The girl was on time for her appointment. She walked into my office and sat down in my guest chair. Girl? Woman? She was younger than my daughters, anyway.
"Thanks you for agreeing to see me."
"We don't hear from your organization often. Your request was, shall we say, intriguing."
The slightest of smiles. "We have a problem for you."
"We specialize in solving them. How can we be of assistance?"
"We have a secret that must be kept for a long time, and then revealed to everyone."
"What sort of secret?"
"I am not allowed to disclose that. Not to you. Even I know only a portion of it."
"I'm going to need at least a hint or two."
"Very well. To speak very metaphorically, we have struck a spark. The spark will grow into a fire. The fire will burn a land bare. And in the bare land, a precious thing will grow."
"And of these the secret is ... ?"
"That the spark has been struck, and the fire is coming."
"And why does that need to be a secret?"
She looked away. "Because striking the spark was nearly unconscionable, and if people know the fire is coming they will try to fight it and might conceivably succeed. Then the precious thing would be lost."
"How long must the secret be kept?"
"Until the precious thing appears."
"How long?"
"Three hundred to five hundred years. The interval is uncertain. But there will be clear signs."
"And once the precious thing appears, the secret should be revealed?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because people may misunderstand the significance of the precious thing. They will need to know why it appeared in order to know what to do with it."
I shifted in my seat. "How big is the secret?"
"Excuse me?"
"Is the secret the size of a deck of cards or the size of a super-tanker?"
"The secret is an explanation. Typed, it would fit on three or four pages."
"Who knows the secret now?"
"A dozen or so people in my organization. No one outside it."
"Can they be trusted?"
"Yes. We are confident they will not reveal it."
She seemed very certain. "That's not what we need help with."
"Can anyone in my organization learn the secret if we help you?"
"No. I suppose we can't conceal that there is a secret, but even you must not learn the details."
"So, to summarize, you need help keeping a modest bit of information secret for perhaps five hundred years and then revealing it to everyone. Is that a fair summary?"
"Fair enough."
I sat back and steepled my fingers. "We should be able to help you. It will take some time. You know our prices?"
She stood up. "Yes. As you know our resources. Thank you for this meeting." And with that, she walked out.
