“And that was, what, six inches away from you?” She cocked her head to the side as she looked at Greg. “Seems to be the opposite of sloppy to me.”
“It still doesn’t—”
“I took the liberty of measuring the size of that bolt you hit her with.” Her tone was soft but clear. He stayed silent as her gaze moved to him. “If her suit hadn’t negated it so well, there’s a good chance you would have killed her.”
He smiled, though I wasn’t sure it was possible for a gesture to look less friendly. “My bolts look bigger than they are. Besides, rogues don’t pull their punches. It would be irresponsible for us to not—”
“Enough.” The woman across from me held up her hand. Both Steelframe and Greg fell silent as she leafed through the papers in front of her. “Your opinions have been noted. I only have one more concern.”
No one spoke as she pulled out a paper and began to read it out loud. I bit my bottom lip and tried not to give away any recognition at realizing she was reading the assessment from the psychiatrist that had spoken with me several times over the course of my training. I forced a neutral expression onto my face as she listed several of his findings. Virtually none of it was flattering, but then again, none of it was that bad, either. After finishing, she put the paper back down and studied me.
“You don’t fit the normal profile we see from candidates.”
“Beg your pardon?” I stammered. My fingers started to tingle as she pursed her lips.
“Take a look at the arbiters on the other side of this table, Amber.” She swept a hand around the room, and I took a moment to follow her gesture. “Arbiters are on a different level. They aren’t just powerful primes. They’re not just the smartest, or strongest, or most invincible. They’re all those things, and more. They work. Hard. They’re the best. And they know it. And despite all that, they also know when to follow orders. Insubordination is the fastest way to be drummed out of this program. Deference to authority is one of the most important traits we look for in potential arbiters. Has to be.
“You aren’t the smartest, but you’re plenty smart. You showed that abundantly during your test. I’m not even sure the past Gravita would have come up with some of the solutions you used to get around the obstacles in the maze. Your strength... well, that’s not even in question. But none of that matches up with your personality. In your head, you know you aren’t the best. And you have a disturbing trend toward your own form of morality.”
“Excuse me?” I frowned, unable to stop my face from growing warm. My heartbeat, which had been rising in my ears from embarrassment, sped up once more, this time from a very different emotion. “Look, I know I don’t have the confidence you’re looking for in an arbiter. Hell, I barely even have the confidence right now to go out in public looking... well, like this.” I gestured down at myself, and my face went red again. But I didn’t give myself time to lose my nerve. “I get it. I haven’t had the chance to really get used to my powers yet. I haven’t had years to get into the mindset of being an arbiter, or even just being prime. But questioning my morality?”
“You misunderstand.” She gave me a brief smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m not saying you don’t have morals. Quite the opposite. You have too much.”
“I... wait. What?”
“You spend too much time worrying about what’s right and what’s wrong. And, once decided, you aren’t flexible enough to change your mind. This work is many things, but one thing it is not is black and white. You’re going to be facing gray areas virtually every day as an arbiter. If you’re unwilling or unable to deal with the ambiguity of not knowing if you made the right call in a life-or-death moment, there’s no way you’ll be able to do this job.
“Ordinarily, we’d be able to measure you over the course of three years before this point to see if you’re capable of working past that limitation. As it is, though, I’m afraid—”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not to be disrespectful, but you’re wrong.”
“I assure you, I’m not.”
She furrowed her brow and watched me with either disapproval or thinly veiled curiosity. I found I no longer cared to puzzle through her expression to figure out which it was. If they were going to reject me, it didn’t much matter what I said next. The realization was liberating. And I certainly had something to say about her little lecture.
“I don’t know if you remember who I am.” As I spoke, I studied the varnished wood of the table in front of me as I ran a finger along the grain. As much as I wanted to meet her gaze, I wasn’t sure I could. Not given what I was about to say. “But I remember you. Unicode. That was the name you went by, when you were an arbiter.” I couldn’t help but smile a little at the memory that came to me. “That was a pretty distinctive suit, by the way.”
“I’m not sure I know what you’re—”
“I didn’t expect you to.” I shrugged and forced my gaze up to meet hers. “I’m sure my story is identical to hundreds of other kids in Chicago. You probably had to deliver the same news to a dozen other boys and girls over the course of your career. What you told me changed my life forever, though. I wouldn’t be able to forget you, even if I wanted to. For you, though, it was probably just another Monday, and business as usual. Even if you were visiting a hospital.”
“Grayson...” She looked at me as though she were seeing me for the first time. “Jacob Grayson?”
I gave her a brief nod, something in my gut worming around at the way she was looking at me. But I ignored it. There was a reason I never told anyone too much of my personal story. I had no one to blame but myself that she now looked at me with so much pity. “I do spend more time than I should thinking through the consequences of my actions. But that’s only because I know what those consequences are. And I don’t suffer under the delusion that inaction is somehow better than action, even when it’s impossible to know what the right move is.
