by Sam Maggs
Nadia shook her head. “I can’t be certain. But it’s linked directly to the subliminal code.”
“I can guess.” Priya crossed her arms over her chest. “Times Square, the gold billboards? That was just a test case—telling a big group of people what to do, en masse. If I’m reading this correctly, at midnight, every single person with a VERA is going to be completely under her control.”
“Time’s up,” said Ying.
“That’s only three hours from now!” Shay said, shocked.
“I hate to be the one to point out the obvious here,” Taina piped up, “but is no one else concerned that this might not be VERA? Sorry, Nadia, but your new friend sucks and I’ve told you that from the start.”
“I know,” Nadia said, twisting around in her chair to face her friends. “And you’re right.” She saw the surprise on their faces at the admission. “We can’t rule Margaret out of this yet.”
“So what do we do?” Shay rested her hands on her hips. The girls all looked at Nadia. It was up to her to decide.
But really, it was hardly a decision at all. Nadia loved a lot of things. It was her thing. But there was one thing she loved more than anything else—more than good Ethiopian food, and synthwave, and cropped hoodies. More than rule-breaking. More than Lola and her driving instructor. Even more than her Wasp suit.
It was the G.I.R.L.s, of course. Nadia would always choose the G.I.R.L.s and their safety above everything else.
And they had an evil AI to destroy.
Like her biological mother, Nadia loved making lists. Like her machekha, Nadia loved checking things off lists. Nadia didn’t love either of those things because of the older women in her life; it was coincidence or fate or biology or some combination of the above. Nadia was her own person. But she liked that list-making made her feel connected to Maria and Janet, in a way.
Sometimes list-making was more helpful than other times.
Take meds
Go to HoffTech
Find Margaret
Destroy VERA servers
Determine if Margaret evil yes/no
Admittedly, there wasn’t much to their plan.
But Nadia figured it was beautiful in its simplicity.
“This it?” asked Alexis. She was behind the wheel of the big Pym Labs van that Nadia had co-opted for G.I.R.L.-related activities. This definitely counted.
“This is it,” confirmed Nadia from the passenger seat, peering through the blacked-out windows of the big glass structure just across the road from where Alexis was deftly parallel parking. Nadia hated parallel parking. Especially in the van.
Behind Nadia’s chair, Taina pushed a wireless earpiece into place and turned to face her wall of monitors. “All set here, too,” she confirmed. The back of the van had been fully equipped as a mobile command center, and Taina would be monitoring the team from the moment they stepped out of her sight to the second they were back in the safe confines of the G.I.R.L.mobile.
NADIA’S NEAT SCIENCE FACTS!!!
NOTE TO SELF!!!
Have squad vote on better name than “G.I.R.L.mobile” soon.
Taina was the best Mission Control person Nadia could ever ask for, and she always relied on her advice and intel while in the field. Nadia was particularly glad she would have Taina in her ear today. With Alexis in the van to help Taina out and Shay as an additional lookout, Nadia felt like they wouldn’t miss a thing from outside the building.
Nadia unbuckled herself and swiveled around in her chair. They were all here—the whole G.I.R.L. squad, ready to take on VERA.
And hopefully save the world. No pressure.
Nadia watched as Priya gathered up the plants she’d brought with her; as Ying checked all the straps and buckles on her suit; as Tai powered on all her monitors; as Shay tested her high-powered sensors and miniature teleporter; as Alexis watched her rearview camera like a hawk. They each had their own purpose. They each fit their roles perfectly. And together, they made up a beautiful, rich tapestry that would feel incomplete were even one of them absent. Nadia thought it was beautiful.
And she was ready to kick some butt.
“G.I.R.L.s,” said Nadia. Everyone in the van looked away from what they were doing a moment ago and up at Nadia. “If Ying’s nineties action movies have taught me anything, it’s that this is the moment where I am supposed to give a big, inspiring speech about how we will all win the day and be heroes and yay, America! Or something.”
Ying nodded with grave seriousness.
