Tanner smiled back at her. “I probably landed you a job.”

  -3-

  Tanner took her back to Station Chief Burke and explained what had happened. By that time, Malena was surprised to note she almost felt normal again. What had hit her? She wasn’t sure, but she hadn’t enjoyed the sensation.

  “I see,” Burke said after Tanner had stopped talking. She eyed Malena with a new expression.

  Burke gave her a cold, curious stare. Malena felt as if the woman was looking deeply into her. It wasn’t the usual look Malena was accustomed to from other women. She could tell Burke wasn’t interested in her looks, her clothing or her personality. Malena was a bug on a plate to this woman. Something to be prodded and possibly dissected.

  “Let’s go back into the room, shall we?” Burke asked.

  She led Malena back to the same room where their first abortive interview had taken place. Malena hoped this wasn’t going to be as baffling and pointless as the first time.

  “Excuse me,” Malena said. “Before we begin, could you tell me why I’m here at all? What the hell do you people expect from me?”

  “If you’re found worthy of service, I expect you to serve XCU and the government of the United States with honor and—”

  “I can do all that,” Malena said. “But that can’t be all that you want.”

  “No, of course not,” Burke said. She reached into her desk and began to pull out a thick sheathe of papers. It was a contract.

  “Hold on,” Malena said. “I can’t sign anything without knowing what I’m getting into. I’m not asking for classified information—just tell me in general terms.”

  The woman put the contract back and slammed the drawer shut. She gave Malena a strained smile. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  “I was marched down a hallway. For no apparent reason, I was vomiting within ninety seconds. Now, I’m fine again. Oddly, this series of events has engaged your attention and gotten you to the point of hiring me. I want—I need a few answers. What kind of an interview is this?”

  The woman produced another document. It wasn’t a contract, but rather a dossier. She paged through it briefly. “Malena Marin: Five foot six inches tall. Twenty-nine years of age. Brunette with blonde highlights—dyed. One hundred and twenty pounds. Attractive, athletic and light-weapons trained.”

  Malena frowned.

  “Family: Unmarried. No children. No siblings. Parents Beth and Simon Marin maintain a traditional marriage. Relationships listed as ‘stable’ between all three family members. Both parents hold clearances and have lengthy histories in government service with clean records.”

  Malena pursed her lips in annoyance. She opened her mouth to speak, but the woman kept going.

  “Education: Masters of science in biology, Summa Cum Laude—”

  “Excuse me again,” Malena interrupted at last, “but what’s the point of reading my file aloud?” She knew she was being rude, but the woman was getting on her nerves. The chief was unfriendly and Malena suspected she’d been poisoned as part of some kind of test. She felt she was owed a few answers.

  The XCU chief put away the dossier. “I only wanted to demonstrate why this hasn’t been a traditional interview. We already know everything about you.”

  “But nothing in there would cause you to hunt me down and make this offer. Why did the day chief himself come to see me? Just give me a hint about what I’m getting into, please?”

  Burke looked troubled, but after a moment she seemed to come to a decision. “All right. I’ll tell you what we’re both doing here today. XCU has a mission. We locate and secure rare, specialized materials.”

  Malena narrowed her eyes. “We’re talking about WMDs, then? Chemical, biological, nuclear—right?”

  “Nothing so mundane.”

  Malena stared. “You consider plutonium mundane?”

  “Yes. What we’re looking for is more exotic. We call it element-X. It doesn’t appear in nature. It’s an unknown compound, something we don’t understand. Enemy governments have based technology upon its properties, we do know that much.”

  “Is it a metal or liquid or what? Do you even know the atomic weight?”

  Burke shook her head. “We’ve never had a quantity so great that we could classify it in such a traditional sense, but our scientists suspect it is a metal. You have to understand, the substance isn’t on our periodic charts. We don’t really know what it is, we only have theories. It might be matter in another state, for example, exotic particles we can’t duplicate by any known process. At first, we thought it might be anti-matter, or dark matter. These theories haven’t held up to tests, however.”

  “Okay…” Malena said thoughtfully, “but I don’t understand why you know so little about it. How can you search for something if you don’t understand what it is?”

  “When we open up a device powered by X it instantly combines with normal matter. The result is always a terrific release of energy. Very dangerous. Whole teams and installations like this one have been annihilated in numerous attempts made since World War Two.”

  “Numerous attempts? Huge explosions? Wouldn’t these kinds of events make it into the news?”

  A wintery smile crossed her interviewer’s lips. “They already have, on several occasions. You didn’t really think the nations of Earth had to blow up two thousand atomic bombs just to make sure they still worked, did you? All those craters with underground tests done out under the desert in Yucca Flats…well, let’s just say they weren’t all set off purposefully. And that they weren’t all atomic in nature. On each occasion we tried to control the reaction caused by exposure of the core, but we failed. Now we’ve given up on tearing apart the artifacts we find. We’re just trying to learn from them as they are.”

  Malena nodded thoughtfully. Even if one didn’t understand how to make a battery, there were plenty of electronic principles that could be learned by studying the devices they powered. If you took a smart phone back to the nineteen sixties, for instance, scientists could have gained a lot of valuable intel from it, even if they couldn’t duplicate it with their technology.

