by Palladian
“Mr. Sauer,” Clara asked, “what about scheduling the trial? We usually have one before – ”
“You’re forgetting,” he interrupted, wagging a finger at her, “Lex already had an unscheduled one. We can submit the video evidence as part of her package.”
“But, sir,” Clara went on, “are you sure…”
Lex’s attention began to wander. She wondered if she was even necessary at this point. Maybe they wouldn’t notice if I just backed out of the room slowly, she thought. The sound of her name being called brought Lex’s attention back to the conversation.
“Lex, if you’d follow me, I’ll try to call up a meeting with the other team members. It may be difficult to get a quorum today, since I’m not sure everyone is in, but I’ll see what I can do,” Clara told her.
“Three would be enough if they all vote for Lex. If there’s any need for more votes, we can look up the other two later,” Sauer called to them as they left the conference room.
Chapter 2: Second Interview
When they arrived back on the main floor, Clara directed Lex to have a seat on one of the couches in the open area while she made some calls to try to set up the meeting. Lex sat back on the couch she’d chosen and looked through the windows at the water outside. The dock along the back of the building seemed worn and she could see floating garbage in the water, but Lex found that she really liked the view of the far side of the river and the buildings that could be seen there.
“Hey, I really am sorry about what happened earlier. I had no idea we were expecting anyone today,” a voice behind her said, breaking into her observations.
Lex turned around to see Casey and smiled a little wryly, looking down at her bandaged left hand. “Really, it’s OK. It was just an accident; I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” she replied softly.
Casey smiled for a moment, and Lex felt suddenly glad. The woman's smile was genuine and open, making Lex feel more welcome than she had since she’d left her house today, so she decided to take a chance. “Casey, do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
The blonde woman shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”
Lex thought for a little while, unsure of where to begin. “Well, just so you know,” she finally said, “I did sign a confidentiality agreement. But I’m really not interested in anything secret; I’d just like to know what you think about your experience here. I’ve never been involved with anything like this before, so it’s all new to me. Do you like being part of this team?”
“Yeah, pretty much. It’s definitely more interesting than anything else I’ve done. I was just a farmer before, which was a whole lot less exciting than this.”
“A farmer? How did they…ah…recruit you?” Lex asked.
“Well, the farm had been doing badly for a few years,” Casey recalled, “so we decided that someone should look for a job to bring in some extra money. Since we lived near the capital, I decided to apply for a few secretarial-type jobs through the state government. I’d done all right in my typing classes in high school and thought maybe I could do that kind of work for a while. Well, I didn’t ever hear back from the state, but several weeks later I did hear from the folks here.”
Apparently they don’t just restrict themselves to scooping up people applying for federal service, Lex thought. “So, I guess you never had any experience with this sort of thing when they took you on, either,” she said aloud.
“True. I think that’s the case with most of us,” Casey replied. “Except for Joan; she was in the military before. It’s hard to tell, though. Not everyone wants to talk about what they did before they came here.”
“So, if you had to make the decision over to take this job, knowing what you know now, would you do it?” Lex asked, watching for Casey’s reaction carefully.
Casey looked Lex in the eye and gave a short laugh. “You’re right to the point, aren’t you? I like that.” After considering the question for a while, Casey nodded. “I think I would. There are drawbacks, but I’ve experienced things because of this job that I never would have in a lifetime on the farm. Not all of them have been good, but I think that in my case the balance is to the good.”
”But,” Casey continued, looking Lex in the eye again, “that doesn’t mean that you’ll have the same experience. I’m guessing that since you came here on your own that you live in the city already. A lot of the things that interested me involved coming here to begin with, so that’s not going to mean a thing to you. Plus, if they told you this isn’t just a job, don’t think they were kidding. There are some good things about that and some bad, too.”
Lex had opened her mouth to ask more about that last comment, but closed it again as three other women walked into the room. Clara she recognized, but the other two women Lex hadn’t met yet. The first one stood about Lex’s height with fiery bright red hair and a very light complexion. In order to show off her long, slim legs and extensive cleavage, the redhead wore a form-fitting green dress with a deep V neckline. The woman grinned somewhat wolfishly at Lex, who gave a cautious smile in return.
The other unknown woman was tall and wiry; not as tall as Casey, but a good foot taller than Lex. Lex thought she looked somewhat older than the rest of them, and noticed that her face seemed weathered and had a bit of a tan that looked permanent, as if she’d spent a good deal of time outdoors at some point in her life. She wore her hair long and loose over her shoulders, and Lex guessed its color was what people meant when they said “platinum blonde” since it didn’t quite look like grey hair. A pink tank top and camouflage pants completed the blonde’s look, and she leaned forward to shake Lex’s hand.
“Hi, I’m Joan Morgan,” she said.
“Lex McKilliam.”
The moment their hands met, Lex felt Joan’s slightly larger hand start to tighten around hers. Lex knew exactly what to do to deal with pressure handshakers, like her father, and so she matched Joan’s grip strength, looking her straight in the eye and smiling like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Joan stepped up the squeeze a few times, and each time Lex matched her, smiling more broadly as the handshake went on. Lex could hear Casey laughing in the background.
