Super: Origins (3 page)

“Yes, I trained under him from the time I was 2 until I turned 16. During that time, I earned black belts in tae kwon do and hapkido, and a brown belt in judo.”
Which I paid for in bruises, a few broken bones, and a number of scars,
Lex thought, her stomach now churning.
Which is why I only wear tights and never stockings. Which is why I feel so uncomfortable in these short sleeves and try not to turn my right arm so the hand is up and you can see my compound fracture scar.

“Why only your brown belt in judo?” Sauer asked, looking at her curiously.

“That was the highest I could go, since I was under 16 at the time.”

“May I ask why you stopped training when you were 16?”

Lex was ready with her stock, semi-truthful answer to the intrusive question that she’d heard too many times. “High school studies just got too busy, so I thought it was more important to focus on them.”

Her mind was screaming the real answer, that everything had gotten much worse until finally her father had told her to leave the house or he would kill her. The highlights of her move to a friend’s parent’s spare room, working a fast food job and cleaning the house she stayed at for rent, and somehow graduating high school under these circumstances flashed quickly through her mind. “Mr. Sauer, do you mind if I ask how this is related to the interview? I have some copies of my résumé, in case we need to reference them–”

Lex had started to open her portfolio and take some résumés out to hand to Clara and Sauer, but Sauer put a hand up.

“No need; we received all the information we needed to know from the government application you filed.” Sauer pressed a button on the keyboard in front of him, and Lex saw a document appear on the screen with her picture on the top right-hand side. “I see here that you graduated last year from Northern Virginia Community College,
cum laude
. What did your major in?”

“Science. Mostly biology and chemistry courses. I’m interested in eventually finishing my four-year degree in biochemistry, so I focused on what was available in that field. As you probably saw in my application, I’ve done some consulting work with the National Institutes of Health, and I’d like to continue working in that field and that direction.”

“Very…interesting.” Sauer replied distractedly, frowning about something in Lex’s last statement. Lex almost shook her head but stopped herself. Even when she’d begun college she’d never been eligible for grants for school because she’d been too afraid to approach her father and ask him to sign paperwork to emancipate her as a minor when she left home. As a result, she’d only ever been able to take loans out for college, since the powers that be considered her parents’ income as well as her own until a few years back, but by then they told her she made too much money to be given a grant. Lex had never felt comfortable enough to borrow money to go to school, however, fearing she could never pay it back. She’d been able to afford to attend college part time during the last five years, since she’d been making decent money doing consulting, and had been able to finish her two-year degree last year, but most employers in the area frowned on her lack of a four-year education. She mentally sighed, assuming that was the source of Sauer’s displeasure.

“I don’t know if it’s included on my government application, but NIH ranked our team very highly on the last project I worked on for them. I’d be glad to give you contact information for some of my former managers so that you could talk to them for references.”

Sauer looked up at her. “If you like, please give that to Clara before you leave; I can have her call them and ask about your character. Because, really, I’m not interested in your previous work experience, since it’s not applicable to this job.”

Lex looked at him directly for a moment and then dropped her eyes, trying not to stare in confusion. “Mr. Sauer, I was told that you couldn’t explain to me the exact nature of the position over the phone, but I’ll need to know more about it in order to make any kind of decision. I would be glad to sign a non-disclosure agreement if it would mean you could tell me more about the job.”

Sauer chuckled softly, again. “Clara, an agreement for Lex, please. Lex,” Sauer said, turning back to her, “this isn’t just a job.”

Lex took the paper Clara offered her from across the table and scanned it. It was one page, with a logo at the top that read “MSI” from top to bottom, entwined in what looked like a strand of DNA. The beginning language was pretty standard, but as she got near the end of the document, a sentence stood out to her suddenly as if it had been highlighted. She looked up at Sauer with disbelief. “What is this passage about, that if I reveal any specifics of our conversation today to unauthorized personnel that I could be killed, at the agency’s discretion? Are you serious?”

