Super: Underground: Book 2 in the Super: Series (36 page)

“Thank you, Riss! So you don’t mind if I borrow this?” Lex had asked, fingering the jacket as she looked at her friend.

“That’s what I brought it over here for. I could tell you wanted to look good for your date,” Riss had said, her smile a bit sly this time.

“Riss, it’s not a date,” Lex had replied as she looked away, able to see her blush in the mirror out of the corner of her eye.

“For you, I wish it was,” her friend had said. “The entire time I’ve known you I’ve never seen you look at a guy like you looked at him. Don’t you think it’s time to forget about what happened with your fiancé and move on?”

Lex had stared at Riss in the mirror for a moment, her wide eyes showing her surprise. Finally she had turned to look at her friend, and Riss had continued.

“I wasn’t there for the whole moving adventure, but Casey told me all about it. I wish Serena had taken him to the North Pole and left him there, the jackass. You spend all your time worrying about everyone else, but I think you should think about yourself sometimes, too. There are a lot of guys out there who’d be smart enough to treat you right, and I don’t think it’ll be too hard for you to find one.”

Ducking her head for a moment, Lex had then turned to look at Riss. “Thanks,” she’d said as she’d impulsively hugged her friend.

She had heard Riss chuckle near her ear, then Lex had pulled back. “Have a good time today and don’t just be all business,” Riss had replied.

Nodding, Lex had turned back to the mirror when a question had come to her mind. She had caught Riss’ gaze in the reflection and asked, “So, what about you?”

Riss’ eyes had widened before she laughed. Lex had watched as Riss had looked thoughtfully into the middle distance, and then the other woman had locked gazes with her again. “Don’t worry about me: I’m already spoken for.”

Lex’s mouth had fallen open as she’d looked at her friend. “Why didn’t you mention this before? Who is he? Or she?” Lex had quickly amended, mentally thanking Serena.

Laughing, Riss had answered, “He. And I haven’t mentioned him before because, well…it’s hard to explain. I promise I’ll introduce you all soon, I just need some more time to figure out how.”

Brow furrowed, Lex had spoken up as something had occurred to her. “Do you see each other online?” she’d asked.

“Yeah, something like that,” Riss had said, her cryptic smile in evidence again. “Soon, Lex. But you’d better get going to your lunch or you’ll be late.”

Seeing that Riss was right, Lex had grabbed her bag and run out the door, just pausing to stick her head back around the doorjamb to say, “Thanks again, Riss!” Her grin had kept up all the way to the meeting place, at least until she’d spotted Rolf across the room and her nervousness took over.

Chapter 35: New Beginnings

Lex fingered the cuff of the jacket Riss had lent her as she approached the table and sat. She couldn’t think of a thing to say as she studied the man sitting there. He had dressed casually today, blue jeans and a polo shirt with a fitted, black leather jacket hanging over the back of his chair. Realizing she hadn’t seen him before except in dim light, Lex looked at his face again, then lowered her eyes just after locking onto his dark gold gaze. To her surprise, he seemed even more attractive in daylight, with strong cheekbones, a lively, intelligent expression, and those amazing eyes. She smiled again as she glanced back up at him, flooded with amazement as she saw on his face that he appeared to be nervous as well.

“You look more comfortable in casual clothes,” Lex said and smiled, hoping that it didn’t sound too stupid as an opening gambit, but he smiled as she said it, which made her feel like a genius.

“I’ve never been much of one for suits,” he replied. “Do you know what you’d like, Ms. Mansfield? I see the waiter on his way here.”

“If you order first, I’ll find something,” Lex said, quickly scanning the menu. As something occurred to her, she spoke again. “And, please call me Lex. Everyone was just…surprised to hear someone else call me by name. We tried to be really careful not to use our old nicknames in front of anyone else, because, well…”

She trailed off as the waiter arrived at their table. After the two of them had finished ordering and they were alone again, Rolf spoke after a moment.

“So, what did your group think of the offer? I trust you checked it over with a lawyer?” He looked serious and sincere and Lex swallowed a little nervously before she answered.