“But you’d be making a mistake to think I wouldn’t cut it as an arbiter. You want me to be more confident? If you mean being a complete ass like some of the arbiters I’ve met so far...” My gaze didn’t move over to Greg, though my finger did twitch on the table, and I was almost certain her eyes shifted his way for a fraction of a second before she could stop herself. “Well, I wouldn’t hold my breath. But if you want me to be assertive with the decisions I make, I can promise you I’ll always own the consequences of my actions. And I’ll never let my personal doubts stop me from acting the best I know how when lives are on the line.”
For a long while, silence filled the room as everyone waited for the woman across from me to speak. For her part, she put the paper in her hand aside, her eyes never leaving mine.
Finally, after almost a full minute of silence, she sighed and looked around at the men and women to either side of her. “Well, I still have my own concerns, but after that speech, I suppose I have only one other question."
"You already know the answer." I looked over, startled to see it was Kiara who had spoken. She had stayed silent up to that point, only giving me encouraging nods and smiles whenever she caught my gaze.
Three minutes later, I found myself heading back toward the elevators with Kiara at my side.
“I can’t believe they approved me.” I shook my hands and willed my fingertips to stop trembling from the flood of nerves and adrenaline that was only then starting to ebb from my system. Among other things, it made walking in heels almost impossible. Especially given that I had only started wearing them days before.
“Eh, Irma’s a softie.” Kiara waved a dismissive hand. “You had her from the moment you mentioned that sob story.”
“Wow, way to be sensitive.”
“Anyway, you sure you’re okay with interning under me?”
“You kidding?” I laughed. “I’m not sure I could have asked for a better arbiter to intern under. Besides, it doesn’t really look like we have much choice anyway. It was more an assignment than
anything else.”
“Well, I guess we already know our powersets are compatible, given I interned under Jake when I was first certified.”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
By that point, we had already made it up the elevator and had gotten off on the main floor of the hub. I hesitated only momentarily as Kiara led us to the women’s locker room and held the door open for me. Anyone seeing me would see nothing more than a professionally dressed middle-aged woman. I just had to get over my embarrassment.
“So, how are these next few months going to shake out?”
“Pretty straightforward, to be honest. I’ll transfer my home hub to here, so that it’ll be easier for the two of us to align our schedules.”
“I could just as easily change hubs to yours.”
“Nah.” She shrugged. “I don’t really have family to worry about, so Admin should be able to put me up in temporary housing without a second thought. This way will be easier for everyone.
“Anyway, I’ve already drawn up a rough schedule for the coming months, which I’ll get to you later today. If there’s anything there that you need to change, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll just work our beats and hopefully throughout your internship I’ll be able to show you the ropes to being an arbiter.”
“Sounds good.” I pulled off my blazer and hitched my blouse up over my head as I started to undress. “When do we start?”
“That depends.” She smiled again and pulled her duffle bag off her shoulder. A moment later she began to change as well. “But, if you’re feeling up to it, I had planned on starting today.”
“No time like the present,” I muttered. “Okay, let’s do this.”
8
AN HOUR LATER AND AFTER a warmup workout, I found myself seated in the passenger’s seat of a nondescript black sedan, my eyes trained on the passing pedestrians as we drove through the Loop. Kiara’s powerset, while impressive, did not grant her flight, meaning that throughout our internship most of our transportation would be much more down to earth than I would prefer. I had mentioned there was no reason I couldn’t fly both of us, since I could just as easily extend my flight-field to her as well, but she had declined my offer. She thought it would be valuable experience for me to get the feel for how most arbiters patrolled their areas, and I had to agree with her logic.
A police radio in the center console of the car crackled lightly with static as we drove. Arbiters used a specific radio channel for their chatter, in much the same way that police did, so it wasn’t that surprising that our car was outfitted with a two-way radio. I had to admit, though, that after seeing so much in the arbiter program that was clearly designed by techies, I was a little taken aback to see something so primitive serving such a vital function. But as I thought about it more, I chided myself for making that assumption. Why reinvent the wheel when a simpler, already proven method already existed?
“What sort of activity are we looking for again?” I asked as I squinted out my window. I watched two men on the sidewalk in an animated conversation, waving their hands at each other in exaggerated motions.
“Our first priority is always primes,” she said. She glanced over to the two men as well as she spoke. “Typically, whenever you see augmented abilities, that’s a good clue to pay more attention. Just because a prime is using their powers—even non-registered ones—doesn’t mean they’re violating laws. Eighty percent of primes out there don’t have powers strong enough that they need to register them to use them in public, and of those that do, most of them have registered their powers. Still, it’s one of the better tells that things might go south, so watch out for it all the same. If in doubt, always err on the side of caution and call in suspicious activity, no matter how innocuous it might seem.”
As if on queue, one of the arguing men spat on the ground at the other man’s feet, and a sizzling cloud of smoke rose up from the concrete where his spit landed. The other man jumped away and threw his hands up as he shouted in alarm.
“Case in point.” She nodded and pulled the car up to the curb.
For my part, I lifted my helmet up and slid it down over my head to lock it in place as she dropped the car into park and unbuckled her seatbelt.
