He knew it because the call he’d just received from his boss’s assistant ended with a request for a face-to-face meeting. It was rare that a meeting would have to be taken in person, and even rarer that a boss would fly out for it. Now his was coming to town, and it wasn’t to deliver a compliment. He was told to meet at the local Marriott, a beautiful hotel recently redone in the turn-of-the-millennium style. Though he didn’t have to, he decided to walk, for no other reason than to finish off a little something he’d started the day before. It was bad form, but he pulled from his pocket the cigar it seemed he’d only just lit up. Might as well finish it now, he figured, stepping out into the street. Better this bad taste in my mouth than the one that’s coming. Between the wind and the now semistale tobacco, it took Hektor a full two minutes just to get the damned thing lit. He allowed himself a good half hour to arrive at his destination. His pace was leisurely enough that he began to notice his surroundings for the first time since he’d arrived.
