by Michael Todd
She washed her hands quickly, went to the door, and opened it. Sal stood outside.
“Well, good morning, boss,” she said with a soft, almost awkward chuckle.
He grinned in response as she gestured for him to come inside. “Well, I’m not technically your boss, but I appreciate the deference.”
Monroe chuckled softly. “Well, considering that there’s only one doctorate in this room, I guess I should call you ‘partner,’ then.”
“Junior partner,” Sal retorted and narrowed his eyes. “Let’s not get carried away. Heavy Metal is my baby, and you’re crazy if you think that I’ll let her go without a fight.”
“The company’s a woman now, is she?” Courtney asked.
“Well, yeah, since there are more women than men staffing it,” Sal said smoothly like he’d expected her to say that.
“Can I get you some coffee?” she asked.
“Please. You wouldn’t believe how bad the coffee is on the Russian side. Seriously, we could make a fortune simply by smuggling this stuff over to those poor, poor comrades.”
She laughed. “Well, we can look into expanding our business into smuggling coffee later, I think.”
“We’ve already expanded it into buying vodka from them,” Sal said. “I guess we forgot to tell you, but they sold the stuff for bananas, so we brought some crates back with us to sell to the bar here. We thought we’d be able to make some money on the side with that.”
Courtney nodded and set a mug of hot coffee on the kitchen counter where Sal had taken a seat.
“I got your message,” she said after he’d taken a couple of sips. “I really appreciate you giving me the full bonus.”
“You did the work, you get the money,” he said with a shrug. “And I looked into the tax laws around here, and I can actually get some tax breaks if I pass the money on to you, so…thank you, actually.”
Monroe laughed. “The breaks aren’t that substantial. Anyway, I appreciate it. I’m glad that I’m finally in business with someone whom I can trust. Someone who’s got my back, as it were.”
Sal smiled. “We’re partners in this. If we stab each other in the back, we’ll all end up dead.”
“That’s not how the guys who wrote my paychecks before saw things,” she reminded him and raised her mug to toast silently with him. “Any word on the actual pay from our little trip into the Zoo?”
“Well, it was cut short, so it’ll be a couple of days before we send out invoices,” he said. “But we did manage to bring in a substantial amount of data, so that, plus the salaries owed us, even if they’re half-rate, should net us some good income. Oh, Young sent me a message with what we’re owed for the sets of Pita flowers that we turned in, but those will also only be deposited once the rest of the teams come back in and all the money is paid out.”
Courtney nodded. One of the downsides of actually paying attention to how her money was handled was that she wasn’t great at keeping track of things. Maybe she should take notes or something.
“Can I ask you something?” Sal asked.
“Of course,” she replied and snapped out of her train of thought. “What’s on your mind?”
“Well, you’ve probably already made something of a name for yourself as the specialist who’s gone out into the Zoo the longest,” he said. “You could probably get tenure in a university or a seven- or eight-figure salary in one of the corporations that are interested in this place. Why are you still here? I mean, sure, it’s fun, but don’t you ever feel tempted to go back to civilization?”
She settled her gaze on the mug of coffee cradled in her hands. “There’s always the temptation to head back, I guess, and I’ve actually talked with a couple of corporate headhunters about cushy job back home, but…it’s complicated.”
Sal seemed content to simply sit and wait for her to explain. He even leaned forward, and the gesture prompted her to continue.
“Well, you should probably know that my dad is Dr. Hartley Monroe,” she said. “You know, the—”
“Yeah.” he nodded. “The whole thing with the monkeys in Los Angeles. I remember.”
“Right. Anyway, he’s the one who got me this job with the goop before it became all Zoo-ified. So yeah, I’ve put out some peer-reviewed stuff that’s been well received in our circles, but I’ve looked for something…spectacular. Something that would put me on the map and kind of…well, show that I earned my place out here and I’m not merely riding on the wave of my father’s success, you know? Plus, I want to one-up him a little. So yeah, I stick it out in the most dangerous place in the world, fighting for my life, to make myself the Dr. Monroe, not Dr. Monroe’s daughter.”
“I get that.”
“Overbearing parents on your side too?” Courtney asked.
“No, not really,” Sal replied. “They were always the kind of people where a job was something that they did in order to live and never let their jobs be their lives. Which is a good thing, I guess, but I was born different. They knew that, and they loved me in spite of my brains. To them, I was simply one of their kids. It’s vanity, I know, but I’ve always wanted to be more than that to them.”
She laughed. “Yep, I get that you were one of those kids. You’re special, and you want everyone to know about it.”
He opened his mouth, but shut it again and shrugged. “That’s actually pretty darn accurate, but I do want you to stop describing me…forever, so let’s change the subject, shall we?”
“Sounds like a plan. What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I was over at the armory yesterday, and I talked to Boulos about upgrading your suit to something new and snappy. I thought that you might want to get something more dedicated to a specialist’s duties and not a hybrid like mine is.”
“That sounds about right,” she said with a nod.
