Time and again, p.12
Time & Again, page 12
She might just decide to drink the whole damn bottle. And, finding herself blessedly alone as she had, she'd be drinking as much as she pleased in a comfortable silk georgette shift, floppy sun hat, and oversized sunglasses with her hair pulled back in a low ponytail.
There was a time when she'd never have dared set foot on her terrace looking anything other than flawless. In the days when she was in the business of seducing Jaccob, she'd carefully curated every look that might be visible from his place across the sky from hers. There was a period of several months when one of the things that mattered most to her was what impression she might be making on her handsome neighbor if he happened to glance over.
These days, she could not care less whether she looked alluring while sipping tequila in the sun.
These days her romantic life was as satisfying and uncomplicated as it had ever been. For one thing, she had Vivienne, who understood her on a level maybe no one else ever had. From her associations with the music world, her understanding of magics, and her own unresolved feelings where Jaccob Stevens was concerned, Vivienne just ... got it. Adding the fact that the two of them were very intentionally not exclusive and perfectly happy when the other found satisfaction with another partner--provided it didn't foul up any plans they'd made together--meant this was perhaps the most stress-free relationship Ruby had ever known.
She was fully content and fulfilled in her personal life for what might have been the first time ever.
So, of course, the universe had fucked with her. Of course she'd had to yank Jaccob Stevens back into her orbit just as she was getting comfortable.
She knocked back the last of the tequila in her glass and immediately refilled it.
This might have been her fourth refill, or maybe her fifth. It didn't so much matter; a little tequila buzz never hurt anyone. She'd only just taken her next sip when a vexing and unmistakable sound reached her ears.
Ruby rolled her eyes and wished silently for the Stardust suit to be both outbound and on the other side of the building. She had a strong feeling that, now they were back on what he'd think of as speaking terms, her friendly neighborhood superhero would consider it impolite not to pop over and say hello were he to fly by when not on his way to an emergency.
She really didn't want to have to deal with him right now.
Or ever.
At all.
But she could tell within moments she wouldn't be getting that wish today. Back when she and Jaccob were involved, Ruby had learned how to triangulate the distance and direction of the Stardust suit in flight just from the sound of its repulsors. And in this moment, he was over the plaza, closing at a casual speed, and would be flying past her seat just soon enough there was no chance of scurrying inside in time for a clean getaway.
Best to sit still and hope he didn't notice her.
Not that there was any real chance of that.
He was waving at her as he came in for a landing on her patio just far enough away from where she sat to keep the suit's jet wash from blowing her dress or her hair out of place.
Infuriatingly polite, that man.
~
"Heya, happy Saturday!" Jaccob said, stepping toward her. "Whatcha doing?"
Ruby slid her sunglasses down her nose far enough to glare at him over the top of them. "You know, for a fellow wearing a million dollars' worth of visual augmentation technology, your powers of observation are alarmingly less than astute. I'm drinking tequila on my balcony. In case it wasn't obvious."
"I really do love your way with words, Ruby," he said, shaking his head as he stifled a chuckle. "You're the only person I know who can make a man enjoy being insulted. You do it so eloquently."
"Do not ever use the word 'love' in my presence, Jaccob," she snapped. "It's tacky."
"I don't think you've ever done that before," he said.
"What?"
"Called me 'Jaccob' while I'm wearing the suit."
"Well, I've also never gotten drunk enough before lunch to say the 'L' word in front of another human being, so ... first time for everything?"
"As though you ever actually eat lunch--"
"Oh, touché, Mr. Stardust, you do have your wits about you this afternoon." Ruby gestured vaguely to the bottle. "If you'd like to drink until they depart, you're welcome to join me."
Jaccob looked around and considered her offer. It had been strange getting used to being around her again. Letting her back into his life had reminded him of how badly he'd screwed things up between them and how profoundly he'd missed her before he'd forced himself to stop thinking about her.
The problem was, of course, now he could scarcely do anything but think about her.
He'd been having to constantly remind himself that being in proximity to her wasn't the same as being close to her. All in all, she hadn't been very nice. He didn't want to read too much into her invitation to join her for a glass of 1942, but neither did he want her to read anything into a refusal.
He also didn't want to refuse.
He gave a nod and took a seat, sliding the switches on the back of his helmet to release it from the rest of his suit. He pulled the helmet off and set it on the chaise beside him.
"I looked at the email you forwarded," he said, working to remove the gauntlets from his hands. The Stardust suit was good for a lot of things but holding on to delicate glassware had proven time and again not to be one of them.
Some of the tension went out of Ruby's frown. Good.
"Anything interesting?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said plainly. "Interesting. And strange."
"Do I want to hear about it?" Ruby picked up the tequila bottle and a glass and handed them both over.
"If I know you at all," he replied, setting his gauntlets aside and taking hold of the bottle and glass. "Which, I'd like to think I still do, at least a little, you'll want to hear the shape of the problem but not the details. And I'll save the lecture on why not to open an attachment from an unknown sender for another time."
