A Lady so Fair Read online

  ‘A Lady so Fair’

  By

  A.J. Kalliver

  Copyright 2001, 2013 by A.J. Kalliver

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  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, situations or metaphysical magicalness are purely coincidental.

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  Other Stories by A.J. Kalliver:

  Only Echoes Remain

  Passing Through

  What Warriors Do

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  'A Lady so Fair'

  Chapter One

  As Claudia stepped from the cab and onto the sidewalk, her eyes were drawn upwards, as they had been every other time she had stood in this spot. The office tower that loomed overhead certainly wasn't the tallest that crowded the core of downtown Boston, a mere twelve stories of gleaming steel and glass. Nevertheless, it managed to project a certain arrogance all its own… or perhaps she was merely projecting the personality of the company upon its physical representation. The taxi, having been paid by a swipe of her ident-card as she'd exited, pulled away, leaving her with nowhere to go but forward. The passing strangers spared her little more than a glance, but she was so tense, wound so tightly in anticipation of what was going to happen once her coworkers and superiors in the company saw her, that even the most casual look made her want to flinch away. With a nervousness greater than anything she'd ever experienced in the courtroom, she straightened her shoulders, tightened her grip on the briefcase she held, and moved towards the entryway with a fairly convincing approximation of a confident stride.

  It was a good act; she didn't look anything at all like someone who was in the act of committing career suicide.

  Even at this early hour the July heat was already making itself known, and by the time she pushed through the glass doors perspiration was already prickling at her brow.

  She tried to tell herself that the heat was the only reason for the rapidly forming beads of sweat.

  Inside, the temperature dropped dramatically as she entered the quiet, controlled world of Barret, McCandless and Stone; one of the most prestigious law firms in New England, and the place to which she had devoted the last eighteen years. She walked briskly across the lobby, towards the elevators that would take her to her office on the ninth floor. In spite of everything she was feeling, Claudia couldn't help noticing once again the blessed absence of the pain in her right ankle that wearing high heels had been bringing with slowly increasing frequency these last few years. Her middle back too, which had given her trouble for ages, felt good as new, and would doubtless continue to do so even after a full day of sitting at her desk.

  Yes, it's a genuine miracle of modern medicine, she thought bitterly. And I would be grateful, if only the cost of it hadn't been so high… and I don't mean the damage to my credit account.

  "Excuse me, Miss." A polite but firm voice intruded on her thoughts, and she paused, glancing at the woman ensconced within the large, circular desk in the center of the lobby. She had a bland, pleasant smile on her face, but her eyes flickered ever-so-slightly, showing her disapproval at what she saw. "I'm sorry, but only employees of the firm may pass this point without being accompanied. May I ask your business here?"

  Claudia couldn't help but smile at the woman.

  "Well, Suzanne, my business here is the same as it is every day; to make sure our clients pay us a million dollars, so they don't have to pay someone else a billion."

  The woman behind the desk stared at her blankly for several seconds before realization finally dawned.

  "My god; Claudia?"

  "Nice of you to forget me so soon; it's only been three weeks."

  Suzanne shook her head in disbelief.

  "Now you know that's not fair. Just look at you!"

  She knew what she looked like, she'd spent enough of the last few days staring into mirrors as the Rewind-Rewrite processes finally finished their work on her. Basically she was the same as she'd always been; medium height, medium build, shapely without quite being centerfold material… but lately a few of the little details had changed. She smiled at the woman behind the counter, turning a bit so that she could strike a model's pose in three-quarter profile.

  "Not bad for a forty-two year old, don't you think?"

  Suzanne just stared shamelessly, her mouth still open in shock. Claudia dropped the pose, switching her briefcase to her other hand. She knew she looked twenty years younger; maybe even a bit more. She felt that much younger too, as the disappearance of the accumulated, nagging pains of age proved. Even though the revolutionary process made no claims to actually extend a person's lifespan (there were, in fact, some suspicions that it might decrease it by a year or two), its effect upon their appearance and sense of physical well-being were undeniable. In addition to youth, the slight but noticeable problem with weight-gain that two decades of office work and no time for exercise had given her was gone, and thanks to her newly revved-up metabolism it was unlikely to return.

  "You look great," The other woman finally managed. "But—"

  Claudia felt her smile slip away, and she nodded in understanding of what Suzanne left unsaid.

  Yes, I know. 'Younger is fine, and slimmer is wonderful; that's what the senior partners offered you as a reward for winning the case for Infinite Spiral. After all, if not for you, then the Rewind process would have been tied up in the courts for another five years, at least. It's only proper for our talented, dedicated, but slightly-aging and unpleasantly-plump Claudia to be jumped to the head of the line, and reap the benefits of her work. But… why the rest of it?'

