Super: Origins

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...