Busted Flush

“You don’t look too shabby yourself.” He wore a suit with a band collar shirt, giving him sophisticated polish. Definitely his mother’s son. She reached for him, and they joined hands to pull each other into a kiss.

“You two are, as ever, awfully cute,” Bugsy said. “But I’d like to point out that Ana looks fabulous.”

Ana wore a black wraparound dress with a low-cut neck and flowing, knee-length skirt that clung and flattered in all the right places. Add her long black hair, dangly gold earrings, and ever-present St. Barbara medallion, and she looked exotic. And now, she was blushing. But smiling, too.

“We went shopping today,” Kate said. “It called to me from the store window,” Ana said. The two of them giggled.

Bugsy said, “What a surprise, we all clean up pretty good.”

“Maybe someday People will stop picking on how I dress,” Kate said.

“They named you best dressed at that UNICEF fundraiser last month,” Ana argued.

“Only because John’s mother picked out the dress.”

John got a dreamy look in his eyes. “That was a great dress.”

It had been a great dress, with enough architecture to give even Kate cleavage. A picture of the two of them from that night ended up on the cover of Aces! They were arm in arm, looking at something off to the side, smiling. They’d looked like royalty.

The Committee: Rusty, wearing a big grin, waved from the far corner, where he was talking with Bubbles and Holy Roller; Gardener was pointing out something on a potted fern to Toad Man and Brave Hawk; the Lama (from Nepal, who was able to turn insubstantial) and the Llama (from Bolivia, who was almost a joker, with a foot-long neck and fuzzy gray hair, and who could spit a gooey venom incredible distances) were glaring at each other across the foyer. Both had refused to change their ace name to avoid confusion. And Lilith, the British teleporter, standing with Lohengrin and surveying the room critically, like this was all beneath her. She wore an amazing gown, V-neck coming to a point between her breasts, slit in the skirt climbing to her waist, the diaphanous black material deceptively translucent. All the guys were stealing glances—and Lilith knew it.

Being America’s ace sweetheart didn’t count for a whole lot sometimes, thought Kate, in her cute and completely boring dress.

The absent member was obvious: at seven feet, DB dominated any room he was in.

“Where’s Michael?” she asked.

John frowned. “In Chicago wrapping up his concert tour, I think. Let’s make the introductions,” he said, turning their attention to the two women Kate didn’t know. Even more new members. “From Canada, this is Simone Duplaix, aka Snowblind, and Barbara Baden, the Translator, from Israel.”

Simone had dyed magenta hair that screamed look at me. She wore a black miniskirt, crop top, and a nose stud, and glared like she expected someone to challenge her on the dress code. Also in her twenties, Barbara was a little more upscale, with a clingy, midnight blue cocktail dress. She kept her hands folded in front of her and was a picture of calm.

“Simone, Barbara, this is Kate Brandt and Ana Cortez.” Handshakes all around.

“There’s hardly a need for introductions,” Barbara said. “Everyone knows who you are.”

“Introductions are more polite,” Kate said.

Tinker came in from the next room, holding one of his gadgets, a gunmetal gray box that looked like a cross between a TV remote and an eggbeater.

“What’s that?” Ana asked.

“Bug detector,” he said cheerfully in his thick Aussie accent. “John wanted the place swept. Can’t have spies now, right?”

“How do you know it even works?” Kate said.

He pointed it at Bugsy, and the device let out a high-pitched squeal that left them all wincing.

“Well,” Bugsy said, glaring at the thing. “My confidence is truly won over.”

Tinker huffed. “I built it to track down covert listening devices. I think you got a few of those on you, eh, mate?”

For the punch line, a small green wasp crawled out of the pocket of Tinker’s suit jacket.

“Hey!” Tinker swatted the bug, and it crunched. Bugsy winced. “Don’t you ever get tired of that trick?”

“I have another one, but you wouldn’t like it any better.”

The center of the next room had been cleared to make way for a long table draped in white linen. The arrangement lent a somber weight to the evening. This felt like a state dinner. And here, in this luxurious setting, on the eighty-sixth floor, Kate really felt on top of the world.

In keeping with its location, Stellar had a neo/retro art deco motif, with muted colors like pale grays, soft blues, streamlined chrome fixtures with inset lighting, ferns pouring from silver planters. The chairs and tables were mahogany and modernist. Movie stars of the 1930s in tuxedos and ball gowns might have come sweeping past at any moment. It was romantic, especially the balcony overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

“This place is amazing,” Kate said, taking a chair between John and Ana near the head of the table.