huntsmonsters: the proposition - the girl with the dragon tattoo/thor lisbeth salander/lokiShe w

huntsmonsters: the proposition - the girl with the dragon tattoo/thor lisbeth salander/loki She was sitting in her room, fiddling calmly with the piercing through her lower lip, her other hand moving across her keyboard with the alacrity of a dancer, when he appeared in the doorway. She started, as much as she ever did, and reached for the taser she knew to be in her side pocket. She found it gone. He lifted it, and wiggled it back and forth. She stood, her chair falling backwards, and ran through a mental inventory of what was closeby that she could use as a weapon. The knives in the kitchen were four steps back and under a pile of dirty dishes. She would step backward and remove one while showing fear to distract him, and then ply it to his throat. “Lisbeth Salander,” he said. “No need to be alarmed.” His Swedish was perfect, but with a lilt of other origins. British, maybe. He looked like a businessman, but the gleam in his eye made her think of the matte flash of light reflecting off snake scales. His eyes were very green. She made her first step back, her eyes dropping a little lower. She wasn’t very good at falsifying fear when she didn’t feel it, and she didn’t feel it now. He might catch on. Hopefully she would have the smooth heft of the knife in her hand by then. “I’ve come to offer you a proposition.” His suit was neat, pin straight and dark gray, and probably cost triple her month’s pay. His tie was a shade of green that matched his eyes, clipped together with a gold tie pin, two curved lines arcing down in parallel. The only thing about him that didn’t scream professional was his nails. They were neat - but they were black. She had never met a man with painted nails who wore a suit like that. She clicked the tip of her thumbnail hard over the edge of the chipping black paint on her index finger. She said nothing. He walked around the edge of her desk, and she backed up another step. He put up a hand in defense. “I won’t harm you,” he said. He settled his hip against the side of her desk once she was a suitable distance from it. “In fact, I think we might be able to help each other.” He didn’t fidget, or look away from her the way that most men who wore suits like his and spoke the way he did would do in her presence. He kept his eyes on hers, so tightly that they pulled hers back when they wanted to move away. “I have a variety of talents, Lisbeth. I can generally take care of things on my own, but there are some things I have no talent for. Computers,” he said, and lightly tapped her bulky monitor with a finger, “are one of them. I have heard that you are the best. All I want is to acquire your services. Simple enough.” She stared, unspeaking. His mouth curved up into a small smile, as if she had said something particularly amusing. “You work for me and you do whatever I ask you to. In return, I will pay you well. Also simple.” He finally broke eye contact, glancing around the hurricane zone of her apartment, broken motherboards stacked atop empty takeout containers and stacks of files and records. “Does that suit?” “No,” she said. The word left her mouth and dropped flat to the floor. “Good,” he said. He pulled a folder from his jacket. It hadn’t marred the lines of his suit in any way. She wondered what else he might be hiding in there. He set the folder on top of the monitor and shifted off the desk. “I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about your progress.” Then he turned and walked out the front door. On his way out, he gently laid her taser on a towering stack of half charred books in the entry, then was gone. Lisbeth stood there, staring at the door. She didn’t bother to go check for his retreating back in the hallway. She knew that he would already be gone. She slid the folder off the monitor and flipped it open. There were only a few pages inside, names that meant nothing to her. Most of them sounded American, as far as she could tell, and the pages gave their names and pictures and general information. There was no indication of what she was expected to do, but she knew the drill, here - background checks. He wanted background checks, of the sort only she could provide. The last page was a list of names, more people she had never heard of and a few she had - ROGERS, steve. STARK, tony. A BLAKE, donald was crossed off the list, but otherwise the sheet gave only names. Behind the papers there was a small white envelope. She opened it, and as soon as she saw the peek of the gray and green lines on the paper inside above the dip in the back of the envelope, she knew what was in it. She counted. Enough krona to…buy a suit with a green tie, and a gold lapel pin. She knew a challenge when she saw one. The taser, when she checked it later, was missing its charges. She almost smiled when she opened the case and found it empty. -- source link

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