Sleeper Seven (35 page)

Jess, who never felt like a true member of this motley crew, asked for a ride back into Chicago a few days later. She missed Gavin, and Nora, and city life in general. She would find out how exactly her identity and finances had been destroyed, and try to rebuild as best she could.

After hearing her trudge up the stairs, Gavin was the first to greet her. It had only been two weeks, but to him it seemed like years since he last saw her running down the street after a strange white van.

"So, was this all...you?" he asked, referring to the exposure of the government ships that was still making the news every night.

"Yeah. So, whaddya think?" she answered with a half-smile.

Gavin lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "No...
really?
"

"Yup, pretty much."

"Oh I see, you'd have to kill me. Well, I'm just glad you're home. Joel and Nora missed you. Me, not so much."

"Yeah right, you probably been gettin' yer drink on, you be missin' me so much."

"Not really, but hey — what a great idea. Gimme a minute," he said, heading into her kitchen.

After setting down her bags, Jess collapsed onto the couch and cuddled with her kitty as Gavin searched for a fresh bottle of wine. Suddenly, she heard a song emanating from her bag: it was her phone — the one that had the SIM card deactivated.

Reaching down, she excavated the phone from the bottom of the bag and hesitantly answered the call from the unknown number. "Uh, hello?"

The voice on the other end was frantic. "Jess, it's Kal. We've been searching for you for days."

"Kal!" Jess repeated, surprised that she was still on speaking terms with them after all she had done. "Um, yeah, so, sorry about that thing, there. Um..."

"Listen, forget about it. We have. Anyway, this thing has blown everything up. We had no idea about all this. Len and I are out. But we need you."

"Need
me?
Why?"

"Ever since the incident, all ships —
all ships
— have been grounded."

"Well, not
all
ships, they're being seen every night, like, all over. Pretty ballsy, in my opinion. Just watch the news."

"That's just it, Jess.
They are not ours
."

"Not ours? What do you mean? Well whose are they then?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, but we need you, and any resources you may be in contact with, to confront this."

"Look, I've been through the wringer on this thing already. I'm done."

"You wanted to expose these ships for what they are. Correct?"

"Yeah..."

"Well then, your job isn't done. You just peeled off the first layer. We need you on this."

"OK then," Jess mused, reclaiming her cat-bird seat, "I want
everything
re-instated. Not just the phone. Everything you burned."

"We can't do that Jess, not directly; we're out, like I said. But we can help you somewhat, we know things, we know people. If you help us."

Gavin entered the living room carrying two full wine glasses and handed one to her.

"Call me back in ten minutes. Priorities," she said, hanging up the phone as she accepted the glass.

"That was the Commissioner," Jess explained, "they just put up the Bat-signal."

"Already? Seriously Jess, is this what you are now? Are you going to go?"

"I don't know. Let me decide after this," she said, holding up her glass. "It always enhances my decision-making abilities."

"Cheers to that," Gavin agreed, as Jess clinked her glass to his.

THE END

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-Mark