Damsel: No More, page 15
part #1 of Damsel Series
Not dealing with a person who could channel the power of the sun. That sounded... Significant, really. Not like she had the powers of a flashlight, though it could be like that. Most people who had any kind of power didn’t make a big deal about it, most likely. Even the good powers. After all, lifting up a car was cool, but wouldn’t come up most days.
The same was true of flashlight powers.
Her mother laughed then.
“Oh... I know that one as well. One doesn’t do the things I have without a good reason. Still, the Khan Collective isn’t what you have been told. Do some research and perhaps read between the lines and you might see that, while not pure and truly good, we have the best for others in mind, most of the time.”
“I’ll do that... In other news, I’m starting some food banks? To help people out. So, if that buys me any cred with whoever it is that has a hate boner on for me, or I suppose, you?”
“Hate boner? I hang around with revolutionaries and have never heard that one. I get the idea. A bit crude, dear. I will make a note of that as well and see if I can send a message to the needed individuals. I will not allow my daughter to be harmed. I can’t promise this is over, however. That’s the problem with how secretive we are as an organization. Even if it’s a mistake, crossed wires or something truly random, we don’t communicate as well as possible all the time. Even we must deal with paperwork. I’ll take care of this, however. I’m truly sorry for the disruption to your life...” Then there was a pause. “Wait... You turned the Red Trio into bombs?”
Hannah faked a laugh then.
“Oh, yeah. That... No one will be able to remove the compound, either. I had a... I don’t know the science, I think it’s like tiny machines or something, that were mixed in with makeup. They’re invisible in the body though, so now... Yeah, bombs. Just enough to kill them, not nukes or anything. They won’t even take out a plane, most likely. I nearly got hit with it as well. I had to be cut out of my clothing... It was closer than I like.”
If she wasn’t going to tell James, who she trusted, that the compound was fake, she wasn’t going to tell her mother. The entire act was predicated on the idea that people thought it was real, even if it was just her making things up. At least, they had to think it could be real. No one sane would test it, if there was real doubt.
“That... Be careful. I’ll handle this. It’s good to hear from you. I’m... Sorry that things couldn’t have been different. I know I haven’t been the best mother in the world. There were factors that...”
Hannah laughed then.
“Not to make fun of you, but not a good mother? That... You might want to think about that one. Seriously, Mom... You’d have to take lessons just to be a bad mother...”
That got a laugh in return, instead of angry words, even if Hannah was being a bitch. She decided to stop that, if she could.
“I know. Still, we can only go forward. I’ll be in touch. Not on this phone. I should go now, before you start asking the real questions, since I can’t answer them right now. I love you. Bye.”
Hannah took a deep breath.
“I love you, too. That isn’t an endorsement of everything you’ve done, but is still true. Bye.”
Then she hung up, doing it first. The back of her cell was opened and the sim card removed, instantly. Then she went to the kitchen and looking around, decided that an all metal meat tenderizer would work well enough to destroy the thing. It was harder than it sounded, but, after two minutes of pounding on the wooden cutting board, the tiny bit of plastic and metal was in several little pieces, with a bit of dust, red and orange, being spread around.
That was dumped in the trash, since it wasn’t going to be put back together after that. Then she did the same with the phone itself, in case there was a way to track it that she didn’t know about, built into it. Then, she cleaned up the room, washed the meat tenderizer and finally went to shower.
Staying armed, the whole time. The body armor, which was a bit too big for her, was hung up. She probably needed to get her own, which actually fit. From the sound of it, that kind of thing could be important. That had been the feeling on the ride to the warehouse. That it was better for her to have something on, but that being hit would do more damage if the vest was flopping around. She wasn’t up on how that worked.
Clean, sore from the last days of beatings, exercise and stress and feeling out of sorts after talking to her mother, she sank down in front of the computer, trying to distract herself. That was done by, not looking up the Khan Collective, but rather going over what was needed for the food bank project. There was more of that than she would have suspected, at first. Her dad had given her some ideas about what she needed and set part of things in motion, probably thinking she wasn’t up to managing anything important.
Which was probably right.
In her entire life, the only thing she’d been involved with that was successful and that someone else didn’t do almost all the work on was the thing with the Red Trio earlier that day. Even at that, she’d clearly been leaning on other people.
What James had said to her resonated, though. That being strong didn’t mean taking things on stupidly. It meant doing what was needed, in a way that worked. The man hadn’t told her to be weak, or dump her problems and issues on everyone else, just not to run headlong into battles that she wasn’t going to win. At least she was taking it that way.
Sure, the man could probably take on almost any regular man or woman in a fight, without having to do more than hit them a few times. Hannah couldn’t do that. Not unless she found some nice little people to regulate. Still, when super humans had come into play, that was really what he’d done. Gone and gotten as much backup as he could manage on short notice. People who were ready to go and do that kind of thing, or so it seemed.