  'The rest of it' was the result of the Rewrite process; the close companion to the revolutionary genetics breakthrough that Infinite Spiral corporation had devised to reverse, at least outwardly, the effects of age. Rewriting allowed for cosmetic changes such as hair color that never faded or grew out, as the hair follicles themselves were altered at the genetic level. Likewise, skin and eye color could be changed, and if the subject so chose, they could be changed in a very dramatic fashion. Claudia had taken advantage of those options, and now looked significantly different than she had the first time she'd been twenty years old.

  Her hair was still waist-length; a deviation from the corporate-chic norm of shoulder-length or shorter hair that had been tolerated by her superiors because of her habit of wearing it up in a professional-looking style when in the office or before a jury. Now, though, instead of the nondescript dark brown she'd been born with, the fall of hair started out as something that at first glance looked black, but which a longer look revealed as very dark purple. By the time it reached her shoulders the shade had lightened until it was recognizably violet, and the final twenty inches or so shaded into a vibrant, neon blue. The transition from dark to light was smooth, not at all as gaudy as she had feared it might be, and the overall effect was as vibrant as it was eye-catching.

  It was also very much against both the written and unwritten code of dress to which Barret, McCandless and Stone expected their executives to adhere. Claudia knew that, and if she had wanted to she probably could have hidden the extent of her transgression by putting her hair up in a chignon, with the bright ends of her hair hidden under the section which at least approximated a normal color. She probably could have… but she'd chosen not to, instead coming to the office with it flowing long and loose for all to see. That likely would have been enough to earn her a few stern remarks from her superiors, but when given the choice at the newly-opened Rewind-Rewrite center, she'd chosen to go even further.

  Her skin was much paler now, so much so that she looked more like a wraith than a woman fro
m south Boston. Her eyes, formerly brown and uninteresting, were now the same brilliant blue as her hair; an instantly noticeable, obviously unnatural color which was impossible to ignore. Thanks to her 'friends' at Infinite Spiral, she not only looked and felt like a twenty-year old, she had also taken on the wild and daring style of one. Indeed, now she would look perfectly at home at any of the wild raves which took place nightly in the seedier sections of town, places she'd never had the chance to frequent in her youth, being too busy with her studies, and then as an ambitious intern at this very firm.

  "It's…." Suzanne had finally found her tongue, though she was obviously having to choose her words carefully. "It's very… bold."

  Claudia nodded, smiling faintly at the woman's sense of diplomacy. She didn't have to be told that what would doubtless look perfectly normal in a trendy nightspot would also seem glaringly out of place when representing a client in the courtroom.

  "Thank you." She lifted her briefcase slightly, inclining her head towards the elevators. "I know I'm technically on medical leave until tomorrow, but I wanted to come in and see if I can start organizing my backlog. I know there must be a mountain of work I'll need to catch up on, and the earlier I can get started—"

  Suzanne nodded quickly.

  "Of course; sorry for delaying you, I just didn't—"

  "Not at all; I understand completely." She turned towards the elevators, giving the other woman a parting smile. "See you later."

  Moments later, as she stood waiting for the lift to arrive, she took a moment to brace herself. Predictably, the encounter with the receptionist, and the expected shock over her appearance, had triggered the onset of one of the headaches she had been struggling with for the last week or so. The technicians who had performed the procedures swore that there was no way their work was responsible, but Claudia had never suffered from anything like them before.

  All right, I knew they were going to react like this; it's okay if they don't like this look. Management can either live with it, or they can fire me; it doesn't matter to me either way. Her reflection, blurred by the brushed steel surface of the elevator doors was still outlandish enough to make her stomach flutter queasily. Stop it, She thought to herself, striving for an inner calm to match what she projected. They told me to go and get the Rewind treatment, they arranged it so that I only paid half of what everyone else is going to be shelling out; if they didn't want me to act like a twenty-year-old then they shouldn't have turned me into one!

  A fierce stab of pain within her skull made her wince, and she closed her eyes for a moment as she clenched her jaw tight against a whimper.

  Damn it, there's nothing wrong with me! They've done MRI's, they've done CATscans, and there's nothing wrong. With considerable effort she managed to force her eyes open. Stress; it was only stress, and she’d had plenty of practice in dealing with that over the years. As if in reply to that thought the pain eased just a bit, and she sighed in relief. Movement was reflected in the polished metal before her, and she welcomed the additional distraction, glancing over to see a tall man standing at her shoulder. He was a tall, patriarchal sort, and her first, instinctive thought was that he too was waiting for the elevator, but a look at his face made her question that assumption. He was staring directly at her, glowering with open disapproval, eyes moving from her face to her hair to her eyes. The man wore an impeccable three-piece suit, and carried a dark leather briefcase like hers in one hand. His slightly graying hair was short and precisely styled, and it served to complete his image; any Hollywood casting agent would label him 'lawyer' as soon as he walked in for an audition.

  Claudia looked away, using her free hand to tug at the jacket she wore over her own, female version of lawyer-wear.

