Liz, the assignment editor, had two volumes to her voice: teenager running a car stereo, and even louder. It was the second voice that split the air of the newsroom a few minutes into the noon news the next day. “Sally!” she yelled. “Get in and do weather! They lost the feed from the remote!”

“On the way, Liz,” Sally replied, getting up and running for the studio. The “on-air” light was off, and she saw from the monitor that a commercial was running.

“I can do it, Liz,” Jason’s voice trailed behind her.

“Not dressed like that you can’t,” the big, bull-like woman said, in her lower-volume voice. “Control only has about forty seconds. Where the hell did you get that stupid University of Michigan T-shirt, anyway?”

Whatever Jason’s response was, it was lost to Sally by the closing of the studio door. Moving at a dead run in her stocking feet—there was no time to put shoes on—Sally ran across the studio to where the set director was holding out a mike. She slipped it around her neck, got set, and looked at the teleprompter, just as the prerecorded lead-in was running. “And here’s First to Know News’ Rachel Schroeder with the weather.”

She glanced up, to see the set director holding his hands wide—the signal to stretch it out. There was supposed to be about thirty seconds of byplay from the remote that she’d have to make up for. “Good afternoon, everyone,” she said coolly. After all, she’d done weather a fair amount in Battle Creek. “I’m Sally Parker, filling in for Rachel Schroeder,” and started to read from the script on the teleprompter. “We have a beautiful day across northwest Ohio today, and it looks like it’s going to last for another few days …”

The weather segment only lasted a couple of minutes, but with several backdrop changes: radar and maps, then the daily forecast and the six-day forecast. The weathercast was over almost before her heart rate was back to normal. On the commercial break, she gave a quick wave to Dan, who was doing a solo anchor. He waved back with a grin and a thumbs up.

Back in the newsroom, Sally headed back to her desk, aware of Jason’s angry glance at her all the way, but there wasn’t anything he could say and he—along with everyone else—knew it. If he’d been wearing a regular shirt and a tie, he could have grabbed his jacket and made the assignment, and he knew that too. With a smug smile, Sally sat back down at the computer to work on the voice-over for the Sylvania School Board story. The story had been passed over for the noon news, what with breaking national news, but was still on the queue for five and six o’clock.

She kept one eye on the monitor following the news as she worked on the story. Somewhere in there she realized the closing had been jiggered, and the show closed with Rachel’s remote and a look at the six-day, just like it was supposed to. Most people watching the news saw only the smoothness, the orderliness, with only an occasional minor fluff. Few ever could imagine the screaming nuthouse it could be behind the scenes to put out that smooth product. It was one of the things she really enjoyed about local TV news. She’d talked about it more than once with Charlie, who assured her things got pretty insane at a newspaper once in a while too.

Once the show was off the air, she joined the control room staff as they trooped into the studio for the critique. For once, there wasn’t a whole lot to complain about. “Great save, Sally,” Ben told her. “Good job for being caught flat-footed.”

“What happened?” she asked, surreptitiously glancing across the studio to see Jason glaring at her.

“Some spectator apparently tripped over a cable at the remote,” Kevin told her. “We got the feed back about fifteen seconds into the weather. It’s good to know we can count on you when things go to hell.”

“I try to do what I can.”

“I didn’t get to tell you yesterday,” Ben added. “But I thought you did well at anchor over the weekend. I think after that, I’ll just call on you when we need a woman to fill in at co-anchor.”

“No problem, Ben,” she said, feeling Jason’s jealous glare even though her back was to him. “Whenever you want me.”

It was with some degree of satisfaction that she sat back down at her desk and turned back to the school board story, even though it really wasn’t much—the satisfaction of having done a good job in tough circumstances and having it recognized, and the satisfaction of having stolen a little bit right from under Jason’s nose added to it.

Jason had been as big a pain in the ass as ever, even though she hadn’t been in the office with him much. Her plan of dragging the Hippolyta story past his nose and waiting for him to jump on it had failed, mostly because Ben had seen the trap before it could be sprung. Otherwise she was sure Metheny would have been all over it—but who knew, there might be something else she could do to knock him down a notch or two. Realistically, she’d just managed that without the Amazon being involved, but it seemed like there should be more she could do.

She was ruminating over possibilities, especially ones that didn’t involve her turning into Hippolyta again, when the phone on her desk rang. She picked it up and automatically said, “Newsroom, Parker.”

“Miss Parker, this is Robert Spangler,” the voice on the other end of the phone said.

