There was a knocking at the door. Without taking her eyes from the action in front of her, Sally sidled over and opened it. “Come on in,” she said.

“You ordered a pizza?” the delivery guy said, eyes widening at the scene before him. He’d seen some strange ones on this job, but this was a lot stranger than most. Two people in silver jackets and masks were going at each other with swords—hard. Blades flashed in the overhead lights, and the sound of the clash of real steel was unmistakable. These weren’t plastic toys.

“Yeah,” Sally replied. “Hang on a second, till this exchange is over with. It shouldn’t take long.”

The pizza guy came inside and let the door shut behind him as the two sword fighters went at it. They broke away from each other, and one of them backed off a bit, then lunged, and the blades continued to weave. All of a sudden, there was a “ping” and a red light on the wall lit up. “Nice redoublement there, Justin,” Sally said. “You two want to break it off? Pizza’s here, and Rick, I don’t have my purse.”

“Hey, you got a minute?” one of the fencers turned his head and said to the pizza guy. Without waiting for a reply he turned back to the other fencer. “Justin, you want to make this sporting? Next point against pays for the pizza?”

“You’re on,” the other fencer said. “I’ve only been outpointing you two to one.”

“Means nothing,” Rick said. “This is winner take all, kid. Ready? Fence.”

“Jeez, I can’t wait to get back to the shop,” the pizza guy whispered to Sally as the two fencers eyed each other, and without a bit of warning, started with a furious clash of steel. “Wait till they hear that two guys had a sword fight over who paid. You guys do this out here all the time?”

“Once in a while,” Sally told him. “This is just a practice workout.”

It went on for quite a while. Twice the two fencers had to break off and back away before going at it again. Over the course of several seconds, the action worked down to the far side of the room. There was another furious clash, and once again there was a “ping” as the red light lit up.

“Good one, Justin,” Sally heard Rick’s voice say.

“I had to win it,” Justin said, pulling his mask back. “I don’t have enough money on me to pay for pizza.”

“Remind me not to play poker with you, kid,” Rick said. “You want to unwire me please?”

A few minutes later the four had their fencing gear off and were clustered around the open pizza box on the floor, since there weren’t enough chairs to go around. Sally felt particularly mellow, thinking that some of the best memories of her life had been in moments like this, taking a break over sodas and snacks right on the fencing floors where friends had been having a good workout, just being fellow fencers together. Right at the moment, she wouldn’t have exchanged it for the best restaurant in the city. This was about as close to perfect as it could get. “Anybody learning anything this morning?” she asked.

“Good grief, yes,” Emily exclaimed. “I don’t think I’ve ever learned as much or had this much time on the strip in a couple hours.”

“Yeah,” Justin agreed, setting down his large paper cup of pop. “Sally, I see what you mean when you say Rick’s technique is rough, but damn, Rick, you made me work for every point.”

“Rick has got a lot to learn,” Sally said, and turned to him. “I suppose it’s the martial arts, but you’re so aggressive that it’s awesome. Your biggest weak spot right now is that you don’t know when to retreat.”

“Martial arts,” Rick shrugged. “I don’t back down easily; we’re trained to keep going or die.”

“True. That’s not always a good move in competition fencing, though, especially when the action gets close, at least in foil and epee. When you get that close, you can’t land a point, and sometimes you have to open the range to get the room. Three times out of four, Emily and Justin scored on you when that happened. They know how to open the range so they can score. On the other hand, in sabre, that’s not all bad. You can score with an edge there, rather than just with the tip, like on foil. I’m thinking that I want to push through the basics with you as quick as I can, and then break you in on sabre.”

“That’s your strongest fencing discipline, isn’t it?” Emily asked. “Stan said you were Great Lakes champion a few years ago.”

“I like sabre. Technically, I hold a ‘B’ rating, but when it expires I probably won’t be able to get it back. Since I got out of college, I just haven’t had the time to practice sabre very much. It’s not as popular as foil or epee, and finding good opponents can be hard.”