  I'm glad I chickened out and wore my usual clothes instead of the leather pants, or this guy might have started a fight right here; I wonder who he is? Looking out of the corner of her eye, she saw that he was still glaring at her. And I wonder why he's looking at me like I just rear-ended his Volvo? He doesn't work here, so why does he look so terribly offended by me? It's the people upstairs that I'm really going to scandalize.

  Maybe it was just her new look; she was still getting used to people treating her like the much younger woman she now appeared to be. Perhaps the man had had an unfortunate experience with a rebellious, style-obsessed daughter or granddaughter, and was projecting it on the 'young woman' with the neon blue hair and matching eyes. Whatever his problem was, she devoted herself to studiously ignoring him, though when the indicator signaled the arrival of the lift she couldn't keep herself from giving a small sigh of relief. The morning was going to be difficult enough without adding a stalker into the mix.

  With a soft chime the doors parted, and she stepped inside, ignoring the surprised and speculative looks given her by coworkers she'd passed unnoticed a thousand times before. She half-expected the man to step inside along with her, but when she turned to face forward in the elevator, he was nowhere to be seen. With a frown of uncertainty tugging her brows together, she leaned forward a bit and glanced from side to side, but the man had vanished. With a shrug, she leaned back and allowed the doors to close.

  She'd not even made it upstairs yet, and already it was shaping up to be a traumatic day.

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  Chapter Two

  The festivities on the second evening were as awful as they had been on the first, and all Claudia could do was try and numb herself against the tedium as best she could. She was being ably assisted in this endeavor by large numbers of frozen margaritas provided to her by the bartender in the main lounge. Once she'd produced identification which proved she was indeed of legal age to drink, he had proven to be most sympathetic. So far, though, the alcohol-induced haze hadn't helped make the cruise any more bearable.

  I still can't believe it. She thought, putting her elbow on the polished wood of the bar and propping her chin in her hand. After that huge buildup, after I worked myself up to the point where I gave them every reason to fire me, the bastard had the nerve to not do it. Instead, he got all concerned and sternly-fatherly.

  "Ms. McTiernan. Claudia." He'd said, once she'd reported to his office in answer to the summons that had come just before lunch. "You have been a member of this company long enough to know what constitutes a proper, professional appearance, and what does not. It goes without saying that this… display of yours... far exceeds the bounds of good taste, much less our firm's dress code." On her way upstairs she had resolved to argue every point, to defend her right to choose her own appearance just to see how far she could provoke him, but when the moment came she'd simply nodded silently, torn between dread at what was coming and a desperate need to have it over and done with. "However, it is my opinion, and that of our head of Personnel, that you are suffering from work-related fatigue, and so are not strictly responsible for your actions in misusing the privileged medical resources to which you were given access."

  At that she could only blink, wondering what on earth he was talking about.

  "Sir, I—"

  "No, let me finish," He’d said, overriding her attempt to resign as gracefully as the situation permitted. "Though you have given excellent service to this firm over the years, your attitude, especially during the end-phase of the Infinite Spiral case, has not gone unnoticed. Specifically, your belated attempts to steer the judgment away from our client, and towards InnovaTech." Now he did show the disapproval she'd anticipated, if only for such a dire breech of protocol. "Surely you know that if you had been successful in your last-minute bid to sabotage your own case, you would have cost us a contract in the mid seven-figure range?"

  Claudia had tried to control herself then, but the frustration she'd been hiding had burst from her almost against her will.

  "Sir, if you look at the technical documents from InnovaTech, you'll see that there is little doubt that they developed their process independent of any research undertaken by Infinite Spiral. In fact, circumstances seem to indi
cate that if anyone is guilty of corporate espionage, it's Infinite Spiral itself!"

  He shook his head, dismissing her words.

  "No evidence to that effect was found by the court, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the patents for the processes involved in both the Rewind and Rewrite treatments were first filed by Infinite Spiral. InnovaTech has been ordered to cease and desist any work or research involving said processes, and unless they wish to be sued into oblivion, they will heed the court's decision."

  She'd come to her feet, her voice shrill as she leaned forward over his desk.

  "Those processes show real promise as a way to cure cancer! InnovaTech already has preliminary evidence that they can cure at least three of the most deadly forms of cancer known to man, and you people don't care that all their work, everything they've done, is being wiped out so that Infinite Spiral can become obscenely rich by using it as a new kind of cosmetic surgery?!"

  His steady glare made her realize her aggressive posture, and she'd slowly eased back into her seat.

  "Ms. McTiernan. It is not our place to make moral judgments concerning our clients or their business practices; we are here to represent their interests in matters of law. And in the eyes of the law, Infinite Spiral Incorporated owns all rights to the disputed processes and their application." He paused, and there had actually been just the hint of a predatory smile when he continued. "If I were you I wouldn't worry about the other possible uses of the technology. I'm sure that once their marketing division has decided on a strategy, you'll be seeing those cancer cures soon enough, so you had better buy up as much of their stock as you can, while you can still afford it."