"I'm not sure how I feel about your contention that you still know me at all," she said. "But, then again, you're willing to spare me a lesson on cyber security, so maybe you do. How about let's start with those broad strokes? The shape of the problem."
"Well, the quick version," he began, as he poured his glass full of the golden, aged tequila, "is that there's some stuff that looks weird, but I'm not able to get anything useful."
"I don't like the sound of 'weird'. Especially when you say it." Ruby held out her phone to him. "Here. If you need to see it on my phone, look at it on my phone."
That was quite a show of trust.
"Yeah." He traded her the tequila bottle for her StarPhone and then had a sip of tequila from his glass. "It's ... it's unlocked?"
"It is," she affirmed. "You're a Good Guy, remember? I think I can trust you not to rifle through my pictures, read my texts, scroll through my contacts ... You'll do what you need to do, and you'll hand it back, because you, sir, are infinitely trustworthy when you're wearing that suit."
A pit formed in Jaccob's stomach. He was pretty sure why she'd made the distinction--why he was only trustworthy in her eyes as his alter-ego. Everything he'd ever done to hurt her had been while wearing his normal clothes.
He didn't like that she held that opinion. He didn't like the fact she held his hero self apart from his day-to-day self. But he was glad for the little bit of trust she still had in him--even if that only existed when he wore his super suit.
Her email icon was in the top right corner of her home screen. He tapped it, and Ruby's email loaded immediately. There was only one message visible: from an address consisting of a jumble of numbers and letters and with no subject line, but a large attachment. That was it.
"Inbox zero," he commented, as he clicked the message. He wasn't sure why he felt so compelled to make small talk, but there it was.
"I can count the number of people with that address on one hand, Jaccob," she said. "Two of them are on this balcony right now. Suffice to say it doesn't get a lot of traffic--yet another reason this is so concerning. If we really are dealing with time travel, then I have to wonder when and how sometime in the future my personal email gets leaked."
"Right. Yes. I can see where that would be a concern."
Jaccob pressed a brushed metal panel on the left wrist of the Stardust suit and waited while a compartment popped open in a way Ruby had once likened to a high-end cassette player. He smiled a little at the memory.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing." Jaccob reached into the compartment and pulled out a cable, which he immediately plugged into Ruby's phone.
"Far be it from me to question the particulars of a hero doing heroics." Ruby frowned as she sat up straighter to try and get a better look at what was happening with her phone. "But ... what, exactly, are you doing right now?"
Leaving the phone tethered to the arm of his suit, Jaccob set it on the chaise beside him and took another sip of tequila. It was good stuff. "What little I was able to get from the forward didn't make any sense. None of the metadata attached to the message lined up with any known technology. How much do you know about email?"
"I know how to read it," she answered snidely. "And how to send it. I know who to call when it isn't working. And I know which superhero to contact when I find it's delivered me a mystery."
"All right." Jaccob nodded. "Do you also know that every time you send an email, you're sending along a bunch of other things with it?"
"What other things?"
"Well," he replied. "That depends."
"Oh, goody," she snarled. "That sounds helpful."
"It can be," he assured her. "There are several different factors at play, but a lot of the time, an email will come with all sorts of additional information attached. Things like the sender's time zone, whether it was composed on desktop or mobile--sometimes down to the exact device's make and model. And occasionally you'll get the sender's IP address."
"And you're telling me my mysterious sender managed to get into my inbox with none of this information attached?"
"I'm telling you I'm not exactly sure."
"Way to inspire confidence," she snarked. "Some hero--"
"The truth is I don't think there's much here." His cheeks were getting hot, and he could only hope he wasn't turning visibly red--or if he was, that she might attribute it to the tequila and not to his chagrin at her comment. "But there is something. I just can't make heads or tails of it from the forwarded message. So I'm downloading it straight from your phone to the hard drive in my suit. From there, my AI and I can take it apart bit by bit and see if there's anything deep in the code that might lead us in a useful direction."
"All right." She polished off the booze in her glass and picked up the bottle for a refill. "I take it back. You're still a hell of a hero."
"Hopefully I'll have something more substantial in a day or so," he said. "But what I can tell you right now is that your hypothesis is looking more and more plausible."
"And why is that?"
"Like I said," he answered, reaching for the bottle from her to top off his glass. "What little I was able to get from the forwarded message doesn't match anything I've ever seen before--neither the info embedded in the email itself nor the attachment. So it's a reasonable theory that maybe it originated on a device that hasn't been invented yet."
"Oh," she said. "I suppose that does make sense."
"Yeah," he said, somehow unable to help himself smiling at her. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this. You called the right hero."
"It appears I did," she replied, holding out her glass in his direction.
He smiled brighter and clinked the rim of his glass against hers.
"We're making good progress on the main plan, too," Jaccob said. "The girls tell me they should have the equipment up and running as soon as Monday night or Tuesday."
