I know exactly who you are.

It’s who I am that’s the mystery. What am I doing here? That one I still haven’t figured out.

He stamps his heel into the ice, flexes his shoulder, turns again.

“This is crazy. You don’t… Have you any idea what you’ve got yourself into? Do you know who you’re dealing with? Ok, I’m no goddamn Cruise but let me tell you something, I’ll be missed. They’ll come looking for me. Are you listening? Take that thing off your head. I don’t know what they told you. I don’t know what you think you’re doing but you’re making a big mistake, pal. Big mistake. Biggest mistake of your whole life. That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t know who I am, this is just a job to you, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Well, let me hit you with the truth, bud, you’re making a life-changing error.”

His confidence is starting to return. It didn’t take long. His default position is the black rider, the boss, the center of the Ptolemaic universe. I prefer that.

“This has gone on too far. Way too far for a practical joke. Right now you’re doing permanent damage to the soles of my feet. I’ll see you in court for this.”

He still doesn’t get it. He still doesn’t see why we’re here.

“Listen to me, pal, you have no idea what you’re mixed up in. You don’t. Name a sum of money. Go on, just name it. A hundred thousand dollars? Two hundred thousand dollars? How about a cool half mil? Half a mil. Easy money. Easy money. Come on, buddy. You and me. We’ll pull one over on ’em. We’ll show them. Come on, whaddya say? I’m a grifter, you’re a grifter. Come on, man, you can see the angles, we’ll play ’em together.”

Oh, compañero, is everything about you fake? A performance? Where did you learn to talk like that? The movies? TV? Isn’t there anything real under that sheath of skin?

I slide the breech back on the M &P and it makes a satisfying clunk.