AFTERWORD

Hi, I’m Amy.

I wait tables at a university. Which one? Doesn’t matter. What matters is—I actually like it. I get to watch people, chat with students and professors, and see more than most of them realize.

They all think they know me. Truth is, they don’t. But I know everyone—and everything. That’s my hobby.

This one student—I spotted him instantly. He was sitting with our former rector, who now teaches only a little. That alone told me he wasn’t ordinary.

At the initiation ritual I watched him play The Ghost. That’s the local game like hide and seek. He played it like a strategist—time management, human factors engineering. I have a weakness for people who can stare down an enemy without blinking.

When he started digging into me, I thought: fine, let’s make it interesting. A contact like that can be an investment—something to cash in later.

He asked me to come over more than once. I didn’t.

Emperor or not, I can get the info I need from him at a distance. I love information. But I love my little job too—right here, where the fate of the world is decided over coffee and small talk.

P.S. Maybe I’ll say yes—if his wife kneels. She’s a rare one, my best student. The next book is about her, though the title will probably read something like Putin in the Refrigerator.