Page 1 of Breathless Recruiter

1

“Wyatt, what did you do?”

Arthur stood in the doorway, his arms folded. The boss’s tie didn’t have a pristine knot, and his dress shirt had creases. Should I offer fix his tie? Or was that overstepping boundaries? I shot him a quick smile, flashing teeth. Arthur raised a curious eyebrow. Too much smile? I pulled back, a simple upturned lip.

Ignoring Arthur’s question, I plopped down in my chair. I folded my hands on the table. The new-office smell reminded me of the interior of my spaceship. Clean. New. Futuristic. The way it made my nose tickle catapulted me four light-years away to myfirsthome.

“Paldi Fruit. Yellow. Acidic. Sour.” I remembered that, but almost nothing else about my home world.

With another deep inhale, I closed my eyes. After ten years on Earth, the memory from my first home remained blurry and unrecognizable. However, in my Earth home; I could clearly make out the brown bowl Earth Mom had kept on the kitchen counter. Her rustic decor would look out of place in the modernized break room. Everything here had been coloredshades of gray, and even the silver fridge made it cold. No worries, I made sure we kept a homey feeling.

“Wyatt…” Arthur has resorted to stroking his face down to his thick beard. In fact, all of him was thick… at least for a human. While his lips held a firm curl, it didn’t reach his eyes. When he tried being the stern boss, he remained a teddy bear. “Did you get rid of the new chairs?”

A quick nod. “Yes! They were… new,toonew. They smelled funny.”

Orion entered, moving toward his usual seat. Unlike Arthur, Orion’s beard ended at his ears, and his bald head reflected the overhead light. I wondered if his chest and belly had hair the color of his beard or if it was smooth like his scalp?

Orion rolled his eyes as he sat. “They smelled clean.” For the longest time, I thought Orion’s superpower allowed his eyeballs to roll around in his head. Janet explained it’s a different type of superpower. Orion talked to machines, and he said they talked back to him. He and the refrigerator were always in a heated debate.

“I’m with Wyatt on this,” Drew said. I liked Drew. He gave my shoulders a squeeze as he moved to his usual wooden rocking chair with a missing spindle along the back. “I liked the old building better. Now it feels like we’re in a lab.”

“L-Word!” I tensed at its mention. I didn’t likethatword. Every time somebody said it, I had flashbacks to my arrival on Earth and men in white coats doing experiments. Bad men. I shook my head, pushing away the memory of their masked faces.

“I’m so sorry.” Drew gave my forearm a squeeze. Unlike Orion, Drew had hair. Janet described him as scruffy and fluffy, which I learned was a loving way of calling him a chubby bear. His hair and beard were always chaotic as if he drove to work with his head out the window. “Can I do anything?—”

“I’m okay. Thank you, friend.”

Arthur plopped down in his office chair, covered in duct tape. Duct tape. For the longest time, I thought the silver material had been made from ducks. The first time a duck chased me in the park, I realized they weren’t sticky at all. Ducks were tiny feathered quackers.

“We should get this meeting started,” Arthur said. “Welcome to the new and improved Secret Identities Incorporated.” He never looked comfortable when wrangling us. I didn’t know if it was because he hated it when we called him boss or because he was the only one in the room without powers. With or without, Arthur would always be a hero in my book.

“The fridge is happy to join the team,” Orion said.

Arthur’s eyebrow crept up his forehead. “Thanks? Now, if the fax machine would stop being mean.”

“Sorry, she still hates you.”

Drew leaned across the table, hand stretched toward the boss. “It’s okay. We still respect you.” Drew tried hard to make sure everybody felt welcome. If I was having a bad day, he’d leave a Fudgy bar on my desk. Thinking about the rich, milky chocolate had me licking my lips.

Arthur shook his head. He did that a lot, especially when speaking with me. “Obviously, it’s our first day in the new building. Ricardo has graciously let us take over the fourth floor. We can thank his connection to Hudler Enterprises for the new digs. You’ll find your offices are fully decked out with the company’s newest technology. Get comfortable with it.”

Arthur’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Orion.

Orion held his tablet while his eyes radiated a vibrant blue light. Somewhere he and a machine were most likely debating whether mankind had landed on the moon. “Fine. I’ll play nice.”

“This will be a change after spending the last month in Janet’s garage,” Arthur said. “I’ll be happy to never deal with her biker friends.”

Drew nodded. “Helga was insistent that I ride her hog.”

“I’d like to not have that image in my head.” Arthur leaned forward, cupping his hands together as he rested on his elbows. “It’s a new office, but our goal is still the same. We’ve been working for six months to officially launch the HeroApp™. The beta has been out for a month with excellent results. I’m proud to say we’re ready to bring it to all of Vanguard. It’s going to save innocent Vanguardians from superhero fallout.”

That had been the original goal of Arthur’s program. When I applied for the job, he hadn’t realized its potential. It still protected innocents, but now it also served as a way for heroes to coordinate their efforts. At our first meeting, he admitted to knowing we each had secret identities. We tried playing dumb, but even with my glasses, he figured out my alter ego. He asked to use our experience as heroes to make his project something that would change the way supers did their jobs.

“Wyatt has been working tirelessly to recruit heroes. Not only will innocent people be able to use it, but heroes will have the ability to spot villains in real time. The heroing game is about to change.”

“Good job, Wyatt.”

“Thanks, Drew.” I couldn’t hide my smile. When Arthur made me the head recruiter for the app, I didn’t know what it’d entail. My only other job before this had been at Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! and that hadn’t ended well.

---