Covert Interview

by Missy Marciassa

  Lyle winked at her, returning her grin. He was even cuter when he smiled, and something told Elle he knew it. “Gotta play in life: can’t be all work. You follow any sports?”

  “I know pretty much nothing about sports. I was one of those kids who enjoyed everything about school except gym.”

  “Avoiding fun due to childhood trauma.” He fixed her with a mock-solemn stare. “We have to fix that, teach you how to play.”

  Although Elle knew he was joking, she realized he may have a point. “Are you offering lessons?”

  “It would be my pleasure,” he replied, leaning in close. “Something tells me you’ll make an excellent student.”

  The playful twinkle in his eyes seemed to deepen to a smolder. Elle felt her breath hitch. She needed to stay calm, keep her wits about her. Why was flirting still such a challenge? And had his eyes dropped to check out her breasts for the briefest of seconds? Part of her felt a little skittish and part of her wanted to go further. It was time to stop thinking so much and just say something.

  “I’m always serious when I’m learning something new.” She made a point of looking thoughtful for a moment. “What type of fun does a perfect southern gentleman like yourself enjoy?” As soon as she spoke, she worried she might have gone too far. What was she looking for, his sexual resume? She hated feeling like she didn’t know how to play the game. She wasn’t a virgin, but she certainly wasn’t an experienced seductress, either. Gotta learn sometime, a voice in her head- it sounded an awful lot like hers- said.

  The smolder in Lyle’s eyes seemed to intensify as he gave her another slow grin. “Best learnin’ comes from doing.” He leaned in closer. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you that?”

  The server brought their drinks. It was both a bit of a relief and a bit of a letdown as they settled back in their chairs, a little further apart. She openly studied him as they each took a sip of their drinks.

  “Figure out what you want to know?” he asked after a moment.

  Elle again made a point of looking like she was pondering. “I’m not quite sure.” She squinted her eyes a little as if studying him even more closely. “You like to play.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he agreed as he drank some more of his bourbon.

  “So… are you a player… or just playful?” As soon as she asked the question, she feared she had insulted him. Dammit, she wasn’t good at playing. Hopefully he took her question in the playful manner it was intended, rather than an insult.

  Lyle grinned at her, not shying away from her scrutiny in the slightest. If he was offended, he was a master at hiding it. “I’m a multifaceted individual.”

  “But your mother raised you right.”

  Lyle lifted his glass and then took another swallow. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Elle drank some of her margarita. She wanted to play with him. She leaned forward, hoping she didn’t look stupid. “I have a confession to make.”

  “Fortunately for you, I’m well-versed in attorney-client privilege.”

  Even Elle knew it wasn’t a good idea to let work intrude here. “I’m not a client.”

  “I’ll make you an honorary one.”

  She nodded and took another big swallow of her margarita, enduring the brain freeze as it flared up before subsiding. “I… I organize things. I develop mathematical models that take massive amounts of data and organize them, design programs to help people better use data.”

  “Big brain’s at work in that pretty head.”

  Pretty? She realized she was twisting a cocktail napkin in her hands and set it down. “I’m not very good at playing.”

  Lyle’s brow rose again.

  Elle met his gaze. “But I bet you are.”

  Lyle’s slow grin melted her nervousness, making it easier to keep looking him in the eye. “I have a diversified skill set,” he said. “And you just happen to be in luck.”

  Now it was Elle’s turn to raise an eyebrow as he leaned closer still, close enough for her to feel his body heat.

  “I enjoy offering tutorials.”

  Despite all of her education, she had never heard a tutorial sound so sexy and fun simultaneously.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Tutorials- now don’t you wish you were going to grad school like me?” Marni demanded.

  Elle laughed. “School with him would be fun.” She and Marni were talking on the phone. They were both driving to Charlottesville, but since Marni had driven her car to Norfolk, and Elle would have to return alone, they were each in their own cars as they sped west on I-64. Normally, she wouldn’t have be driving that fast, but she was trying to keep up with the speed demon Marni, who was excited to see their Charlottesville “pad,” as she kept calling it.

  Elle heard a beep and glanced at her phone to see her mother’s number pop up. “Hey, Marni, you’ll never believe this- my mom is calling. I’ll call you back.”

  She clicked over. “Mom?”

  “Hi, Ellie.” There was a, well, strange cheerfulness to her mother’s voice. She had never called back about coming to visit and was probably calling now with her excuses.

  “What’s up, Mom?” She kept her voice nonchalant. If Elle was being honest with herself, it stung a little that her mother wasn’t interested in coming to see her place (Marni’s mother was already planning a trip down to Charlottesville next week), but at this point, what was the point of being upset? Nothing new about this.

  “I’m afraid I can’t come down to see you in Virginia right now, honey.”

  “Okay.” She kept her tone nonchalant. She was an adult, right? She could handle this disappointment, especially since it was entirely expected. Elle fought to quell the tendrils of it that unfurled in her chest.

  “I want to come-” she began with a sigh, but Elle interrupted.

