PHENOMENAL GIRL 5 (29 page)

“Of course.”

We hung up and I went to answer the door to see Kate standing there.

“Can I come in?” she asked.

“I guess so.”

She fidgeted, her ultra-cool demeanor gone. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for blabbing about your personal life.”

“You should be.”

“I didn’t mean to. To be frank, it caught me a bit by surprise, and I just blurted it out without thinking.”

“I do that sometimes, too. And it was a shock to everyone.”

“It’s because he was such a loner.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “Look, the incident between Robert and me was a one-time thing and it was years ago. You were probably just a kid then. I doubt he even remembers it.”

“He doesn’t.”

She shot me a look and then regained her composure. “You asked him about it?”

“It came up in conversation.”

She sighed. “I just wanted you to know that it was years before you came along.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

“I never would have mentioned it if I had read your aura a little closer.”

“My aura?”

“Yes, I can see people’s auras and read whether or not they’re in love with someone. Yours definitely showed love, but I didn’t notice with whom until too late. If he had been here, it would have been easier to read. But it’s obvious not even the promise of being with the woman he loves is enough to bring him back here.”

“To be honest, I didn’t want him coming here right now,” I said. “I wanted to make it on my own.”

“I can understand that.” She turned to go and then paused at the door. “It’s still a bit surreal to know the always-guarded
Robert let someone into that protective shell he had. It was a big deal that he loved you.” She looked sad for a moment. “So tell me, what’s the new one like—Wesley? Besides cute. And don’t worry, he’s untouchable by me now, since he’s with you.”

“A lot more laid back,” I said. “The same, and yet different in some good ways.”

“Ah, youth.” She smiled. “Welcome to the team, Lainey Livingston. See if you can get your erstwhile lover to show his face around here again. The se nior members weren’t thrilled with him for leaving, but no matter what hurt feelings may be there, we’d love to have him back.”

“We’ll see.”

“Yes, we will.” She turned and left me to my thoughts.

The next morning I was jarred awake by a knock on my door. Toby burst into the room, way too merry for such an early hour. “Rise and shine, cupcake! We have our daily meeting in about an hour and you’ll want to look presentable, not rocking the bed-head.”

I sat up and tried to pat my hair down. “What time is it?”

“Seven. Every day we have a staff meeting at eight where we receive our itineraries and discuss any business.”

“Itineraries?” I yawned. “Do the villains phone ahead to schedule?”

“My dear, we are not just a hero team but public figures as well. There are public appearances to make, ad campaigns, that kind of thing.” He noticed I wasn’t making any progress in waking up. “Get a move on, girl! Newbie has to go downstairs and get everyone coffee from Cuppacino.”

“We have a Cuppacino downstairs?” Well, if there ever was a reason to get up in the morning.

“I certainly couldn’t function without it.”

“A job with perks. I love it.”

“I’ll go with you to get coffee the first time. It’s like everyone goes out of their way to be difficult. No one can order a simple caramel macchiato.”

“That’s my favorite drink.”

“Mine too!”

We high-fived like teenagers making a stupid joke. I
disappeared into my bathroom and showered and dressed in record time, not wanting to be late. I came back to find Toby flipping through one of my books.

“Find anything interesting?”

“Your erotica stash.” He held up the book. “This one’s quite good.” He set it down to reach in his jacket pocket and pull out a small silver pen and a pad of paper. “You may want to take notes.”

“It’s that complicated to get coffee?”

“Wait and see.” He opened the door and we walked down the hallway. “First thing you do is go around to everyone and ask what they want. It changes day to day.” He knocked at the first door we came to, and it whispered open. Kate leaned against the frame in lingerie that would make a supermodel blush. I stared. Toby didn’t even blink.

“I’m showing Lainey the ropes of the coffee run,” he said. “What do you guys want?”

Kate tapped one manicured nail on her ruby-red lips. “I want a half caf, half decaf soy latte with one shot of vanilla, two shots of hazelnut, and just a splash of cinnamon. A
splash
, not a whole shot. Sugar-free all the way.” I scribbled notes as she turned back behind her. “Paul, darling, what do you want?”

