Support Team, page 33
part #6 of Damsel Series
Not that Reese Kant was one of those or hard to put up with, but she understood that other people might see him differently than that. At least until they knew him.
“Use your best discretion on it. Keep me informed if anything changes or you find anything out.”
Then, patting his arm again, she winked.
“So, how are you feeling? Are we working you too hard? We’ve been keeping everyone busy, more or less.”
There was a lazy seeming movement of the shoulders then.
“I’m good? I keep having nightmares about Devya and Kate holding me down and cutting my skin off, but other than that, I’m not doing bad. That part... I mean, I know that they aren’t her, Sendra even if they look the same. If it was, then, even in a dream, I’d just kill her. With those two, I keep holding back, asking why, instead. It’s hard. I know that either of them would jump in front of a bullet for me. Literally. At the same time, my brain keeps flashing back to other things and... It’s confusing.”
Tightening up, not knowing what to do about that sort of thing, she nodded.
“Have you talked to Neary about that?”
There was a furrowed brow.
“No? I... To see if he can remove that kind of thing? I can’t see that it’s really helping me in any way, so... I’ll do that. Next time he’s around. He left for Ryhh last night, since we have that group of visitors over there right now. There are no real problems, but it’s kind of a large thing there, and even if it’s different, he’s gone from an obscure computer programmer to being sort of famous in the last four months or so. You didn't hear it from me, but I think he’s sort of liking it.”
That could be important to know. Also a good thing, if it didn’t go to the man’s head.
She patted the guy again, if only on the shoulder, wondering if that was too familiar. Then she moved from one person to another, ending up with Verthala, having hit Candice first.
“Hey girl! What’s up?”
Ver looked a bit bored, until she turned to look at Hannah and smiled, almost shyly.
“This stuff we’re doing is weird. I get it, since we have to protect ourselves now, and I’m probably getting into shape. Like, my legs are killing me? So, um... I sort of went out with Kevin the other day?”
That was supposed to have happened at least.
“Yeah? How did that go?”
She actually bit her lip, then leaned in.
“He’s incredible. I thought, you know, not so great looking, but what the hell, right? He kind of has a bad boy on the right side of the line thing going on and that’s not horrible. He was really nice, and, you know, eighteen, so we did some stuff? Then he actually called me back the next day. Not too eager or anything, just right. Checking in and making plans for Friday. Then, after that, he changed his look. So, he’s burning up now! This could be something big. He’s young... I feel gross about that part.”
Which was a thing Hannah understood. Still, she’d spoken to Kevin and had to agree, his new look was working for him. Better than what Logan had going on, because he actually looked like himself, only minus about fifty pounds of fat. Making him tight and lean, suddenly.
His skin was smoother, too, and the hair had a better cut, but nothing else about him was that different. It worked for him, since, apparently, he’d always been that way, and only needed a little bit of a tweak. Still, he was an eight at most, not a perfect ten.
“That’s fun then. Still, remember, I like him better than I do you, at least when it comes to this training stuff, so if you hurt him, I’ll...” She paused, since saying she would kill was a bit too on the nose. If certain things were ever found out about Hannah, that could actually be taken as a real threat by the woman.
She was the kind to go over the top with things and produce a lot of drama in life.
“Well, let’s just say, if you do that, I’ll get Logan to turn you into a four.” That would only last a few months, so she could actually pull that one off.
There was a gasp as if the threat were real.
“You wouldn’t!”
“Probably not, but don’t test me on it?”
Hands waved in a colorful fashion, the well painted nails too long for most of what the woman was doing suddenly.
“Fine, fine... Still, I’m keeping this quiet for now? I don’t want to scare him off. He doesn’t have a lot of money or anything. Everything else, but that might not work, for a long-term thing?”
It seemed fast to be thinking of that, but she got it. Ver was almost exactly the same age that Hannah was and while her personal history of casual sex wasn’t in the same league, the woman had been with a few guys in her time. If she waited too long, then things would get harder for her. Unless she kept a Logan in her pocket. That wasn’t really needed at the moment, since she was great looking, but time would pass for her.
Hannah shrugged.
“Well, you know, nail that down and don’t be too worried if he has a few side chicks? If you want the best guys, you have to be willing to share. At least a little.” That wasn’t a rule anywhere, but the other woman rolled her eyes.
“I know. I didn’t get that before, really. That, you know, we aren’t special?” She looked around the room there. “I mean, okay, we, you and I, are, but as women we aren’t? I could walk over to, say, that Peter guy over there and offer to fuck him and it would work, but so could you, or the curly haired girl with the portals. Even Kara could probably pull that off, even being illegal, if she tried hard enough for a long enough time. We’re all pretty cool, but the truth is that men don’t think we’re as magical as we all pretend to ourselves. They just want a place to stick it without too much hassle.”
Wincing, fearing that the woman was at least partially right, she took a deep breath.
“Dark. Where is that coming from?”
She looked behind her, at Logan, for some reason, then at the rest of the people there.
