Tekgrrl (12 page)

That’s why I love him.

“Mmm, these are the best tacos ever,” I said, fishing one out of the take-out bag and taking a big bite, dripping sour cream and nacho cheese everywhere. This was probably why Paul didn’t want us to eat in uniform: He didn’t want us fighting crime in a suit covered in food stains.

Luke dropped down onto the rooftop ledge next to me. “I only got one drink, so we’ll have to share.”

“That’s fine.” Not exactly how I wanted to swap spit with Luke, but I was cool with it. “Did anyone recognize you?”

“The kid that I paid ten bucks to walk into Taco Hut and get the order did. I had to sign a napkin.” Luke gave me a wry grin.

I laughed. “Well, I appreciate the trouble you went through to get it. Don’t know if my thighs will thank you tomorrow, but…” I cringed. Why did I go and mention my big thighs to Luke?

“Well, I figured I owed you for Paul. Siccing him on you, I mean.” He made a face as he reached for a taco and began unwrapping it.

“Yes, you do,” I said, giving him a frown.

“I know how you feel about doctors, but I was really worried, Mindy. And I thought you’d feel more comfortable if it was Paul checking you rather than some strange doctor.”

“Does anyone ever feel comfortable around Paul?”

Luke about choked on his taco. “True. Did he at least find out what’s wrong with you?”

I shrugged. “Did you know I had memory blocks?”

“What?” His shock told me all I needed to know.

“Guess not. Paul apparently figured it out when I first came to work for the EHJ.” I went on to explain the whole terrible story, complete with my mother’s dire warnings. By the time I finished, Luke was shaking his head and looked pained.

“I’m so sorry, Mindy. I can’t believe that happened to you.”

“Neither can I, really. Even knowing it happened, it still seems surreal. And apparently, if I think about it too hard, I’m going to get a really bad headache.”

“So what are you going to do? Are you going to get the blocks fixed or chance them falling? Or go ahead and take them off completely?”

“Paul says we just have to keep an eye on the headaches, the dreams, make sure they don’t get worse or anything unusual happens. He’s going to talk to some contacts he has, and then hopes to figure out the best course of action.”

“Well, what do
you
want to do?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m just getting used to the idea that someone messed with my memory in order to protect my sanity.”

“Damn, that’s tough. I’m almost sorry I said something.”

“No!” I touched his hand. “I’m touched by your concern, Luke. I’m glad that you care enough to try to help me—even if it was by ratting me out to Paul.”

He patted my hand but looked awkward doing it. “You’re my teammate, Mindy, and I’ve known you since you were a kid. Of course I care.”

I winced and moved my hand. He didn’t have to remind me of the fact that I was forever a younger sister in his eyes. “Thanks.”

“I’m sorry this had to happen with you. As if things weren’t bad enough as it is,” Luke continued.

“Tell me about it,” I grumbled, taking a sip of our drink and tossing my empty taco wrapper into the bag. “You can practically cut the tension between Paul and Wesley with a knife. It does
not
make for a comfortable work environment.”

Luke seemed happy to change the subject. “I thought I was the only one feeling it.”

I laughed incredulously. “Definitely not. And, God, what is going on with Paul and Kate? If that situation gets any more tense, it’s going to spontaneously combust.”

“Apparently he gave Kate an ultimatum: Either she chooses him and only him or they’re through.”

“Who’d you hear that from?”

“Kate.”

“Why’d she tell you?” Then, too late I remembered their past. “Oh. Yeah.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Luke said. “That’s ancient history. But we’re still friends, and she felt like she could turn to me to be her sounding board.”

“Of course.” Because she alienated everyone around her except ex-lovers. “So, which option did she choose?”

“She told me she cares for him and wants to make it work, but it’s not exactly in her nature to be faithful.”

“Huh.” No wonder Paul was cranky. It was about time he did something, though. I shouldn’t have hit him with that low blow earlier. “So, what’d she tell him?”

“She’d have to think about it.”

Ouch. I
really
shouldn’t have low-blowed him earlier. “You think she’ll be able to do it if she chooses him?”

