Daniel Price - Slick

I was Superman.

And once I carried Harmony into the CNN building, I let her go, told her to be careful now, and flew back to my workplace before anyone even knew I was gone. I came back downstairs as Clark Kent, wearing only the tiniest hint of satisfaction on my innocent face.

“Did I miss anything?”

Of course, Clark Kent had the luxury of being surrounded by extremely dense people who couldn’t see through a pair of glasses. I had Madison. She turned away from CNN and looked at me like I’d just changed into a cocktail dress.

“What? What’s the matter?”

“She has the same phone,” Madison uttered, still working it all out. “Harmony Prince has the exact same phone as you.”

Oh. “So?”

“I just saw it. She was just talking on it while you were upstairs. Talking on yours.”

“Madison, what would you like to know?”

“I’d like to know what would happen if I took your phone, did a star-sixty-nine callback, and asked for Harmony Prince. That’s what I’d like to know.”

Expressionless, I sat down on the easy chair. I thought about it for a moment, but what else could I do? I handed her the phone.

“Well?”

My trusting assistant listened into the receiver, then handed the cellular back to me.

“Nothing,” she said. “It’s not working.”

Of course not. Our phones may have been big and weird but they were loaded with enough advanced technology to thwart the FBI. What chance did *69 have?

“Now do you want to ask me directly?”

She tried to maintain solid eye contact, but she didn’t have the confidence to pull it off.

“I’m sorry, Scott.”

“Don’t be sorry. Your suspicion isn’t so crazy. This is a very dirty business. People double-cross each other all the time.”

“But you’re not.”

“Not what?”

“Double-crossing Jeremy.”

Smiling softly, I shook my head. I fought the urge to call her “sweetheart.” Harmony had made me all too aware of my tendency to patronize.

“I’ve made mistakes, Madison, but I’ve never betrayed a client. And I have absolutely no intention of betraying this one. In fact, you could say I’m quite obsessed with saving his ass. Do you believe me?”

“Of course I do,” she said. “I’m just… It’s stupid. I did the same thing last week, when you were late. I just jumped to the craziest, darkest explanation and assumed that was it.”

Who was I to fault her? I used to wonder if she was secretly winning me over as a thirty-four-year-old deaf woman. Her miss was a lot closer than mine.

“I just get the feeling there’s a lot you’re not telling me,” she said.

“That’s because there’s a lot I’m not telling you.”

“Why?”

“Because as incredible as I think you are, you’re only thirteen. I have other responsibilities that I can’t share with you. I can’t even share the reasons I can’t share them with you. All I can say is have patience, have faith, and stick with me. Someday I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”

Madison curled her arms around her bunched knees, staring forward. “I know, Scott. I just—”

“—wish you could do more,” I finished. “Yes. You and me both. At least we can be frustrated together.”

She peeked up at the TV. CNN reminded us for the hundredth time that the hour of Harmony was nigh upon us.

“There has to be some way to stop her,” she said.

“How do you prove that someone wasn’t raped? Either we’d have to find hard evidence that she lied or she’d have to confess it herself, on record.”

“That’ll never happen.”

“Probably not,” I said, fighting to stay in character. “But it’d be a hell of a nice surprise.”

________________

At 5:55, Jean’s SUV returned to its now familiar spot at my front curb, near the hydrant. Madison shot to her feet the moment she heard the horn. This was not a nice surprise.

“Oh no! What is she doing? She’s early!”

Normally, Jean would be right on time, but today there was a schedule change. At the beginning of her shift, Madison asked if she could stay to watch Larry King Live with me. I told her it was fine as long as her mother approved. Using her two-way pager, Madison buzzed Jean. Jean buzzed back. Everything was spiffy. Except…

“Shit! She always does this! She always flakes out on me!”

“Hey, it’s okay.”

“It’s not okay! I wanted to stay! Now I can’t!”

“Sure you can.”

“She’s not going to want to drive home and come back in an hour!”

“Of course not.”

“So what are we going to do? Make her wait out there?”

“No,” I replied in a calming tone. “We’re going to invite her in.”

From Madison’s reaction, I might as well have suggested we all take a shower together.

“Oh my God. You can’t be serious.”

“I thought you didn’t have a problem with us talking.”

“Scott, you only deal with her electronically. You have no idea what she’s like in person.”

I had some. “Listen, you don’t have to convince me she’s nuts. I know it. She knows it. But she also knows that this is your workplace, and she respects that.”

“She doesn’t respect anything I do! All she does is ruin things!”

“Look at me.”

Madison wasn’t in good shape, but I never felt better. I was still crackling with superhumanity. In my elevated consciousness, my floating-lotus position, I was sure I could heal at least some of the damage between mother and child.

“I know she embarrasses you, but there’s nothing she can say or do to make me think any less of you. What you do, however, is very important. Now you can freak out, and freak me out, or you can invite her in and impress the hell out of both of us.”

She glared at me in hot umbrage. “I’m not freaking out.”

“Prove it.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

Instead of moving toward the door, she stood at the window and signed. They had a natural wireless connection. How cool.

She spoke along with her hands. “I said seven. Seven!” She sneered. “Yeah. ‘Whoops.’ Just park the car and come in.” She shrugged brusquely. “It wasn’t my idea. It was Scott’s. Just come in.”

Madison turned around and plopped down in the easy chair. She shot me a scowl. “She won’t want to watch TV.”

“Then I’ll give her something to read. Go let her in.”

She got up and shuffled toward the door. “You know, you might find this hard to believe, but I don’t live to impress you.”

I smiled. “And that’s just one of the many reasons you do.”

Madison left to get her mother. I really couldn’t blame her for being upset. She’d built a nice haven for herself here. The last thing she wanted was her mother storming in, bringing all the family baggage. Mom herself didn’t seem too keen on the idea. I would love to see the Madison that you see , she’d typed two days ago. I only hope you never get the Madison that I get.

Well, one of us was in for an education. And that was just the sideshow to what was happening on TV. I put a blank tape in the VCR and began recording. It was six o’clock. Zero hour. For a hundred and fifty million television sets around the world, Harmony was just a click away.