Jeez, Missy’s father! Sally thought. She’d met him a couple different times, the first time under very trying circumstances last Thursday evening, and then again yesterday morning. She now knew that he was a lawyer, and a fairly big cheese in his part of the community. He was also a genuinely nice person, a trait not common in lawyers. “Good to hear from you,” she said. “How’s Melissa getting along?”

“Just fine. She’s back in school again today.” She heard a chuckle come over the phone. “She said she had a big talking to yesterday from a school psychologist, about how there really aren’t such things as Amazon superheroines. It didn’t go over with her. She knows better and told him so, and quite emphatically, I understand.”

“It’s a little unusual,” Sally laughed along with him.

“More than a little unusual,” Spangler chuckled. “However, her parents know better, too. There really was a superheroine named Hippolyta out there Thursday night, and she saved my daughter’s life. Corporal Watkins was there, and she knows it, too. I’ve talked to her about it. I have to admit, I was wondering quite a lot about what your brother was doing out there, but Corporal Watkins says he knows how to contact this Hippolyta.”

Sally thought for a second. Jason was not all that far away, and had to be careful that she didn’t say anything he might pick up on. “From what I know, I’m assuming that’s probably correct. It seems like the only logical reason to me, too.”

“As it does to me. However, I can’t get your brother to admit to anything, much less to contact her. I was wondering if you might be able to talk to him for me.”

“May I ask what your interest is?”

“When Missy was abducted, we posted a reward for her safe return. Ten thousand dollars. I would gladly give more. Both your brother and Officer Watkins have refused the offer, saying that their department rules don’t allow accepting rewards like that, and that it was this Hippolyta who was the real heroine. Both of them also say that they couldn’t have done with their guns what she did with her sword. You may remember Corporal Watkins saying something to that effect in your interview with her immediately after Missy’s rescue.”

“We talked about it more off-camera,” Sally admitted. “She did seem rather positive about it.”

“Then, you’ll understand why I want to talk to her. Since the reward was offered, I feel honor bound to at least offer it to her. I’m wondering if maybe you could talk to your brother for me, and see if he’ll ask her about it. The alternative is to ask you to do a news story announcing that I want to talk to her about the reward.”

“I’d be reluctant to do that if I was you, sir. If you do, you’ll be getting calls from every nutcase who hears about it.”

“I agree. I’m very reluctant of that method of contact for just that reason. But perhaps you can use that as leverage on your brother.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Sally told him with resignation. “It may take a couple days, and I can’t make any promises.”

“I appreciate it,” he said. “By the way, I want to compliment you on the way you got that story Thursday night and followed up on it professionally, without making a spectacle out of anyone involved. I think you have a good future in your profession, Miss Parker.”

“Well, I hope you’re correct. Like I said, I’ll see what I can do, and feel free to call me again if I can help.”

“You have a good day, Miss Parker.”

Sally put the phone back on the hook, reached in her drawer for a handful of rubber balls, and got them going. This was going to take some thinking. The easy answer was to just call him back as Hippolyta—not right now and not from the office, but from somewhere else, this evening, maybe.

But she was reluctant to do it on the phone. Oh, she could do the Hippolyta voice well enough, she’d done it for years—but part of the problem was that she wasn’t sure that the phone disguised her own voice well enough. She thought it took the image of Hippolyta’s presence to reinforce the voice, and it was as much in her own mind as well as it was anyone else’s.

Ten thousand bucks, though—it would go a long way toward paying off her college loans, but she knew that Hippolyta would no more accept it than Janice or Charlie had. On the other hand, maybe this was an opportunity, just disguised as a problem …

That meant only one thing. Yesterday, with Charlie, she’d all but sworn off putting the costume on again, but damn it, this was something special.

It was getting on toward Missy’s bedtime, and it was a special time. The little girl was sitting on the couch in the living room, her father and mother on each side of her, listening to her father read to her from Gulliver’s Travels.

Robert Spangler read slowly, just enjoying the moment. Bedtime story time had always been special to him, and after last Thursday it was even more special. He was well aware that he’d come as close as that to losing his beloved daughter, but until he’d talked to Corporal Watkins, he hadn’t realized just how close it really had been. God and good luck and an extremely mysterious “Amazon” named “Hippolyta” had intervened at just about the last possible second, and now he realized just how much he’d almost lost. Missy was beside him, the only daughter he had, the only one there could ever be. He and Maureen had been too wrapped up in their careers, had almost put off having her for too long … and then to have her that close to taken from his life and have her suffer as Michelle Graber had a few weeks back, was almost more than he could bear. He hadn’t said much about it to either Missy or Maureen, but he hoped that the Parker woman from Channel 5 could get a message to that mysterious black-clad woman he owed so much to. She’d literally given him back his life at the same time she’d saved Missy’s.