  “How does it work, though? I mean, how does this unknown substance generate power? What form does it come in?”

  “The units are spherical, usually. They generate a variable or preset level of power in the form of electricity in most cases. They can also produce intense heat or powerful beams of light. Our scientists say they operate on the basis of permanent instability. A form of perpetual-motion—a perpetual vibration, if you will, powers the devices. This property appears to be natural to the substance. Think of it as a magnet that can reverse its polarity a million times a second, or a cycle of moving electrons that never stop looping around because they don’t encounter any resistance—or even as a highly radioactive isotope that doesn’t decay over time.”

  Malena blinked. The physics sounded complex and rule-bending. She wasn’t a physicist, her knowledge of such topics came from a half-dozen college courses. But she got the general idea. This stuff called X came in power-packs of some kind that produced a great deal of steady energy. These could be large or small, and came with variable outputs. She got the impression no one really knew exactly how the devices worked, and the embarrassed scientists who’d no doubt spent frustrating decades on the problem had come up with a lot of theories…theories that may or may not be correct.

  “How do I fit into all this?”

  “You’re going to help us find these oddities of science. XCU’s primary mission is to locate X, secure it, and pass it on to others for study.”

  Malena felt more comfortable with this job description. “Satellite analysis then? Is that what I’ll be doing?”

  “Certainly not,” Burke said, looking at her with wide-eyed surprise. “I would have thought that someone with your special talents—well, never mind. This position has nothing to do with photographic analysis. We have a large number of data analysts that far exceed your capacities. We don’t need you to look at folders full of scans, Ms. Marin. We need you to find the artifacts themselves.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You’re what we call a ‘sensitive’. You proved that in the hallway. Your demonstration was—”

  “Excuse me,” Malena interrupted. “What was that all about in the hallway? What made me sick?”

  The woman appeared annoyed. “I believe this should be abundantly clear to you by now. There’s a vault behind the last door in the hallway. We keep artifacts there before transferring them to other facilities.”

  Malena was finally beginning to catch on. She nodded. “So, most people don’t become ill when they come near this substance? The fact that I did indicates I’m able to sense it somehow?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But how can that be useful? I mean, if I have to walk within twenty feet of this substance, I’m sure anyone could find it just by using their eyes if they were that close to it. What am I supposed to do, walk around until I start throwing up and then tell people to search the place?”

  “Something like that,” said the woman dryly. “With training and proper equipment, you’ll be able to sense the direction and distance of these items. You’ll also be able to control your reaction. Other sensitives have told me in the past that it’s rather like acquiring a taste for a new, unpleasant food.”

  “I take it you want to hire me, then?” Malena asked.

  “Oh yes. You’ve already been hired, effectively.”

  Malena snorted. “But what if I don’t want the job?”

  Burke twitched her lips, but didn’t smile. “That’s not an option. You’ve been briefed on a compartment of secrets that goes far above most clearance levels. We’ve approached you based on our current, urgent need, and on the basis of your top-secret clearance. I have the power to directly grant you an element-X clearance. But I don’t have the power to remove it.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Malena, but in truth, she thought she was beginning to. She wondered if she was in over her head and began to eye the door.

  “Ms. Marin,” Burke said severely. “At the beginning of this interview, I asked you if you wished to serve your government, and if you were willing to enter our employment. Risks were specified and acceded to.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But nothing,” interrupted the woman. “You agreed to our terms and requested the briefing.”

  “What if I want out right now? I’ve had these sorts of jobs before. You haven’t sworn me in. This is America, and I can walk right now, if I want to.”

  The woman pursed her lips, compressing them into a tight line. Malena sensed a bubbling anger in her. This woman had a temper—a wonderful thing to encounter in a new boss. Malena had called her bluff and she didn’t like it.

  Burke pulled open her desk with a ripping motion. She withdrew a sheath of documents and slid them across the desk toward Malena.

  Malena caught them with her fingers before they could scatter on the floor. She opened the folder. It was a lengthy contract. Dire warnings, eagle-embossed stamps and bold print decorated every page. At the bottom of each leaf was a place for her initials and a date. At the end, her thumbprint and photo had already been attached. The only blank spot was a black line on the white paper waiting for her signature.

  A tapping sound came at the door as Malena paged through the contract. The chief stabbed a button and spoke into an intercom.

  “If this isn’t an emergency,” she said, “please give me a few minutes.”

  The tapping stopped. After that, however, the woman began shifting in her chair, becoming increasingly restless.

  “Are you going to sign or not?” she asked Malena after a full minute had passed.

  “This says you can send me anywhere. This is a field agent’s contract.”

  The woman chuckled. “You yourself pointed out you would have to get close to an artifact to feel its presence. The best agents only have a mile or so of range.”

  Malena felt a thrill run through her. She’d never done real field work. “I’m trained as an analyst.”

  “We don’t need more desk-jockeys. We have plenty of those.”