“Everyone thought it sounded very fair, and we’re all interested to take you up on it,” she replied, then paused for a breath before continuing. “There is something we’d like to ask you for in addition, however.”

He raised an eyebrow in interest. “Please, go ahead,” Rolf invited her.

“Well,” she started slowly, looking at Rolf to try to gauge his reaction, “we’d like to ask that three more people be included in your invitation. The other people are two former coworkers of ours and our former coworker’s son. They used Fai Chen as the martial arts trainer for people like us stationed around the Washington, DC, area. He trained Casey and I, and I know either one of us would be glad to demonstrate what he taught us. The other is Lily Chen, a healer who’s so skilled that she can bring people back from the dead.”

Lex watched Rolf’s eyes widen, his voice quiet when he finally spoke. “I don’t mean to sound doubtful, but do you have any proof of that?”

Lex nodded and raised her hand. “Yes. She did it for me. Twice. I don’t really remember the incidents, but I’d died and Casey kept me alive using CPR until the healer arrived and brought me back. If you want to talk to Casey about it, please be sure to keep it brief because the whole thing still seems to really bother her.”

“I could see why,” Rolf replied, shaking his head. They were both quiet for a moment, Lex waiting to hear what he might say and Rolf looking down at the table. Finally, he raised his head.

“Well,” he continued, “I’m pretty sure the answer will be yes. Please keep this in confidence, but my boss told me to come out here and see if I could get your group to sign under just about any conditions. I can make a phone call and confirm that for you after lunch, if you like.”

“Thank you,” said Lex, smiling at him. “We’ll have to propose it to Lily and Mr. Chen to make sure they’re onboard. I didn’t want to do that until we knew it could be done. If they want to come over here, and I’m pretty sure they will, we can take care of transporting them.”

Rolf just lifted an eyebrow at that, but then their food arrived and the two settled in to eat. After a few bites, Rolf spoke up again, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. “So, do you think you’re finally ready to share your story, Lex? I have to admit, what you have shared has only made me more curious about what happened to you.”

Lex swallowed the food she’d been chewing and met Rolf’s gaze uncertainly. “Can you keep what I tell you confidential, or do you have to let your organization know everything we discuss?”

He responded with a nod. “You want to know whether I’m obligated to report what we talk about? Actually, the only official business I’m here on is to explain any questions you have about the contract if I can, call for approval on any extensive additional requests, and encourage you to sign. Other than that, we can talk as confidentially as you like, and I promise you I will keep your secrets.”

She couldn’t help smiling in return. “Thanks, Rolf. I have one more thing to ask you before I start—how much do you know about what goes on for people like us in America?”

He looked serious for a moment, then shrugged. “I know that none of the American expatriates that I met in the special forces traveled under the names they’d been given at birth. All of them had been on the run before they’d arrived here. For those that would talk about why they ran, some had these sort of bogeyman stories about disappearing coworkers and some shadowy organization, but no one seemed to know anything definite.”

Lex nodded as if something had been confirmed for her. “Well, they’re right: there is something going on over there.” She looked down at the table for a moment, trying to think about where to start and realizing that only one place made sense. “I’ll tell you everything, but it’s going to be a long story,” Lex finally said as she met Rolf’s eyes again.

He nodded in return. “In that case,” he said, wiping his mouth with his napkin, “please excuse me for a moment so that I can call to confirm that it’s OK to extend the offer to your three friends and make another call so that I can stay here as long as I like this afternoon.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lex said, suddenly realizing that she was probably interrupting Rolf’s workday. “I don’t mean to take up so much of your time. We can talk about this sometime later–”

“Really, this is more important,” Rolf interrupted, smiling back at her as he rose. “Besides, it’s been way too long since I took an afternoon off, anyway. If there’s an emergency they can reach me on the cell phone.”

She couldn’t help but return his smile as he walked past her. Lex worked to finish her salad during Rolf’s absence, having trouble not smiling the whole time. The words “this is more important” kept echoing in her mind, and the warmth in her chest made her feel goofy.