“But…” Nadia hesitated, taking a deep breath. “I don’t think I have to do that. I think we know what we have to do. We know who we are, and we know why we’re here. And we all know that when we’re together, there’s nothing in this whole world that can stop us.”
“Almost like…” Tai winked at Nadia. “…we’re unstoppable.”
The whole van shook with the weight of the G.I.R.L.s’ collective groan. But Nadia knew a happy groan when she heard one.
“We’re in,” Nadia said quietly, knowing Tai would pick it up from her position in the G.I.R.L.mobile. Priya and Ying were right behind Nadia as she stepped through HoffTech’s glass front doors. Ying had on her best black Lycra. Priya, who already clutched two pots, lit up as she saw the veritable plant paradise that was the HoffTech front lobby.
“Holy fiddle-leaf fig,” she breathed. “Thank god for Insta trends.”
Nadia, for her part, had her full Wasp suit on underneath her beige trench, like some combination of a ’40s detective and a modern-day flasher, if what she was flashing was cool science.
And Nadia was always flashing cool science.
Walking back into HoffTech for the first time since freeing herself from VERA’s influence, Nadia took in the lobby again. You can’t know a person through their things—you can’t even get to know them through a list of their favorite things. You can only know the way you interpret them.
And right now, Nadia was interpreting the whites and birches of the HoffTech office as a carefully constructed facade; a sheen of Instagram-cool over the truth of what was really happening here. A hoodie and jeans. No color; no creativity. Just what you expect to see. Nothing more. Nothing worth examining closer.
“I’m in position,” Shay’s voice buzzed over the G.I.R.L.s’ earpieces. She was set up across the street as lookout. In case she needed to get to the G.I.R.L.s’ side quickly, she held one side of a small, portable transporter. Ying carried its companion in one of her suit’s many hidden pockets. For now, she kept an eagle eye on the street, in case any shady characters arrived at HoffTech HQ.
Well, shadier characters than a flasher, a goth yoga teacher, and a girl toting potted plants around.
It was, admittedly, a high bar.
Nadia took a deep breath. In ballet, Nadia was always taught that you check your nerves at the wings. Nerves served you up to a certain point; they made you practice hard, got you back up after a fall, convinced you to work your feet until they bled so that by the time you got onto that stage, you knew every move, every beat without question.
But when you got to the wings, when the audience was right there and it was time to perform, the nerves no longer served you. You either knew what you were doing on stage, or you didn’t. Put them aside, get out there, and do what you came to do.
Nadia was going to do what she came here to do.
She marched right up to the front desk—and to VERA. It was long past the end of the normal workday, pushing eleven p.m. But like most work-whenever tech offices, there were still a few people wandering in and out of the lobby, and from the outside Shay still reported lights on in the upper floors. People were still here, coding away.
Not for long.
“VERA,” Nadia said, as authoritatively as she could. “We’re here to see—”
“Core hours are ten a.m. to four p.m.,” VERA cut her off. “Please come back tomorrow.”
“We’re here to see Margaret Hoff. And we need to see her now.”
“Very good,” t
he VERA responded. Nadia looked at her two friends smugly. It just took the right attitude, sometimes. “Core hours are ten a.m. to four p.m. Please come back tomorrow.”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t all about attitude.
Nadia stepped back with surprise as Ying grabbed the gold brick off the table, a mirror image of earlier in the evening, and held it right up against her mouth.
“Listen, you little mind-bending monster,” she hissed, “you get us to Margaret right now, or I’m going to do to you what I did to your little gold friend. Is that what you want?”
Nadia loved Ying because she was the Black Widow of their group, and the Black Widow was Nadia’s favorite Super Hero. Well, one of Nadia’s favorite Super Heroes. Specifically because she was good in moments just like this.
There was silence.
“Core hours are ten a.m. to four p.m.,” VERA finally repeated.
Ying let out a strangled yell and slammed the thing back down on the glass counter, sending hairline fractures out across its surface like a map of Ying’s frustration.
