Book II – ch 14: Mirage

* * *

The grainy footage didn’t help as much as she hoped it would.

Filtering out the surrounding voices from everyone passing through Comm, Sarah tilted the screen down so she could rest her elbows on the table.

She opened Scorpion’s body cam recording from her—should she call it an incident? Mental hiccough? Full-blown hallucination?

Her own body cam footage had been disturbing enough. She saw no hesitation in the target’s movements. Nothing that could have been interpreted as him surrendering.

Mermaid’s camera hadn’t caught anything useful; she’d had her back turned the entire time.

She’d been hoping Scorpion’s point of view would show her something more. Her own back was all she could see as Scorpion trailed behind her after stopping to check one of the doors on the other side of the hallway.

She saw it then, a glimpse of a stilted scene before everything unfolded into chaos.

She played it back again at half speed.

Her memory of the event interfered with what she saw now from a different angle. It looked as if she’d simply hesitated, allowing the man time to take his shot.

There was nothing, no shimmer of light, no haze on the recording, no shadow that she could have confused for a person.

What was she even expecting? All she saw was herself, frozen for a single second that had felt like forever.

She stared at the screen as the rest of the recording played out, but she wasn’t paying attention anymore. It wasn’t until she heard familiar voices that she snapped out of it.

She closed the window quickly as Pegasus and Griffon came to the station she was using.

“Phoenix, could you check the hangar for me?” Griffon asked.

A glance confirmed that all the other stations were currently occupied.

“We need to see if there are any planes available,” Pegasus said when she merely stared at them like an idiot.

She turned back to the computer, going through the options on the screen without knowing what she was looking for.

“They really should include basic training for mundane tasks in our training programs,” Griffon said.

Pegasus came around the desk, making no secret that he was laughing at her ineptitude. “You point with the pointer at the thing that says flight schedules and click.” He placed a hand over hers to guide the tasks as he described them.

“Did you check the airlines?” Griffon at least wasn’t making any more jokes at her expense.

Pegasus nodded, still taking her hand along for the ride. “They only have a plane leaving at 23:59 tomorrow.”

She pulled her hand away to allow Pegasus full control of the mouse. At least, she hoped that’s what it looked like. She’d rather they not see she was still embarrassed around him.

He was still leaning over her shoulder and a little too close for her comfort. She glanced briefly at his face, but his attention was focused on checking fuel and schedules for their planes.

Hyperaware of the awkwardness that seemed to exist only inside her head, she edged her chair away to give him some more space—or give herself some.

It was getting harder for her to pretend there was nothing there. She couldn’t fool herself, no matter how much she wanted to, and she wasn’t sure she was fooling him at all.

“Anyway, it’s only until Monday,” Griffon said, paying no more attention to her than she had to him, but it let her get unstuck from her own thoughts.

“Have you discussed this with Deacon?” Pegasus released the mouse, but had yet to move away—or enough that she could get out of her chair.

“He’s still taking care of that business with Bear’s little cousin. Minerva was kind enough to give me a hand, but she’s got about as much experience relocating someone as I do.”

Pegasus smiled. “Your mother will be fine.”

Sarah looked up at that. How easy it was to forget that some of the people here still had a family, still had someone to protect.

“She hates planes,” Griffon grumbled.

Pegasus laughed, tapping the screen. “I knew there was a plane available. We can have you there in a few hours.”

Griffon nodded. “If you need me—”

“Nobody’s gonna need you,” Pegasus argued. “It’s Foundation Week. Everything is under control by some sort of miracle, and we’re not on call tonight.”

“Calm before the storm,” Griffon said. “Are you going this time?”

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Pegasus shrugged.

“You might as well have some fun. Who knows when you’ll get the chance.”

Pegasus looked at Sarah, considering.

Sarah had almost thought they’d forgotten she was there.

By the way Griffon suddenly straightened himself, he certainly had. “Sorry, Phoenix. We’ll let you get back to work now. Thanks.”

Pegasus moved away more slowly, looking like he still wanted to say something more. “See you later.”

Sarah was so distracted watching them that she almost had a heart attack when someone pulled her chair away from the desk and spun her around.

“What are you still doing there?” Mermaid asked, crossing her arms.

Sarah hung on to the armrests, afraid she’d be spun around again. “I was… uh… looking over some stuff.”

“Stuff can wait!” Mermaid declared. “It’s party time!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not until at least another two or three hours.” And she wasn’t exactly in the mood for it.

“Just enough time to get ready and head over! We’re going out this time.”

“Is that really going to be okay?”

“We all need a break sometimes, Phoenix.”

“So we’re supposed to leave our guns behind and go have fun?”

“Speak for yourself, I’m taking my guns.” Mermaid smiled brightly. “The whole team is free this year. At the same time. It’s like a miracle. Personally, I think Cypher did something naughty.”

Sarah blinked up at Mermaid with a perplexed expression. In the strangest twist of fate, Mermaid had taken up the reigns of cheering Sarah up since she’d been grounded.

The weirdest part was perhaps that Mermaid was the person least worried about having gotten shot—kinda—due to Sarah’s stupidity. It was almost as if she felt bad that her getting shot had led to Sarah’s suspension.

“Unicorn said I could have the honor of escorting you to your first Foundation Day celebration.”

