Moonstrike 8: Stop While You're Ahead

They made it a few miles before Ari brought up the elephant in the car.

“So,” she said conversationally. “You’re a criminal?”

Ji Min cringed and thought about covering her face with her hands. “Do as I say, not as I do?” she tried.

Ari sighed. “You’re not even doing something cool, are you?” It wasn’t really a question.

“I’m a cat burglar,” Ji Min defended. “That’s pretty cool.”

Ari blew a raspberry.

“What’s a cool crime, then,” Ji Min demanded, more insulted than she ought to be.

“Arson,” Ari said immediately.

Ji Min sat for a moment, uncomfortable and confused. “You said that too quickly…”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Ari said primly. “It was a random example off the top of my head.”

“You don’t start fires, right?” Ji Min demanded, turning to face her sister. “If you do, you have to tell me.”

Ari rolled her eyes. “I don’t start fires. But if I did, it would be way cooler than you having sticky fingers like some kid hanging around a department store for the petty thrill of stealing chapstick.”

“I steal diamonds,” Ji Min argued. “Come on! I’m not like that at all.”

“Is it compulsive?” Ari asked, tone smug. “Do you do it even when it’s not a good idea? Did you stop after you realized that the government knows who you are?”

Ji Min slumped into her seat unhappily. “They don’t know who I am,” she said, even though she wasn’t actually sure that was true. “You definitely can’t go sign up and use me as a reference because I’m on a closed contract. They only know my alias.”

“They probably know more than that,” Ari said.

Ji Min sighed and put her face on her hands. “I try not to think about it,” she admitted. “I don’t think they know everything, but if it was a priority to ID me, I bet that they would.”

Ari whistled, long and soft.

"Yeah." Ji Min groaned. "Yeah."

"You've gotta stop while you're ahead," Ari said practically. "If it comes out that you've got a criminal history, they'll just cover it up to keep you as a resource. But if you're actively doing crime-"

"I know, I know," Ji Min cut her off. She gritted her teeth, frustrated with herself. "It's just… it makes me feel better, you know?"

Ari made a sympathetic sound and was silent for a long moment. Then she said, "No, I honestly don't get it. But I believe you. That sucks. But you've gotta stop, so you're not ruining my heroic career."

"You can get brownie points by immediately turning in a jewel thief," Ji Min teased weakly.

"Shut up, don't even joke about that," Ari muttered. "I wouldn't turn you in for something stupid like that. You don't hurt people. I know you."

"I'm touched," Ji Min said, and she really was.

"Shut up." Ari turned up the heater. "We better hope that your telepathy is really limited, you know."

"Christ," Ji Min cursed, rubbing at her hairline with her fingertips. Beaming a confession to a government employee's brain would be such a stupid reason to get caught. "I really need to figure that out fast. I looked into it, but I didn't find a good source of information."

Ari made a sympathetic sound. "I'm guessing you haven't asked your handler for information on it?"

"That's my last resort," Ji Min muttered. "I'm hoping that I can get information at this upcoming conference."

"The thing you're going out of town for?" Ari checked.

"Yeah." Ji Min took a fortifying breath and didn't think much. "I invited my coworker- well, he's my teammate, I guess." She tried to sound casual about it, like she was a person who often befriended coworkers.

"...Is this a conference you know about through…. Villains?"

Ari sounded lost.

"Yes," Ji Min said, a little embarrassed. "I know a few people, got on the invite list."

"It's invite-only?" Ari demanded. She glared at Ji Min through the rearview mirror. "I didn't know you were important!"

"I'm not important, but I'm good," she said, a little shy to talk so bluntly. "Not to be a dickhead about it or anything, but I have a pretty good reputation as a rogue."

Ari clicked her tongue. "Do you actually go on all those trips for work?"

"Yeah, I just double things up to make the most of my trips." Ji Min admitted. It felt good to not hide this anymore. "I only have one thing in the works right now and it shouldn't get me in any trouble. I'm going to play decoy for another cat burglar and give her civilian identity an alibi."

"...How do you meet these people?" Ari wondered.

"Mutual friends," Ji Min said glibly. "It's a vibrant subculture. But you'd hate it, very boring-"

"You don't have to talk me out of a life of crime," Ari said scornfully. She sniffed. "I'm going to be a doctor and probably also a superhero. I won't have time for crime."

"You're going to be booked," Ji Min agreed, relieved.

The rest of the drive back was less fraught. She spent a day and a half at home before she had to go to New Platopolis.

The thief that she'd been contacted by had set her up in a luxury hotel, and she hadn't even commented when Ji Min asked about getting two rooms. When she checked in she took a photo of the key card and sent it to Alex.

He responded with exclamation marks. Ji Min snorted a little fondly and didn't answer.

Alex called about an hour later. She picked up and paused the movie playing on her laptop. "I didn't get blown up," he said, which was a pretty good way to start a conversation.

"Good for you, man," Ji Min said. She stretched her neck. "I bet you'll do even better with disarming bombs if you know how they're put together and placed. What if the criminals are doing something innovative?"

"I don't think there's a lot of innovation in the field," Alex said after a pause.

She snorted. "Are you sure, though?"

"...We can look at the brochure together. I'll be there in an hour, maybe?"

