“And then after that, Janessa got Reggie with a combo and won the game,” Zach explained expansively as he and his dad walked away from the cafeteria. Amethyst was still over-protectively right by his side, but Mac tried to ignore that despite her alluring perfume that didn’t quite fully cover the sweet scent of oil but had the courtesy to at least play nicely with it.

  “So, they are teaching you to read with cards?” Mac questioned.

  “Some of the words are hard, but once you learn them, it’s easier,” Zach explained. Janessa can read super long words, so it doesn’t feel fair, sometimes.”

  “You’ll get ’em,” just keep working at it,” Mac encouraged his son. At least there was some useful instruction going on at the future center. He had been getting a bit worried.

  “Hey there,” said a voice that could only be Haley’s from his opposite side. The immediate pounding of Mac’s heart sent pain throughout his body even as his eyes searched for a holographic body.

  “It’s you…” Amethyst grabbed Mac’s arm and brought them to a stop as she addressed the not quite petite young woman who had just appeared opposite Mac with her hands held behind her back as she glided forward with a mischievous smile on her lips beneath the wide-brimmed, lavender sunhat. Why anyone felt they needed that this deep underground was a mystery. Okay, that wasn’t completely fair. In her defense, there was the occasional pebble fall evidenced by a few patches of dust on the floppy hat.

  That was an encouraging sign that Mac hadn’t lost his mind and was imagining things. Then again, perhaps this was worse. “Who?” Mac added quite reasonably to Amethyst’s comment despite his educated guess. “Wait… do I know you?”

  The young woman glided along as if on ice skates until she stopped in front of him and suddenly looked up at him from under her hat with two, beautiful, wide eyes and locked eye contact, “That’s actually why I’m here,” there was that mischievous smile again that sent Mac’s parent nerves on edge.

  “That and I was curious,” the wide-eyed young lady added a moment later still grinning like a kid planning to raid the cookie jar the second you turned your back.

  Better keep an eye on this one, whoever she was. Not that it was hard. She was impossibly cute in the way shorter girls can be. A natural innocence seemed to radiate from her playful mannerism and even the way she tilted her head to look up at him. And her eyes… those beautiful wide eyes…

  Mac stared stupidly into the young woman’s eyes for an extended almost hypnotized moment until a memory furtively touched the surface of his consciousness disturbing it like ripples on the surface of a calm lake. The rest of the memory crawled out a split second later like a zombie from a shallow grave, “You tried to kill me.” It was a toothless accusation, but there it was.

  “I know, right.” the cute young woman replied with a finger on her chin before abruptly breaking eye contact and spinning away, her petite hands once again clutched behind her back atop a modest, baby-blue sun dress. “The magi-ray Amethyst used should have reassembled your molecules into something like a hermit crab, but you just shrugged it off like she had splashed you with water. Do you have any idea how many hours I spent trying to find the errors in my calculations?” She rather convincingly made it sound like such a great tragedy was all his fault.

  Mac almost politely apologized but managed to restrain himself.

  “Wait, that was you?” Amethyst exclaimed in honest surprise looking a little closer at Mac as if seeing him again for the first time.

  There was something different about her face, the haughty superiority temporarily warred with uncertainty for control. “You were wearing a motorcycle helmet…” Mac realized aloud.

  “Circles…It was you,” Amethyst sounded shocked.

  “Duh,” The young woman in the sundress countered.

  “Why would you try to hurt my daddy?” Zach interrupted from below eye level. He sounded quite offended.

  “I used to work for The Competition, Zach,” Mac explained for his son’s benefit.

  Zach looked a bit confused as his young mind tried to process that, “So… you were a bad guy?”

  “We’re not bad guys,” Amethyst clarified with something less than full confidence in her voice. It wasn’t even full confidence’s cousin, more like a distant great aunt’s second cat who had been removed from the will for just cause.

  “We’re part of an international conglomerate,” the wide-eyed young woman jumped in to clarify, gracing Zach with her attention. “We have business interests all over the globe.”