“Him. His ability. It’s neat and fun, but just fixing some faces changes everything. Even at that, I’ve seen women that I know, who are probably threes, going around telling everyone that they know they’re incredible, because good looking men keep trying to hook up with them online. So, I looked some stuff up and... I don’t like it, but it’s the truth, isn’t it? We’re not special. Not just for being us. For being women.”
It wasn’t the way that Hannah had thought about it, but she’d never been that much in denial of how she really looked. Maybe a bit, but only that. So it wasn’t as huge of a crushing blow to her ego as it might have been. As it seemed it was to her friend.
Who was actually acting humble, as weird as that was.
“Maybe? I mean, I can see the basic idea there. Only, you’re not just a few holes and a pretty face. You never were. No one is, probably. Currently, you’re doing this, as well. You even have a superpower, if you want to be useful? I could get you in with a team if you want, on communications, so it won’t even be that dangerous. Then, well, doing that could change a lot for you, if you wanted to do it.” That there was a hard pass coming was almost certain, but instead of pretending work was beneath her, Verthala swallowed and closed her eyes.
“I could do that? I mean, how would that work? I just sit in an office and talk to people, passing messages and stuff?” She sounded a little vapid and clueless, but it was a good enough plan, really.
“Maybe? If you don’t need to be paid, you could work for a smaller organization, too. Get with the others here and see if you want to start a network that way. Maybe see if Molly wants in, on the transportation side of things? Or Cynthia?”
Her sister was starting to feel like she was being held back, just a little. Which was just true, of course.
“If you want to do that or something like it, you need to get up on weapons fast, and probably unarmed fighting as well. We’ve been working that a bit, but you’ve been phoning in a lot of it. That’s probably fine, if you just have to protect yourself from muggers, of course. Even just being in an office working with super types you need to be at a higher level. It may never come up, of course, but if it does, you have to be ready.”
Those words had a tongue stuck out at her, like a petulant child was in front of her. Followed by a smile that seemed almost... Normal. Like a real person.
“Okay. Should I take extra lessons?”
“Yeah. Get with Carl and Don on that? Daily practice? I’ll see if I can find a team that will be a good fit for you... Um...”
She looked around and held up her hands, walking toward the center of the big track.
“Kate? June? Carl and Don? Also, Ver, Candice, Doty, Lara and Rebekah? Terry, you and Molly, too?”
Most of the people didn’t come over at a run. June and Katherine did, as did Rebekah and the boys. The rest of them sauntered. It was about what Hannah would have suspected. When they got there, she looked at each of them, smiling.
“Verthala is putting together a communications network, for another team? Maybe all of them, eventually. Who that will be for first hasn’t been picked yet, so I was thinking that we’d get June to help with that? Maybe Lichen? I know that you’re really busy right now, Liberty.”
The woman went very still, then flashed into a brilliant smile, instead of yelling at her. She looked at Ver and nodded, rapidly.
“That’s a wonderful idea! We could coordinate with about fourteen different teams, if you don’t mind doing some travel at times? Most of them aren’t that busy, so it won’t be full time, and you can probably work from home? Not all the time, but we don’t really have emergency connections with all of them and we should, if possible.”
Rebekah looked interested in the idea.
“That could work? I’m rich for a living, off of my parent’s money, so don’t really need to work. I have a clothing line, but that runs itself, so, I’m in?”
There was more or less muttering from the others, though Molly looked a bit concerned.
“I’m doing telepathy now? I can, but...”
Hannah snorted.
“Nope. You’re going to be co-lead with whoever is in charge of this, so that we can move people around fast enough. On top of your other duties, so get with Cynthia, so you don’t burn out or end up working seven days a week. You both might need to, for a while, so be ready for that. Verthala also decided that you’re all learning to use weapons and fight, for real. Carl, she asked if I could sweet talk you and Don into helping them with that? Don can take the lead, for the daily practice, but he might be too soft and nice to them, so she wanted you for it, too.”
That hadn’t been spoken about but Verthala was a decent actress and knew enough to always back up her friends, even if she didn’t get the why or how of things at the moment.
“If that... I know that you both are really busy, but we’ve all been... Well, we didn’t have a reason to really try before, did we? Now we do. Or might.”
Interestingly, Doty snorted into a full-on geek laugh and let her eyes close.
“At least I’m sober now. Even harder training though, I kind of thought what we’re doing was sort of intense already, to be honest.”
The tall man, seeming ready for the whole thing to backfire on him, personally, smiled. It looked nearly real, to Hannah. It wasn’t even a sneer, at all.
“This is, for beginners. We won’t throw you into advanced training, right off. You get to adapt to it, slowly, over time. Still, skills, like knife, gun and stick work can be learned a lot faster than your body will adapt to this kind of exercise. We’ll hit that each day, using a combination of VR and real work. Terry, you can get them set up with systems? How long will that take?”
The other short girl, who still had a full inch on Hannah, if not two, waved a bit. Thinking with her hands.
“If we use systems out of the box? We have ten of them at the shop right now, that aren’t marked for anyone, or weren’t when I left yesterday. If I can get transportation, I can do that in, call it an hour and a half for each? As long as you all have internet?”
They did, and Molly lifted her chin, smiling.