“Do I detect a plot forming behind those green eyes?”

“What do you think, Rick?” Sally retorted. “With your speed, strength, aggressiveness, and willingness to mix it up, you’re a natural for sabre. Granted, you’ve got to be trained to use it, and you’ll have to fence against other people, not just me, so you can learn to defend against more than my style. And to be well rounded you need to pick up more foil and epee, or you’re going to be in the same boat with me, not enough people to practice with.”

Sally took a bite of her pizza, just to give her a moment to think. Actually, she hadn’t thought it out that far, but it was a heck of an idea. If Rick would stick with it and go along with her on the plan, the aggressiveness he’d showed this morning meant it wouldn’t take him long to be a useful practice opponent.

Even though Hippolyta had been out twice in the past week, the Amazon had told the crowd Thursday night that she intended to return to the shadows, and that had been exactly what she meant. As much as she liked the feeling of being Hippolyta, there were many unmistakable downsides. There were a lot of obvious connections between Sally and Hippolyta, the fencing being only one of them, and there were plenty of good reasons not to let Hippolyta’s identity be discovered. Setting the practice floor back up and getting back into fencing halfway seriously had been at least partly intended to get her mind out of the Amazon track. She’d had to struggle to not let herself fall into the Hippolyta voice while fencing this morning because Rick would certainly recognize it, though Emily or Justin likely wouldn’t.

Besides, working with Justin and Emily this morning had been fun. She’d met them earlier in the week, on Wednesday night, when she’d taken a run down for open fencing at the Toledo Salle, mostly for the sake of seeing Stan, her long-time instructor, and partly to see if there was anyone around she could practice sabre against. But she’d also wanted to find one or two fencers not as good as her for Rick to work out with. Stan had suggested these two. They weren’t exactly at the head of their class and could stand the extra practice. Besides, she’d picked up that they were sort of boyfriend and girlfriend. Sally was just a little bit envious. Life would have been easier in high school if she’d had another fencer for a boyfriend. Maybe she was finally getting one.

“Well, I’m not opposed to the idea,” Rick told her. “So long as we get out and do something other than crossing foils once in a while.”

Sally giggled. “I mentioned our workout last weekend to Dave in the studio, and he said times have sure changed. He said back when he was our age, a date meant dinner and a movie. I suppose we ought to do that, or something like it, once in a while.”

“We could arrange that,” he said. “You probably like movies like Braveheart, where there’s a lot of swordplay.”

“Not really. I know too much about fencing and find myself shouting stuff like, ‘Parry, you idiot! Riposte!’ at the screen.”

“Funny,” Rick laughed. “I do the same sort of thing at cop movies.”

Emily shook her head. “Justin and I saw the new Batman here a while back. It was pretty good, but after watching the news the last few days, it’s a little hard to believe that it’s just a movie. I mean, I know you said you met Hippolyta, but she seems a little hard to believe.”

“Yeah,” Rick nodded his head. “She’s hard for me to believe, too. I really haven’t seen much of her, just a couple minutes at that holdup a couple weeks ago, and then for a few minutes Thursday night.” He stared off into space for a moment. “I guess that made a believer out of me. I mean, they could have pulled in an actress last Thursday to double for her, but they didn’t. The Hippolyta I met Thursday was the same woman I saw at the Shop’n’Go, and I saw the results there of what she can do with a sword. Let me tell you kids, I was impressed. She comes across to me as one extremely hardassed lady, with a weird but rigid code of honor all her own. Strange as hell, especially these days, but I can’t help but respect her.”

Sally thought this was a good time to lay a little false trail. “A couple of people from the station saw her,” she said. “That’s kind of the impression I got from them. I’m pretty sure I never fenced against her or even seen her at a tournament. I’ve only seen the security camera tape from the Shop’n’Go, and that was only one move, but to me it looked more like aikido, or maybe shinkendo or some other eastern form, rather than competition sabre.”