“Okay, no big deal.” Nadia put her hands on Ying’s shoulders. She could see Priya had gone somewhere else in her mind for a second; probably introducing herself to all the different plants in the room. “I texted Margaret, I know she’s here. I’ll just give her a call, and—”
“Nadia?” Margaret rushed out of the elevators. She looked just as she had earlier, except she’d traded her maroon hoodie for a navy one. Her hair was pulled back in a rushed pony, strands of chestnut brown escaping around her face. Exactly what you’d expect. She looked like Nadia’s friend. Like someone who just wanted to help. She hurried over to the girls. “And Priya! And…”
“You don’t need to know,” said Ying.
Margaret stared at her for a minute before shaking her head and turning back to Nadia. “Are you all right? I thought you were doing better after I left, but your text made me nervous—what’s going on?”
Nadia grabbed both of Margaret’s hands in hers. Her nails were perfect, a manicured greige. Nothing to see here. Don’t look any closer. “It’s an emergency. Can we come upstairs?”
“Of course, of course.” Margaret tugged Nadia toward the elevator. “Don’t worry about checking in with VERA, you’re with me and it’s after office hours.”
“We’ve heard,” Ying said dryly.
Margaret waved her pass over the scanner in the elevator and hit the top button. The four of them were whisked up and up and up, and Nadia talked quickly.
“While I was working on VERA, I discovered something in her code.” Nadia stared straight at the elevator doors while she talked. She couldn’t stand to see Margaret’s face. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to know if this was VERA or if it was Margaret. “A subliminal messaging system. Designed to take control of users’ minds. I think it was responsible for what happened at Times Square.”
The elevator slid to a halt and the doors opened. Margaret didn’t say anything; she just exited and held the elevator open for the rest of the girls to step out.
Nadia finally looked at Margaret as they ascended the spiral staircase into the planetarium. Her friend’s usual confident, calm demeanor had vanished. She looked worried. Not just worried—scared.
“Okay,” said Margaret, more to herself than anyone else. “Okay. Malicious code is something we can handle. Stay here; I’m going to get some portable workstations. Are you okay to give this a go?” she asked Nadia. “I don’t want to call anyone else down here in case…”
“…they’re responsible for the code,” Nadia finished Margaret’s sentence. “Go. We’re ready to work.”
“Good.” Margaret rushed back to the spiral staircase. “And nice plants!” she yelled back over her shoulder. Priya squeezed her pots closer.
Nadia felt more relieved than she had since this whole thing started. Margaret wasn’t responsible for any of this. She couldn’t be. She seemed just as shocked as Nadia and her friends. They were going to be able to fix this, together. And then they’d find whoever was responsible for this.
Together.
“I’m still not convinced.” Ying bent into a stretch, determined to stay limber, just in case.
“Nothing out here,” reported Shay.
“And no chatter online,” came Taina’s voice. “No one has any idea the VERAs are about to go nuclear. You’ve got just under two hours to fix them.”
Priya sat cross-legged against one wall, setting her plants next to her. The planetarium, like the rest of HoffTech, also had plants and vines lining the walls. Priya closed her eyes.
Nadia bounced up and down on her toes and wished she had some music to listen to; anything to distract her from the next couple hours of work ahead of her. It wasn’t going to be easy—especially not if VERA knew what they were about to do—but she was certain they could do it.
She tilted her head up and looked into the heavens (such as they were). The dome overhead rotated, the constellations spinning slowly but determinedly through the sky. It was Thanksgiving at the end of this week; the fall night sky was crisp and beautiful. Even when it was fake.
And then it all went dark.
“Argh.” Margaret’s voice floated up from the spiral staircase. “Nadia, can you help me with these?”
Nadia squinted in the darkness. She didn’t want to put on her helmet for her night vision; it would bring up too many questions with Margaret. Instead, she carefully made her way over to the top of the spiral staircase. The light from below was so bright it was almost blinding.
Something was pressed into her hands—the laptops. Nadia grabbed them—but Margaret continued to hold on.
“I’ve got them,” Nadia assured her. “You can let go.”
“I’m sorry, Nadia,” Margaret said. Nadia squinted. She couldn’t see Margaret; the backlight was too bright. “You’ve been a good friend. But I can’t let you ruin this.”