  Malena paged through the contract a second time, and finally found what she was looking for—the salary. It wasn’t as big as the number the man had scrawled on the back of his card and handed to her back in Boca. In fact, it was missing a zero. But it was still a lot of money. She’d make more every month than she had in a year back in Virginia.

  She looked up. “I’ll sign for double this amount.”

  It was the chief’s turn to huff. “We have grades of agent. We have rules. We have numbers and charts. You’ll start out as a psi-agent, junior class. I’m not bumping you up five ranks just because you’re a sensitive and I need one.”

  Malena considered pressing and perhaps lecturing the chief on the rules of supply and demand, but she felt it might be counterproductive. Government pay schedules tended to be inflexible.

  “What about my experience? I have several years in the business—no credit for that?”

  Burke shook her head. “Don’t remind me how useless your background is. You wouldn’t even have been considered for this position if you were off the street. Did you notice the dollar amount? We usually only interview applicants with a much greater level of experience and a longer list of critical skills.”

  Malena picked up the pen and sensed the other woman’s tension rising. She was watching Malena’s fingers intently. Why did she want her to sign so badly? Malena decided to delay a bit. If she couldn’t get more pay or rank, maybe she could use her signature as a bargaining chip to get more information. Of course she’d already decided to sign. It was about a thousand times better than working in a boutique—literally.

  Malena put the pen down.

  “Why did you ignore my past?” she asked. “I left my last job under less than optimal circumstances.”

  Burke looked annoyed that she hadn’t signed, but she smirked at the words. “Yes. You were kicked out for pulling the plug on an operation without good cause.”

  “I had my reasons. The imagery didn’t add up. Something was wrong with the scenario, we couldn’t be sure—”

  “Bullshit,” the chief interrupted her. “Don’t ever feed me bullshit like that. You did it on a hunch, didn’t you? You felt something was going to go wrong, even though the data said the operation looked picture-perfect. The landing spot, the weather, the target half-unguarded—everything.”

  Malena felt a wave of defensiveness, but she quickly deflated. She’d grown tired of defending herself on this topic. Arguing about the details hadn’t worked back in Virginia and it wasn’t going to work now.

  “Yes,” she said. “I pulled the plug on a hunch.”

  The woman nodded thoughtfully. “When they figured out that you couldn’t justify your abort order, they kicked you off the team. Do you want to know what happened next?”

  Malena met her eyes. “Of course.”

  “They sent the team back in two weeks later, using a different approach. The whole team died. All of them.”

  Malena’s mouth sagged open in horror. “How?”

  The woman shrugged. “Apparently, it was a trap. Or a suicide pact of some kind. In any case, the moment they took the doors down, the entire place exploded. A thousand-pound bomb went off under their feet. There wasn’t a boot or a nametag left.”

  “What about the prisoners and the files?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing was ever found.”

  “I didn’t hear anything about this on the news.”

  “Really? Did you check all the news channels?” The woman asked, then laughed quietly. “I believe there might have been a helicopter crash that week. Something routine caused by a mechanical malfunction or unseasonable weather, I’m sure.”

  Malena shook her head. She looked at her own hands. “It just didn’t feel right to me. I was correct, wasn’t I? That’s why your people came to find me.”

  The woman shook her head. “Not exactly. We aren’t looking for analysts, not even gifted ones. But we are looking for someone who can sense things others cannot. You have a latent psi talent, Ms. Marin. That’s what we wanted. When you first arrived, I tested you, and you utterly failed. It was only after Lieutenant Tanner’s intervention that we realized you were a sensitive. I should have thought of it myself and tested you as he did—but I thought you might have different talents.”

  Malena frowned. “What kind of test did I fail? I wasn’t aware of anything.”

  “I know. That was the problem.”

  Malena thought about it. “There are other abilities, then? Besides being sensitive to element-X or having accurate hunches? Could you explain?”

  The other shook her head. “I could, but I won’t. I’ve explained far too much already. Now, either sign the document, or walk out of here. I’ve wasted as much time on you as I’m going to.”

  Malena took the pen and signed. She pushed the papers across to her new boss.

  “Just like that?” the chief asked in surprise.

  “Yes.”

  Both women stood up and shook hands. Their eyes met.

  “You managed to get more information out of me than I wanted to tell you,” the chief said.

  “You got me to sign cheaply.”

  Each of them gave the other a slight smile.

  “You’re under my command now—do you understand that?” Burke asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  “I won’t tolerate any kind of insubordination in my operatives. This isn’t a game.”

  “Of course not.”

  The tapping at the door began again. In annoyance, the chief touched a button. A buzzer sounded and Tanner appeared at the door. He looked worried.

  “We have a situation.”

  “Do you have time to take our newest psi-agent down to B2?”

  Tanner shook his head. “No. I don’t think you want me to do that right now. It’s Cuba.”

  At this, Burke pushed past Tanner and walked out into the hallway, heading toward the situation room. Tanner followed her, and Malena moved in their wake, trying not to get in the way. The two walked urgently down the hall, their footsteps ringing from the walls. Malena wondered what had gone wrong, and what she’d gotten herself into. She reminded herself she’d just signed away her life and agreed to become a field agent.