Grasping the safety rail, Jessica leaned out over the gymnasium, rapt concentration on her face. Sally Ann jogged over to the far end of the gym to stand beside Dr. Walter Peeples, their head of research and Jessica’s new boyfriend. The rest of the flight study team huddled around him. One of them held a radar gun, another a stopwatch, another a video camera, and they all looked as eager as schoolboys at the circus.
Walter himself held nothing—keeping his gaze on Jessica with a focus that wasn’t only about the work. Someone dropped a flag and, for a moment, they all forgot to breathe as Jessica pushed off from the railing and hurtled toward them through the air. Sally Ann didn’t know how fast her protégé flew, but it was certainly faster than she had gone when she used the air tanks to propel her. Faster than she’d ever seen the new recruit move.
Jessica breezed past them, turning at the last second to hit the far mat with her feet, and flipping over before coming to a smooth landing in front of the group of techs. “How was it?” she called, trotting the few steps to the guy with the stop watch.
“Faster than last time.”
The man with the radar gun looked down at his readout. “Fifty miles an hour. As fast as a golden eagle.”
Jessica grabbed Walter’s arm and swung him around, pulling him into a dancing turn. “But still not as fast as a peregrine falcon. Let’s try again. I bet I can go faster if I push off a little more strongly at the outset.”
Sally Ann stepped up. “Slow down there, Flygirl. We need to talk.”
Walter checked his watch. “It’s almost noon anyway. Let’s meet back here at two. I have some ideas about body position I’d like to have our Flygirl try.”
Sally Ann snorted, but the rest of the group looked at her blankly. She rolled her eyes. Body position? No one else heard the way that sounded? Coming from Jessica’s boyfriend? Sometimes it was hard being the only one with a sense of humor.
Walter walked away, surrounded by the rest of the scientists, all of them still talking animatedly about air density and aerodynamics. Sally Ann wondered if they would even remember to eat lunch.
Only after Walter was out of sight did Jessica turn her attention to Sally Ann. Sally Ann punched her on the arm. “That was awesome. You weren’t kidding about the difference those emeralds make.”
Jessica raised a hand to her chest as if she were planning to say the pledge of allegiance, but Sally Ann knew her friend was reassuring herself of the presence of the stones in the special pouch stitched into her sports bra. Sally Ann knew the research team was working overtime with the sample Jessica had shared with them, hoping to analyze and even synthesize more of the gemstones, making it possible to recreate the conditions that had empowered Jessica. She also knew they’d gotten nowhere so far.
“It’s good to have them back,” she said, the words strangely intense. She smiled. “So, we need to talk?”
“Come on. I don’t know if you’re going to like this or not.”
It hadn’t been as complicated as Sally Ann expected.
“I get it,” Jessica said. “It makes sense.” She stretched back in her chair, spreading her arms and rolling her neck in a gentle circle.
Sally Ann opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, flabbergasted by Jessica’s calm. She’d come with a plan to twist Jessica’s arm and charm her into taking the risk. All those arguments sat unused in her brain. “This is really okay with you?”
“Look. The bad guys already know where I live. I have the scorched handprint on my back deck to prove it. There’s no hiding for me. And I know the Director will do everything he can to keep me and my family safe.”
Sally Ann had to admit Jessica had a point. “What about the PR stuff? Are you ready to go all spokesmodel for the team?”
“That, I actually have experience doing. Don’t forget I was Mrs. Corporate Fast-Track for years. I was good at it, too.” She lifted into the air, spun as if she were flaring a dress on the dance floor, then dropped gracefully back into her seat. The other agents and staff in the dining hall applauded and whistled. Jessica turned and gave them a beauty queen wave and blew kisses. She crossed her eyes at Sally Ann, nearly making her trainer spew her sweet tea all over the table.
