The Powers That Be Short Story Collection

The lives of a veteran alien tracker named Ben, an old hermit who goes by Harvey, and Rose, a hostess with a dark secret, converge inside the Shady Oaks Diner, where the special of the day, and every other day, is chicken-fried steak.

Ben, a veteran PTB agent and elite alien tracker, exits a botched Alamogordo surveillance assignment and travels a lonesome New Mexican highway resonating atomic age lore on the trail of a cunning fugitive shapeshifter before hunger compels an impulsive stop at the Shady Oaks Diner to see if the chicken-fried steak lives up to its sun-bleached billboard hype.

Sitting in a booth inside the empty, off-the-grid establishment, Ben watches the aloof hostess ignore his patronage before a gnarled old man settles across from him with a devilish gap-toothed grin on his matted, bearded visage.

Ben’s high-stakes mind game with Harvey, the conniving old man, and Rose, the compromised hostess, uncover bitter revelations on human/alien coexistence while finishing his lunch before everything fades to black.