  “I heard the word ‘conglomerate’ once,” Zach thought aloud bringing relieved expressions to the ladies’ awkward faces. “It like a world domination thing. I learned that word yesterday,” he proudly advertised to his listeners.

  “We’re not seriously trying to take over world, are we?” Mac quizzed the women humorously.

  Amethyst laughed a bit nervously. The young woman in the sundress glanced up at the roof of the cavern searching for an answer.

  “Are we?” Mac asked, the genuine concern evident in his voice as his eyes darted between the two women.

  “Technically… no,” the wide-eyed young lady answered very carefully. “I mean, we wouldn’t complain if it happened. And you did kind of set us back several years after those multiple incidents. Do you have any idea how annoying you can be?”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Ski lodge… central mountains… cable car gave way?” Mac tried carefully.

  “That was you!?” Amethyst exclaimed then punched him in the shoulder sending pain bouncing through his body. “I spent three months in rehab after that. And the lower storage hangar collapsed destroying multiple battle suits!” Amethyst wasn’t sure what to do, so she just punched him in the shoulder again.

  “If I recall,” Mac raised a finger, “In my defense, someone shot that rocket launcher at me.”

  “I wasn’t actually aiming for you,” the wide-eyed young lady shrugged off the accusation.

  “But no harm if I got caught in blast, I’m sure,” Mac retorted. “I’ll bet you were one behind the rabid chimp, too. Weren’t you?”

  “Guilty as charged,” the not quite petite girl in the sunhat smiled apologetically and raised her hand. “Of course, you handled that so well we couldn’t even try the goat.”

  “There was a goat?” Mac asked deadpan.

  “Aye, until that rabid chimp… sidelined it,” Amethyst added. “And then you reset the passwords and locked us out of the data base, laddie. That was a full-on disaster for us. Months of planning… wasted. After that, she decided we needed to neutralize you, or we’d never get anywhere,” Amethyst motioned to the shorter woman.

  “Wait, you’re the ones behind the poisoned apple basket…” Mac looked genuinely shocked.

  “It worked in the movies,” the shorter woman shrugged.

  “And the battle suit that destroyed my neighbor’s house…” Mac continued.

  “That would explain why you survived,” Amethyst commented thoughtfully.

  “…and the faulty elevator in the department store,” Mac concluded.

  “I would have got you that time, too… if you had just gone up more than a single floor” the young lady with the wide-eyes skewed up her lips as she remembered the frustration.

  “There was only women’s wear and intimates on the third and fourth floors. Why would I go up there?!”

  “You did spent a lot of time with those dark-haired girls dressed in leathers. We thought you were probably a pervert,” the red-head answered honestly.

  “I was the token guy! I didn’t have much of a choice,” Mac contended. “My boss said I was just being paranoid… and all that time… You were both trying to kill me! I knew it!”

  “We… had help,” Amethyst foolishly attempted to spread some the blame.

  Mac’s jaw dropped open. He blinked and shook his head, “The blonde that tried to knife me… while I was on vacation by the Dark Sea. Seriously, who tries to hide a long knife under a swimsuit?”

  The wide-eyed girl raised her hand innocently, “My idea. We hoped you might be distracted by her other… assets. Also, you were, kind of, right in the middle of another operation at the time. So, it seemed like it was worth a shot… although everything went downhill after you trapped her in the pay-toilet. Do you have any idea how long it took to come up with exact change? It was a bit different with that grand piano at the northern port city. The set-up of that took weeks… and then you showed up late… and the rope gave way too soon.”

  “I don’t remember… ohhh… there,” the memory fluttered back to Mac. “That’s right after my ex and I started dating. Of course, I’ve tried to forget that... for obvious reasons.”

  “Dark-haired lady with a fluffy, white dog?” the young woman in the sundress asked appearing truly concerned.

  “I’d prefer not to talk about her or that dog,” Mac replied through gritted teeth and glanced meaningfully down at Zach for effect.

