Hollie looked back at Toni, who only offered a shrug. She followed Claire outside, looking around to find the woman standing at the bottom of the porch steps. “Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“What are you doing here, really?”, Claire asked as she folded her arms in front of her, just watching Hollie.
“You were right, about everything. I am here looking for someone for work.”, Hollie replied in a calm tone. “I am a recruiter, so I don’t know exactly who I am looking for. But I think I may have found them?”
Claire stiffened visibly. “Recruiter for what?”
Hollie took a card out from her pocket and held it out to Claire. “The Enigma Agency. We employ a wide range of uniquely talented people, but the important part is we need people who can be discreet.”
Claire reached out and took the card, flipping it over in her hand in examination a few times. It read: Hollie Berri (Ph#), and had a strange eye-like symbol printed on the back. “Your name…”
Hollie cut her off, “Yeah, I hate it.”, she said. She moved down to the lowest step, looking at Claire seriously. “You want a job? It’s not a joke, we get government contracts all the time. Benefits, a good paycheck, and time off is mandatory even.”
Claire was hesitant, and kept looking off toward the street. “I don’t know. Doing what exactly? I am not much of a people person. I- I can’t even handle it if I’m not stoned or drunk. And I haven’t done more than you’ve just seen in more than twenty years.”
Hollie took another card out and wrote something down on the back of it before offering it to Claire. “That is not my department, but they work with all kinds of people. Look, this is the number of the field office I’ve worked with before, they’ll vouch for the Agency. We’ll pay to have you come out and do an interview. I just need you to say yes, so I can go home.”
Claire took the second card and looked at the number, then at Hollie again. “I’ll look into it. Is that good enough?”
Offering only a shrug, Hollie responded, “It’ll have to be. Let me ask you though, the last card you pulled, was that the one that represents yourself?”
Claire looked off at the road, willing the headlights of her ride to appear. But she nodded to Hollie’s question. “Yeah. It was mine.”, she admitted.
Making her way to her rental car, Hollie waved to Claire. “Give it some thought, and then call me, okay? I promise it’s worth it, and nobody there is going to think you’re weird.”
“Okay.”, Claire replied, still not entirely convinced it wasn’t a prank somehow. “Maybe then I’ll see you later. Drive safe.”