Vengeance

39 WASHINGTON, D.C.

It was midafternoon on a bright sunny day in the heart of the District, the sidewalks along Connecticut Avenue NW crowded with pedestrians, as Lonnie Mixell entered the lobby of the Capitol Talent Agency, five minutes early for his meeting with agent Fred Rogers. Stopping at the front desk, he was greeted by an attractive woman in her twenties.

“May I help you?” she asked.

“It’s a beautiful day and I happened to find myself in Mister Rogers’s neighborhood, so thought I’d stop by to see him.”

He waited to see if the woman caught his reference to the kids’ television show, but nothing flickered in her eyes. She simply replied, “Do you have an appointment?”

Mixell sighed inwardly, then replied, “One p.m.”

“I’ll let him know you’re here.” She smiled and gestured toward an alcove. “Please make yourself comfortable.”

The waiting area was sparsely furnished, containing only a few plush chairs and sofas, plus a watercooler and paper cups. There weren’t any magazines to peruse — it seemed most of the agency’s clientele kept themselves occupied by scrolling through their cell phones. Mixell had only a burner phone, which he didn’t intend to use except in an emergency or at the designated time.

As he looked around, he caught the reflection of a man in a wall-mounted mirror display. He smiled at the handsome stranger, which was himself, of course. Before venturing into Washington, D.C., he had dyed his hair blond and inserted blue contacts, plus implants on both sides of his mouth that modified the structure of his jaw and cheekbones.

Fred Rogers eventually arrived, a tall man in his forties wearing dress slacks and a pressed blue silk shirt.

“Welcome to Capitol Talent Agency.” He shook hands as Mixell stood, then escorted him to a glass-encased office with a desk and small conference table. Both men took their seats at the table, and after a few rounds of small talk, Rogers got down to business.

“I understand you’re looking for a male model. What physical characteristics do you have in mind, and for what type of endeavor?”

“The primary characteristic is… he needs to look like me. The same build and height would be great but neither are essential, as long as they’re reasonably close.”

“What type of work will the model be engaged in?”

“Nothing difficult — he’ll need to be stationed at a designated place and time for an hour.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“I’m having an important business event, and I need a stand-in for a while. But he won’t need to engage with anyone. He’ll just need to hang around and pretend to be me.”

“All right, then,” Rogers replied. “Let me snap an image and get going.”

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and took a picture of Mixell, which he transferred to a software application. Then he pulled a keyboard on the table closer to him and energized a flat-panel display on the wall. After waiting a moment for the software algorithms to search the Capitol Talent Agency database, ten headshot portraits appeared on the display, with each man’s characteristics — age, height, and weight — listed beneath his picture.

All ten were reasonably close matches, but three stood out from the rest. From a distance, any of the three would do, but a man named Robert Keeshan was the closest match, Mixell decided.

Rogers concurred.

After discussing the agency fee, which Mixell agreed to, Rogers asked, “When do you need him?”

Mixell provided the date and time. “As far as the location goes, it’s not yet set. I’ll call him the day before and let him know. But it’ll be in the D.C. area.”

“Fair enough,” Rogers replied. “Let me confirm that Robert is available and interested,” he said. “Then I’ll draw up the contract and call you when it’s signed and payment has been made. You and Robert can then work out the details of your event.”

Rogers handed Mixell his business card. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”