Supersymmetry by David Walton

it before.”
    Nicole raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
    â€œI’m going to go down there and be seen,” Oronzi said. He took a deep breath and let it out. “I’ll tell them I’ve just been up here in the lab, working. You need to keep her safe, Nicole.”
    â€œAnd why should I do that?”
    â€œBecause if you don’t, I’ll tell them all who you really are.”
    Nicole glared. “You know that’s not in your best interest.”
    â€œNicole, it’s important. She’s not guilty, and we both know it. Now make sure she stays safe while I go put in an appearance.”
    Nicole looked mutinous, but didn’t object. Alex was seriously regretting coming here. She should have gone to her uncle’s friend. She wouldn’t last an hour in this place.
    A panel above the door buzzed and flashed red. “Too late,” Oronzi said. “Somebody’s here.” He turned to Alex. “Hold still,” he said. “Don’t move, don’t speak. Don’t even breathe.”
    Alex opened her mouth to protest, but the look in his eyes silenced her. The bank vault door swung slowly open. Five men came into the room, all of them wearing dark suits.
    â€œDr. Oronzi,” one of the men said, a quiet menace in his voice. “We’ve been looking for you for some time.”
    â€œI’m a busy man,” Oronzi said.
    â€œI’d like to talk to you about that.”
    â€œAnd you are?”
    The man gave a thin smile. “Agent Clark, FBI.”
    â€œThis is my colleague, Dr. Wu,” Oronzi said, indicating Nicole.
    â€œWe’ve met,” Clark said.
    To Alex’s astonishment, no one looked at her or seemed to notice her at all. She obeyed Oronzi’s instructions, standing as still as possible. Clark asked Oronzi to accompany him downstairs. Oronzi went out with him, leaving Alex alone with Nicole.
    Nicole smirked at her. “Not as eye-catching as you thought, are you?”
    â€œHe made me invisible,” Alex breathed, hardly believing it. “He teleported me up eight stories, through solid walls, and then made me invisible.”
    Nicole shrugged. “If you say so.”
    â€œHow many more tricks are you hiding up here?”
    â€œYou’re not cleared for that.”
    â€œDon’t play games with me. I shot someone today, and that might not have happened if you weren’t keeping so many secrets. I think I’ve earned the right to a few answers.”
    â€œYou’ve put our whole operation in jeopardy, and now you’ve gotten Ryan tangled up in it,” Nicole said. “You haven’t earned the right to anything.”
    â€œHow long have you known about the varcolac? The intelligence, I mean?”
    Nicole rolled her eyes. “That’s Ryan’s crazy theory. I never put much stock in it, and neither should you. Complex phenomena do not require malicious intelligent aliens to explain them. If you ask me, the best thing you can do is turn yourself in.”
    â€œAnd if you ask me,” Alex said, “the best thing you can do is stop lying to yourself to protect your precious lab, or your career, or whatever it is you’re afraid of losing if you admit the truth to yourself. This creature is real, and it isn’t going to stop here. Your boss might be a bit crazy, but he’s right about this.”
    As she spoke, Alex brought up her eyejack display. She queried the available local networks, and found only one. Of course—the lab was a Faraday cage, so no signals were getting in any more than they were getting out. It was an entirely isolated network, closed to the outside world. Which meant that the security from inside the lab was minimal—all the efforts had been expended toward keeping people out. The network followed the same interface that her team at Lockheed had designed, and her eyejack system connected to it without objection.
    â€œI’m just