The sky still bore a dark gray hue early that evening. It was drizzling outside, but the worst of the storm had passed an hour ago. Beneath the slowly calming sky, a man in a blue raincoat and umbrella stood in the middle of the narrow alley, waiting impatiently. He did not like to be kept waiting. Staring out into the empty streets as he waited, he glimpsed many passing faces, yet they seemed to vanish the moment he laid eyes on them. This image unsettled him, but he finally blocked it out by focusing on the task ahead. What he was about to do would change the world forever, and he knew it. It was the kind of opportunity one would not pass up.

Out of the mist, a tall, aging man ambled up the alleyway. “You’re late,” smiled the man in the raincoat, checking his watch again. “I almost believed I was ‘Waiting for Godot’.”

The old man returned the smile as he stepped under the umbrella. “I’m no savior,” he laughed grimly, “but I do have what you came here for.” With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a memory disk.

“The file?” the man in the raincoat whispered incredulously.

The old man nodded. “Do what you want with it. Just be careful, okay? There’s a reason that thing was outlawed.”

“How did you… come across this?” the man in the raincoat asked suspiciously.

“All you need to know is that you have it. I can’t tell you everything, now, can I?”

“I guess not,” sighed the man in the blue raincoat. His expression was as unreadable as a blank sheet of paper. An awkward silence held between them for several minutes.

“It was… nice to see you again,” the old man asserted nostalgically, ending the break in conversation.

“Feeling’s mutual,” agreed the man in the blue raincoat. And so, the old man, his uneasiness apparent, strode out of the passageway and made his way to the bus station.

Moments later, the man in the blue raincoat cackled to himself, an unearthly sound that pierced through the heart of the city. Deception came easy to him, and that transaction was his best performance yet. I finally have it, he thought sickeningly, and now I can continue without limitation. If only he knew my true intentions, he told himself, that poor fool might’ve been able to stop me. No matter. Nothing can touch me now. His maleficent laughter filled the narrow streets as he strolled out of the soaked alleyway. Though the rain had finally stopped, the darkness would return all too soon. Twilight colors hung on the clouds, marking the beginning of a foreboding future.