The Envoy's Interlude

Colin DeMuth boards the westbound train with one goal: get to Seattle and start over. He isn't looking for conversation, complications, or anything that might make him look too closely at the life he's leaving behind.

Then he meets Michael.

Charming, calm, and impossible to ignore, Michael turns a quiet train ride into one of the strangest conversations Colin has ever had. What begins with questions about philosophy and the meaning of life soon becomes something far more personal. Before Colin knows it, the painting he's been carrying is on the table, the conversation has become a wager, and Michael seems to know far more than any stranger should.

At first, Colin thinks Michael is unusually perceptive. Then things begin to happen: a mechanical failure, a woman choking in a diner, small disasters Michael seems to anticipate before anyone else can see them coming. He isn't guessing. He's watching for them.

As the train pushes toward the Rockies, Colin realizes Michael is not just passing the time. He is searching for something. His memories are fractured, his past is full of missing pieces, and Seattle may hold the answers he has been moving toward for longer than he understands.

Colin wants to keep Michael in the present, but there is more to him than charm, mystery, or coincidence. There is something different about Michael. Something more than human.

And whatever waits at the end of the line may change them both.