  There was no use making her lie to cover her disinterest. “It’s okay, Mom, really-”

  “I- I was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

  Elle jumped as the car swerved. “What?” The blast of a car horn forced her to pull back into her lane.

  “Are you driving?” Her voice rose in concern.

  Lucky for Elle, an exit for a rest stop came up, and she had the presence of mind to pull into it. “I’m stopping at a rest stop, Mom.”

  After she had parked, she said, “You have breast cancer?”

  “I was diagnosed last March-” her mother began.

  “What?! And you didn’t think to tell me-”

  “It was Stage One,” her mother continued over her, “so there was never any question that it wasn’t treatable.”

  Elle opened her mouth, but nothing came out. After a moment, her mother started talking again. “I had surgery- not even a full mastectomy- in April and started radiation in early May, right after I got back from your graduation.”

  She couldn’t believe it. Her mother hadn’t looked any different- not even a tiny bit- back in May.

  “I finished my radiation, and my doctor doesn’t think anything else needs to be done. I didn’t even need chemo, so I still have all my hair.” Her mother gave a little laugh.

  Elle wanted to join in but couldn’t. Her throat felt too thick to let even a chuckle escape.

  “I’ve been feeling a little tired, though, even with the kids being gone. Robert and I just got back from our trip, but I just need a few days’ rest. I’m not up to more traveling right now. Going to Bora Bora took a little more out of me than I thought, even though we relaxed the entire time.”

  The fir trees lining the parking lot, and right in front of Elle’s car, got blurry for a moment, but she blinked to bring everything back into focus. “I- should I come-”

  “There is no need for you to come here, Ellie. I have three little servants with the kids: someone is always here to bring me whatever I needed.”

  “I could have helped with the kids-” Elle’s three younger half-siblings were all under the age of thirteen, so there were limits as to what they could do.

  “Oh, Robert manage
d them.”

  The silence stretched out so long her mother finally asked, “Ellie, are you there?”

  Elle cleared her throat. “Yeah, Mom, I’m here. I’m just…shocked. You never said a word.”

  “You had your hands full with graduation and looking for a job-”

  “You had cancer.” Elle’s voice was sharper than she intended.

  “That was treatable.”

  “Everyone else knew.” Elle hated the whiny note in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. Steven, her mother’s youngest, was only nine, and he knew, but she hadn’t been told?

  “Well, there was no hiding it from the kids. They knew I had to go to the hospital, and I came home with a drainage device, so they saw that.”

  Elle rubbed her eyes as she sighed. “I understand; I do.” And she did. Why tell her about an important family matter? She was the leftover one. “I completely get you being too tired to travel, too.”

  Her mother’s relief seemed to coat the airwaves. “I’m glad you understand, honey. I promise I’ll make it down there sometime this fall.”

  Elle forced a smile before she remembered her mother couldn’t see her. She kept her voice steady. “Sounds great, Mom.”

  “Well, let me go take a nap…”

  “Of course, get some rest.” Elle drew in a deep breath. “I love you, Mom.”

  “I love you, too, honey.”

  No sooner had they disconnected then a new call came through, from Marni.

  “What happened to you?” she demanded as soon as Elle answered.

  “It’s a long story.” Elle put the car in reverse. She had to keep moving.

  ***

  The next day, Elle went to the library, to be greeted by an unsmiling Janet. “I wanted to speak with you about the program,” she told Elle after returning her greeting.

  Elle nodded. She was interested in seeing how the search program was working out. It was the type of program that could become widespread among universities if it was effective, and she was confident it could be made effective. ”How’s the pilot going?”

  “It doesn’t seem to be working.” Janet at least was direct. “Students are saying they do get some effective search results, but they’re also getting a lot of search results that have nothing to do with what they want.”

  Elle frowned as she took the output Janet handled her. “Let me review this. If some of the results are effective, then it means some things in the algorithm are working, but I need to modify some of the variables.”

  Janet sighed. “Be honest with me, Elle: was this too ambitious?” For all of her kindness and enthusiasm, it was clear she didn’t pull punches, either.

  “I don’t think so.” It was easy for Elle to give an honest answer: she believed what she was saying. “This is complex, though. It will take some modifications. I’ve never seen an algorithm work perfectly on the first try. The big internet companies modify their algorithms all the time.”

  Janet held her gaze for a moment before relaxing. “I’ll trust your judgment, then, Elle. We’ll keep pushing forward. When do you think you can have the modifications ready?”

  “I’ll start going over all of this and figure out what needs to be adjusted. I’ll have modifications ready before the end of the week.”

  She headed to her office, ready to tackle this challenge, but found someone waiting for her.

  Mason.

  As usual, he was in jeans and a college t-shirt. As usual, his face was deadpan.

  Elle gave him a smile as she closed her office door, passed him, and took a seat behind her desk. The white noise machine was already whirring. “Good morning.”

  “The results aren’t as specific as we need them to be,” Mason said, pulling out another set of papers. “We- and Interpol- are stopping too many legitimate transactions. Williams-Whitman Holdings is starting to get suspicious.”

  Elle skimmed the output.

