Page 5 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

"Well, I don't need to know, but I can help with your hair. Langley could do it better than I could, though. Movie star quality. I'm strictly amateur hour."

Lizzy chuckled. "Let's just say I don't care about being starlet blonde. Better a little harlot blonde."

"Lizzy, you say the damndest things!" Jane said with a mock gasp and a trailing giggle. "When do you need to do this?"

"Now? It's early, but I just made a pot of strong coffee, and I'll make you pancakes to go with it if you hurry. I bought blueberries yesterday. If I don’t use them up, they will rot in my fridge. Come to think of it, you can take the extra home."

"Blueberry pancakes, strong coffee, and ‘harlot-blonde’ Lizzy? I have the day off, it turns out. I'm there! Give me forty minutes."

Lizzy ended the call, poured herself a coffee, and liberated the pantry and refrigerator items needed for pancakes. She satand sipped the brown-black brew, staring into it between sips, dark. She could not see the bottom of her cup…and it reminded her of Darcy's eyes.

***

The other honeypot mission was over a year after the first. This time, Lizzy knew about it going in, although the situation was vastly different. Her mission was to push a Company asset to resume his work on cryptologic algorithms.

What made this worse was that she liked the man, though not in a romantic sense. She admired his keen mind and quiet, quick humor. But he’d had no experience with women and was shy around them. Upon meeting Lizzy, he fell fast. She kept him interested and hoping for more than friendship. With her encouragement, the asset returned to his CIA-funded research with vigor.

Then she vanished, the exit orchestrated by the Company?a note in his departmental mailbox and a few withdrawn and withdrawing texts.

Lizzy hated herself the whole mission.

The memory plagued her periodically ever after, though she always pushed the remembrance aside. Better to let her sleeping lies lie.

***

The two women looked into the mirror. Lizzy was in a kitchen chair, a towel around her shoulders. The dyeing was done.

Jane had done a good job, given the boxed dye and her amateur status. The color was even with no dark roots. It was brassy, very light, edging toward white blonde. At first, Lizzy felt as if a stranger was gazing back at her from the mirror. The hair made her complexion seem slightly darker. Her eyes, too?thebright hair brought them forward, making her gaze seem more intense.

"Well," Jane said, tilting her head one way and then another, "that'ssurprising! I don't know if I like it, but I don'tnot-likeit. It's like someone dipped you in a vat of Cindy Lauper." They both laughed, and then she began to humGirls Just Want to Have Fun.

Lizzy hummed along, too, but then stopped. "Wait, wasn't Lauper's hair red…or reddish when that song came out?"

Jane chuckled as she shrugged. "Maybe. Butbrassy—like you."

Lizzy stood, and Jane helped her with the towel. They walked back into the kitchen together, to the table still covered by breakfast dishes. Lizzy's Company phone also sat on the table.

Grabbing the half-empty coffee pot, Lizzy poured them both more coffee. Once she returned the pot to the coffee maker, she sat down. Jane, who had continued humming, stopped and gave her a careful glance. "So. Honeypot assignment? Not asking for details, but wondering about the hair."

Lizzy nodded, her nod small. "Yeah."

"Non-gentlemen prefer blondes?"

"Something like that. It's an odd assignment, a team thing."

One of Jane's eyebrows levitated. "Really? I didn't think you did the team thing? ‘Lizzy against the world’?"

"Kellynch's choice, not mine. The team."

Jane pursed her lips and frowned. She had never liked Kellynch. Although she was a successful recruiter, she had turned her back on her previous analyst job in the Company. Kellynch never quite forgave her for that; he considered her taking the recruiting job as her demoting herself, becoming less serious, less essential. Frivolous. Their very different attitudes toward the director caused the only tension between Lizzy and Jane.

"He's an ass, Liz. He likes you, but you shouldn't let that keep you from seeing him for what he is: an ambitious, stingy, career bureaucrat, part of the Eternal Boobocracy."

"And you sayIsay the damndest things!" Lizzy shook her head. "But I do keep an eye on him."

Jane gave her an unconvinced look. "So, when do you leave?"

"Later today, I think. I haven't heard yet. My go-bag's ready. And now, with my new hair, I'm fully prepared."

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