Fated
This story contains a significant amount of violence, although it is not gratuitous. If violence isn't your thing -- well, you've been warned. ************* The odds of two people with the unusual talents, backgrounds, and proclivities of Lizbeth Portis and Rob Barnard (neither their birth name) moving to Tompkins, Missouri -- population 16,169 according to the most recent census, and roughly two and ⅓ hours' drive from St. Louis -- within two months of each other were probably about 200 million to 1. However, the odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery are about the same, and that happens. In any event, it did occur, some say for the betterment of Tompkins, Missouri, and even mankind; others may quibble with that. ************* Rob Barnard was born in Eugene, Oregon as Jeremy Fulton. Jeremy was many different things at many different times; athlete, delinquent, soldier, lover, badass, assassin, man of mystery, and entrepreneur. He started out as one of two children in