An interloper.

Jonny knew something was wrong when Melanie's head appeared in the doorway. He was in the middle of a post-coital chess game with his neighbor Lily, and they were both still nude. Mel would only interrupt if it was serious.

"We'll resume later," he told Lily as he grabbed his robe and headed for the door.

"I'll look forward to it," she said cheerfully. Jonny closed the door behind him and turned to his assistant.

He thought of Melanie as his assistant, but her role went far beyond that. He had picked her up at a local coffeeshop several years ago. As soon as the tall, busty redhead entered the cafe he sidled up and put a hand on hers. It turned out she was a model and aspiring actress visiting her parents, but she was quick to point out that her sparse IMdB page and lack of real industry connections made it simple for her to move back home immediately. When he felt guilt pangs about extinguishing her dreams, she laughed and said it was a relief to have achievable goals for the first time in her life.

Since then Jonny's network had grown considerably, and it turned out that the gorgeous young woman he recruited was extremely good at logistics. Thanks to her, his loose collection of converts became a well-oiled machine protecting and preserving him at all times. She made sure that every citizen in his small town was converted and kept a database of converts elsewhere. He made sure that converts understood that he delegated virtually all of his authority to her, and key contacts delivered daily reports to her to help maintain Jonny's cover.

Now, she was holding a tablet with one of the reports open. Without being asked, she summarized the report for him.

"I'm afraid I've got some bad news. It looks like we've got a level three interloper," she said gravely.

"How'd she find us?" he asked. "Is she with the press?"

"Sort of. She's a podcaster, of all things. She's got a podcast called Peaceful Places. She investigates areas with higher qualities of life due to statistical outliers. Places with abnormally low car crashes, cancer rates, homelessness..."

"Crime rates," he finished. The police chief had been faking reports to cover for the lack of crime; many citizens volunteered to serve jail time to keep up appearances but Jonny quickly vetoed that idea. The higher-ups in law enforcement eagerly accepted the inflated but below-average numbers, but the illusion wasn't hard to see through for a motivated researcher.

"Right. She's planning a three-part series on the town now. Her typical method is to set up interviews with local officials in positions related to the positive quality as well as a slew of ordinary community members."

"So she reached out to Hank?" he asked. Hank was the chief of police, a job that had become much easier since Jonny converted the town. Of course, he knew that Hank would hold the line.

"Among others. They all agreed to do the podcast in an attempt to lure her here. She gets into town today; she's staying at the cheap motel out by the highway. I've already planned the night conversion."

Night conversion was Melanie's term for the town's standard procedure for interlopers. Wherever the interloper was staying, Jonny would convert who he needed to to gain full access to the room. While the interloper slept, a team of converts would pipe a strong sedative gas into the room to keep them asleep. Jonny would walk in, touch them, and leave. The next morning the interloper wakes up slightly groggy, with no memory of the conversion, and Jonny can approach and explain the situation to them. They'd converted several journalists, a few politicians, and plenty of concerned out-of-town family members that way.

"Call it off," he said. Melanie's eyebrows shot up, but she made a note on the tablet. "I want to try something."