"Mr. Talbot, it's a pleasure to meet you."
The man held out his hand and Glenn shook as he said, "Please just call me Grant, Mr. Talbot is so formal."
"Grant it is then." The man sat again and looked across the desk at Glenn. "You know what is needed?"
"Indeed." Glenn sat as well, stroking the mustache that for the moment adorned his upper lip. "However before I do what you've hired me for I need to see proof that you have what I asked for as payment."
The man frowned deeply. "You saw the photographs, isn't that enough proof?"
"Photographs can be doctored," was Glenn's rather pointed reply.
It was apparent the man was not happy as his mouth tightened. Nonetheless he stood to cross the room to a large file cabinet. Instead of opening a drawer he pressed one corner and the entire front swung out to reveal a safe. He spun the dial, opened the safe to take out a metal box that he brought back to hand to Glenn.
Glenn checked the contents, smiled, and lifted the hand that had been resting in his lap. The pistol he held spat twice, virtually silently, and the man fell forward. After he re-holstered the gun Glenn moved around the desk to lift the man's body and put it on the sofa along one wall. He arranged it, stepped back and nodded in approval. Anyone taking a cursory glance would think the man was resting.
With that done Glenn put the contents of the box into his pockets, replaced it in the safe and closed it and the fake front that hid it. Then he looked around to make certain he hadn't missed anything before he went into the front office where he stopped long enough to inform the secretary that the man had felt ill, was now resting, and asked not to be disturbed. Then he left the office suite.
On his way down the hall to the elevators he stripped off the mustache and wig he'd been wearing. As he waited for the elevator he removed the contact lenses that had turned his hazel eyes to a dark green then took off his jacket. When he arrived at the ground floor of the office building he appeared to be an entirely different man than the one who had entered half an hour earlier. Grant Talbot was no more. Glenn Tanner caught a cab and returned to his hotel room.
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