Sauer chuckled again. Lex was getting tired of the sound.

“Really, Lex, it’s just there for effect,” he said, but his eyes hardened a bit as he looked at her again. “Since I know you have no intention of letting anyone know what we talk about today, however, why don’t you just sign the paper so we can get on with the interview?”

Lex thought about it for a moment, weighing her gut feeling to run against her months of joblessness, and then signed the agreement.
Really, he’s right
, Lex thought.
No one will ever believe me even if I do talk about it.
Anyone would think she was joking about the content of the agreement, at the very least. Wondering for a moment if this was how Central Intelligence Agency or National Security Agency candidates felt, she handed the paper back to Clara, who filed it quickly away.

“Good,” purred Sauer. “Now, let me tell you more about our organization. We are based around a team concept. Casey, for example, would be one of your team members, were you to be chosen. We recruit individuals with exceptional talents and train them so they’re able to excel further. We also do special team training so that all of us are able to work more effectively as a unit. Our team then uses this training to back up and provide extraordinary help to law enforcement, the National Guard—really, any agency that requires assistance and could use our unique skills.”

Chosen, not hired.
Lex had noted the odd word selection. She thought a moment about what she’d heard, but it didn’t really match up with any positions she’d taken before, and the whole setup had started to make her feel nervous. “That sounds very interesting, Mr. Sauer, but I’m still uncertain how I’d fit into what you described,” Lex said tentatively.

“Really?” He arched a silver-grey eyebrow at her. “You don’t see how you could fit in with us, with almost a decade and a half of various types of martial arts training?”

Now she was beginning to understand, but didn’t like it. “Mr. Sauer, although I’ve tried to keep practicing over the time I left organized training, as an adult I don’t have as much time to train as I did when I was a kid. I still do my forms when I can and hit the heavy bag and lift weights, but I am not as practiced with my martial arts as I was then. I can’t say I’d consider it something I would put on my résumé.”

“I know!” Sauer exclaimed. “That’s why no one else has approached you about this before, I’d assume. I was lucky I recognized your name and figured out you were Bill’s little girl.”

Lex felt her scalp starting to sweat. She could taste an odd, metallic flavor as she clenched her teeth. Her hands felt cold, and she could almost swear she heard her father’s voice in the distance:
“Harder, Alex, you piece of crap! Can’t you fucking do anything right?”

“Mr. Sauer, what sorts of things does the team do, or assist with?” Lex finally settled on asking as her mind reeled about wildly, not sure at all what these people were trying to get her into.

“Well, we can help with natural disasters, for example, since we have some members with greater strength or speed than the average person. Sometimes we assist with large incidents in cities where the National Guard might normally be called in; we can help get things back to normal. Sometimes we can help law enforcement capture criminals that have unique talents or abilities. That sort of thing.”

Lex nodded, trying to appear thoughtful, figuring that looked better than confused. “So, what do you see as my potential role in the team?”

“Well, as I’ve already been able to see, you’re fast and flexible. Judging how far you were able to jump, I bet you’re a lot stronger than you look, too. We’d be able to give you further martial arts training with some of the finest teachers to capitalize on what you already know, allowing you to become the martial arts expert on the team. How does that sound to you?”

“It all sounds very interesting, but I’d have to think it over, Mr. Sauer, since it’s so far from anything I’ve done professionally before.”

What the hell have I stumbled into?
she thought. Lex was wondering how long the rest of the interview would last because she now felt that leaving as soon as possible would probably be the best thing to do. It was all just too unbelievably weird.

“Well, I’m convinced. I think you would be a good addition to the team, but you still have to meet with the other girls,” Sauer concluded.

“Mr. Sauer,” Clara asked, “what about scheduling the trial? We usually have one before – ”

“You’re forgetting,” he interrupted, wagging a finger at her, “Lex already had an unscheduled one. We can submit the video evidence as part of her package.”