“I thought it was Foundation Week.” She’d heard several of the others saying they usually celebrated the foundation of the W.R.O.

“They spread out the festivities so we can take turns getting some time off. Normally we stay here, but this time since most of the team has time off, we figured we’d do it properly.” Mermaid leaned against the desk and offered her a more contained, but infinitely more sincere smile. “Please come along. There’ll be food, drinks, music, silly games, anything you could possibly want in the realm of silly distractions for a night. It’ll be fun, I promise.”

Reluctantly, Sarah nodded.

“I’ll come get you in two hours, be ready.”

* * *

“Why aren’t you ready?” Robyn asked.

Sarah looked down at herself, expecting to find herself ready to go out.

No, still in her comfy pants and old t-shirt.

Robyn yawned. “Didn’t you say Jeremy would be here any minute?”

“So you were listening to me.”

“I just pretend not to sometimes.”

Sarah stuck her tongue out at her. What time was she going out again?

“That boy takes longer than any girl to get ready,” Mom said.

“If it’s anything like last time, I’ll be asleep by the time he shows up.” Robyn started braiding her hair.

“That’s only because you stayed up until dawn studying for that test today.” Mom pulled Robyn closer to give her a kiss, but Robyn flailed, trying to get away from her. “Stay still.”

Robyn gave up, holding the separated strands of her hair up as Mom kissed her. “Okay, let me finish braiding my hair now.”

Sarah walked to her bedroom to get changed.

Laughter reached her from the living room, becoming distant until it was gone.

She suddenly felt so very lonely, and she didn’t know why.

* * *

Back in her room, Sarah wondered if she had time for a quick nap before Mermaid showed up. She was tired, but not actually sleepy.

“Maybe I’m too tired to sleep,” she whispered to herself.

“Want me to knock you out with that lamp? Because I will if you don’t turn it off. I thought you were leaving. Get out of here!”

She whirled around, almost choking on her own breath. Sitting there on her bed, half-highlighted by the moonlight coming in from the window, was her sister. “Robyn?!?”

“No, dumdum, the tooth fairy.”

“But you’re—” She stopped before the word dead could escape her lips.

“I’m what? Awake? Yes, I am. Are you?”

Sarah turned to the window. There were no windows here. At least, there weren’t supposed to be… But… this was her room, and her room did have a window.

And why shouldn’t Robyn be there?

“Hey, Sarah, you sure you’re awake?”

“Yeah,” she answered, uncertain.

When she blinked again, her eyes fluttered open. A strange dizzying feeling consumed her when she wasn’t where she thought she’d been a moment ago.

Sarah glanced at her watch, surprised to see how much time had passed. She didn’t remember falling asleep. There were only a few minutes before she had to meet Mermaid. Sarah rubbed her eyes, holding back the urge to scream.

When she went upstairs, she did her best to hide the fact that she felt like crying. Mermaid waved her over as soon as Sarah stepped out of the elevator. Long curly dark hair flowing down to her waist, one would think she was trying to impersonate her namesake.

“Where have you been hiding that?” Sarah asked.

Mermaid laughed. “Why do you think my hair is always in a braid?”

Sarah shrugged. “My sister did that when she was being lazy about brushing her hair.”

Looking over her shoulder, Mermaid waved her arms in the air. “Our new arrival is just in time for the celebrations.”

Their guest seemed to be in her late thirties, light brown hair barely brushing against her shoulders. She was dressed as if she worked in an office, an obvious contrast to Mermaid’s flowery dress.

“Phoenix, have you met Lore in person?” Mermaid asked once she’d ushered them into the elevator heading to the garage.

“No, I haven’t. Nice to meet you.” They’d only sent messages back and forth, but never spoken directly or even chatted via video.

The mention of her name made the woman smile. “You’re one of my helpers.”

“I try,” Sarah said. “When I don’t send the wrong file twice in a row.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, one of the files you sent over by mistake might be helpful.”

“Okay, great then.”

“There are still some things I want to check before I sound any alarms. Someone may have made a mistake back then. I need to confirm it tomorrow.”

“Enough with the useful things.” Mermaid tossed her arms over their shoulders. “Tonight is not a night for useful things.”

Lore brushed a strand of hair behind her ear awkwardly. “Right. Tonight we pretend the world isn’t there.”

Sarah laughed, deciding she liked Lore.

Mermaid wrapped an arm around Lore’s shoulders. “Don’t be grumpy. You’ll get to go to the theater another day, right?”

Lore nodded. “I’m going to try to go next Friday.”

The process of getting a code and setting a password was now as familiar as logging into the computers.

Stunted Flowers Leave No Leaves Carried, Sarah repeated to herself, pretending that made sense.

Getting a car was also easy enough. All they had to do was log it out.

“I feel like I should stay and get some work done,” Lore objected, more reluctant than Sarah felt.

“You can work tomorrow.” Mermaid tossed Sarah the car keys.

“I don’t know where we’re going,” Sarah said.

“You’re not supposed to know.”

“And I’ll recognize hell by the smell of sulfur?”

“I don’t know what that means.” Mermaid plopped down onto the passenger’s seat. “Come on! Rock and roll!”

Sarah resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her. “I don’t know what that means.”