AlorFred stared in wonder at Glass. “You found her,” he whispered. The scene was being dusted and processed by the local German authorities. The CIA was also there, and Ninja’s supervisor, the loud man, had come with AlorFred.

Glass glanced irritably over her shoulder, and AlorFred gaped. “She met my eyes.” He muttered to Ninja. Ninja facepalmed.

“You’re here to examine the hardware, not gawk.”

“I can do both,” he said, then stubbed his toe. “Ow. Wasn’t looking where I was stepping.”

“Exactly. Watch what you’re doing, not people.”

“She’s not just a person— she’s a goddess,” he frowned. “A scowling goddess.”

“She’s right here, and she can hear both of you,” Glass said, her scowl deepening.

AlorFred jumped. “Right,” he said. “Sorry.” He kept staring.

Glass sighed and turned invisible.

I wish I could talk without him hearing me. Glass thought.

Well… Ninja thought at her. It was easy, really. Just pushing the thought across to her new friend’s consciousness.

Glass jerked in what would have been a visible way, had she been visible.

That is so cool!! she thought. Ninja could hear her smiling.

Yeah?

Yeah.

They shared a smile.

AlorFred looked through Glass. “What are you smiling at?”

“The thought that you’ll figure out the system and reprogram the robots,” Ninja answered.

AlorFred pouted. “You always treat me like a kid.”

“You are a kid.”

“I’m sixteen years old! I know what I’m doing! I’m practically an adult!”

“Then work like an adult.”

Isn’t that technically child labor? Glass thought, I think there are laws against that.

He’s an intern, and his dad’s nepotistic.

Classic tradition. Leads to delicious, easily manipulated, corrupt governments.

Well, you know…

As Glass was now out of sight, AlorFred seemed to be more focused. He frowned. “The government people should look at this thing here,” he said. “It looks important.”

Ninja, having learned to trust AlorFred’s instincts, called a CIA agent over. “What do you think this part does?” she asked.

The agent looked irritated. “Look, don’t spread the word around, but we don’t know what any of this does.”

“You don’t as an organization, or just you?”

The agent raised a single eyebrow. He felt he could easily out-cool her. Perhaps he was right.

“It looks like some sort of transmitter,” AlorFred said, “Attached to a computer. Do you think this is the controller for the robots?”

“No,” the agent said. “Look, the only reason you guys are allowed back here is because it’s dusty and full of junk. We’re doing the important stuff.”

“Excuse me?” Ninja asked with an edge.

He brushed her off, then turned away. Glass appeared directly in front of him. She made direct eye contact, her face a little too close to his.

“Hey” she said.

“Hi?”

She gripped his collar, squeezing his neck. “You’re going to pay attention to this. It makes perfect sense to a mad scientist to hide the most important stuff, no matter how inconvenient it may be.”

He removed her hand with a jerk. “Noted,” he said, then went to get a scientist.

The scientist thought AlorFred was a prodigy. “Who would have guessed that all the most important stuff was all the way over here?” he said, scratching his head. “And you recognizing this transmitter for what it was, brilliant boy.”

AlorFred beamed. He wasn’t used to such praise.

“Now all we have to do is reprogram the robots to switch themselves off,” the scientist said. “We’ll get our programmers on it as soon as possible,” he turned to leave, then paused. “It’s Al, right?”

“Yeah. Or Fred,” AlorFred said.

“Would you like to work with our techs— just as an intern, mind you.”

AlorFred beamed. “Absolutely!”

They began to walk off together.

“Can Glass come?”

“Ah, no, we don’t usually work with vigilantes.”

“Oh. Should I bring my batarang?”

They walked out of hearing.

What a shame, Glass thought. I would have liked to practice my programming skills.

Maybe you can some other time, Ninja replied with a smile.

Maybe so, Glass replied, smiling back. They walked to the open door. Glass turned invisible.

You know, Ninja started, I work alone most of the time. But I think we should keep in touch.

Alright, but I don’t do cellphones. They’re part of a government conspiracy to subvert privacy. You can contact me by leaving a white handkerchief tied to the bench by the statue of Washington in the San Tanoga park.

You live in San Tanoga?

No. But she was lying.

Why don’t I just drop by your work?

Okay.

Well, see you around.

Or not.

True.

And with that, Glass slipped into the night.