It was brave, but also showed that he meant what he’d told Hannah to do. Get help when you could. Be strong, but also smart. A thing that she hadn’t really had to work too hard for in her life. A lot of people probably thought she was stupid, in fact. Including her old college professors. She hadn’t given them much of a reason not to think that way, so couldn’t blame them.
Rather than go over what she should have been worrying about, her mother and the fact that someone had a hit out on her, like she was a mob boss or a nosy reporter who had gotten too close to a good story. Only without the cool job or ability to tell the world about what was going on. Rather, she could probably do that, but it wouldn’t help much.
So she buried herself in researching how to run a food bank. A thing that, after a few hours of reading, she understood she’d already probably stepped right around. It was hard to get rich people to invest in that kind of thing normally, because real food banks were run by good people who weren’t willing to use that kind of thing as a way for corporations to clean up their tainted images. Her knee jerk response had been to offer those same people exactly what would make the most sense to slightly desperate businesses.
A thing she hadn’t even really thought about, since it seemed so natural to her. The very wealthy had what they needed, cash wise. If they didn’t, they got large loans, then defaulted on them, after skimming a good chunk of it off for themselves first. A thing that she could have set up for herself, if it were ever needed. Just soaking in her father’s world had taught her a lot of tricks like that. Things that weren’t really available to the truly poor. No, the currency of that sort of person was reputation.
To that end, she spent some time researching which companies had recently run into trouble, of one sort or another. Then, even if her father hadn’t given her the names, she started sending out emails. They were written cold calls, but she put her cell number in, as well as her name, and linked it to one of her dad’s companies. She didn’t have permission for that, of course, but the name recognition would get a bit of attention. A thing that paid off, almost instantly.
At least her cell phone rang, inside forty minutes. The man on the other end sounded harried, and stressed the fuck out. Enough so that, for a moment, she wondered if he was going to threaten her.
“Hannah de Peyser? This is Joshua Devon, from National Foods Processing? You sent an email with a proposal? How would that work, publicity wise?”
“Hello! Well we’re currently planning to showcase the food bank system on the reality show the Life of Kate. We also have full public relations support from one of the best agencies in the industry, Holden and Schmit. When you sign on, we’re also going to put up advertising in local areas, that will showcase who’s helping with it. On top of that, we’re going to have a campaign of interviews, showcasing individual corporations, instead of just dropping their names with my pretty face out front. We’ll do that too, and the plan is for Kate Sinclair to give that a go as well. This is a five to ten-million-dollar promotion campaign for each company or individual that wants in, for half the cost. Your group actually handles canned food? You can do what, fifty-million-dollars retail worth for a million and a half or so? That will be a great return for the value you’ll be getting.”
There was dead silence for a moment, then a sound that seemed frustrated.
“We can do that. A million and a half in like that, if you’ll claim it’s fifty million in the press? We... Had that E.coli scare last year and it’s killing sales. We had one farm with tainted beans and managed to get caught up in a recall. A dozen companies were, but guess who everyone remembers now?”
She laughed a bit, as if the words were funny.
“I get that one! Good. Let’s confirm this with the legal departments. I can set that in motion today. We’ll be opening inside three months. Summer is the slow season for food banks, as far as donations, which means we can leverage that, an early opening then, into showing how much you, and your company, cares.” She was giving a hard sell to the whole thing, but ten minutes later when she got off the phone, she smiled to herself.
After all, she hadn’t sucked at all, getting backing for her little project.
Then she had two other people to call back, who wanted in as well. One company offering right off, and one of them who had to send things up the chain to her boss, but by seven in the afternoon, she had enough people willing to help that she had to call her father on the topic.
He answered the phone seeming pleased enough to hear from her.
“Hannah! I was just going to get in touch. James mentioned there was a small issue earlier? One that you dispatched, rather firmly?”
She blinked. It wasn’t that she could forget what had taken place, but she was focusing on other things, and had to change gears.
“Hopefully. I... Talked to mom. I got a message to her. She proclaimed that she wasn’t behind it. Then, it might be someone else in her organization, who she claims not to know... Then she also claims that she isn’t part of a crime syndicate, and that her people are a bunch of freedom fighters or something like that. I promised to look into it, but haven’t yet. Instead I worked the food bank project.”
There was a clearing of the throat then.
“You did?”
“So far we have National Foods, Nabisco is throwing in if we’ll support one of the subsidiaries as far as credit goes and a few other groups. Let me...” She read those off, along with what they were planning to contribute, so far.
“That’s... Not bad at all. I’ve also lined up a few individuals who wish to be involved. I wasn’t aware that you would be doing the same. What kind of time schedule are you planning?”
That was tight, she knew.
“Three months for the first five locations to open. Another five in the fall. That’s the starting point, but we should cap things at about twenty locations. Unless we just get massive support from our backers. I need to get with Katie, to make sure that’s solid, and do a few other things... I’m going to make a trip to Illinois in a few days. I have some classes to see to first, but need to check some things out on the ground. Maybe I’ll... I don’t know. I need to learn to travel without being noticed. I have no clue how to do that. I’ll think of something.”
