Juliette Keyes/Introduction

"There is no better high than discovery."
- E. O. Wilson

Although she doesn't look old enough to be doing so, Juliette Keyes works for Lehr & Associates, a consulting firm heavily involved with government and military contracts. When the government can't, or won't, hire someone themselves -- which happens all the time -- Lehr is one of the short list of nationwide consulting firms that they reach out to to handle whatever the problem is. After all, it's easier to dismiss a contractor than to fire a permanent employee, and especially so when the employer is Uncle Sam.

Juliette doesn't have a lot to say about the details of her work -- she's probably signed a stack of confidentiality agreements about six inches high -- but she describes herself as an "aerospace engineer", and she's the sort of bright young woman with occasional social awkwardness issues for whom that job description is remotely plausible. For all her regular grumbling about the people she works with, she certainly seems dedicated; indeed, she's been heard to say that she has the best job in the world. And she wasn't being obviously sarcastic.