I tried to keep my head down as I walked toward the high school student manning the cashier. “What would you like?” she asked cheerfully.

“One chai latte please” I muttered, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.

“I’m sorry what did you say?” she asked again politely.

“A chai latte,” I hissed, but a subtle flash of green told me that it was too late.

“I’ll take this one,” the manager said as he came forward and pushed the cashier aside. His eyes shone a vibrant green that looked less and less natural as the color intensified to a bright emerald. “So, you thought you could escape me” he sneered, the words dripping with venom. “Well you were wrong. It may have taken a few more decades than last time, but it was a hopeless effort on your part to think you could evade me and stop me from finding you.”

“You didn’t exactly find me. I was the one who came into your coffee shop,” I pointed out. “Also you were living in London the last three times we met, so I knew I was bound to run into you sooner or later if I kept coming into the city every few months.”

“Yes, you fell right into my trap. Sometimes, hunting is a game of patience” he exclaimed, turning to the cashier as he said it who gave him a confused look.

“Yes, yes, you’re a good hunter, you say that every time we meet.”

“Ah, but I am not just a mere hunter. We both know that I am something much more than that.” He paused for dramatic effect, holding the pause slightly too long. “I am… The Disruptor. Sworn to disrupt and stop you in all of your heroic duties.”

“And in getting my drink it seems.”

“Don’t joke about what we know is a serious matter. Your purpose is to guide, help, and nurture the human race, and lead it to advance and flourish. But any unchecked force no matter how benevolent can become a curse. It is my job to thwart your efforts and keep things in balance so that humans are prevented from full dominion over the planet.”

I sighed and wondered why he was repeating the same monologue yet again, for no one’s seeming benefit other than perhaps the cashier, though she had already pulled out her phone and didn’t exactly seem to be paying close attention to the conversation. What he said was true, or at least had been true. This was the purpose that the two us were put on earth for, with the two of us as opposing forces. But it had been millennia since I had made any attempt to follow through on my objectives. I had started out with such zeal, taking careful notes and planning my actions, noting how each small or large nudge I made impacted things 10, 50, and 500 years down the line. But after thousands of years and millions of attempts, I finally gave up. It was apparent that nothing I could do was going to work, and it had nothing to do with “The Disruptor”. I would try to introduce the most benign invention to a civilization, and within a year they found a way to kill each other with it and set themselves back a century. I would teach them how to grow more food to help avoid famines, and then they would respond by having more children, leading to even more death when farming suffered. I got nowhere acting as a prophet and yelling at them, and ended up even worse when I tried a softer approach as a humble yet charismatic traveling teacher. Every little touch I made seemed to make no difference in how much or little humans advanced. And the disruptor’s attempts at thwarting my efforts were equally disappointing, and though he would never admit it, half the time his attempts to disrupt actually brought more progress than whatever I was trying to do.

Eventually, I was forced to accept that the whole idea we had been founded on was flawed. Human progress was something that advanced inevitably at its own pace, and no engineering of any kind was going to meaningfully speed it up or slow it down in the long run. After that, I simply settled down and kept a low profile. People think that being immortal would get boring, but it really doesn’t all that much. Even if you’ve done everything, it’s been centuries since you did most of those things and by that point you’re ready to give them another go. Besides, when you stop worrying about the grand scheme of things, every day has its own pleasures the same way it does for any mortal person. However at this particular moment, the small pleasure of a chai latte that I was hoping for was being thwarted.

“So, I sit here waiting,” he smirked, missing the irony that his comment could just as well be applied to me as I stood there at the counter. “What grand scheme are you working on now that I must step in to sabotage?”

“We’ve been over this. I know it’s been thousands of years, but I’ve explained it in detail to you on a number of occasions. Nothing I was doing was making any difference, and so I’ve given up on all of that stuff.”

“Ah, so you’re telling me that the plan’s a secret. No matter. I have figured out many of your plans before, and I won’t be stopped this time!”

“I’m telling you,” I said, annoyance starting to seep into my voice, “There’s no plan to thwart!”

The green in his eyes began to dull a little. “Look” he said at last. “I get it. We’ve done a lot, not much has seemed to change, and at this point humans are moving ahead at a pace much faster than anything we could dream of controlling. But you have to understand. My only goal is to disrupt. I’m not like you, where you had the freedom to decide what idea or plan you wanted to try. My sole purpose was defined in opposition to you. You can now use your freedom to pursue any project or life path you feel like, but I was never built for that. Deep down, it's ingrained in me to want to oppose you.”

Truth be told, I had never really thought much about what it must be like for him. I just assumed that he would carry on like I had and develop different interests and pastimes, but I hadn’t considered what it would be like to be defined in opposition to someone. He was perhaps selling himself short given that he seemed to have started a coffee shop on his own, but I could sympathize with the inner angst that must have persisted inside him.

I sighed, and thought for a moment. Finally I turned back to him. “Alright, fine. It just so happens that I was thinking of starting a children’s program at the library near my house. Technically that counts as doing good and moving civilization forward, so it would be your job to stop me.”

His eyes lit up with the brightest green I had seen yet that day. “Ah ha! I’ve discovered your plan. Try as you might be, but you will be thwarted! Those children will not learn to read!”

I smiled as he cackled to himself and began preparing my latte. To be honest, I felt a little good myself. As I walked out and sipped on my drink, I started to brainstorm a few other community projects I could do. I figured I should give him a few months to work on the library one before I showed up here again to reveal to him my next plan.