“Irish cream cappuccino, no lid, easy on the foam. And a cranberry nut scone, unless they have morsa biscotti,” he called out, walking out of the bathroom with only a towel around his waist. I was surprised to see he had a well-defined body hidden under those stuffy scientist clothes.

Still more than I ever wanted to see, especially this early in the morning
, I thought as I scratched out the order with my pen.

“Thanks, guys. We’ll see you at the meeting.” Toby motioned me on.

It didn’t get any easier from there. Mindy wanted a chocolate biscotti latte, which I didn’t even know existed; Luke wanted a chai tea, except with oolong instead of black tea, and half soy, half skim milk; Simon, who seemed out of sorts
with me, wanted a coconut banana frozen cappuccino with shaved chocolate on top but no whipped cream, and Doctor Rath, thank God, just wanted a double shot of espresso. He likely shared his father’s opinion of fancy coffee drinks.

Head reeling, I made my way downstairs with Toby in tow.

There was a line at the Cuppacino kiosk, which happened to be situated next to the gift shop. I gawked.

“Toby,” I said, nudging him. “Why is there a gift shop?”

“Lots of people tour this building, Lainey. It’s a big deal for the civvies to come here. There’s a museum in the west wing that you should check out. See some old pictures of your boyfriend.”

“That sounds interesting, but aren’t you guys worried that a villain will come here and try to blow the place sky high?”

“Everyone has to pass through security, and I’m not talking about an old man with a metal detector. Mindy invented the most state-of-the-art system possible. Step out of line and it slices and dices and makes French fries.” He checked his watch. “Come on, we don’t have much time until the meeting.”

I pointed at the line. “Hello—can’t go until they do.”

“Um, wrong, yes, we can. We own this place.” He stepped around people, dragging me with him. “Excuse us.”

Customers growled at us, annoyed, until they saw who we were. Then excited whispers started up, and I heard the distinct sounds of camera phones going off.

“Good morning, Magnificent,” the barista said. “What can I get you today?”

“Ian, this is Phenomenal Girl Five, she just joined us. She’ll be getting coffee for us every morning.”

“Nice to meet you.” The barista eyed me. “I liked the costume the girl before you wore.”

“You and every other man on the planet.”

“We’re going to be discussing costume changes,” Toby said. “And we’re in a bit of a rush, so…”

I gave him the orders, adding a skinny caramel macchiato
with whipped cream for me and a sugar-free caramel macchiato with no foam, caramel drizzle, or whipped cream for Toby. Soon we were both transporting drink carriers filled with white cups to the elevator and whisking our way back to the penthouse.

“So, what do they sell at the gift shop?” I asked.

“The usual—snow globes of the building, T-shirts, cups, hats, bags with the EHJ logo on them, books some of our members have written—there’s a couple of forensics books down there by Robert actually—photos, action figures…”

“There’s action figures?” I couldn’t help laughing.

“We do market our images, Lainey,” he said, not getting my amusement. “You’ll be meeting with our publicist over the next day or so to sign off on the likeness rights and to discuss your image.”

I was beginning to understand why my boyfriend didn’t approve of this. And I wasn’t sure I approved, either. Letting random people wander through the building? A museum gift shop with action figures? How was all of that working to help people?

The elevator doors opened, and we walked down the hall to the boardroom and went inside.

“Thank God the coffee’s here!” Kate said, holding out her hand for a white cup. I quickly went through them and found hers. No one else reached for theirs, so I walked around the table, handing out cups. I was now the gofer.

“Good, now let’s get started,” Rath said, taking the espresso I handed him. I found an empty seat next to Simon and sat down. Everyone got out various electronic devices, PDAs, Blackberries, and the like. Mindy had some kind of organizer attached to her arm that looked like it had come from another planet and possibly was alive. Its strange, metallic tentacles kept reaching toward the bits of machinery she had scattered around her, and she kept smacking it away. I still had the pen and paper from coffee orders, so I
set it in front of me and waited, feeling rather behind on the technology scale.

“Today’s agenda looks like this.” Rath clicked some keys and a hologram of words appeared before us. “Kate, you have a meeting with
Fashionista
for a cover story.”

She sighed. “What now?”

“Love and sex in the modern age.”