Ji Min nodded, and tried to sound casual. "Wanna go out for dinner?" This was fine. Normal people just hung out with their coworkers. He wasn't going to think she was weird or clingy if she asked to hang out-

"Yeah, of course," Alex agreed easily. "Should I look into what's near the hotel?"

"Sounds good." She ran a hand through her hair. "I, uh…"

"I'm gonna have selective memory and not notice your face at all," Alex said blandly. "You've already seen mine."

Ji Min nodded, throat tight.

This was stupid. Her nerves didn't make sense. Alex wasn't going to try to look her up, and if he did, all the information he had on her was wrong. He thought she was 28 years old and from Chicago, no information on her family whatsoever.

She still felt a little sick when she got up to go meet him in the lobby. The only reaction he gave her was his normal smile and a little wave before he turned back to finish his conversation with the receptionist.

Ji Min put her hands in her jacket pockets and hovered, feeling out of place.

"Thanks for meeting me here," Alex said, and fully turned to her. "I'll just drop my stuff off?"

She handed him his key card. "Number is on it," she said. "I'll wait down here."

"I'll hurry," he agreed.

He was as good as his word. And that was just Alex all over, wasn't it? She thought about him as they made smalltalk on their way to some bistro he'd found.

He was reliable. He was kind of a pompous dick, but he wasn't a bad guy. She could work with him. Plus he was huge, so he'd draw attention away from her in a fight.

They got set up in a relatively private table with laminated menus that had been written by hand.

Ji Min had the extremely uncomfortable realization that it felt a lot like they were on a first date.

'He doesn't think that this is a date, right?' she stole a surreptitious glance at him.

Probably not. They were coworkers. It would be weird.

She tried not to squirm in her chair.

"Did I ever tell you why I got recruited?" Alex broke the silence.

No, and she didn't care, but fuck if she wasn't relieved to have something to talk about. She seized on the topic change. "No, what happened?"

Alex gave a self deprecating smile. "I was looking a lot into- the topic I had my recent class in." He trailed off pointedly.

….He was looking up information about bombs and the government had knocked on his door. Ji Min let out a shocked little laugh.

"Yeah," Alex agreed ruefully. "It took a while to convince them that I had the best of intentions." He turned the page in his menu. "This is kind of a dream for me, you know? I thought I was going to learn everything, be really prepared, and then… I don't know, maybe I'd reach out to an agency myself and they'd be impressed."

"Self study isn't a bad idea," Ji Min said politely, even though it was a bad idea to try to learn about fucking bombs online. "Did they send the pros out to you, or did you meet Thùy then?"

Alex snorted. "They sent Power Guy to my apartment," he said in an undertone. Ji Min choked down the laugh that tried to fight its way out. "He was not chill about it, at all. But when he finally believed me, he signed me up for the class I just finished, conditional upon me finishing the basic training course."

Ji Min gave up and put her face in her hands, laughing at him.

"Yeah, yeah," Alex said amiably. "Like your recruitment was dignified? We've all seen the pictures."

She stopped. She looked at him through her fingers, frowning.

The waitress came back with their drinks and a smile. "What can I get for you?"

Ji Min ordered, and then Alex got the same meal. They were quiet until the waitress had gone. Ji Min broke the silence with a defensive, "I don't think it was that embarrassing."

"There's merchandise," Alex said.

She choked down the "I know, my brother has some," that nearly bubbled out. She wanted to be friendly with Alex, but she didn't wanna be sharing personal information with him like that yet.

"I'm not getting any of the cut," she said instead, a little sullen about it. "That seems wrong."

"I think the proceeds go to charity," Alex said thoughtfully.

Grudgingly, she nodded. "Prosthetics for dogs," Ji Min admitted. "I looked into it."

"What an exquisitely specific charity," Alex said. "You wouldn't wanna take the dogs' money, would you?"

"It's not the dogs' money, it's my money," Ji Min said sullenly. "I deserve it more than they do."

Alex's eyebrows shot up. "What do you have against dogs?"

He was probably teasing, but she bristled a bit anyway. "I like them fine," Ji Min deflected. "I just don't think three-legged dogs should get money from photos of me getting my ass kicked by Gene's immortal crew."

Alex threw his hands up in defeat. "Alright, well. I know what not to do with any pictures like that moving forward."

"I'm sure this will be relevant to your future," Ji Min cracked, trying to make the tone lighter.

He chuckled, so it paid off. "I'm sure it's got a lot of applications."

They had an okay time at the restaurant. By the end of it, Ji Min was less tense. It helped that Alex never commented on her choice to show her face after going to the trouble of hiding it for so long. If he noticed how she avoided cameras, he didn't say anything about that, either.

They said goodnight in the hallway outside their rooms. "Thank you for inviting me," Alex said, not for the first time. "I'm really looking forward to that speech tomorrow."

An older woman walking down the hotel hallway pretended that she wasn't eavesdropping.

"You're welcome," Ji Min said, a little stiff. "It was no problem. First speech is at 10:00, so how about we meet in the breakfast area at 9:00?"

"That sounds perfect." Alex let his eyes crease when he smiled down at her. "Have a good night, Miss Strike."

He opened his door and slipped inside while she was still processing that the nickname was apparently A Thing now.

…It was kinda cute, she admitted. She went into her room and got ready for bed.