"They've said the same to me," Ruby told him. "They're all out today. Hence the chance to drink on the balcony undisturbed--heroic neighbors notwithstanding. But Kara assures me it's all in service of the goal. They'll have the machines on in a day or so, and hopefully we'll find our culprit soon after that. With any luck, we'll dispatch with the meddling bastards within the week, and then you and I can once again be rid of each other."
She sounded relieved.
The pit was back in Jaccob's stomach. How was he going to tell her that his urgency to solve this puzzle had nothing to do with wanting her out of his life again? What could he say that wouldn't sound hollow or pitiful but would let her know he was increasingly glad they were back on speaking terms? How could he articulate his hope they could move forward from here and not go back to the tension of the past two years?
Even if there wasn't any sort of possible future where they could be close again, mutual avoidance and trying to pretend they'd forgotten the other existed while simultaneously living next door to each other and running in many of the same social circles was no way to live.
"I don't think you'll be rid of me so easily," he said finally, hoping it was the right thing to say.
She replied with an amused smile and a quirk of her eyebrow. "We'll just have to wait and see about that, won't we?"
"To that end, do you still have the bracelet I gave you?"
"I should remember if I'd gotten rid of that many diamonds."
"Can you bring it to me?"
Her eyes flicked to him over the rim of her sunglasses. "That's a new low."
"No, uh." Jaccob shook his head. Maybe the tequila was getting to him. "It's not ... I don't want it back."
"Oh?"
"I just want to make sure it works," he said. "I'd ... I'd like you to start wearing it again."
"You would, now?"
"Look," he said, his shrug almost lost in the bulk of his armor. "We really don't know what we're dealing with here. If whoever sent this message did it because they mean you harm, then there's probably a bigger attack coming. And I'd like to be there to back you up if it does."
Ruby frowned. It wasn't a small thing he was asking. When she came to him for backup when Vivienne was possessed by a demon whose influence had threatened to swallow the city, she was desperate. Was she that desperate now? Desperate enough to wear the bracelet that would call him automatically if she found herself in a certain kind of trouble?
"I'll have it sent over," she said finally. "So you can look at it, tinker with it, do whatever you're heroic little heart desires. But no promises on wearing it when you're through."
"Okay," Jaccob replied. "It's a start."
"A start?"
Uh oh. Jaccob tried to reassure her with a smile. "I mean, you said I was trustworthy in the suit, not that you wanted me around."
Oh no.
For a long time, he'd thought he and Ruby were done. He might have even been able to convince himself he was happy about that state of things. But he knew now he hadn't been. This was a chance to make things, if not right, then better, and he was going to take it.
"It's just ... last time I put a plan in place, and it went sideways, you were quick to dismiss me. I was sure I'd never hear from you again, even in an emergency. And--"
"And?
A light beeped on Jaccob's gauntlet. "Oh," he said. "Downloaded."
"Okay."
Jaccob was quick to return Ruby's phone, but he was in no hurry to get to someplace to examine the download.
"Do you need to--?" She gestured toward Starcom Tower with her drink.
"Not really." He checked with the suit's internal AI that the whole thing had been transferred successfully, but after that, he tucked the cable back into the compartment, closed it gently, and relaxed into his drink. "This is really good tequila."
Ruby relaxed somewhat. "That it is."
Only two hours and a dry bottle later did he decide it was time to go.
~
It had been an oddly pleasant afternoon in Ruby's estimation. Sunshine and good tequila certainly accounted for some of it, but she had to attribute the rest of her satisfaction to the company--a fact about which she wasn't sure how to feel.
She and Jaccob kept the conversation light but had never had to resort to actual small talk. Talking in turn about the problem at hand, favorite places to buy and to drink tequila, and the kinds of business issues only a fellow CEO would understand, with the occasional detour into the topic of Mike's general well-being and his relationship with Katy, had reminded Ruby of how easy Jaccob could be to talk to.
She wasn't sure she liked how much she liked spending this time with him.
She wasn't ready to start sharing secrets with him or anything, and she likely never would be. But it had been nice to talk to someone who understood her life so well. She'd never been in the habit of keeping up with friendships, especially not with those she used to sleep with, and she had no idea whether she'd feel the same way after she sobered up. But for the moment, she was kind of glad Jaccob had intimated he wouldn't be waltzing out of her life and closing a door between them as soon as they'd solved the mystery at hand.
She supposed time would tell.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Hollows had long been the part of town where the denizens of wickedness were known to congregate. Which was exactly the reason Yumi, Lisa, Friday, and Kara were headed there on a Saturday night. They'd agreed to this sleuthing errand during their meeting with Miss Killingsworth on Tuesday evening but had decided to hold off until Saturday to make an actual visit.
Denizens of wickedness tended to be known quantities. A group of unfamiliar young women showing up asking questions in a dive bar filled only with its regulars would likely draw suspicion. But The Hollows had enough of a reputation for being adjacent to supervillainy that on weekends, it also became the go-to hangout for hipsters and college kids who wanted to play at being bad for a night.