  “And yesterday, we received confirmation that a large shipment of arms successfully made it to its buyer in Latin America.”

  Shit. “I did warn you about this.”

  “And I told you we couldn’t afford to make mistakes.”

  They stared at each other. What the hell did he expect her to be, the damn miracle worker?

  “We’ve had other analysts look this over as well,” Mason said.

  Elle felt her face stiffen. Someone else was checking over her algorithms. They didn’t trust her work? “Have any adjustments been made?”

  Mason shook his head as he rose.

  “So they couldn’t do any better.” Elle felt a bit of vindication there. Their sophomore year in college, Marni and Tina had gotten her a t-shirt that read “Geek Goddess.” She still had that t-shirt.

  “I’ll expect your report by nine am tomorrow.” He stopped to pick up his white noise machine.

  Janet. Shit. Elle cleared her throat. “There’s a project the library director here wants me to make high priority too- and I’ll be in Norfolk next week-” Where she had nothing worthwhile to do, she wanted to add.

  Mason stilled and eyed her. “Your point being?”

  Elle had a feeling she had said something very wrong. “I- I just- Janet is really excited about this project-”

  His face actually changed expressions- slightly- as he looked confused. “Did you decide to terminate your association with the agency and become a librarian for the universities?”

  Become a librarian… what an asshole. Yet it felt as if her heart stopped beating for a moment. She shook her head. “I- I just meant-”

  “Oh, I forgot. You don’t know how this works.” His gaze sharpened. “Your work for Janet is a cover. Although your check may look like it comes from the Library of Congress, I can assure you the money comes from the agency.”

  Elle swallowed. “Of course. I’m sorry.” She picked up the papers he had given her. “I’ll have a report for you by tomorrow morning.”

  Mason left with another nod. Wasn’t it ironic that Raleigh was probably the only supervisor who was happy with her, because she wasn’t doing anything?

  Chapter Nineteen

  As Elle was leaving the library that evening, she was happy to be able to bypass a librarian trying to assist someone with using the library computers, explaining that user names and passwords weren’t needed. At least her models and algorithms were more interesting, even when they didn’t work well.

  Her cell rang as she walked down the library steps, each step taking her deeper into the moist heat and away from the coolness of the library. Checking the number, she couldn’t stop herself from grinning as she answered it. The break would do her good. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Beautiful.” Lyle’s honeyed tones seemed to seep into her, dissolving the stress that had her body so tight. “How’s it going at Jefferson’s university?” Thomas Jefferson had founded the university. Elle grinned. She couldn’t believe he knew that. He may like to play, but he was no dumbass.

  “All work and no play,” she admitted as she made her way toward the staff parking lot.

  “Don’t they know slavery was abolished in 1865?” Lyle’s mock outrage made her laugh.

  “1865? You need to study your history. As a southerner, you should know it was 1863,” Elle teased.

  “Oh, I know Lincoln made his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but Lee didn’t surrender until 1865.”

  “I stand corrected: you’re a history genius.” Her smile warmed her voice. The walk to her car had felt like a long one when she was leaving the library, but she made good time as she walked and talked. “What are you up to this evening?”

  “Working on a case,” Lyle admitted. “I’m working more than I want to right now. Go to trial tomorrow.”

  “Really? I’m beginning to wonder if you can teach me how to play after all.”

  “Oh, don’t you worry- working overtime during the week means I’ll have to make up my playtime on the weekend. And I don’t play with just anybody.”

  “We’ll
be playing catch-up together.” Elle felt her body tightening in a good way.

  “You best believe it. Brace yourself, lady.” Lyle’s voice deepened as he issued his warning.

  Elle felt her toes curl. That man should have been a voiceover actor. She was happy to play along, however. “Bring it.”

  She got back to the apartment just as she got a text from Marni, inviting her to join her and some other law students at some bar. They were probably bonding after their first day in the new program. There was no way she had time for that. She texted her back, saying she’d have to take a rain check, and flopped onto the futon to study the data more closely.

  Yet she couldn’t stop her mind from wandering back to her conversation with Lyle. She wanted to play. She really wanted to play. She, the workaholic who always shamed her friends into working “just a little bit more” in college, was ready to let loose and play.

  “And I don’t play with just anybody.” Lyle’s words slid into her head; she could hear them as clearly as if he had just spoken them.

  And then she realized the problem.

  ***

  Elle practically bounded out of her apartment the next morning, using all of her self-control not to awaken a soundly sleeping Marni. She had figured out what was wrong. She was still the Geek Goddess. Even the moistness in the air didn’t bother her; she just got an iced coffee. It was an acquired taste, but she was happy with it that morning. She had figured out the problem. She could do this. The only bad part? She couldn’t offer a solution for the CIA.

  She was so excited she called Mason at eight-thirty, figuring she would leave him a message.

  He picked up. “Charleston.”

  “Mason?” Elle blinked. He actually sounded a little… unruffled. “I’m sorry- I thought I would just go to your voicemail-”

  “Do you have an update for me?” It sounded like he was walking past people who were talking. He was probably just getting to work.