“Honestly?” Luke shook his head. “I think if she says she’s going to be faithful to him, she’ll try her best, but ultimately she’ll give in to temptation. It seems like the gods all act like spoiled children, wanting what they want and not thinking about how it will affect the people around them.” He shrugged. “With that much power, it’s bound to happen. We’re just lucky most of them stay in Olympus and the few who mix with us are like Kate and try to work on the side of good. It’s not like Paul didn’t know the way she was before they got involved.”

“Still, no one likes to be cheated on or become a laughingstock,” I said. “Everyone knows Kate has an impulse-control problem when it comes to gorgeous men wanting to be with her…”

“That’s why it was never serious between me and her,” Luke admitted. “I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could change her, and Paul was.”

While I agreed with Luke that Paul
was
pretty stupid to think he could change Kate, I couldn’t help but consider his point of view. He was a scientist, like me; and geeky, brainy types like us didn’t usually attract the drop-dead gorgeous types. For Kate to have shown the least bit of interest in him probably made him feel like he’d won the lottery, and he was willing to overlook a few things, like infidelity. At least, he had been for a little while. Again, the situation made me feel a bit bad for him.

“So they’re still trying to work through all of that,” Luke said, cutting into my thoughts. “Add in the stress of the team still adjusting to the Reincarnist and Paul’s shared leadership, and whatever is going on with the government, and I’m waiting for”—he made a little motion with his hands—
“boom.”

“I think it’s going to get better, teamwise. At least between Paul and Wesley,” I said. “They seemed a bit more cooperative at the end of dealing with that government official. It’ll just take some time for adjustment.”

“Selena said every team she’s ever been on has had leader dynamic problems.”

Of course he’d had to bring her up. “So, how was L’Orange?”

“Good. Really nice.” He looked like he didn’t want to discuss it with me. “Selena’s a great person.”

“Uh-huh.” That was kind of a lukewarm reaction. Had it not gone so well? “So, come on, make with the details.”

“That’s a little weird, isn’t it?” Luke said.

“What, because I used to have a thing for you? I thought we were past all that. Besides, you talked about your ex-lover’s current relationship; you can’t talk to me about your date?”

He seemed to consider.

“Pretend I’m Toby or something. You know he’ll want all the details. And you’ve got to know Selena’s making with all of them to Lainey as we speak.”

He grinned. “Okay, okay…It was really great.”

I ignored the way my stomach plummeted. “Such detail, Luke.”

“Well, I don’t know what to say!” He looked embarrassed. “It was a great lunch. She’s led a really interesting life. And, she’s very outgoing and personable. We got along really well.”

“Did you kiss her?”

“Mindy!” He looked embarrassed, which surprised me. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“So that’s a yes. Otherwise you would have said no.” I kept my tone light and friendly, but inside my stomach was forming a cold pit. God, it was truly over, wasn’t it? He liked her and she liked him. Friendship was really all I’d ever have.

Which, I reminded myself, was all I wanted. Hadn’t I started working toward it?

“We’re going out for dinner and dancing tomorrow,” Luke continued. “Salsa dancing, if you can believe it. Can you see me salsa dancing?”

“No,” I replied. I was still shell-shocked. Dinner and dancing, with the option of breakfast the next morning?

“You know what, Mindy, you’ve not had a serious boyfriend since I’ve known you, and you haven’t dated much lately,” Luke was saying. “You’re so pretty, you must have guys lined up around the block. So, why aren’t you pursuing that?”

“Work’s been busy,” I said.

“You don’t want to become a lonely workaholic like Paul,” Luke remarked. “You know, maybe a romantic relationship is just the distraction you need right now, to keep you from thinking too much about blocked memories and the aliens.”

“Yeah, Luke,” I said halfheartedly. “Lainey was just saying something similar the other day…”

“That just proves I’m right! Let’s see, who do I know who’s single?”

The last thing that I wanted was to be fixed up by Luke. As luck would have it, I was saved from having to come up with a reason to turn down a blind date by the sirens that came blaring up from below.

“Sounds like they’re playing our song,” I said. “We’ll have to discuss my love life later.” Or never.