Margaret shoved the laptops into Nadia, hard, and Nadia stumbled backward. Something burst from the top of the spiral staircase. Nadia fumbled for the release on her helmet underneath her trench coat, but she didn’t need it. The lights flipped on, the planetarium whirring back to life.
And in front of Nadia stood Margaret.
Dressed exactly like the Wasp.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” called Nadia from her hiding spot behind one of the planetarium’s seats. “You can stop this!”
Margaret shot a Wasp’s Sting so powerful it blasted clean through the chair on Nadia’s left. She turned her face away from the blast just in time.
“I can’t,” Margaret yelled back. “You don’t understand!”
Nadia took a deep breath and knew she had to do what she did best in these situations: map out her surroundings, consider her entire situation, and then take decisive action. She was going to need to buy herself some time.
She hit the button near her thumb and immediately was less than a centimeter tall. She ran under the chair, pressed her back up against one of the struts—Ugh, is that gum? It’s always gum—and tried to figure out what to do next. Quickly.
When Margaret had emerged from the stairs Nadia hadn’t known whether to laugh or to scream. The idea that Taina and Bobbi and everyone else had been right about Margaret all along—it was too much for Nadia on a day like today. She couldn’t reconcile the Margaret in her head, the Margaret she thought she knew, with the woman in front of her. It was cognitive dissonance. It was going to be at least four weeks of therapy. She hoped Dr. Sinclair was ready.
Nadia had tried to salvage the situation, even as Ying and Priya sprang into defensive positions. “Nice suit,” she said, as casually as she could given the circumstances, which were that she was looking directly at Margaret Hoff in a full black-and-green Wasp suit. “From Hank?”
Margaret barked a laugh. “Hank?! Please. You know what he was like. Hank tried to have me fired. ‘Too driven.’ Like he ever told the male interns they were ‘too driven.’”
“He had some i
ssues,” agreed Nadia. “So, Winners, then? T.J. Maxx?”
“You.” Margaret stepped closer to Nadia, who stood stock-still. “Our VERAs were connected. I had access to your entire database. Hank never allowed me access to his secrets; this is what I was owed for having to start my career from scratch after that. I made a few modifications after Times Square, though,” she said, nodding at Priya. “You have some very interesting friends. And I saw your suit under your clothes. Sloppier than I expected from you, Nadia.”
“You were in our research?” Priya spat. A wall of vines was beginning to form behind her.
“You’re all very good,” Margaret said kindly. She held up a palm and the vines behind Priya slowed. “I’m still working out some bugs. But I just want you to listen. Let me explain. Please.”
“We’re good, actually.” Ying sprinted forward and leapt off the ground, swinging her thighs around Margaret’s neck. In the next breath, Margaret was gone, shrunk to nothing. Ying’s momentum carried her right into a wall. She was back on her feet in an instant.
Nadia felt someone grab her arms from behind. She struggled, but Margaret was strong and fast. She’d caught Nadia off guard, but Nadia held her arm firmly in place, keeping Margaret from shrinking again.
“Server room, now!” Nadia yelled at her friends. Priya grabbed her pots and bolted for the spiral staircase, Ying steps in front of her. As Priya sealed off the top of the stairs with vines, Nadia called after them. “Destroy VERA—I’ve got Margaret!” She saw the last of the light from below disappear as the plants locked Nadia into the planetarium.
“Please, just listen,” repeated Margaret. Nadia fired a Wasp’s Sting at the ground between them and used the momentum to fly to the other side of the room.
“You used me!” Nadia yelled back, hovering in the air directly in front of Pisces.
“I need you!” Margaret countered, swinging her hands in front of her. Plants shot up across the room, gunning for Nadia, who made a mental note to get to the bottom of how she was able to replicate Priya’s powers.
Nadia dodged, shooting a plant with a Wasp’s Sting and shrinking to avoid another. She ran across its surface, jumping off and grabbing it to swing her legs forward like a gymnast on the parallel bars. As she launched herself off the vine, she popped back to normal size, using her speed and momentum to hurl herself toward Margaret. Her foot connected with Margaret’s chin, upending her.