  “Like ex-girlfriend or…”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Mac reiterated much more forcefully. “Drop it already. Now, one question, if I may. Seeing as you’ve spent an unhealthy potion of your life trying to kill me… without even the proper villainous introduction required by the guild, I might add. Not a, ‘Hi, we’re going to be enemies,’ while passing in the street. Not even so much as slipping a business card mysteriously into my jacket pocket. There are rules!” Mac took a breath beneath a furrowed brow as he glared at the young woman in the floppy, lavender hat. “Now, who in the depths are you?” Mac pointed accusingly.

  “I was really hoping you wouldn’t ask that question,” the wide-eyed girl answered playfully. “I would…”

  “Kind of late for that,” Mac interrupted. “Quit playing games and tell me, already.”

  The young lady put her hands on her hips just like the AI and stared up at him defiantly, “Not until you tell me who you think I am.”

  “You’re an annoying young woman who has tried to kill me and my associates multiple times over the past few years without the courtesy of so much as a short monologue or even a basic introduction, has brought up a person I would rather forget, and is currently keeping me from enjoying a rare day with my son,” Mac countered. “Out with it.”

  The wide-eyed young woman clenched her fists angrily at her sides, then stuck her tongue out at him before turning around and crossing her arms. “You’re lucky we’re on the same side… or… or…”

  “Or what?” Mac had reached the end of his patience and continued on when wisdom might have prevented him (Wisdom and Physics were reportedly friends, so it could have happened), “You’ll injure everyone around you in a failed, over-complicated attempt to have the cafeteria serve me cold coffee?”

  “They’re not over-complicated… They’re just well thought out,” the girl mumbled to no one in particular.

  Amethyst put a tentative hand on Mac’s shoulder, “Laddie, you really shouldn’t…”

  Mac flicked her calloused hand off his shoulder angrily and turned to face her, “You nearly killed me, and left my boy an orphan. And then you think that just because you’re amazingly beautiful, you can make it all better by protecting me and nursing,” Mac motioned to her outfit, “me back to health, and that somehow that makes it all better?!”

  “The thought had crossed my mind,” the mechanic observed softly as she intensely scanned the ground around her feet with downcast eyes. “I thought all boys wanted a beautiful girl’s attention… practically demand it.”

  “It’s obvious you’re just pretending to care for me,” Mac ignored her vague almost question. “Maybe I should have just finished you both off when I had my chance back in the jungle, like my employer wanted instead of just leaving you with my card. Hint, hint. If this is what I get for being kind, then maybe I should just be more like the both of you. Just… just go away.”

  “Daddy, that’s mean,” Zach reprimanded his father the way only a child can. As the two women looked away in obvious embarrassment, each lost in their own world.

  Mac took a deep breath then finally breathed, “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I’m a bit frustrated.”

  “Come on, Amethyst,” the wide-eyed girl in the sundress practically ordered and reached for Amethyst’s arm as she stalked past Mac petulantly.

  “I… I can’t…” Amethyst gently pulled her arm away from the nearly petite young lady. “I… have a contract.”

  “And what happened with the last one of those?” the shorter woman contended as she marched away too upset to even realize why she had shown up in the first place.

  Amethyst turned to Mac, reached out her hand, but then pulled it back before touching him, “You really should be nicer to Miss Windsor,” her eyes were still on the ground.

  “Wait, who?” Mac turned back to her.

  “Miss Windsor,” Amethyst explained. “She’s the VP of research and development. Well, the interim VP to be accurate. Has been since we lost Michael a few years back. Hermit crabs and all that. I think she still might hold you responsible.”

  “I just verbally shredded a VP?” Mac sounded horrified.

  Amethyst just nodded, completely ignoring her own mixed feelings.

  “You should be nicer, Daddy,” Zach piled on as pebbles skittered across the ground nearby. The kid stared at the ground for a moment searching for a way to cheer up his dad, then smiled as he finally thought of something fun they could do, “Can we play catch with grenades? They’ve got some at the future center we could use.”

  The look on Mac’s face was priceless.