“I wouldn’t try her if I were you, Joan,” Casey said. “There’s a lot more there than what you can see.”
The edges of Joan’s eyes had started to tighten by this point. Lex could feel the pressure somewhere in the dim background, but nothing like the intensity she'd gotten used to when growing up. She could have kept it up for quite a while, but when she felt Joan’s hand relax, Lex let go immediately.
“Ha ha, you have quite a grip!” Joan said, smiling at Lex as if she were pleased.
Lex remembered her father sounding off with that type of fake laugh and briefly wondered if the military gave a course in it. She figured she should probably just nod at Joan and did so as she leaned back on the couch. The redhead quickly moved around everyone else and sat next to Lex, a little close in Lex’s opinion, and introduced herself as Serena Vitalé. Serena’s dress shone in the way silk usually did, and Lex also smelled expensive perfume as the other woman shifted on the couch. Trying not to think about the way Serena’s appearance contrasted with her own ripped skirt and painted shoes, Lex instead focused on the others in the room. Joan and Casey took seats on opposite sides of the couch facing Lex and Serena, and Clara pulled a chair to the space in front of the windows in between both couches.
“Riss, can you hear us?” Clara said, talking more loudly and looking up to the ceiling.
Lex looked up and saw a speaker over Clara’s head. Suddenly, a voice responded from that direction, the sound anonymized and flattened, probably by being run through a computer. “I can hear you, Clara. There’s no need to shout. Just speak normally.”
“All right. Can you see us as well?” Clara asked.
“Yes, I can see everyone. I’m in the middle of something and can’t come down, but I’ll watch and listen from here,” Riss responded.
Clara then looked
at all of the women in turn. “Now that we’re all here, I just wanted to reiterate that this is Lex’s acceptance interview. I know that Lily isn’t here right now, but we have enough team members present to take a vote today. If we need a tie breaker Lily can meet with Lex later, but Mr. Sauer thought Lex should talk to whoever was here today to see if we can make a decision now.”
Joan frowned slightly. “I don’t think we got advance notice about this, did we? I haven’t had a chance to review her file.”
Clara sighed. “Has anyone been keeping up with their candidate packets? I’ve been putting them together for everyone we’re considering so that you can review them as we bring people in for interviews. I sent Lex’s to you a few weeks ago.”
Casey snorted. “There’s no point in reading them in advance. We never have any idea who we’re going to be meeting with, since most of the people you pick fail their trials.”
Serena nodded. “It seems like most of them can’t pass the test, so why waste our time?” She looked at Lex again, curiously. “What about her trial?”
“Ah, yes,” Clara said, looking Serena in the eye. “Riss, I put together a clip of what turned out to be Lex’s trial. You can find it in my network folder; it will be named ‘McKilliam’ with today’s date. I know you’re in the middle of a project, but could you please queue it up to play on the main screen in the living room? I’ll set up the screen and everything, but if you could kick that off, I’d appreciate it.”
Something that sounded like a small exhale could be heard from the overhead speakers. “OK, give me a minute.”
Clara went to a panel at the front left corner of the room and pushed a few buttons. Curtains slid quietly over the windows as a viewing screen started to come down from the ceiling and the lights dimmed in that area. When it was halfway down, Lex began to see the footage of herself that she’d watched with Clara and Sauer earlier, the front view followed by the side view. Clara came back to the grouping and passed folders out to Casey, Serena, and Joan. “OK, take a few minutes to review Lex's information. Riss, you can find it on the network in Lex’s candidate folder. Once you’ve had time to look at it, we can go to questions and then vote.”
None of them seemed to be paying much attention to Clara, however. All eyes, except for Lex’s, were glued to the clip. Casey elbowed Joan and pointed at the screen at the point where Lex had glanced skyward. Serena gasped and Joan raised her eyebrows as Lex’s image suddenly got smaller. Lex could see the three of them watching intently as the side view came on, and then they all reacted as she jumped back.
“You could hardly see that!” Casey said, elbowing Joan.
“I don’t know,” Joan replied. “That film wasn’t tampered with, was it?”
Gasping, Serena looked at Lex somewhat narrowly and asked, “How did you do that?”
“I happened to see the bucket of paint coming, and I jumped back,” Lex explained.
Clara responded to Joan’s earlier question. “No, Joan, the security cameras captured this just over an hour ago. The only alteration to the film was that in preparation for this meeting I clipped the relevant sections and put them together so that all of you could watch it.”
Casey chimed in, “Yeah, Joan, plus I got to see most of it from the roof. She’s pretty quick.”
Joan gave Casey a hard look. “So, it was you who dropped that paint?”
“No, it was one of those idiot workmen on the roof. He really got on my nerves—”
“Ladies, please!” Clara glared at the two of them. “Can we stick to the point here? Are all of you satisfied with the trial?”
Joan looked over at Lex. “You did land a little clumsily.”
Lex raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t plan to have to jump around in my business suit. If I’d known, I would have worn something else entirely.”