It was funny, picturing Jessica doing the cocktail party and board meeting circuit. But obviously, she had some idea how to work a crowd. She had wowed the entire cafeteria… and these were agents of the Department, who were harder to wow than most people. She had to remember Jessica was a different woman than she’d been before she drank Dr. Liu’s tea and had to learn to burp on command to control her altitude. Jessica had changed for the better in Sally Ann’s opinion. Thinking, she swirled her straw around her glass.
Jessica thought faster. “We should get Leonel and Patricia on board with this, too.”
“Leonel has a long recovery ahead of him.” Sally Ann winced as the guilt of his injury pinched at her psyche again. No matter what anyone said, she would always blame herself for his capture and gunshot wound. If she hadn’t sent him off on his own in her overconfidence, he’d never have been in that position.
Jessica downed the last of her juice. “And Patricia still has her doubts about the Department. I’m going to the hospital today. If Patricia’s still there, I’ll look for a chance to talk to her.” Jessica turned back over her shoulder and waggled her fingers at Sally Ann on the way out the door, and Sally Ann had a vision of her with a cape dangling over her shoulders. Maybe the Director’s idea wasn’t completely crazy. They could make this work.
Leonel Licks His Wounds
Leonel Alvarez’s throat ached, and he struggled to swallow. He groaned a little and tried to turn his head away from the window, hoping he wasn’t getting sick. His dreams were a confusing mess like they always were when he had a fever. Something about a helicopter and a man with a dart gun, then a bright surgical light and Patricia and Jessica looking down at him.
Leonel blinked. The room seemed awfully bright and the light inescapable. Why had David left all the lights on? After twenty-five years of marriage, you’d think the man would have learned to let Leonel rest if he didn’t have to get up early.
“David?” he called out. His voice was deep and sonorous. That didn’t surprise him anymore. Neither did the whiskers on his cheeks when he ran a hand over his face. He was used to this male body now, a couple of years after the run-in with a mad scientist that had given him super strength and changed him from “Linda” into “Leonel.” But he was surprised when he reached out to pat David’s side of the bed and his knuckles bumped against a cold metal rail. Was he in a hospital bed? He struggled to get his eyes to open so he could look around.
He had no idea what had happened, but whatever it was, it left him feeling como mierda. Everything hurt. Even just taking a deep breath. He needed to figure out what had happened to him.
Using the buttons on the side rail, he raised himself to a more upright position to look around. As he did so, his side throbbed with pain. Awkwardly, he pulled at the hospital gown to get a look beneath and saw that his abdomen was swathed in white bandages with a bulge under his left arm. Near the bulge, the bandages were wet.
He felt the area gingerly with his fingers and yelped with pain. Qué pasó? He closed his eyes to think. He remembered being with the other Department agents at the abandoned college campus, waiting for the call to storm the compound and rescue Patricia. He’d been bored and restless, upset because he and David had not parted on the happiest of notes. Sally Ann Rogers, their lead agent, had sent him to blow off some steam. He could remember going for a run, finding the empty lumber site, and starting to throw the logs around. But after that? A blank.
He grabbed for the nurse call button and pushed it. A little too hard, apparently, because it broke in his hand, leaving him holding shards of beige plastic and electrical wiring. He set the pieces down on the side table, gasping a little at the pain of the stretch to reach it. He would have to wait for someone to come and check on him.
Leonel hated waiting. The remote he had broken had been the control for the television, too, so he couldn’t even turn on the TV. It had hurt enough just to move around in the bed, so he wasn’t willing to try getting out. Peeking beneath his hospital gown again, he saw he was catheterized and worried that meant he’d been unconscious a long time. What had they told David? David hadn’t wanted Leonel to go on this mission, and it looked like Leonel had proven him right about how dangerous this line of work was.
He stared toward the window, thinking. He couldn’t see anything, but there was some nice sunlight streaming onto the floor. It must be a pretty day outside. If the nice weather continued, maybe he and David could get a few days away together at the beach. It had been a long time since he’d last seen the ocean, and even longer for his husband. Maybe if they went away together for a few days, they could figure it out. He could make David understand how much the work meant to him, even if it came with risks. Convince him this had happened for a reason, and that he needed to use his gifts for good.