The phone rang. It was immensely irritating at this special time, and would be more irritating if it was a sales call, but as he held Missy close with one hand, he finished up the last few words of the chapter while Maureen went to pick it up. “It’s for you,” Maureen said, handing him the phone.

“Good evening,” a woman’s alto voice said slowly and calmly. “Is this Robert Spangler?”

“Yes, it is,” he said, about ready to snap at the sales call.

“I am informed that you wished to speak to me,” the slow, resonant voice said. “My name is Hippolyta.”

Spangler felt his eyes go wide as he almost dropped the phone. Apparently she wasn’t a figment of his or anyone’s imagination at all. “Yes, I do,” he said, trying to get himself under control. “Ma’am, you don’t know how much I owe you, and I want to give you my thanks. As you know, I offered a reward—”

“I wish to speak to you about that. I am informed of your offer of a reward. I cannot accept it. I was only doing my duty as an Amazon.”

“There ought to be some way that I could thank you, if only to shake your hand. Is there some way we might meet?”

“Yes, there . Is your daughter still awake?”

“She is,” he replied. “We were just getting her ready for bed.”

“Very well,” she said. “I would ask you, your wife, and Melissa to go out to your back porch, unlock and open the sliding glass door, turn off the porch and kitchen lights, then wait for me.” He heard a rush of static as a cell phone clicked off.

“What’s that about?” Maureen asked with a frown.

“Someone I’ve been trying to get hold of for a few days now. Let’s go out to the back porch.”

Maureen looked at him with a quizzical expression as he got up and picked up Melissa to carry her on his hip. “What’s this all about?” she asked.

“Someone we want to meet.”.

“Bob, are you sure we want to do this?”

“I’m quite sure we do,” he told her.

In only a minute, the Spangler family was standing on their darkened back porch, the sliding glass doors open. It wasn’t totally dark; there were lights from the neighbors, some light from the streetlights. It was dark enough that it was hard to see much though. He looked out at the back yard through the glass, and all of a sudden, there was a dark form moving toward them. The dark figure walked right up to the open glass door and joined them on the porch. “Good evening,” the presence said slowly, calmly, but with a hint of a smile in the voice.

“Hippolyta!” Missy cried delightfully. As a child, her eyes could adapt to darkness more quickly than those of her parents. “You came to see us!” She squirmed to get out of her father’s grasp.

“Yes, Missy. Are you well?”

“I’m fine,” she said, her feet hitting the floor. She rushed over to the presence in the dark, and threw her arms around her legs. With her light nightshirt on, her parents could see better where their visitor was standing.

“Very good,” Hippolyta said with a smile in her voice. “I hear you’ve been strong like an Amazon, just like I told you to be.” As her parents watched, they could see the lightness of Missy’s nightshirt as the commanding figure bent and a dark arm went around her and picked her up.

Robert felt his wife’s hand find his, squeeze it hard. He squeezed back. This was pretty surreal. No, damned surreal—but Missy and two police officers had told him that he owed his daughter’s life to the dark presence now before him on his own back porch. “I’m very pleased to meet you, Hippolyta. As I told you on the phone, I’m aware that I have much to thank you for, and you’re holding her.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Spangler,” Hippolyta’s voice came from the darkness. “I appreciate your offer, but this is the only thanks I need. I was only doing my duty as an Amazon. To accept more would be inappropriate.”

“Your duty as an Amazon?” Maureen asked in a questioning voice.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said. “I am sworn to protect women and children from evil men.” She let out a sigh. “Even protect men from evil, if need be. As it was, Zeus smiled upon us all last week, and I happened to be available when needed. Do not give me much credit. There was another Amazon with me, and a man who might as well have been an Amazon were he a woman. They deserve no less credit than I.”

“You’re talking about Corporal Watkins and Officer Parker, right?” Robert asked.

“That is correct,” Hippolyta replied. “I only happened to be marginally closer to the scene when your daughter cried out, which is why I arrived first.”

“Corporal Watkins said that you handled it better than she could have,” Robert said resolutely.