Hannah was used to having flights booked for her, having a company that handled that for her. She was armed now though, with illegal weapons, so needed to work out how to do things with those. Just showing up at a plane with her gun and knife wasn’t going to play. It might work on a private jet of course, which she could charter. That would be easy to track.
She could drive, but didn’t have either a car or a license.
“Let me know if you need aid with that? Keep me apprised of your plans. Should we... Send a security detail, do you think?”
She went still for a moment, then tried to think, instead of just react.
“I... Don’t want to say no. Not just yet. I’d rather not do it that way, but if I have to do that, then I will. Let me see what’s happening, first?”
“That makes sense. Talk to you soon?”
“Probably tomorrow? At least if things are going well on this new project. I need to get some managers going for this. Not that I can’t do part of the work, but I’m not really... You know, for the day to day?” It sounded incredibly lazy, saying that, but her father didn’t laugh at her.
“Good. I have some people for you to meet with for that, say, next week? Depending on your travel plans.”
They set a day for that, since people needed to be contacted before they could do that. Then she hung up and jumped, when the phone rang again, almost instantly.
“Hannah de Peyser, how may I help you?”
“Hey Hannah! It’s Veronica. I was wondering if you wanted to get together for dinner? I’m really going to try to get you into bed, so this is all a clever ruse to trick you into letting your guard down.”
“Sure? At least you didn’t only call for a booty call... It’s way too early in the evening for that. I... Don’t know that I can go out right now. Not to a restaurant. No place I would normally go, anyway. There’s that hit out on me, after all. Someplace random?”
There was a sound, which, after a moment she recognized as gleeful clapping. The woman was hot, but she wasn’t that great when it came to social graces.
Still, she managed sweet decently well, at the same time.
“Fun! We can do that. I know a place that’s not too bad, that you’d never go, I bet. I have friends there. They serve vegetables. I mean, I’ve seen other people eating those there. Not me, of course.”
“You get to drive? I don’t have a car. We can Uber it, or take a cab.”
That got raspberries blown into the phone.
“I’ll be there in... Call it an hour? Wear cute underwear, in case we end up at my place?”
Then she hung up, as if there wasn’t more needed to set up in the situation. Not that it was needed, if Hannah went and hung out in the lobby, hiding behind the door and making sure she could get with Veronica via cell.
She showered again, since not being fresh when a woman went down on you was just rude. Also a deal breaker, at least for her. She also packed a toothbrush, paste, and wore clothing that wasn’t nearly as nice as she should have for a date. She needed to have her gun with her, as well as her blade. That reminded her again to get her own and probably backups, in case something got broken or lost.
She really did have cute underwear on. Makeup as well, since the bruising was still happening on her face. It was fading a little, but not enough to totally hide with her foundation. Still, looking as good as she could, if not pretty, exactly, she was in place in time to actually see Veronica pull up, so headed past Lewis the Doorman, waving to him, carrying a large overnight bag, just in case.
The attractive brunette smiled at her as she climbed in.
“Hi! We need to hurry. Do you have your costume in there?” The words were innocent, but also didn’t make sense.
Hannah smiled anyway.
“Change of clothes, in case we end up at your place? Dinner and sex? A toothbrush? Is that not the real plan? Also, I’m not a... What do you call what you do?”
“Superhero? Only, I’m pretty sure you are. You were in on the operation, earlier. This situation is different, but I don’t have everything. Linear called me in and asked if I knew anyone that was good with kids. You can fight children, right?”
She tilted her head then.
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not... The real answer is, it would depend on the size of the child, obviously but that isn’t what that means. I’m not a counselor or anything, or a babysitter. Well, I guess I could do that kind of thing, but... I never have. Just so you know, I’m still planning to get lucky here. I demand that food, too.” There was a hand gesture between them, as the woman pulled out into traffic.
The strange, strange lady.
Who smiled.
“That works for me. Good. It will take about fifteen minutes to get there. Linear isn’t a big-time player, so this probably won’t be anything too high level. Then, that fire the other day wasn’t supposed to be, either. You’re armed?”
Feeling a bit distrustful, she nodded.
“I am, of course. I... Am not feeling certain about this.”
“Don’t worry, it will be fine. It’s probably muggers or something. Only, kid muggers? I don’t know how that works. Things like that are confusing to me, occasionally.”
“You have a driver’s license and insurance, but you don’t know about kids?”
She nodded.
“When I moved to the States I took lessons for a lot of things. None of them were involved with families or children. There were some younger kids on the island, and we learned things, so I understand math, science and history. Some other things like that. How to speak a few languages. I don’t get... What people do, a lot of the time. I know that I’m supposed to be careful talking to people on the phone, so I went with our fake plan of dating for that. It worked, too. Did you think I meant we were really going to eat?”