Somewhere in thinking about the beach, Leonel must have fallen asleep because he woke up when he heard the door click open. He turned, expecting David, but Patricia stood in the doorway, looking like she wasn’t sure if she should come in. “Patricia,” he called out happily. “I guess that means we found you.”
Patricia grinned, the smile bringing a little color into the pale face under her short, bright red haircut and making the wrinkles around her eyes lift into folds. “You sure did.” Pulling the guest chair nearer the bed, she folded her long frame into it, which put her face at Leonel’s elbow level. Patricia was nearly as tall as Leonel when they were both standing, and in excellent shape by anybody’s standard, all the more amazing since she was approaching sixty years old. No wonder she was known as the Amazon when she’d played college field hockey. Her old friends would be even more amazed if they knew what she could do now.
Leonel tried to turn on his side to see Patricia’s face better and cursed quietly from the pain. Patricia’s clear blue eyes clouded with concern.
“Should I get a nurse? Maybe you shouldn’t be moving like that so soon, Leonel. After all, you’ve been shot.”
“I’ve been shot?” Leonel stared at Patricia, open mouthed. “I think you’d better tell me what happened.”
So she did. Leonel learned he had missed the entirety of his first real mission because he’d been captured before it began. Worse, Patricia, whom he’d come to save, had to save him instead. Only quick thinking and faster action by the rest of the team allowed Leonel to survive the attempt to use him as a body donor for the brain of the lunatic they’d been chasing.
“Gracias a Díos you arrived in time,” he said, crossing himself. Just thinking about it made him shudder. It was like something out of a Frankenstein movie. When Patricia tried to apologize for not protecting him from the gunshot, he waved it off. “There was one of you and three of us. I’m glad you protected our Jessica. We’re all lucky you were there to use your bulletproof scales to save her. And what better place to get shot than in an operating room with a doctor standing by?”
They were both quiet for a moment. Leonel, for his part, was humiliated by his failure to perform, and angry, both at himself and at the people who’d done this to him. “Did we catch Cindy Liu at least?”
Patricia’s face burned as red as her hair. The thin tight line of her mouth highlighted the lines around it. “No. She got away. Both of them did.”
Leonel considered that for a moment. “How long have we been back?”
“Not long. It’ll be a week tomorrow. They’ve kept you sedated, trying to give you time to heal. Plus, you kept breaking things. A couple of days ago you yanked off the railing and fell out of the bed.”
A week? He knew from his initial training and orientation sessions that a week was an eternity when tracking down a fugitive. The chances of finding them went down with each day. His consternation must have shown on his face because Patricia reached out and squeezed his hand. “We’re not giving up. We’re going to find her, and she’s going to pay for what’s she’s done to all of us.”
Leonel looked into Patricia’s eyes. He saw determination there, and not much in the way of pity for Cindy Liu, who had once been her best friend. Good. It was about time Patricia saw Cindy for the danger she was. “We will bring her to justice,” Leonel said, squeezing Patricia’s hand gently, careful not to hurt her like he’d done the remote control.
Patricia looked away. “I think she’s got some help. Whoever her father was working with had resources. They’d set up that entire lab for him, after all.”
Leonel nodded. It made sense. They knew the man had once had government ties. The insanity began as a between-the-wars research project on longevity. There had to still be some powerful people in his corner, people who would take in two fugitives and hide them.
“Can’t the Director find out who’s helping them?” Leonel asked.
“They tell me he’s trying, but it’s turtles all the way down.”
The door opened with a little bang and a nurse entered, pushing one of the carts they used to take the vital signs of the patients. “Ah, you’re awake, Mr. Alvarez,” she said, brightly.
Patricia stood up to allow the woman access to the bed. Leonel cooperated patiently with the blood pressure, pulse, and temperature readings. Then, he sheepishly pointed out that he had inadvertently destroyed the remote and call button. The nurse looked annoyed. “I’ll have another one brought in. You must be more careful, Mr. Alvarez.”