Joan shrugged at Lex’s response and nodded. “Yes, I’m satisfied.”
Serena and Casey nodded as well, and the voice from the speakers said, “Agreed.”
Everyone began studying Lex’s folder then except for Clara, who’d brought out her laptop again to fiddle with it. Lex began to watch her image on the screen, jumping out of the way of the paint bucket again and again. She smiled after a few moments, realizing that she still could move pretty fast, even though she didn’t practice for nearly as many hours a day as she used to. Finally, she turned to look at the other women. Serena and Casey appeared to be reading the folder’s contents, while it looked as if Joan had finished. When Serena closed the folder after another few minutes, both she and Joan looked at Casey.
“You know I can feel you staring at me,” Casey said, still reading. “Just give me a few more minutes. Sheesh, you’d think the two of you think you’re geniuses because you’re done reading already.”
“I’m finished, as well,” came Riss’ voice from above.
Casey growled with even more irritation, but continued reading. After a few more minutes, Casey shut her folder and looked up at Clara. Clara looked around at everyone and nodded.
“All right,” she said, “now is your Q&A time. For Lex’s benefit, let me review the rules. You may feel free to ask whatever questions you like of Lex, but please try to keep them in the legal realm, according to what we’ve reviewed before,” she added, frowning slightly in Serena’s direction. Serena looked back at her with a bored expression.
“Lex,” Clara continued, “although I have encouraged, and continue to encourage, sticking to interview questions that are legal to ask, I have to add a warning to you. You are not under any obligation to answer any question that might be asked, but please understand that our final decision on whether or not to accept you into this team will depend on the positive votes of your potential team members, three of whom you see here, and one of whom you can hear over the speakers. They may cast their votes in any way they choose and are not obligated to explain why they voted one way or another. If there is a tie here, there is one more team member you haven’t met yet who will be asked to break it. I have to warn you, however, that if the majority of the women here vote against you, we will be unable to accept you as part of the team.”
Lex mentally sighed. I won’t be forced to answer any questions, she thought, but if I don’t answer them, I probably won’t stand a chance of getting voted onto the team. Well, hopefully they won’t ask anything too bad…
“OK,” Lex replied, “I think I understand.”
“All right,” Clara responded, with a nod. “Who would like to start?”
“I would,” said Casey, raising her hand. “Where are you from?”
Lex smiled. “I spent a little of my childhood in New England, but we moved here when I was about two, so this area is most of what I remember. I’ve lived in different places all over the DC metro area since then.”
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
“Two sisters and a younger brother.”
“How did your résumé end up with us?”
Lex smiled again. “Well, I applied for an analyst position at the Department of Health and Human Services a month ago, so I think that’s how it came to be here.”
Casey lifted an eyebrow. “What did you do before?”
Lex paused for a moment, wondering why Casey had used that tense. “I’ve worked as a business and systems analyst, and as a contractor to a number of different federal agencies.”
A noise could be heard over the speakers at that point that sounded like a thoughtful hum, and then Joan broke in. “Casey, some of this information was in the folder. I thought you read it?” She looked pointedly at Casey, but the other woman simply shrugged, leaned her arms behind her head on the couch, and stretched her feet out in front of her. “I just wanted to get Lex’s side of it. Besides, I’ve already made up my mind; I just wanted to get her warmed up for Joan the Griller.”
Joan glared at Casey at that point and then turned to Lex to begin her questioning. “How long were you in training with your father? What did you learn?”
Trying to retain a positive attitude regardless of Joan’s cold, demanding tone, Lex ran through the information about the martial arts training she’d received as a child and the same explanations about why it had stopped.
“That’s a shame. What an opportunity lost,” said Joan, shaking her head.
Lex struggled to continue smiling calmly and said nothing. Can’t fault me for not opening my mouth, she thought, her hand digging into the couch cushion a bit, feeling the threads of the loose weave dig into her fingertips.
Joan continued. “So, you studied under your father for almost 15 years, and all you got were two black belts and a brown belt? It sounds like you were resting on your laurels, to me.”
Lex felt her hand relax as she mentally drifted away from the situation a bit. It was like what happened those times her father had told her to stand in horse stance while he beat her with a kendo sword, trying to knock her over. The whole thing could last for quite some time, maybe an hour or so, but Lex had learned how to feel it only dimly while thinking of other things. She knew her face probably looked quite calm but expressionless, as it had been in the studio mirror. Lex took a calming breath and answered. “Well, those were the only forms my father knew. Also, I wasn’t allowed to rest at all while training under him.”
“What do you mean?” Joan asked, her tone still aggressive, almost angry.
“My father wanted to be sure that no one thought he was treating his daughter better, so once I got my black belts and my brown belt, he had me re-test on them every year, something that no other student had to do. He stripped me of them if I couldn’t do the forms perfectly, but he let me retest once a day until I got it right. He only stripped me of a belt twice, and never for longer than a week.”
Lex would prefer to forget all of those tests and the frantic weeks leading up to them. A blur of practicing, sometimes all night, with her father screaming about her being a miserable failure was about all she could recall anyway.