“Let’s go,” Luke agreed, snapping into focus and gathering up our trash. We ran down the fire escapes of the building we were perched on, probably waking the tenants with our clanging as we passed. Luke paused by a dumpster to get rid of our garbage, and caught up with me at the mouth of the alley.

“Which way?” he asked.

I listened to the sirens. “Towards midtown, I think.”

“You have good coordinates up there?”

“Probably the high school’s safe.” I punched in numbers on the pad around my arm, then shared them with Luke.

“Got ’em.” He glanced at me. “Are you ready?”

I nodded. “Ready.”

We both clicked our transporters at the same time. After a moment’s cool tingle of sensation, we were on the edge of the high school roof. Below, it seemed like every patrol car in the city had surrounded the building.

“What the hell?” I heard from below. I looked down at the cops, who had their guns drawn and pointed at us.

“I think we just accidentally transported directly into the scene of the crime,” Luke remarked.

“There’s more of them!” someone below shouted, and Luke and I spun to see who was talking.

“No, wait,” I called.

“Isn’t that Sensei?” someone asked a little too close to the police bullhorn. “Who’s the girl with him?”

“Is it Tekgrrl?”

“No way, she’s too pretty. Tekgrrl’s the one with that purple shit in her hair.”

Before I could retort, Luke took control of the situation. “We’re here to help,” he called down. “If someone could tell us what’s going on…”

“We said no heroes, or the kiddies in the dance buy it!” a voice shrilled behind me, a split second before I got cracked on the head.

I went down hard, but in my haze I could see the culprits: a group of five villains who looked like they had stepped out of an old movie version of what the future would be, with shiny silver suits and goggles.

Though my head was ringing, I managed to reach down to grab my energy whip. My assailant had swooped in from above with a jet pack. (A jet pack? Seriously? How pathetically twentieth century could you get?) As he leaned over me, I seized the opportunity and cracked my energy whip. The quick movement wrapped the cord around his neck. His hands went to his throat to try to free himself, but I hit the power button. A jolt of electricity thrummed through the whip’s fibers, and the villain went down like a felled ox.

One down, four to go.

I stood up and leaned over the side of the roof to yell down, “Hey, can you get up here to cuff these guys?” The cops could cart the bad guys away; we had to focus on stopping them.

I saw Luke, who had been dodging swooping attacks from another of the villains, finally outmaneuver his foe. He took a flying leap, tackling the guy, but the jet pack continued over the side of the roof and the two men’s combined weight was too much; they vanished downward.

I gasped in horror, dropping my whip and running for the edge of the building. It was at that moment that I was grabbed from behind and lifted off my feet. I wriggled in the grasp of whoever held me and managed to head-butt them with the back of my head.

“Hey, you want to fall?” my captor growled. “Keep wiggling, bitch, and I’ll drop you.”

We climbed higher and higher into the sky, and I was afraid that was his intention, anyway: to take me up high and then drop me. I had to put a stop to him. “Why are you messing with a high school dance, anyway?” I asked, trying to keep him talking as I fumbled for the scrambler on my utility belt. “You angry because no girl asked you?”

I heard him sneer. “Ransom, of course. No one wants to see a kid get blown to pieces, so imagine how much money we’ll get if we threaten a school full of ’em?”

“I bet you were the head of your class,” I said before I twisted the dial on the scrambler and slapped it onto his jet pack. My fingers slipped and missed the activation button.

Nonetheless, the scrambler turned on with an audible hum. I didn’t have time to think about it; instantly the jet pack stopped working and we started to plummet. The villain shrieked like a girl and let go. I tried to reach for him, but it was in vain and I missed. The ground was coming up fast, so I hit the teleport button and prayed for the best. It was still locked onto my former coordinates, and I zapped back to the roof of the high school, landing hard enough to knock the wind out of me but not break anything. My ex-captor was nowhere in sight.

I lay for a moment, curled up in a ball, gasping for air, until I finally got it together.

“You all right?” one of the cops now on the school roof asked.

I gave him a subdued thumbs up and stood. “Where are the rest of the gang?”

“We’ve got two: this one, and the one your partner delivered. He went after a third.”

“What about the guy that dropped me? Did you see what happened to him?”

“They’re calling for an ambulance right now.”