“I’ll help you move that all around?”
Carl glared at the girl, suddenly
“You’ll do that and act as her assistant? We should all learn this stuff, if we don’t know how, yet.”
Molly smiled at the man and sighed.
“Sure, I can lift and carry things at least, and plug things in? That’s about all I have as far as knowledge on the tech side of things, personally.”
June smiled then, sweetly.
“For my part, I’ll see how we’re setting this up. This is wonderful. I knew that you’d all step up, but I honestly didn't think it was going to be this soon. Hannah, may I have a word with you?”
She grinned, and nodded, readying her defense on the matter, which was basically claiming that it had really been Verthala’s idea, the whole time. That wasn’t the truth, but she got that her personality had tended toward giving orders for the last few days. Even before that. She didn’t love that kind of thing, but it was kind of working, so far.
When June spoke, her words were very different than Hannah expected.
The woman leaned in and whispered.
“We need you for a search and rescue operation, in Montana. This is coming from the National Parks Service? I have the coordinates that you’ll need to get to the local office, where they have the name and pictures that you’ll require. If you’ll do that?”
There was a nod. She wasn’t happy that she was leaving before her VR practice, but it sounded important.
“Where?”
The data was passed then, from Aliza, who didn’t have the location she needed to travel to, but had a connection to the man in charge, which she passed over. Then Hannah found him, and teleported across the country to the correct fellow.
He was a bit different than she would have imagined, and not, at the same time. The fellow was standing outside, near a wooden picnic table, with maps on it, as dozens of people were walking around. One of them moved up to her, at a quick walk, and handed her a bottle of water.
“Stay hydrated? Are you on the search crew going out?”
She walked and spoke at the same time, getting the attention of the man in charge. He was about fifty and looked Japanese. Fit, too. Cute in his brown hat and dorky ranger outfit.
“I was asked to find and retrieve the lost person? I need their name.”
The man seemed baffled, but didn’t really hesitate to share what she needed.
“Dylan Baily. Caucasian male, twenty-one years old. We have a picture.” That was scrambled for, but she shut her eyes, having enough already. Finding the man wasn’t hard, but the location meant nothing. He was, shock, hidden in some rocks, in an open area. Also, shivering, even if it was already starting to become pleasant for the day. It had probably gotten cold, overnight.
He was, cleverly enough, wrapped in a bright red poncho. There were people in view, she thought, if he could be gotten to stand up. Instead of trying that, she focused on him and slowly pulled him from his position, teleporting him to a spot on the ground.
There was a gasp, from the people around them, when the pop came. The guy had short brown hair, and dark eyes, with tan skin. That seemed to be from being outdoors a lot, she decided. Noh, the Ranger in charge, called out.
“I need medical over here! We found him!” There was some carrying on then.
Hannah nodded to the man, then left. After all, her job was, for that moment, done.
Chapter twenty-two
“So, that was a mistake.”
On occasion, about three times a day, Hannah really hated being herself. Not for the obvious reasons, such as having too much money or even her wealth, size and gender making her a target on a level that most people probably thought sounded fake. No, it was, at least in this case, her own voice that set her off.
It had come out sounding high pitched, and just a bit like a cartoon character in the moment, when she was trying to produce a true, nearly sinister grumble. Not that there was anyone listening to her. At the same time, at about eleven-thirty, she managed to find two minutes to run to the restroom. She had managed to shower earlier and even eaten some toast with peanut butter on it.
That magical spread wasn’t a thing that she’d grown up with, in particular. She’d had it, but mainly in the last six months of her life or so. It was on her diet program, since it was calorie dense. Not pleasant, since it had tried to stick in her throat, but she’d gotten it down, which was what counted. Between being asked to travel all over the United States and once into Europe, on various tasks.
Not all of them were for things that she considered worthy of her time, either. Twice she’d been asked to take people to meetings. True, important individuals, who had real deadlines, but also people who could have telecommuted. Only, of course, she knew that one was out of the picture on a lot of levels. Taking a man into the heart of Moscow, to a place that wasn’t even a government building at all, just a large house, for a clandestine meeting between spooks seemed kind of off to her, however.
She also located people. After the second one she stopped asking why she was doing it, even. Which meant half of the men, and almost all of the people she’d seen were male, had given her strange looks when she asked if they wanted the target in a cage, a cleared area, or inside the ground. One of them took her up on the last option, even.
The old man who had done that provided a specific, but safe, landing zone, and did want the head left for identification. The person hadn’t been superhuman as far as she could tell, so he was going to have to be identified using DNA.
It didn’t sound like a lot, but between getting the lost hiker and the last movement, which was taking a box from what seemed like one warehouse, to a base that felt like it was underground to her, Hannah had done seventeen different missions. Probably while breaking about thirty-four different laws. A few of them major.
Instead of getting to go back home then, she was called, by Portia, into the dining room at The Society. She felt a bit annoyed, overworked and kind of bitchy, but didn’t let any of that show on her face when she saw the set up. There, clearly to eat, were June, Carl, Stan and Vidya. There were six places, however, and Port walked pushing a silver cart, that was loaded down with prepared plates of food.