“Couldn’t be shinkendo,” Rick commented. “I’ve never done it, but I’ve seen tapes. They use a two-handed sword, and I don’t know if anyone in this country does it, anyway. But who knows? She obviously doesn’t go around dressed like that all the time, but then, neither did Clark Kent, so it’s anyone’s guess as to who she is. My partner, Janice, well, she was in on the Spangler kid’s rescue with Sally’s brother. Jan told me that she put it to Charlie, and he says he only has a way to leave a message for her and has to state what it’s about, and then she contacts him if she wants to. From what Jan says, Charlie has seen her more than anyone else and he doesn’t know shit about who she is, either.”

“He hasn’t told me anything,” Sally said. “Or Dad, as far as I know.”

“The fewer people who know, the fewer there are who can talk,” Rick said, grabbing another slice of pizza. “Probably just as well. We may never know the truth, but it’s nice to have a little mystery and legend, anymore. It keeps life interesting.”

“Unit 3, what’s your 20?” Liz’s voice boomed over the speaker of the UHF radio in the First to Know News van.

Shane’s hand shot out for the microphone. “Woodville, about a mile from the bridge,” he said.

“Holdup in progress, the True Value at Seaman and Navarre,” Liz replied instantly.

“Ten-four,” he replied, the excitement noticeable in his voice. He checked traffic quickly. It was light, so he hung a U-turn in the middle of the street and stomped on it. The cops were probably heading for the scene and wouldn’t bother with him, anyway.

“Nice timing,” Sally commented. They’d been out shooting a cutsie-poo elementary school story that bored even her. “Only a couple blocks off.”

“Damn,” Shane said. “The last few weeks, I hear something like that on the radio, I expect Hippolyta’s name to be mentioned.”

“Not likely. Apparently she doesn’t come out in daylight. Nobody’s heard from her in a couple weeks, anyway.”

“Kind of a shame,” Shane replied, hanging a screaming left turn across oncoming traffic. “She was keeping life interesting around here. Let’s be a little cool till we find out if the scene is secure. No point in walking into the middle of a gunfight.”

“Works for me,” Sally agreed. Up ahead was the hardware store with a cluster of six or eight people out by the curb, several on the ground. Even approaching rapidly, while at a distance, they could see somebody throw a punch. “Shane …” she cried.

“I see it,” he said, standing on the brakes. “Looks like we beat the cops.” The van slid to a halt, and in an instant he’d grabbed the video camera from behind him and started taping.

Wishing for a moment that she had the Model 581, or even Penthesilea, Sally slid out of the far side of the van and surveyed the scene. At a quick study, the clump of people looked much like a pileup on a football field. There was a black guy at the bottom of the stack, struggling. Several people sat on top of him, with a real big black guy most prominent. As the camera was rolling, Sally heard the big guy yell, “Settle down, damn it, or I’ll pop you again!”

“You asshole …” the black guy on the bottom moaned. He didn’t get to say more before a fist the size of an average ham hit him in the face. Sally refocused her attention and saw what looked like a cash drawer laying on the pavement next to him—the fact that there was a considerable amount of money laying around reinforced her conclusion. Two or three people were picking up the cash—not grabbing for it, just collecting it so it wouldn’t blow away.

It didn’t take much imagination to understand what had happened. The black guy underneath must have grabbed the cash drawer when the register was open and the cashier was distracted—and at least one citizen, maybe more, had run him down. She glanced at her watch. It was still early; they might make the noon news with this.

Just then a police car pulled up, siren going, lights flashing. She glanced up to see two officers piling out, and another police car wasn’t far behind.

Despite several shots to the face, the black guy on the bottom was still fighting, and it took the help of several of the citizens to get cuffs on him. Four cops and a couple of the citizens got him to his feet, and half-carried, half dragged him toward the nearest police car. They had him half in the car when a black woman ran up, screaming and swearing, throwing wild punches at the cops. In an instant one of the cops had her in a hammerlock, still fighting, and one of the citizens grabbed her free arm while another officer locked cuffs on her as well. Sally glanced over at Shane and could see he was still taping. Yeah, talk about being in the right place at the right time!

