little quiet time I guess?”

“Yes sir.”

“Okay then.”

“Yes sir.”

“You know Rex sometimes I come out here—well I guess you don’t need to know that.”

“No go on sir.”

“I don’t want to interrupt you man we all got our thing.”

“No sir I would appreciate it.”

“Well okay sure but you are not to laugh even though it is kinda funny. I mean it’s not funny but it is kinda. Yeah anyway anyway…Sometimes I come out here and I you know I sit down or I lean on this rail and I talk. Not to myself that is cray cray so I talk to the pigs.”

“You do?”