The girls felt well rested the following morning, especially after having some of Jack’s homemade waffles.
“There’s more if you want some, guys.”
“No, thanks, I couldn’t possibly eat any more.” Nikita called from the table.
“So what do you do, Jack?” Megan asked whilst brewing coffee.
“I study archaeology.”
“Wow, like Indiana Jones but minus the whip and fedora.”
“But I’d still rock that look.”
“I’m sure you would.”
“Any how back on topic…” Ruth started.
“It was just innocent banter.” Ruth said, crossing her heart.
“I think it’s so cool having someone else who knows absolutely everything about you. I’ve been feeling kind of isolated, even though I have Jesse.”
“Who is Jesse?” Megan asked excitedly.
“He’s British and he’s in a band. We had our first date the other night. He’s so sweet.”
“What about you?” Ruth asked Megan.
“Well, I did meet someone but it was actually before I went to work for Mama Goody. We were supposed to have our first date tonight but, for obvious reasons, I had to cancel.”
“May be you’ll see him again soon.” Nikita said hopefully.
“Okay, we’re getting off topic again here.” Ruth said.
“I know, Ruth. But can’t we take a moment to kind of bask in, you know… being back together.”
Jack sat back down at the table with more waffles and bacon as the girls sat silently holding hands.
“I’m not disturbing anything, am I? I can come back.”
“Don’t you go anywhere.” Ruth warned and they all laughed.
“So I was thinking,” Jack begun, “you girls need to work under the radar if you want to get back at Mama Goody.”
“Right, so?” Megan asked.
“Well, you can’t go by your codenames any more. If Mama was trying to keep her ‘ear to the ground’, so to speak, she’d be listening out for Hawkeye, Babydoll and Hotshot. I think you need to change your names.”
“That’s a good idea.” Ruth smiled.
“Yeah, I was thinking they should be something you can remember easily enough or somehow identify with yourself.”
“How do you mean?” Nikita asked.
“Well, take Megan, for example, she has the ability to control electricity, right? What about Live Wire?”
“Ooh, I like that. I never liked Babydoll, ever.”
“Yeah, and Nikita should have a name something to do with time like Meridian.”
“Ooh, that’s good.” Said Nikita happily.
“Okay, then what about me.”
“I was thinking,” Jack begun, “may be something like Termagant or Virago.” The other two girls burst out laughing. “It’s nothing to do with your powers, really, but it suits you.”
“He’s not wrong.” Megan said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
“I’ll go with Virago.”
“Cool,” Megan said, “so now we’re Live Wire, Meridian and Virago. Sounds much better than those stupid names Mama gave us.”
“So what do we do now?” Nikita asked, “I mean we don’t even know where she could’ve gone or what her real name is.”
“Well, we do know she went by the alias Renee Childress, may be, we’ll find something on Mama by looking out for Renee.”
“What about your Dad?” Megan asked, “He’s involved in this, may be, we should go find out what he’s up to. I know he wouldn’t be protecting her from the things I’ve heard but he might have an idea of where we could find her.”
“You want us to ask him?” Nikita asked, choking on her coffee.
“No, we follow him and hopefully he’ll lead us right to her.”
“Yeah, but you shouldn’t be doing the tail work, Nikki. And neither should you, Megan.”
“Why me?”
“What if he found out that you were Babydoll? It makes sense for me to go after him. He won’t be expecting it.”
“Is there anywhere she could be hiding?” Megan asked.
“Well, my Dad is building a new hotel in Nashville and I know he had Sigma hide in one of the recently furnished rooms…”
“Yeah, but we did just agree that he wouldn’t be protecting her.”
“I do agree but we can’t leave any stone unturned. We check it out, if she’s not there then no harm no foul.”
“I agree with Nikita.” Ruth said to stop Megan’s counter argument. “You guys go to Nashville and check out the hotel and I’ll go to Sweetwater to dig up dirt on Will.”
“I was in Sweetwater yesterday, the house was abandoned.” Said Megan.
“Well, may be there’ll be a clue there to lead me to Nikita’s Dad.”
“Okay, but don’t go alone.”
“She won’t be.” Jack said, putting an arm around Ruth. “I’ll go with her.”
“Just remember you don’t have super strength or powers like we do.” Megan said sagely.
“I’ll be careful.”
“What about Gunn?” Ruth asked.
“That trainer guy?”
“Yeah, we should try and get a hold of him and anyone else who was working at the club the night of the recruitment party.”
“Like Scarlet or Anton?”
“Who the hell are they?” Ruth asked Nikita.
“They were working on the front door that night.”
“Can we trust them?”
“Probably not but we need to try.”
“Well, then it’s settled.” Megan said. “Ruth and Jack will go to Sweetwater, Nikita will try to track down Gunn and anyone else working for Mama Goody and I’ll go check out the hotel in Nashville.”
YOU ARE READING
Close To Embers (formerly known as Modern Love)
Science FictionSP: Double crossed, cheated, victimised and torn - yet the girls are still standing strong. LP: Not even a week had passed since the girls had parted ways to do Mama Goody's bidding. They were successful, if not unorthodox, in their roles. Flame...
