Chapter 2: Cohen the Librarian
A less touching encounter was taking place fifteen thousand kilometers away, in a tastefully decorated suite of offices on another continent of Earth. The woman known to most only as Lady A sat behind a large desk whose top was abnormally tidy. She used the desk largely as a prop, to put more social distance between herself and whoever else was in the room. It gave the impression she was unapproachable—which was all but true anyway.
Abel Howard, the man she was currently interviewing, seemed unimpressed by the trappings of her office. He was a big man with wide shoulders and a narrow intellect, and he wasn’t accustomed to thinking of women as anything more than kitchen help or playthings. The fact that he was being hired by one was an anomaly, but he expect