“But, sir,” Clara went on, “are you sure…”

Lex’s attention began to wander. She wondered if she was even necessary at this point.
Maybe they wouldn’t notice if I just backed out of the room slowly,
she thought. The sound of her name being called brought Lex’s attention back to the conversation.

“Lex, if you’d follow me, I’ll try to call up a meeting with the other team members. It may be difficult to get a quorum today, since I’m not sure everyone is in, but I’ll see what I can do,” Clara told her.

“Three would be enough if they all vote for Lex. If there’s any need for more votes, we can look up the other two later,” Sauer called to them as they left the conference room.

Chapter 2: Second Interview

When they arrived back on the main floor, Clara directed Lex to have a seat on one of the couches in the open area while she made some calls to try to set up the meeting. Lex sat back on the couch she’d chosen and looked through the windows at the water outside. The dock along the back of the building seemed worn and she could see floating garbage in the water, but Lex found that she really liked the view of the far side of the river and the buildings that could be seen there.

“Hey, I really am sorry about what happened earlier. I had no idea we were expecting anyone today,” a voice behind her said, breaking into her observations.

Lex turned around to see Casey and smiled a little wryly, looking down at her bandaged left hand. “Really, it’s OK. It was just an accident; I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” she replied softly.

Casey smiled for a moment, and Lex felt suddenly glad. The woman's smile was genuine and open, making Lex feel more welcome than she had since she’d left her house today, so she decided to take a chance. “Casey, do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

The blonde woman shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”

Lex thought for a little while, unsure of where to begin. “Well, just so you know,” she finally said, “I did sign a confidentiality agreement. But I’m really not interested in anything secret; I’d just like to know what you think about your experience here. I’ve never been involved with anything like this before, so it’s all new to me. Do you like being part of this team?”

“Yeah, pretty much. It’s definitely more interesting than anything else I’ve done. I was just a farmer before, which was a whole lot less exciting than this.”

“A farmer? How did they…ah…recruit you?” Lex asked.

“Well, the farm had been doing badly for a few years,” Casey recalled, “so we decided that someone should look for a job to bring in some extra money. Since we lived near the capital, I decided to apply for a few secretarial-type jobs through the state government. I’d done all right in my typing classes in high school and thought maybe I could do that kind of work for a while. Well, I didn’t ever hear back from the state, but several weeks later I did hear from the folks here.”

Apparently they don’t just restrict themselves to scooping up people applying for federal service
, Lex thought. “So, I guess you never had any experience with this sort of thing when they took you on, either,” she said aloud.

“True. I think that’s the case with most of us,” Casey replied. “Except for Joan; she was in the military before. It’s hard to tell, though. Not everyone wants to talk about what they did before they came here.”

“So, if you had to make the decision over to take this job, knowing what you know now, would you do it?” Lex asked, watching for Casey’s reaction carefully.

Casey looked Lex in the eye and gave a short laugh. “You’re right to the point, aren’t you? I like that.” After considering the question for a while, Casey nodded. “I think I would. There are drawbacks, but I’ve experienced things because of this job that I never would have in a lifetime on the farm. Not all of them have been good, but I think that in my case the balance is to the good.”

”But,” Casey continued, looking Lex in the eye again, “that doesn’t mean that you’ll have the same experience. I’m guessing that since you came here on your own that you live in the city already. A lot of the things that interested me involved coming here to begin with, so that’s not going to mean a thing to you. Plus, if they told you this isn’t just a job, don’t think they were kidding. There are some good things about that and some bad, too.”

Lex had opened her mouth to ask more about that last comment, but closed it again as three other women walked into the room. Clara she recognized, but the other two women Lex hadn’t met yet. The first one stood about Lex’s height with fiery bright red hair and a very light complexion. In order to show off her long, slim legs and extensive cleavage, the redhead wore a form-fitting green dress with a deep V neckline. The woman grinned somewhat wolfishly at Lex, who gave a cautious smile in return.