“Joy.” She tapped it into her Blackberry.

“Paul, you have a meeting with several top car manufacturers over the airbag recall. They want some recommendations. And Mindy, NASA wants to speak to you about some shuttle modifications.”

She looked up from what ever it was she was working on and snapped her gum. “I’m not doing it unless I get the patent.” Tentacles clicked ominously.

“Just take note of what they want and our lawyers can discuss patent rights.” Rath moved on. “Toby has a charity dinner to night, and Simon has a movie premiere and after party to attend.”

“Yeah, and I’m looking for a date,” Simon said, giving me a wink.

“Lainey, you have a meeting with our publicist to discuss your image and to prepare you for the press junket later to night. After that, you will be taking up your scheduling duties, which will be sorting through the various invitations and requests and deciding which ones are of interest to the team. Then you’ll be submitting daily itineraries like this one to me.”

“Alright.” I wrote all of that down. I could keep track of everyone’s social calendars; the celebrity stuff everyone else seemed to care about meant nothing to me. “So, when do we patrol?”

They all stared at me. Simon burst out laughing.

“You mean he still makes you do that? Like you’re some sort of flatfoot?”

“Robert was a bit old-fashioned,” Kate said with a smile. “He needs to get with the times.”

“We are linked with every major world leader and some off-world ones,” Rath said to me kindly. “If we’re needed, they’ll call.”

“Well, what about the Dragon?” I asked. “When do we work on trying to stop the apocalypse?”

“Miss Livingston, there is always some sort of apocalypse—a villain trying to take over the world or end it,” Paul said. “They usually fall through because a plan on that grand a scale never ever works out, but we monitor them and, whenever needed, step in.”

“But Wes and I have done nothing but work on that case since I started,” I said.

“I’m still working on the situation, Lainey, don’t worry,” Rath said.

“In fact, I have some contacts I’m visiting today about it,” Luke said, turning to look at me, expression serious. “I told Rath to clear my schedule for the week.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, if there’s anything I can do to help…” I was flabbergasted. The heroes didn’t go about being heroic unless they were contacted first and scheduled?

“Well, then, if there isn’t any other pressing concern, this meeting is adjourned. I’ll see you tomorrow, everyone,” Rath said.

I could
not
quit my job on the first day. If for no other reason than to prove Wesley wrong.

Having nothing to do made me antsy. I thought about watching television, but I knew there wasn’t much on at this time of day. I also toyed with going shopping in the city, but it was raining, and I hated going in and out of stores carrying an umbrella or getting soaked.

I finally decided the best thing to do was to get the lay of the land, and so I visited the rooms I had seen on my whirlwind tour, taking my time. The kitchen was huge, but it looked like it wasn’t used. The obvious reason for this was the take-out containers in the refrigerator. I remembered Kate telling me that our membership cards also acted as credit cards billable to the EHJ, and the team members ate out a lot at the trendier restaurants.

Mindy walked into the kitchen, a bit of machinery tucked under her arm, the strange PDA gone. “Hey, what’s up?” She reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water.

“Nothing. Just looking around, getting a feel for the place.”

“Uh-huh.” She cracked open the bottle and leaned back against the refrigerator, taking a drink and eying me. Mindy had a very punk image, from her bizarrely colored hair and leopard print shirt and leggings to her motorcycle boots. But the wild clothes and hair hid a brilliant mind: Even before the aliens came along, Mindy was a prodigy, the genius child of government scientists.

“So, you and the Reincarnist?” she said, taking a long draw. “I don’t know what you saw in Robert. He was always so grouchy with me. He didn’t like my attitude. But you’re probably a nice girl.” She said
nice
like it was another word for boring.

“I gave him plenty of attitude. It just so happens he liked mine,” I retorted.

“Well, I also wasn’t gifted with assets like yours.” She looked pointedly at my chest.

“So, it’s not so much that you didn’t like him, but that he didn’t like you.”

She laughed. “Got me there. I’ve always had a thing for the older, brainy types. It’s just a question of getting them to crawl out of their labs once in a while or to notice that the person in the white lab coat next to them is a woman.” She sighed. “Story of my life, waiting for the guy to notice me.”