“Yet you pulled this from somewhere.” She picked up the legal pad and held it up, pointing at the sketch again. Sally Ann noticed her fingertips and cuticles looked bloody and raw. This girl had some stress issues. “Do you even understand it yourself?”
Sally Ann could tell when it was best not to answer, so she said nothing. She simply stood her ground, meeting Dr. Cindy Liu’s intense and penetrating gaze with a level, steady gaze of her own. Neither blinked for long seconds. Dr. Liu set down the pad and tore the sheet of paper off, folded it a few times and shoved it into her front pocket. “I’ll keep this if you don’t mind.”
Sally Ann turned toward the corner of the room that she knew held a surveillance camera. Then she spun around and slapped both hands on the tabletop, startling Cindy Liu so much that the scientist had to grab the chair to keep from falling down. “I think you overestimate your negotiating power here, little girl.”
She held out a hand, open palmed and smiled a wide, slow, crocodile of a smile, tilting her head slightly to one side as she did so. Cindy Liu pulled the paper out of her pocket and dropped it into Sally Ann’s palm, stepping back as if it might explode. Sally Ann closed her fingers around it, bending the paper into a little wad. She picked up her bag, tossed the paper wad inside, and strode out of the room. “We’ll talk more later, Ms. Liu. In the meantime, good luck with that hair.”
Patricia’s New Horizons
Patricia thought she would feel something more than this. After all, they’d finally caught Cindy Liu. At this very moment, her old friend—the woman who had screwed up her life and given her a new lease on it all in one fell swoop—was being interrogated in another part of the Department.
But as she stood looking out the Director’s office windows at the admittedly impressive view, she found she didn’t feel much of anything. Not satisfaction or sadness, not even smug righteousness. Knots rose on the back of her neck, threatening to ruin her blouse with the raising of spikes. She stepped back and took a long, cleansing breath, pushing down the turbulent mix of confused half-understood thoughts and feelings.
The door opened, and Patricia turned around to find an equally subdued Jessica and Leonel coming through the door. “You really just used your phone?” Leonel said.
“I know, right? Sometimes it’s a very good thing being a twenty-first century girl. My camera could see our buddy Archie, even if I couldn’t. You should have seen the look on his face when I plopped down in front of him and slapped that thing on his neck.”
“Well, no one ever remembers to look up,” Patricia said.
Leonel lit up when he saw her and hurried across the large room to pull her into a hug. He swung her off her feet for a moment and for once, Patricia didn’t push him away. Jessica smiled broadly too and gave Patricia a far less crushing hug.
“Where’s our Director?” asked Leonel, turning to the desk as if he expected the man to materialize there on command.
“He got called out to settle some details of Helen’s incarceration and arrangements for Jorge and Mary,” Patricia said.
“And he’s back,” called a voice from behind them. He smiled when all three agents jumped.
Leonel leaned in and whispered to Patricia, “He likes to do that—sneak up on people.”
Suzie brought in a tray of glasses and a bottle of champagne. Her high heels clicked across the marbled flooring with a cheerful cadence that automatically lifted Patricia’s spirits.
“To success!” The Director poured a generous glass for each of them and, after the traditional clinking of the glasses, said “A job well done. To the UCU!” They all enjoyed their drinks, turning to look back at the cityscape before them.
Suzie slipped an arm around Patricia’s waist and looked up into her face. “So how does it feel? Bringing the Lizard Woman of Springfield out into the open?”
Patricia laughed. “I wasn’t the one on the evening news.” She hooked her thumb at Jessica who had floated up a few feet into the air to demonstrate something in the story she was telling.
“Ah, but you will be soon enough. We’ll have to get to work on your costume.” Suzie stepped back and appraised Patricia from head to toe, a bit of teasing mirth in her gaze. “Something nice and tight across the ass, I think.”
Leonel nearly spit out his champagne. “No. Our Jessica is the eye candy. Patricia and I are the brute strength.”
“Speak for yourself, Fuerte.” Patricia held her glass high and swirled the golden liquid a little to make it foam. “I could handle a little objectification. I’m old enough.”
Suzie handed Patricia her phone. “Here, I think your arms are the longest. Group selfie.” Leonel tugged the Director and Jessica into the frame, and everyone gamely shoved together. Patricia stretched out her arm until she could see all of them on the phone screen. She looked at the photo before she handed it back, feeling happy as her gaze bounced across each of her friend’s faces.
Her gaze stopped on the Director’s image and she frowned. She looked up at the man himself, who had taken a step away from the group and was shuffling papers on his desk. He smiled and winked when he caught her eye, his resemblance to a young Robert Redford even more noticeable than it had been when she last saw him. Patricia looked back down at the photograph—in which her friends surrounded a man who looked nothing like the film icon. In fact, he looked completely forgettable, plain brown hair, a face neither handsome nor ugly, eyes that failed to register a specific color in the photograph. She texted the photo to herself before handing the camera back.
The Director took her arm and walked Patricia over to the edge of the window a few steps away from the others. He leaned on the windowsill, and Patricia felt another wave of something a lot like vertigo. His reflection in the glass didn’t match the face she saw on the man. He looked a little sad when he turned to face Patricia. “It’s never quite the way you think it’s going to be, is it?” he said. Then he turned and raised his glass to the view. “But there are more strange things on the horizon.”
Patricia nodded and emptied her glass. “Excuse me,” she said. “I’m going to need more champagne.”
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Samantha Bryant is a middle school Spanish teacher by day and a mom and novelist by night. That makes her a superhero all the time. Her secret superpower is finding lost things. She writes because it’s cheaper than therapy and a lot more fun.
When she's not writing or teaching, Samantha enjoys time with her family, watching old movies, baking, reading, gaming, walking in the woods with her rescue dog, and going places. Her favorite gift is tickets (to just about anything). You can find her on Twitter @mirymom1 or at her blog/website: http://samanthabryant.com
Also by Samantha Bryant
Menopausal SuperHeroes
Going Through the Change
Change of Life
Face the Change
Falstaff Books
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Face the Change (Menopausal Superheroes Book 3) Page 25
