The Imperceptible Woman, Part 2
Business not as usual.
Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.
No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.
Previously: Alyssa was on her way to a dental hygiene symposium when she overheard an invisible woman’s murderous thoughts. Meanwhile, the Terran is keeping Miranda, Ken, and Carey plenty busy.
Part 2
Alyssa had lost track of the woman’s mind, but she knew where the invisible assassin was headed. Her target, Pete Peterson, was the owner and CEO of PRAM—Peterson Research, Advertising, and Marketing—one of the city’s top employers.
PRAM shared a skyscraper with several other companies and occupied the upper levels. Alyssa blended into the sea of business casual that flowed into the spacious lobby. The high ceiling did little to improve the fluorescent lights, which sterilized the souls of all who passed beneath them. Numerous voices, both audible and mental, all settled down as people shifted into their professional personas and turned their focus to the imminent workday.
Alyssa listened for anyone with murderous intent, but she couldn’t isolate much among the tepid cacophony. She followed the crowd to the elevators lining the rear wall, keeping an eye out for anyone bumping against solid air or inexplicably tripping over their own feet.
Nothing. The invisible assassin was stealthy.
PRAM employees were not, however. Company branding adorned backpacks and water bottles, so Alyssa followed the logos into one of the elevators. She slipped in right before the doors could close.
“Which floor?” asked the polo shirt–wearing young man who stood near the buttons. The number 85 was already lit up.
“Yep, that’s it,” Alyssa said. “Thanks.”
She inserted herself among the group, a few of whom wondered who she was. They at least vaguely recognized the others, but Alyssa was a new face. And they had just completed their annual security training within the past month.
As the elevator climbed the skyscraper, Alyssa climbed into each head. She didn’t go deep, didn’t need to. Work was top of mind.
The employees were not a talkative bunch. One sipped her coffee, which scented the carriage and masked the cheap shampoos. The silence was comfortable and habitual, giving the tall man just a little too much time to wonder why Alyssa didn’t have a laptop bag. His name was Hector. Alyssa heard it because he was about to introduce himself and ask if she was new. She also got the general sense that he mistook his height for leadership ability.
Alyssa spoke first. “Good Lord, these elevator rides are like a whole second commute. They should let us clock in on the ground floor.”
“I know, right?” the coffee drinker said. Alyssa picked out her name—Linda—in case it came in handy, as well as a few other details.
“At least they’re giving us the Friday before Labor Day,” Alyssa said. “That was a nice surprise at the firmwide meeting.”
“Four-day weekend can’t come soon enough,” Linda said, kicking off some polite discourse on the fleeting nature of weekends. A couple others joined in, including Hector, who kept an eye on Alyssa, trying to connect the face to a name. He didn’t want to cause any scene, but the call of duty beckoned.
A scrawny guy with hunched shoulders nodded along and kept quiet. So, Alyssa talked to him.
“Oh, hey, Mark—nice job on that airline presentation. Sorry your computer froze up right in the middle. Technology sucks sometimes.”
“Thanks. Yeah, it does.”
“My computer completely crashed,” Alyssa continued. “I have to pick up a new one from IT this morning.”
“It was that bad that they actually gave you a new computer?” Hector said, his tone friendly, his suspicions fading but not yet gone. “I’ve been trying to get mine replaced for months.”
“Yeah, feels like I won the lottery or something,” Alyssa said.
The elevator finally opened at the eighty-fifth floor. The group disembarked and headed toward a line of locked glass doors. Mark pressed his key fob against a scanner, and a door clicked in response. Hector held it open as gentlemanly instincts warred with his security training. But he did recognize most of these faces, and he had no real evidence against the unfamiliar one. So, Alyssa strolled right on in.
Hector kept an eye on her for another moment. She had said she needed to pick up a new laptop, so Alyssa quickly gleaned the location of IT and headed in that direction. She soon turned a corner and escaped Hector’s responsibly suspicious glances.
The desks sprawled out across a vast room, each set up in a forebodingly identical manner, separated by rather short dividers. The uniformity stretched nearly all the way to a long, full-length window, leaving only a narrow, carpeted walkway as a buffer between the workers and the outside world.