“Anyway,” Sal continued, “I need to charge it to the company’s account, and for that, I’ll actually need to finish your working contract. Boulos will send me a list of the specialist suits that they have available for us, so if you could get all your contracts sorted out for me today?”
“I need to pick up my residual checks from the other guys this morning, and they’ll sign off on my severance this afternoon,” she said. “I’ll have them all to you by then.”
“That would be great.” He finished his coffee and stood. “I’ll give Kennedy the specs on what to look for in the suits regarding budget and you can tell her what you’re looking for with function. Based on that, we can find something that works for you. We can meet up for dinner at the bar and exchange all the info if that’s okay.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Awesome,” he said with a wink. “I’ll see you then.”
Courtney escorted him to the door and shut it behind him with a soft sigh. It wasn’t like her to pine after a guy or wonder what he meant by every tiny little detail. It did make her wonder why he jumped so quickly to all business when they had a real, earnest discussion.
“You’re overthinking this,” she scolded herself. She needed to finalize the contract issues, so she put the dishes in the sink to be taken care of later and grabbed her bag and keys.
She didn’t like that he had apparently friend-zoned her now that they worked together, but considering everything that had happened, she wasn’t too surprised about it. If he wanted her to stick around because he liked her brains, she could live with that. It would take some getting used to was all.
Monroe nodded, steeled herself, and put all those thoughts aside for later—maybe never—as she exited her apartment.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Courtney stepped into the bar. The sun had already set which meant that this would be the peak hours at the place. Most of the tables were already full, as were most of the bar stools. She did feel the need to have a drink, if only to help calm herself. It hadn’t been too stressful a day, and it was always nice for the ego when the people whom she worked for in the past asked her to come back. It also
showed that they didn’t realize how shitty they had treated her, which was depressing too.
She looked around once more, reluctant to have to stand until one of the loud teams left a table, and finally saw Madigan in the corner near the kitchen, waving her over. A wave of relief washed over her as she joined her. It was a table for two, but three chairs were spaced around it. Considering the sour looks that Kennedy received from the people who stood at the larger tables around them, Courtney wondered if she hadn’t wrestled the extra chair away from them.
Monroe really wished that she had that sort of gall. Her companion simply sat there, sipped her drink, and didn’t give a single fuck about the people around her. She obviously also knew that nobody would try to take the chair back because she would happily fight them for it.
Of course, she would be kicked out for the night, but then again, so would the others. Nobody wanted to risk getting cut off for the night over a stupid chair.
Madigan knew that which was why she sat there in such peace despite the noise around them.
“Hey,” Courtney said with a smile. “Thanks for saving me a seat.”
“No problem.” She nodded in greeting. “You going to drink anything? I have a tab open.”
Of course, she did. “I’ll have a diet Coke. I’m still traumatized by the last time you and I drank together.”
The other woman smirked, headed to the bar, and returned with a soda in hand. “Sal is finishing off a whitepaper that he has pending. It’s a way for him to bring some money into Heavy Metal while we’re not in the Zoo. There are some testing contracts that we’ve worked on too. You’re welcome to join in on those, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Courtney said with a smile and sipped her drink. “How long do you think he’ll be? Sal, I mean.”
“Oh, that depends.” Madigan drank from her own pint of dark, frothy beer. “He could be bored and have it finished in fifteen minutes, or he could be interested and do it all night.”
“Which do you think is most likely?”
“With Salinger Jacobs?” She raised an eyebrow. “I honestly couldn’t say.”
“He mentioned something about a new suit for me to work in,” Courtney said. “Something about passing the budget-restricted list of suits to you for me to pick out.”
“Oh, yeah.” Kennedy tapped at her thigh to indicate her phone. “But that can wait, I think. We’re having dinner, and I’m starving. It’s always best to avoid shopping when you’re hungry.”
“That’s a myth, isn’t it?” Courtney asked.
“Not for me. I’ve kept myself under control with that in mind for a long time now.”
She grinned. “Well, I can give it a try, I suppose. Sorry if I’m overeager, but I’m happy to finally work with people whom I trust to watch my back, you know?”
Madigan nodded. “I feel the same way.”
“And I like the work,” she continued. “I’d be happy to take everything that he can put in me.”
“Phrasing,” her companion grumbled.
“What was that?” Monroe asked.
“Nothing. I just approve of your choice of words.”
“Oh…” Courtney blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Sure,” Madigan said with a grin to tease the woman across from her. “So, Sal told me what happened between the two of you while we were over in the Russian Base.”
She caught her breath and tilted her head, and panic careened in her stomach. “Oh…really? What did he say?”
“He didn’t give me any specifics,” Kennedy said with a shrug. “Only that the two of you slept together and that if I wanted to hear the dirty details, I’d have to ask you about it. That’s not to say that I want to hear the details.”
“Well—” Courtney said and stalled for time as she tried to get a read on what the other woman thought. She had raised the conversation, after all. In this lighting, it was impossible to tell. That smirk could be malicious or teasing. She had no idea. “I…how do you feel about it?”