“You ready?”
She slipped on a pair of aviator sunglasses as she looked my way. With her iconic synthetic leather jumpsuit on, it would be almost impossible for anyone to miss that she was an arbiter, if nothing else. A big part of why arbiters wore such distinctive costumes was for visibility—even in the middle of a catastrophic disaster, you still couldn’t miss them—but they also could provide a measure of anonymity as well. Most arbiters sat on a sliding scale of obscurity when it came to keeping their public lives separate from their private lives. I, for one, was grateful Jake had chosen complete anonymity when crafting Gravita’s persona, designing a bodysuit that hid every feature. Well... every distinguishing feature. Kiara, on the other hand, had opted to leave her head completely uncovered, except for her sunglasses. It did nothing to protect her private life from the paparazzi, but evidently that wasn’t a big concern of hers.
“Ready,” I said.
The rest of the day passed by slowly, leaving me a little disappointed, if I were being honest. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Even though there were occasions when rogue attacks threatened city-wide destruction, and those moments made for spectacular news reels, the reality was that arbiters’ most important role was one of deterrence. Entirely separate from that, the fact Kiara and I didn’t have anything exciting to do was a good thing. And, given I was only just starting to grasp my powers, I doubted we’d be called in for a city-saving mission at the moment even if there were one.
The most exciting part of our patrol turned out to be breaking up the argument between the two men. The one with the corrosive spit did a double take when he saw us step out of the vehicle. As it turned out, we discovered he had registered his ability, which was a Class C power (limited corrosive potential), but registered or not, his use of it as a threat against someone else was enough for us to issue him a citation. He gave us a sour look as we handed him the slip of paper with the details of his violation, but given the circumstances, he accepted the fine without comment.
“You got any plans for tomorrow night?” Kiara asked later that evening after we had finished our shift and were changing back into our street clothes.
“Tomorrow?” I tilted my head to the side.
“Halloween?” She paused long enough to shoot me a skeptical glance.
“Oh, right.” I bit my lower lip. “No, not really.”
She shrugged. “A few of the guys on my team are having a party. If you and Jake have plans, that’s fine, but if not, you’re both invited to come.”
“Sounds fun.” I forced a smile, though I was sure it wasn’t convincing.
Sure enough, she caught onto my hesitation. “Only a handful of people know about what happened to the two of you. No one would think anything of it if you came.”
I winced. “You actually think people look at me and see a normal woman?”
She raised her eyebrows as she looked past me. Following her gaze, I found myself staring at Clarissa, one of the other arbiters working out of our hub. She had just gotten off her shift and had lost no time in peeling off her arbiter gear to take a shower. She was conspicuously absent a towel as she walked past us. She frowned at noticing our gaze, though she made no move to cover herself. In fact, she paused in front of us and turned slightly to afford us a better look.
“Nice wax job,” Kiara said.
Clarissa shrugged. “I wanted to surprise Adam for our anniversary. I went to that place off Patriot and Chestnut, actually. You know, the one you recommended last month, Amber?”
“Uh, sure.” I nodded, then remembered at the last moment to give her a smile. “Glad you liked it.”
She sighed as she looked down at herself. “I dunno. What do you two think? If you were men, would you still be interested, after ten years of being wi
th someone?”
Kiara raised her hands preemptively. “I’d have to get that far in a relationship first before I could answer that.”
“I’m still going strong, twenty years later,” I blurted out, but then shook myself. “I mean, Jake’s always been interested in me. Men can go through weird phases sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested or aren’t in love with you anymore.”
“How do you do it?”
“Just wear that to bed once a week.” I gestured at her, and she laughed. “Seriously. Men are more complicated than just their appetites, but you’d be surprised how far just that will get you. As long as you’ve got the basics down, most men will be happy.”
“Ah, thanks, Amber!” She sounded surprisingly earnest.
Before I had the chance to stop her, she reached over and pulled me into a hug. I blinked and looked back at Kiara as Clarissa turned and stepped into one of the showers.
“Now, would Clarissa do that if she didn’t think you were a normal woman?” Kiara gave me a smirk.
“Maybe not,” I muttered.
“I mean, even I would be a little weirded out by hugging a woman when we were both topless, but to each their own, I guess.”
“Both...” I paused and looked down.
I yelped and covered myself at realizing what she meant. Clarissa had passed the two of us while I was putting my bra on, and it had slipped my attention, somehow, that I wasn’t wearing anything when she had gone to hug me. Kiara just laughed.
The next morning, as I was making breakfast burritos for the kids and Jake, I was interrupted by Nicole as she came bounding into the kitchen.
“Hey mom.” She drummed on the counter to announce her arrival.
“Morning.” I nodded and spared her a quick glance between flipping the tortilla steaming over the stove and tending to the eggs in the frying pan. I stopped short at the sight of her. “Really?”
“What?” She held her hands up in mock protest. The gesture had the added benefit of showing me more of her costume in the process. Considering it was Nicole, I was sure that had been intentional.
Prime Identity Page 10
