Max woke up the next morning very grumpy. Her hand was bruised and slightly swollen, and her ego even more so. She rolled out of bed and padded downstairs to the kitchen barefoot. Apparently someone was already awake, there was a fresh pot of coffee waiting. She poured a cup and headed out for the paper.
Max opened the front door, but all that remained of the newspaper was a largish pile of ashes which was blowing away as she stared at it. She sighed and closed the door. Guess I'll watch the news today. Max let loose a string of expletives as she turned to find Dominique right behind her. "WHAT?!" Dominique raised one eyebrow in mild surprise. "Ze paper is destroyed. I came to tell you." "You need to stop sneaking around all the time, you are freaking me out!"
Dominique smiled, and retreated to the living room, where she sat on the couch, sipping a cup of black coffee and smoking a cigarette. "I put ze news on. Some interesting stories."
Grainy photos of Lucy Diamond and Henchman Scud appear on the screen. "Lucy Diamond spotted on US soil for the first time in over two years! Next! After this commercial break."
It was Max's turn to raise her eyebrow. Lucy Diamond's back! I can't believe it. I'd almost thought she'd retired and become a hermit, or got knocked up by some boy toy and settled down to have millions of babies. She paused. That henchman looked familiar though. I just can't place him. "Hey Dom, does this guy look familiar to you?" Max thought about that question. She wondered if every guy looked familiar to Dominique. Dom looked at the photo on the television without much curiosity. "Non. I have never seen 'im."
As if to disagree with her, all of the communicators around the house started to ring out the alarm. Mr. Phipps was blaring out at all of them to wake up. Max jumped up off of the couch and headed to the stairs to make sure Amy and Janet were awake. She glanced back at Dominique. "Oui, I'll get ready. And I know, 'no boys upstairs after ze curfew.'" Max paused, grinned at her, and said, "I didn't know this time." She wagged an accusing finger at her. The alarm had definitely brightened her mood. She turned and ran up the stairs, two at a time.
"AMY! JANET! Wake up! Let's go!" Max slammed the door of her room and pulled on her skirt, shirt, tie and boots. She slid her hand cannon into the holster she had strapped at the small of her back and flung her door back open. She knocked once and opened Janet's door. "Let's go!" "Have you seen my gun?" Max set her jaw and stared Janet down. "No, I haven't. You have 3 minutes." She closed Janet's door and moved down the hallway to Amy's room. Amy opened her door just as Max was grabbing for the doorknob. "Seriously Bobby, stop calling me!" Max flinched at the unexpected scream in her face. She scowled at Amy and headed down the stairs and out to the VW.
Dominique, Janet and Amy piled into the Beetle and Max floored it out of the driveway. In a ridiculously short amount of time, they were at the Debs campus diner, seated at the booth reserved for the Top Squad. Max and Dom on one side of Mr. Phipps, Amy and Janet on the other.
"We have a special guest with us this morning. Ms. Petrie." "Oh my god, she never comes here!"
Ms. Petrie ported in to the diner, right in front of the Deb Squad's table. "Ladies." Max jumped on this opportunity to try and get herself noticed. "Ms. Petrie I just wanted to say what a pleasure it is to finally meet you..." "No time for pleasantries. Phipps, a matter of some urgency has come to my attention. Lucy Diamond is back in the states."
Max exclaimed, "Oh my god, the rumors on the news were true!" Dominique nodded at Max, "Oh shit!" Amy's reaction was somewhat excited and hopeful, "You're kidding! I'm writing my thesis on her!" Max raised an eyebrow at Amy's exclamation.
Ms. Petrie looked hard at Phipps. "I expect to be kept in the loop on this one. Let's show some hustle!" She then made a dramatic exit, winking out of existence, leaving a whoosh of air behind in her wake. All Max could think of to say was, "Wow." She had half believed the news reports were gossip. Amy let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "I can't believe she's back."
Janet was confused by the entire last few minutes. "Who is Lucy Diamond?" Phipps took this as his cue to start their briefing. He went over Lucy Diamond's history, impressive resume, list of known accomplices, and her terrifying reputation. Amy looked again at the now familiar photos she'd come to stare at quite often while writing her thesis. This time however, she couldn't help but notice some similarities between Lucy Diamond and another (perhaps the same) Lucy she knew.
Max was also again looking at the photos, the same she had seen earlier on the news. She had that feeling again that she recognized 'Scud'. But once again, she couldn't place him. Her food arrived, and her train of thought was interrupted. "So um, why do you think she's back in town?"
Phipps opened a new holographic image, this time of a young blond woman, probably close to the age of the Debs sitting at the table. "Our intel suggests she is in town to meet this woman, Ninotchka Kaprova. Ex-KGB, now freelance assassin. They are scheduled to meet tonight at 2000 hours. Find out what Lucy is up to. Strictly surveillance. Do not try to apprehend her yourselves. Max you're in charge, Amy, you're second. And Debs, be careful."
The four girls sat with their own thoughts for the next few minutes. Amy wondering about the two Lucys. Max, excited about a real, and possibly dangerous mission. Janet slightly terrified, deciding what exactly she should do about the fact that she had not only kicked Lucy Diamond's henchman's ass in foosball but exchanged emails with him as well. Dominique, dragged only slightly out of her boredom by the Lucy Diamond news, was watching the busboy bend over to clear off a table.
Lucy handed a bag of ice to Scud. "You said what?! Scud, have you no tact? It's called a 'blind date' for a reason. You had no idea what this girl looked like, so you go and...ugh!"
Scud looked up at her from his chair. "I know...I don't know. I...I decided to have a drink and calm my nerves. You know how I get when I drink gin."
Lucy couldn't help but laugh at that. "You tried to calm your nerves with a drink that you know makes you anxious and crazy?" Scud shrugged. "I asked the bartender to make me something that tasted good, but didn't look too girly. He poured me something he called a 'Negroni'. It was yummy. I didn't find out until I was well into my second that it had gin."
Lucy shook her head. "The way Mad Max looked last night, I'd guess you are lucky she just clocked you in the jaw. Looks like you'll live." Scud looked up at her and tried to smile, but it turned into a painful grimace. "Hopefully your date will go better than mine." Lucy had forgotten about her date. She groaned aloud. "Cancel it."
She got up and walked out of Scud's area of the evil lair, moving towards her own. Scud got up, chasing after Lucy, "Oh no you don't. I went to mine, you need to go. It's all set up!"
"Scud..." she stopped, turned around and looked at him. "I got punched. In the face."
"You've got a date tonight with a beautiful Russian assassin, and you're going to show up. Lucy..."
"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes. He stared her down, not letting her off the hook on this one. "Ok, I'll show up. But if my date is as bad as yours...I might be more pissed at you than Mad Max was."