I sat down, and ordered a burger.

It doesn’t matter, rather you’re on earth eating ground beef, or on Hyboria (yes they named the planet after Conan’s world) eating ground tube worm. A burger is a delicious meal that restaurants have to intentionally work at to get wrong.

“How’s the wifes” I asked, smiling, as I the waiter took Mercer’s ordered mushroom salad with a tangy vinaigrette..

He chuckled, “Oh, you know how it is, one of them is pissed off at me for doing something, and the other is happy with me for doing the same damn thing.”

We both had a good laugh at that, and we did start catching up. We both bragged about the high points in our lives, and lamented the lows.

When the food along with a beer, and a bottle of wine arrived Mercer leaned back, and told me “Got me a lucrative government contract, my company's first one.”

I chuckled, "a company getting a government contract, is like saying “I’m happy for you.” Then asked, “What are you doing?”

Mercer smiled a sociopath's smile, it never reached his eyes… a tell “my firm is contracted to analyze incoming media from rival nations to determine what they’re really thinking.”

“Oh yeah, how's that going?” I asked; (read ya loud n clear sergeant, tell me more about the real issue at hand)

“Well one of my employee’s has decided to go on an extended vacation. So far he’s been gone for about three weeks.”

“That’s too bad” I said, listening to the issues he was having with his business “was he working on this new contract?” I asked, leaning forward, paying attention to the conversation.

Mercer shook his head “only tangentially, no he was working on a different contract, mostly accounting stuff. Too bad he had to go on vacation at such a crucial time.”

Ah that’s where I was to come in, to become a Warrant Officer I had to go to college, and I majored in accounting, and minored in investing.