“Corporal Watkins is indeed an Amazon, although she does not take the name. But in this instance she is probably mistaken. I have little doubt that she and Officer Parker could have handled the problem as well as I. Thankfully, now we will never have to find out.”

“But I don’t understand,” Maureen protested. “Why the secrecy, the dark outfit, the mystery?”

“Come, ma’am, think about it,” Hippolyta said slowly. “Evil men often stalk the darkness, and you are more aware of that than most. Is it not good to make them know they have mysterious dark enemies who can strike at their deeds without warning? Perhaps they will think twice before doing their evil.”

“You know,” Maureen said thoughtfully. “It makes sense when you put it that way.”

“Ma’am, do you know what an Amazon really is? It is no longer a tribe of mysterious woman warriors, although theirs is the ideal I have chosen to emulate for my work. In the end, an Amazon is any person who runs toward a cry of need in the fight against evil, rather than turn her, or even his, back on it. Nothing more, nothing less. Ma’am, back before any of us were born, in a city called New York, there was a woman by the name of Kitty Genovese. She was attacked outside her apartment building one evening. It was later determined that more than twenty people heard her cries for help over a period of nearly an hour. She died because, of those twenty or more people hearing her cries for help, too few of them were Amazon enough to pick up the telephone and call the police. Amazons heard your daughter’s cry for help, and it was one more step toward repairing the dishonor of that long-ago day, and others like it. Such can never be fully atoned for, but we dare not fail to try.”

“I understand,” Robert said softly. “And I understand why you won’t accept a reward. I still think there ought to be something Maureen and I can do to thank you.”

“Believe me, Mr. Spangler. Seeing your daughter alive and safe and happy is all the reward I need. However, if you think you must do something, you may be aware of the plight of the Woman’s Crisis Center in the western part of town. They are very good at helping to repair the damage that evil has caused, but evil is attacking them.”

“I saw a story on the news about that the other night. The mayor is cutting the city funding, right?”

“That is correct. I would not object if you were to make your reward a donation to them. I give you leave to do it in my name, if you must.”

“The mayor is really being a jerk about that,” Robert said, thinking hard for a second, an idea rolling around in his mind. Worth a try, he thought. “Hippolyta, would you be interested in helping to repair that dishonor?”

“Perhaps,” the dark presence said. “What is it you have in mind?”

“I haven’t got it all worked out,” Robert admitted. “Right off the top of my head, would you be willing to accept my reward publicly in their behalf? I might even be able to get the mayor there, and maybe together we can shame him into changing his mind.”

“Mr. Spangler, I am a creature of the shadows. I do not seek the light. I fear too much light has been shed upon me in the past few days as it is.”

“Hippolyta,” Maureen said. “You said yourself that it would be a blow against evil. Would you do it if the reward came from the three of us?”

“We must handle it carefully,” Hippolyta replied, obviously conceding. “For a number of reasons, I cannot let my mundane identity be revealed.”

“Let me work out some of the details,” Robert said. “How can I get back with you?”

“I will inform Mr. Parker of this,” she said setting Missy down. “He will know how to contact me. Now, our business being concluded, I think it best I prepare to leave.”

“Don’t go, Hippolyta,” Missy pleaded. “I’m going to miss you.”

“Oh, I shall see you again,” Hippolyta said to her. “Missy, I’ll never forget you, and I will look in on you from time to time, although you may not always know it. But do something for me, will you please?”

“Sure, Hippolyta,” the little girl piped up. “What is it?”

“The same thing I told you the other night. Be strong. Strong like an Amazon. Perhaps someday, you will be an Amazon. Now, Missy, like the other night, I must return to the shadows.”

“Goodbye, Hippolyta,” she replied, giving another hug to the Amazon’s legs. “I’ll do what you said.”

“Good night to you, and to your father and mother,” Hippolyta replied.

“Take care, Hippolyta,” Maureen said. “We’ll all be looking forward to seeing you again.”

“We sure will,” Robert agreed.

There was no reply, but the Spanglers could see the dark presence walk confidently across their back yard and turn into the alley behind the house. By now, their eyes had become used to the darkness enough that they didn’t have any trouble seeing Missy run back towards them. “See, Mommy? I told you she was real.”

“She sure is,” Maureen said thoughtfully. “And I think we’re all very lucky that she came into our lives.”

“Yeah,” Robert said, mind working hard. It may have been one of the weirder, more surreal experiences of his life, but owing her for saving Missy … there was a lot to think about, and it went further than money. Or even Missy.

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