With the situation under control, Sally decided that it was time to move herself and see what she could find out. The great big black guy was standing impassively watching the cops still trying to control the guy in the police car, and she headed over to him. Shane saw her walking, and figured what was going on. Sally grabbed the mike off the side of the camera and held it up to the big guy. “Sir, I’m Sally Parker from Channel 5 First to Know News. Can you tell me what just happened here?”

“Yeah,” the guy said, not panting in the least. “I was just heading into the store when this guy come running out carrying the cash drawer, so I threw a block on him. He wouldn’t stay down, and I had to pop him a couple times.”

Sally looked up at him. She was taller than average for a woman, but this big hunk towered over her. God, he’s got to be over three hundred pounds, she thought. “Do you play football?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m Duane Six, I play tackle for the U-T Rockets.”

“Coach will give you a star for that one. Why did you get involved?”

“Can’t have crumbs like that ruinin’ the neighborhood. You see that Hippolyta woman on TV here a ways back? She said people got to take a hand to fight crime. She was right. Glad I could help.”

That wasn’t exactly what Hippolyta had said, Sally thought just a little proudly, but this big dude had sure gotten the message. Score an assist for the Amazon! “I think Hippolyta would be proud of you, sir,” she told him.

In the next few minutes, Sally did several other brief interviews with some of the other people who had chased and then held the perp down. It appeared that the perp had been getting away until the Rocket lineman put the blitz on him. There was a brief interview with a police sergeant, sort of recapping what went on and giving her the IDs of the perp and his girlfriend. There was another with the store manager, who said that from what he could tell, most of the money had been recovered, but that they’d have to cash out to be sure.

She glanced around one more time, realizing that she had most of the pieces she needed and that none of the other stations had shown up. “Shane, let’s make air.”

“Damn straight,” he said, taking the camera off his shoulder and heading for the van. In less than a minute they were back on the street, heading for the station. “Base, Unit 3,” Shane called on the UHF. “Incoming with hot footage.”

“How hot?” Liz replied.

“First segment, maybe lead,” Shane replied. “We beat the cops to the scene, got shots of citizens apprehending the perp. Sally got several interviews with the primaries.”

“Unit 3, any other stations on the scene?”

“Not when we left,” Shane said and grinned hugely. “Although here comes 13 Last to Know News headin’ toward the scene.”

“Way cool,” Liz’s voice boomed from the speaker. “We’ll be waitin’.”

“And just who gets all the luck around here?” Jason asked as Sally came out of the studio. As always, a late-breaking story made things frantic, especially when it had to go to the top of the show, but this was nowhere near as bad or as close as the night of Melissa Spangler’s rescue. As it turned out, Sally’d had time to do a stand-up report in the studio, adding voice-overs where needed to flesh out the good quotes from the scene. It had been good reporter-cameraman teamwork right from the start, from the initial radio call until the story went on the air. Although they’d lucked onto the story, it had been a good one.

“That’s all it was, Jason,” she said. “Just luck that we were in the right place at the right time. If you’d been there, you’d have done the story just as well. I haven’t looked, but have you got anything on the show this noon?”

“Just a stupid little package on a car wash that was held up. Maybe fifteen seconds. As usual, all the cops will tell me is that it’s under investigation, they won’t even give me a description.”

“That’s the way it works some times. Maybe they’ve got a lead and they don’t want to give it away.”

“Could be,” Jason snorted. “Except I don’t believe them. Hey, you ever hear anything from your brother about Hippolyta? When that Six guy mentioned her today, it was the first time her name has come up on the air in almost a week.”

“Not a thing. I never got much from Charlie, anyway. I actually got more from Missy Spangler’s other rescuer, Corporal Watkins, but not much there either.”

“It’s like she dried up and blew away. Apparently nobody’s heard from her since the news conference I covered for you.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be heard from,” Sally said thoughtfully.

“Probably so, but I’d still like to do an interview with her.”

