Where Impossible Things May Happen

I feel like this is some really good stuff

Sarah had lost Clyde less than a week after the funeral, but two months after signing up with Harrison she had made enough money to buy herself a new one. Clyde II was a beautiful piece of machinery. Clyde II was all sleek midnight black where his ancestor was candy red. There were two notches scraped in the left handlebar to indicate Clyde II’s position as the second. It didn’t have all the souped up bells and whistles that the original Clyde had, but Sarah was working on it.

Sarah and her partner were sitting together on the beige carpeted floor of their shared suite playing a game of cards. Sarah was winning, as she always did, and of the candy they wagered, Sarah had a much taller pile. Though it was stacked against him, Firestarter played jovially. It seemed he was just happy to have someone to play with. 

A thought occurred to Sarah. “Hey, what’s your real name?”

Her partner paused for a second and thought about it. “Well, I don’t have a birth certificate and I have two names depending on which parent I’m with. My mother calls me Otto.”

“What does your dad call you?”

“It’s unpronounceable in human tongue.”

“Oh,” Sarah showed her hand and grabbed some Swedish Fish from Otto’s pile. He smiled and started shuffling again. As he dealt, the phone rang. Otto checked the Caller ID; it was Harrison. Firestarter hit speakerphone, and Harrison’s voice came through. “I’m patching a client through. Firestarter will take the call. Two hour appointment.”

The line went dead for a second as connections were made. When the call came through, Firestarter spoke with a voice so authoritative and strong and different that it made Sarah jump. “We will be your bodyguards. You have us for two hours.” They continued to talk over details, where and when the bodyguarding detail would begin.