Hiding The Truth

Asset Acquired

Lila never saw Them coming. They were smart, They were savvy, and They knew what would lure her to their purposes better than she knew herself.

Working at the diner was beneath her. It didn't matter that she lived in a trailer. Better days were coming, she knew it. It didn't matter that her parents were divorced. That wasn't her scandal, it was theirs. It didn't matter that her husband had run off. She told herself the rejection and lack of closure didn't hurt, and anyway, she wasn't the only single mother in town by a long shot with the Arsenal sitting at the county line. Her people, her family, offered a distinguished lineage. Her ancestors founded the whole county and beyond, could be traced back to the first settlers of the country and beyond even. She carried the blood of influential Somebodies in a world of Nobodies. So why couldn't she be Somebody too?

Sighing, she cleared the greasy plates and filled the stained coffee mugs and served the syrupy pancakes. At least she'd managed some proximity to some important people. Her tables were all inhabited by tech experts and scientists and engineers at the Arsenal. They wore suits to the Greasy Spoon to eat bacon and eggs and waffles and patty melts and homefried potatoes. She watched them exchange notes and talk about their work in hushed tones full of jargon she didn't understand or care to try to decipher. The specifics of what they did didn't matter to her as much as the cachet of respectability, of moving and shaking in the Society she knew she deserved access to as a real, genuinely bona fide qualifier for the Daughters of the Revolution, and Daughters of the Confederacy, and Mayflower Family Descendant. She just didn't know exactly how she would gain that access...

Until Douglas Reever sat in her section. Every day. For weeks. Flirted. Got to know her. He tipped well. Not so much the other waitresses would notice and not enough to arouse suspicion, but enough to keep her attentive and even eager to see him every breakfast and lunch shift. He had cool aura about him

"You taking off?" Douglas asked her as she wiped the last mug dry.
"Finally!" She sighed.
"Have pie and coffee with me?" He invited.

Why not? She thought, sliding into the seat across from him in his usual booth to count her tips. Tony was long gone, it didn't count as infidelity if he left first. And she was only having pie for heaven's sake. It wasn't like she was running off to Bermuda with the brawny engineer. Her son was happy as a clam with his Mammaw after school, learning how to behave like the civilized, white child his grandparents had fought for him to live as. Why shouldn't she?

"What's a well bred gal like you doing serving in a place like this?" Douglas asked her.

Lila mentally rolled her eyes. How original of him. She shrugged. "It keeps bread on the table."

"What if I could offer you something better?" Alright, now he had her attention, but she was wary.

"Mr. Reever, is this an indecent proposal? I'm disappointed in you." She fluttered her eyelashes, playing it light and breezy for the moment, but also unwilling to be some man's floozy for any amount of pretty words or promises. Especially potentially empty ones. She knew she could rise to greatness and take back all the luxury and reputation that was her birthright if she just found herself the right opportunity. Lying on her back was no way to become a person of status, no matter how generously he was willing to pay for her company.

He snorted. "Hardly. I thought you knew me better than that by now. I certainly know you, and I know you're a better woman than that, aren't you, Lila?" His words mirrored her thoughts.

"Alright, I'm listening, Mr. Reever." She said.

"Please, call me Doug." He looked her in the eye with an expression she couldn't quite read, but she chose to hope it was the respect she knew she was owed. "I've been watching you for awhile now, every day in fact, and it seems to me you're a pretty smart lady, and you're personable. You know all the regulars here by name. You know their usual orders. Where they work. What they do. How to get them talking about themselves and how to make them be quiet. Our organization could use a smart lady like you on the payroll." He flattered her. And underneath her worldly facade, she liked it.

"And what organization is that, Doug? What is it you want me to do, exactly?" She leaned forward in her seat. This could be it. This could be the opportunity she was looking for, the one that would take her and Junior and her Ishki, her mother who had sacrificed so much for her well being, away from the trailer park.

"I represent the recruitment division of an international organization that monitors new developments in the science, technology, and media industries. You see, in the Great Wars, the Nazis used this powerful triangle of forces to bring about great cruelty and destruction to the detriment of all humanity. And we, Lila, with your help and the help of others like you, aim to stop that from ever happening again."

"Others... like me? I don't know anything about technology or any of that other stuff, Doug. What are you talking about?" Lila was confused and dismayed. Surely he had the wrong girl?

"Others," he lowered his voice, "with desirable pedigrees. And maybe special Talents?"

Lila's green hazel eyes flew open and she barely controlled a gasp. How did he know her secret? What was he saying? She never, ever talked about the things she could do. Not with anyone outside her most trusted circle. Her ishki, of course. Tony, who had his own Talents.   Nobody else. And these days she never used them either. Safer not to. But now this Organization, probably the Government? wanted her to do it for a living? Who exactly was Douglas Reever?

"Oh yes, Lila, the Organization knows all about your family. That's why we think you deserve a chance to realize your full potential with us. We could perhaps ensure little Junior does likewise. For doing us the the little favor of using your Discernment and Intuition to help make decisions that affect the fate of the Free World, we'd compensate you very fairly." And then he named a figure that made her exhausted toes curl in her worn grease proof sneakers.

"Ok Mr. Reev- Doug. When do I start?" It didn't even occur to her to wonder how he knew about Junior, an oversight she would regret later.

He gave her a date and some details and a file of papers to carry home and read. She'd have to give notice at the diner; she'd have to make arrangements for Junior to stay with his Mammaw, her ishki, for awhile while she went to training. And then she'd be off to make her fortune and rescue all of them from this dirt boring life and whisk the family away, back to High Society where they belonged.