Though calling it “waiting” implied that they had an appointment. They didn’t. In my line of work, that told me they had violent intentions—either to threaten it or deliver it. Some days it doesn’t pay to get out of bed. My name is Raine Benares. I’m a seeker. I find things and people. For the most part, it’s satisfying work. The crappy side is when certain individuals want me to find things that aren’t theirs—otherwise known as stealing—or locate and appropriate people who don’t want to be found—also known as kidnapping. I refuse to do either one. I think I’m the only Benares who would refuse. Let’s just say my family and I don’t draw our lines in the sand at the same place. While they engaged in any number of less than legal professions, the one the Benares family was best known for was piracy. And whatever pirates took off a captured ship, be it plundered gold or pilfered people, all of it was fair game. I had news for the trio in my office: I was not fair game, nor did I fight fair, as they were about to find out. Even though I was still down the block from my office, the sentry crystal I’d installed above my office door gave me plenty of warning when I had uninvited and unwelcome guests.
