A Penny for Your Thoughts — Jerry D. Young

THE SURVEILLANCE STATE IS GROWING. When Horatio Billings returned from a trip, and first met Penny, she was sitting behind a desk in his office. He had absolutely no idea why she was there instead of his girlfriend who was also his current receptionist/paralegal. After coaxing a very short explanation out of her loud enough for him to actually hear, the surprises just kept coming. Some he found were actually quite nice. But some of the others definitely not so much. Regardless, Penny turns out to be far more than what he thought initially and as the two begin to get to know each other, he finds she is turning him into just as much of a prepper as she is. Like her, he also begins to realize...and resent...the country's march towards a police surveillance state. So, Horatio decides to ponder those first thoughts she offered to him, and any additional ones he could get her to share with him, because even those first thoughts she shared with him were worth far more than any Penny coin.