Scattered employees occupied half the desks as other colleagues trickled in. Alyssa claimed a vacant one and attempted to tame the many thoughts cramming into her skull, some of which were her own.
Droplets of water splattered against the window. The sideways rain had gotten heavier even though the sun persisted. One guy stood there, gazing out; so high up and yet so tied down. Alyssa heard him hoping for a glimpse of the super-fight. He justified lingering another minute before he’d need to start working, and he expected his day to peak here. The thrills of social media marketing could not compete with the thrills of superheroes in action.
Alyssa agreed. It was thrilling in its way. But it was also bizarre, unnatural, and deadly. This guy wouldn’t be so enchanted if he had watched Doctor Hades murder a prisoner.
The window watcher hopped back as a flash cut across his view. The Golden Gladiator steadied himself and floated mere inches outside the glass. He cocked a grin and waved at the office, then launched himself at the Terran.
Carey battled the villain eighty-five stories above the street. Alyssa rose from the chair to see it with her own eyes. Others were doing the same. They hesitated to get too close, but they needed to see. This spectacle would never happen again. Another day might produce a different spectacle, but this spectacle was unique and irreplaceable.
Alyssa drifted toward the window, keeping an eye on the Terran, remembering the thick dirt climbing up her body and face, trapping her, suffocating her. If he veered close enough, she could tag him with a mental blast—it might make all the difference.
Emerald lasers fired at the Terran, who rode the winds out of harm’s way and closer to the window. Alyssa quickened her pace. She wondered where Miranda and Ken were—why was Carey fighting solo? What had the Terran done to them? What was she missing out there?
Golden gauntlets pummeled the villain, and the combatants hurtled down the block as they wrestled across the sky. Alyssa had her own villain to pursue.
The employees chatted about the brief action they witnessed. They speculated about what else might be going on. Some even expressed concerns for their safety and hoped that the fight caused no collateral damage. Many were happy for the excuse to procrastinate. None noticed Alyssa as she ducked into a tiny room containing only a desk, chair, and landline phone.
The company had set aside a few rooms like this so employees could make private calls during the workday. This room intended for privacy had a glass door, so Alyssa held her cell phone to her ear while she scanned the office for the invisible assassin.
All the Golden Gladiator excitement created a noisy obstruction. Different tactic then. Alyssa just needed to know how to get to Peterson’s office. Glancing out the door, she selected a seasoned-looking fellow and picked his brain.
Peterson, his senior staff, and their various assistants had the ninetieth floor to themselves. Only two ways to access it: an executive elevator and an executive staircase, both off-limits to the hoi polloi, barring an executive summons.
The potential killer was approaching the elevator. Utterly confident in her invisibility, she was in no rush and had even enjoyed lurking unseen among her former co-workers. But now she was ready to get on with business.
Screw stealth, Alyssa thought as she ran out the room and dashed down the hall.
Employees hugged the walls to let her pass. They were curious about why this woman was running down the hall, though they all hoped that someone else would stop her and demand answers.
Emerging from the hall, Alyssa slowed down and reoriented herself. Another sea of desks greeted her, as well as another long window. In the distant sky, a fire monster battled Miranda.
Let it distract the PRAM staff. Alyssa couldn’t let it distract her. She had an elevator to catch.
A tall man rose from a desk and smiled politely at Alyssa.
“How’s the new laptop?” Hector asked. The damn busybody.
“Sorry, can’t talk now!”
Alyssa broke off into a run, not caring how suspicious Hector became. It wouldn’t matter if she didn’t catch that killer right now.
A single elevator was built into the side wall, and it went only up from here. And the “up” button glowed a soft white. No one seemed to notice or care. Between the outside super-battle and their own work, it was hardly a detail worth noticing, especially since no one appeared to be waiting for the elevator.
Alyssa perceived the woman, though, if only her thoughts. Yuna, her name was. Alyssa was nearly close enough to zap her brain.
The doors opened, and Yuna boarded.
Alyssa sprinted as the doors closed. She lunged forward and stuck a hand between them. Right as it seemed they might crush her fingers, the doors parted and she stumbled inside, breathing heavily as she stared at the invisible assassin. The doors finished closing this time.
How does she see me? Curious. But not that curious.
Yuna thought about her dagger, which she now thrust at Alyssa.