Interlude by Josie Daleiden

four years ago, our net annual was ten million. After I
took the reins, things quieted down on the global conflict front.
We've been holding at around eight million annually, but we had to
become more diversified in our merchandise and clientele to stay
there. As a plus, our provenance as a long time supplier gives us
the ability to avoid working with psychopaths. We mostly sell to
CIA operatives, other gun runners, and a few biker gangs. Not to
mention weapons collectors.” She said, finishing her spiel with a
comical sigh to illustrate her fatigue.
    “Wait, you sell weapons to biker gangs too”
Cal was just confused now.
    “Yes, they're the most stable customers.
They're also pretty fun. Most of them just like to get drunk and
destroy old cars in the desert. They throw the best parties!” Karen
added with a little laugh. As Karen spoke she flipped through the
pages looking for a particular one. She showed Cal a photo with a
bunch of the manliest men he had ever seen. Posing in front of,
what looked like, a handmade banner with their gang's name “Pacific
Ironclad” were a bunch of leather pants-ed men with assault rifles
held in the air. As he scanned the photo, he could see Karen
standing in the middle with her own gun in one hand and a bottle of
Boone's Farm in the other. She looked out of place in her khaki
shorts and black tank top. She pointed out various members of the
rough group with hazy recollection.
    “This one to my left is Mitch. He's actually
the gang's lawyer too. He's how I made the contact to start selling
to the whole group. He's a really great guy, but a little rough and
tumble.” She added. “This guy here is Alvaro. He's the leader. The
others are kind of fuzzy. I was really drunk, and we haven't done
business in a while.” Her far off smile was kind of disconcerting
to Cal as he sat in silence again. His brain fumbled through morals
and ethics he never had to think about before. What could he
compare this to? She was so business-like, but what she sold killed
people. Did that make her bad? He thought back to how he felt
sitting in the coffee shop, trying to hold on to her memory. The
pain and darkness, the emptiness that had swept over him like a
black flood. He knew he wanted to be with her. But how to make
sense of this new life she wanted him to be a part of? She must
really trust him! This thought made him smile with happiness as he
watched her eye him with timid anticipation. Her mouth opened in
surprise when he spoke.
    “Boone's Farm huh?” He queried with a
grin.
    She gave him a quick frown, saying, “It's a
little joke between Alvaro and I. He always thinks it's so funny to
see this girly girl dropping off his weapons!” She recalled with a
chuckle. “So, he always has a bottle on hand for me when I make a
drop off. They always make a big deal out of it; barbeque, drinks,
and lots of shooting. They have a piece of land out in the
California Valley, so no worries about the local PO PO.”
    “PO PO?” Cal asked.
    “Yeah the local cops are sometimes a pain for
us. If we get in really deep trouble we can use our pull with the
CIA to get things cleared up, but we still have to be careful.” She
finished. Cal hadn't noticed how late it was, he was so enthralled
with Karen's picture presentation that he didn't see the sun set
from that beautiful viewpoint. In the following calm, Karen took
the opportunity to move over to Cal and sit in his lap. He tensed
up visibly as she sat down, his bruises still fresh where the thugs
kicked him in the lower abdomen. Upon the recollection, he turned
her around to face him in the tall pub chair.
    “By the way, what was the deal with my break
in? You said you somehow brought it on me?” Cal asked in
recollection.
    “Oh yeah that...” Karen stalled for time as
she tried to think of a way to explain things. How was she to tell
him about her real staff? Cal thought they were just insurance
salesmen. He knew Soren's name, but he didn't know about