This is a standalone story, #3 out of 4 standalone short stories in the READ-ONLY Collection.

He was sent to kill her. Instead, he decided to keep her.

Ellie works the graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour Internet cafe in rainy Seattle, where the customers are strange and nothing much happens after midnight — until the printer starts producing documents from an unknown source.

A mysterious Night Courier comes to collect them.

“What’s your name?”

“I don’t know. What’s a name that you like? Do I look like a Jordan, or a Brett—maybe a Dallas? Pick a name you like and call me that. That’s the best I can do.”

Marek remembers his training — how to fight, disappear, kill — and almost nothing about the man he used to be. He doesn’t know where the assignments come from. He doesn’t know who trained him. He isn’t entirely convinced that he, or Ellie, are alive.

But he knows one thing: his latest assignment is Ellie.

And he can’t bring himself to complete it.