“Wait. Did you say half a million dollars?”
“Yes, the government feels that’s a reasonable compensationfor your sacrifice. We also have paperwork showing that if you do come back toEarth, the money will be tax-exempt. We do ask that you keep that number toyourself. We want women to volunteer and make an honest go of this. If it getsout that we’re offering such a large sum, we could have the wrong type ofpeople apply. I will need you to sign a nondisclosure agreement before youleave.”
Poppy took a sip of her now-cold coffee and thought for aminute. That actually did make sense. Hell, if she’d known she’d be gettingthat much money, she would have been much more eager to apply. She also knewsome of her friends would dump their so-so boyfriends and apply as well.
“So what would I do with all my stuff?” she asked.
“I would actually be in charge of getting it into a storagefacility for you for your trial period. At the end of the thirty days you candecide if you want to sell it, pick through it, or we can auction it off foryou and deposit the money collected.” Valerie handed Poppy more paperwork andpointed out a spot to sign. “If you want me to take care of everything thensign here. Otherwise we’ll assume that you’ll have family or friends take careof your possessions. You don’t have to decide what to do with your possessionsright now but this just authorizes me to set up a storage container and moversafter you pack your initial bags you want to take.”
Poppy signed the marked spot, knowing that Pixie was toobusy to worry about packing and storing her belongings. Poppy didn’t have muchin the one-bedroom apartment and she figured if she did get past the thirtydays, a majority of it would be donated to a shelter since it was all cheapstuff.
“I do actually have a question…what did you do before you becamea liaison?” Poppy asked.
“Oh, I was a social worker before I applied here.” Valerie’ssmile tilted to one side. “Honestly, I had a hard time with the social servicesaspect.”
When Poppy cast her a questioning look, she added, “Icouldn’t handle seeing the tough stuff, you know? I loved being able to helpkids but in the end, the state had the final say even if it was something Ididn’t agree with. That part is hard and I wasn’t prepared for it, even thoughI thought I was. I had actually been planning to go back to school, maybegetting my law degree, when I saw an ad for a liaison position. So…here I am.”
Smiling with understanding, Poppy handed Valerie back thepaperwork and pen after signing the nondisclosure agreement.
“It sounds like you actually have all this job down pat. DoI now just wait and see what warrior name pops up as a match?”
“Essentially, yes. We will contact you, but before you leaveI need to remind you of the nondisclosure agreement you signed. We’ll beclosely monitoring all your calls and emails. This is for everyone’s safety. Ifthere are any threats, we’ll know about them immediately and be able to takecare of them. Also, you are not allowed to speak to any press unless you’vespoken with our people and been given a script to read. It’s very importantthat during this initial test run we control all information going out andcoming in. I don’t know if Suzie mentioned it, but we had to eliminate somecandidates who did their questionnaires online. When the hackers released theinformation, it created a frenzy of death threats and also media blitzes onthose applicants. They’re considered compromised since we don’t know if they’regoing to be getting paid from outside sources in exchange for information now.”
Poppy stood and nodded her head. “Okay, mum’s the word andall communication is monitored so watch what I say. Gotcha.”
Valerie followed Poppy out of the office and handed her abusiness card as they walked toward the elevator.
“My card has all my contact info, including my home and cellnumbers. If you have any questions, and I mean any, please call me. I’llcall you once I find out about the match. Once that happens we won’t have a lotof time to get things done so it might be a good idea for you to start decidingwhat you would want to take to the squadron ship sooner rather than later.”Smiling at Poppy, she pushed the Down button. “It was wonderful meeting you.You aren’t going to regret this.”
As Poppy stepped onto the elevator and started the trip downto get her phone and sign out, she kept thinking, Please let Valerie beright. Don’t let me regret this.
Chapter Eight
Poppy had barely made it home when her cell phone startedringing.
“Hello?” she gasped, trying to catch her breath. Those threeflights of stairs took it out of her normally and that wasn’t counting when shehad to juggle groceries as she climbed.
“Poppy? This is Valerie. You’ve been matched!”
Valerie sounded extremely excited and the words echoed inPoppy’s head. Matched? Matched! Holy hell, she was matched!
“Already? I thought this was going to take a couple days…Are you sure this is right? Could the system have made a mistake?” Poppy was sostunned that the jar of sauce she had managed to get to the counter rolledright off it and into the kitchen sink.
“The match came through right after you left and since ithappened so quickly, I asked myself the same thing…but Poppy, theydouble-checked it and ran it through once more. It picked the same warrior. Theonly thing I can tell you right now is that your match is a Healson Warrior andyou will be meeting him as soon as we can get our ducks in line. He’s veryanxious to meet you.”
“Healson? Isn’t that the diplomat class? In all honesty, Iwas kind of hoping for a Brakken—I don’t know anything about being apolitician’s wife. The only time I vote is when it’s time for presidentialelections.” She managed