When the nurse had gone, holding the broken pieces of plastic in her hands, Patricia let out the laugh she had been holding back. Leonel tried to join in but found that laughing hurt. He groaned and put a hand over his wound.
Patricia’s laughter died on her lips. “I’m so sorry, Leonel.”
“You said that already, Patricia.”
“Not about the gunshot, though of course I am sorry you were hurt. But I mean before that, about giving you such hell about going to work for the Department.”
“They are doing good work.”
“I can see that. They’ve taken good care of you.” Patricia still had her doubts. They lingered on her face. But Leonel appreciated her effort at being conciliatory. Patricia went on. “They’ve obviously done wonders for Jessica.”
Leonel smiled broadly. “Yes. She’s a whole new woman. Even before they designed that air pack for her, Sally Ann had taught her a lot of tricks for controlling her movement when she flies. With the air pack, she’s almost as fast as she was with the emeralds.”
They both sat in silence again for a few moments after that. Leonel thought about those emeralds and what happened to them, which had him thinking about Cindy Liu again. He wondered if Patricia was thinking the same thing. The silence extended to the point of becoming awkward and Leonel was trying to come up with something less uncomfortable to talk about when the door opened again.
The nurse returned with a doctor in tow, his face already settling into what looked to be a habitual frown as he approached the bed. The nurse shrugged apologetically. “You’ll have to leave now, Ms. O’Neill. The doctor needs to get a look at his wound.”
Once word got out that Leonel was awake, he had a steady stream of visitors. Each of his daughters came in with a guard. Viviana thought the secrecy all very exciting, but Lupita mostly seemed angry with her mother for getting hurt.
Sally Ann came by and teased Leonel about forgetting to duck. Leonel and David had hardly gotten to talk with all the well-wishers stopping by. If he were honest with himself, Leonel was relieved to put off their talk a little longer. He’d handed David ammunition for his argument that working for the Department was too risky in the form of actual ammunition.
This afternoon started with a visit from Jessica and Walter. Leonel raised an eyebrow when the two arrived together. He’d only been unconscious a few days, but it looked like those two were moving fast. It was awkward, staying flat on his back while his vi
sitors stood around his bed, but he was under strict orders to remain still, and he tried to obey them.
He had indeed reopened his wound during his visit with Patricia. Leonel had protested to his doctor that he couldn’t follow orders when he hadn’t received them. That had gotten the nurse in trouble for not being there, and Leonel had felt bad all over again. How was the nurse supposed to know when he was going to wake?
So, when Jessica bounded over to hug him, Leonel had to just be still and let her. The embrace hurt, but Leonel appreciated it anyway. Walter hung back a bit, with his hands awkwardly in his pockets until Leonel reached out a hand for him to shake. “I hear you were lucky,” the scientist said. Leonel was confused. It must have shown on his face because Walter clarified. “Your wound. If the angle had been different…”
Leonel hadn’t let his thoughts linger too long there but felt the truth of it. “I guess so,” he said. He had been fortunate. Instead of laying here feeling frustrated about the healing process, he could have left his husband bereaved. Worse yet, he’d been asleep at the time. He couldn’t have done anything to defend himself or help the others.
The pause grew awkward. Jessica’s giddy smile died on her face. Leonel rushed to bridge the silence. “How are your boys?”
Jessica filled the next few minutes with stories about her children, and Leonel let his eyes fall closed as his friend’s words washed over him. Her chatter relaxed him and filled Leonel with happy memories of when his own daughters had been small.
Leonel was trying to figure out how to tell his well-wishers he needed to rest now when David returned from lunch, bumping Walter with the door when he tried to open it. His arms were full of a big bouquet of daisies, and he stood awkwardly in the doorway, staring at Jessica and Walter and looking for all the world like a hapless suitor who found the woman he wanted to woo already engaged.
Face the Change (Menopausal Superheroes Book 3) Page 4