Fat chance, Sally thought. Hippolyta’s stuff is packed up in my closet, and it’s not coming out unless there’s a damn good reason. She sighed and changed the subject. “I’d better get at it. We’ll probably have to re-cut that holdup package for this evening, and I’ve still got to get that package from this morning together.”

“Anything interesting?” he asked.

“Not unless you’re a mommy who gets to see her kid’s face on TV,” Sally said with obvious disdain. “But that’s part of the job, too. Then I’ve got that rally later, thrill, thrill.”

“All in a day’s work,” Jason said, turning to his computer monitor, now that the second segment was over with. He didn’t care much about the sports and weather.

“I suppose,” Sally sighed, taking the tape from earlier and heading to an editing room. Shane had shot a lot of footage, but only short segments of it were very interesting, and she already had what she wanted to use mostly figured out. Still, there was the cutting to be done, so she’d better get started.

As she screened the footage, her mind wandered. Realistically, that had been a pretty decent exchange with Jason. He was still an asshole, but over the last week he had been a more tolerable one, whether it came from the time he was making with that girl from Hooters he kept bragging about, or from his dreams of Hippolyta she wasn’t sure. Maybe both. For a while there, it had been pretty close to open war, and Sally had beaten on him pretty well without looking like it was her primary aim.

She was sorry now that she’d dragged Hippolyta into the open. If she hadn’t had Charlie do that story in the Daily, she could be taking Hippolyta to the FantasyCon in Pittsburgh this weekend. No way she could do that now. She hadn’t gotten around to pulling the new costume together yet. That would require, at a minimum, a couple trips out to Pioneer, and she just hadn’t had the time. Besides, she’d thought about the new character very minimally. She had sort of settled on “Bremusa,” which meant “Raging Woman,” and had been one of Penthesilea’s companions at the Battle of Troy. But she hadn’t gone firm on the name, and it still seemed too much like a renamed Hippolyta. If she was going to do it, she wanted to put some new twists on the character and her costume, but had yet to figure out what any of them were.

Besides, she didn’t have the time, anyway. She’d never mentioned the FantasyCons to Rick as they still seemed rather childish to her when she stepped back and thought about it. They’d been an awful lot of fun, though … but that was when she hadn’t had a boyfriend she was teaching sabre to in every spare moment, or a couple other students who were starting to pick it up. When she stopped and thought about it, it was more fun than being Hippolyta at a FantasyCon, anyway. Certainly more fun than being a Hippolyta clone.

She had the video cuts well on the way by the time the noon news ended, though they weren’t quite done yet. With most of the other staff, she headed into the studio for the critique and got a nice compliment there from Jeff on the presentation, after which she went back and finished the cuts. When she came out of the editing room, the place was almost empty, but she heard some talking from the break room. Well, she was hungry, and some lunch would taste good, and there wasn’t time today to go out for it. Not an abnormal thing to happen, and she kept a supply of snack food in her desk just for those times it did. She grabbed a couple packages, made a quick stop at the machine for a bottle of juice, then found a seat at a table.

“Good story for a quick one,” Vicky commented. “Thought that was kind of a neat thing to happen.”

“Yeah,” Sally replied. “I did, too. I’m sort of looking forward to telling Rick about it.”

“Oh, yeah,” Vicky said. “He’s the guy you’re working out with all the time, right? How’s it going?”

“Pretty good,” Sally said. “We’re looking at going to a tournament in Cleveland next month. I think he’ll be ready, and I think the kids I’m working with will be, too.”

“Jeez,” Dan said. “Is all the two of you do is go at each other with swords?”

“Oh, no,” Sally exclaimed. “We do other stuff too. Last night, we went out to the range in Whitehouse and popped some caps.”

“Sounds like a nice break,” Mandy, the director, said. “I could stand a night in a country-western bar with a few beers myself.”

“I could hack some of that too,” Liz snorted, “so long as you left out the country-western part.”

“Oh, country-western is all right if you can get used to it,” Dan said. “Back when I was a kid, I was working at this station down in Tennessee …”

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