Madigan shrugged. “I think that we’re in a very dangerous business, and life is way too short to have to bother with the drama and complications that come with relationships that regular society approves of. When you can get your ass killed the next time you walk into the Zoo, all those rules and regulations don’t really have relevance.”
“Huh.” She had no idea where to go with that.
“What I mean is...” Madigan started and paused to collect her thoughts and word this right. “What I mean is that I’m not some catty bitch who will start a fight where no fight exists, you know?”
Courtney nodded. “I appreciate that. I mean, I really like working with you, and I wouldn’t want some drunken mistake to get in the way of our working relationship—and hopefully, a friendship.”
“I feel the same way. Although you’ll have to tell me how it was that you managed to get Sal drunk during the day. I can barely get him to drink at night.”
So he really hadn’t told her any of the details, Courtney thought. Well, if he hadn’t wanted to tell Madigan about it, she didn’t intend to pop that bubble. She really did respect the woman, and she had the feeling that if she told her about how she had sex with her man while he was asleep, she would take that seriously. It was way better to avoid the possibility of a fight with her—catfight or otherwise.
“Look, if you want to get into bed with Sal, I have no problem with that,” Kennedy said. “Although you should probably challenge him to something of a fuck-off first. I can tell you something, there aren’t many people out there who can handle him. If you can’t, maybe he’s too much man for you.”
Monroe narrowed her eyes. “Come on, guys can’t outlast women, that’s a scientific fact. Except maybe Arnold in his youth.” She pronounced the former body builder's name in his native Austrian accent.
“Scientific fact, eh?” Her companion leaned forward with a smirk. “How many times have you had the chance to put that fact to the test?”
“Oh…” Courtney hedged as she hadn’t expected that question. Madigan had been candid with her, though, and she didn’t want to take that away from her. “Well, no specifics, but it’s been more than one and less than twenty.”
She felt her stomach drop when Kennedy leaned back again and looked skeptical.
“Well, if it’s a fuck-off,” she said to move the conversation forward quickly, “forewarned is forearmed, so thanks for that. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve that’ll guarantee me the victory.”
Madigan opened her mouth to reply but shut it quickly when Sal arrived and moved toward their table. Even in the dim lights of the bar, they could see that his eyes were bleary and he looked tired, which meant that he hadn’t felt at all inspired by what he’d worked on. Which explained why he was there so early as opposed to not at all.
“How was the whitepaper?” she asked.
“Well, it was an incomplete that they wanted me to finish,” Sal said. “So of course, I had to edit the whole damn thing, and of course, it was riddled with errors. After all that edit work, I didn’t feel like putting too much effort into it. I finished it off without any flourishes and came here. Fuck, I need a drink.”
Madigan waved her hand to the bartender, who nodded, filled up a pint of lager, and handed it to one of the waitresses to carry to the table. Madigan winked at Courtney as she took the glass and handed it to Sal.
He drank quickly, and even Madigan raised her eyebrows as she called for another. Sal attacked that one as well, then accepted the third with a little more civility.
“That bad, huh?” Madigan asked.
“Oh yeah,” he replied. “I mean, I know that the Zoo has defied all logic and even laws of physics, but I’ll believe that there’s a fucking T-Rex when I fucking see one.”
“But there are legitimate dinosaurs walking around out there,” Courtney said.
“Like I said, laws of physics out the window,” Sal said and raised his hands. “But the big critters th
at we ran into are not DNA replicas of the fossils that we’ve encountered before, and I doubt that the goop has watched Jurassic Park to replicate it.”
Madigan raised her eyebrows when she saw that he had already finished his third beer. It wasn’t like him to drink and certainly not this much, and like before, it didn’t seem that what he’d consumed had even mildly affected him. She didn’t doubt that it would but pounding that much alcohol usually ended up with a man on his face to sleep it off prematurely.
“I think you need something stronger,” she said, waved the waitress over, and ordered a boilermaker.
Sal nodded his approval of the choice, which made Madigan even more suspicious.
“Yeah, I have to agree,” Courtney said after a sip of her diet Coke. “I mean, the big guys are definitely large reptiles, which makes them dinosaurs, but at the same time, they don’t follow any kind of genetic code that we know of. We do know that the goop is able to take away from and mix and match the DNA of different animals. Whether the dino stuff merely makes the reptiles that the goop has been exposed to bigger, or if maybe there were a couple of fossils that it could draw from, or if the DNA is actually from wherever the goop came from… Well, we can’t be sure.”
“Well, all this geek talk is my invitation to exit,” Kennedy said with a laugh. “We can do all the suit business tomorrow once you’ve got this out of your systems.” She gesticulated to the two of them. “Sergeant Kennedy out.” She headed toward the bar to pay her part of the tab but paused when Sal was distracted by the waitress who arrived with his drink.
“Have at him, tiger,” she whispered, leaned toward Courtney, and patted her on the shoulder.
Monroe looked almost shocked for a moment before she realized what Madigan meant and felt something cold and full of anticipation stir in the pit of her stomach as she turned to him. He had already poured the shot of whiskey into the pint glass.