Rolf reappeared several minutes later and sat back down at the table. “As may not surprise you, I got a yes on both counts. We’ll settle on the details once you’ve had an opportunity to contact your friends.” He paused for a moment, then grinned at her as he called the waiter over. “I’m going to order a beer since I’m not going back to work and we’re going to be here a while. Would you like anything else?”

“Yes, I think some tea,” Lex said with a conspiratorial grin.

Once the waiter had gone to get their new requests, Lex took a deep breath and began to speak. “Well, it all started when I’d lost my job and I started looking for a new one…”

To her great surprise, Lex found that once she started talking, all of her experiences just came out—her original identity, all of the happenings at the M Agency, discovering the real purpose of the agency, planning their escape and managing it, her own subsequent brushes with death, rescuing Lou and cracking the MSI DC lab wide open, moving to the West Coast, becoming a band and going on tour, how they finally ended up having to leave the US—and through the whole long story, Rolf listened to her as if no one else in the room existed, asking occasional questions but mostly remaining completely silent.

The crowd that had been there for lunch cleared out, and some people came in for later lunches or tea. When the waiter came over periodically to ask them if they needed anything Rolf ordered fruit, a basket of bread, a sandwich for himself, or more drinks. By the time Lex had finished, some office workers had started to arrive for after-work drinks. They both sat silently for a few minutes, Lex thinking that some of the things she’d told Rolf sounded nearly impossible. As something occurred to her, however, Lex spoke up to ask him a question.

“Rolf, does the government here allow the special forces to go to America?”

“Well,” he said, brow furrowed, “they don’t try to restrict our freedom of movement, if that’s what you mean. But now that you’ve told me this, I’m worried.”

“I don’t think the government would do anything too stupid because Europe is a world power, but, well, if someone traveled over there whose talents they really wanted to…study, I wouldn’t put it past them to make that person disappear like the members of those teams,” Lex concluded, looking anxiously up at Rolf.

“Would you mind if I shared enough of what you told me so that maybe some kind of warning could be passed around to the special forces about traveling to the US? I’ll be very vague about how you found out what you know, I promise,” Rolf said, continuing to look her in the eye.

“Please do,” Lex replied, sighing a little in relief. “I don’t think anyone should be subjected to that, and I’m sure they have labs like that all over the country.”

After another little silence, Lex watched Rolf look up at her hair, and then he looked her in the eye again. “So, from your story, I’m guessing that your eye color isn’t from colored contacts?”

Lex laughed. “Yes, that’s the color they turned after my body event. All my hair fell out and then grew back in white, so I decided on this color,” she continued, running her hand through her hair, “to spice things up. Unfortunately, some of the effects aren’t so benign. I had to re-learn to digest food and there are lots of things I’ll never be able to eat again. Also, although I don’t have them too often anymore, the migraines I used to have are now so bad that I sometimes pass out from the pain, which is weird since I’m used to being able to withstand most pain and remain conscious.”

Rolf shook his head, looking fierce. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that,” he replied.

Shrugging a little, Lex met his eye again. “It’s over now, thank goodness, and I’m here. I just feel badly that other people are being forced to go through that. I mean, we have evidence, but nothing gathered legally…”

She trailed off as she picked up her cup of tea, but she realized once she had it in her hands that it was now stone cold. The waiter picked that moment to approach the table again, and Rolf looked over at Lex.

“What do you think?” he asked. “Is there anything else you’d like, or could I bring you home instead?”

Lex couldn’t help smiling widely at him. “I don’t need anything else to eat, but I would like it if you could take me home.”

As they rode on the train side by side, packed closely together by homebound commuters, they talked in low tones. Lex learned that Rolf’s family came from Germany but that he’d gone to university in England and had lived all over Europe since then. He had been a gymnastics Olympic hopeful but had to drop out when someone discovered that he had abilities above and beyond the average human. It hadn’t been long after that when he’d been picked up by the special forces.

Still listening as they exited the train and walked down her street, Lex slowed when they arrived in the front of the house she and her friends had rented. She gestured up at it, smiling.