Agent Rodrigo Ochoa stood next to Cynthia, on edge, doing his best to ignore her nudging—her veiled ridicule—knowing she could use it to mask her prodding. He had to keep it together, no matter how he felt about Sandra and how they were treating her.

“You like her, then,” Cynthia said.

Ochoa mulled that over for a moment, questioning whether he should let it slide, make like he didn’t catch on to her tone and the meaning behind it. “You know you tend to over-sexualize everything, right?”

She let him see her own smirk in the window’s reflection. “Call me a romantic.”

He grew serious, going back to business, peering at Sandra, in there, strapped to the polygraph machine. One more time. He liked how she stared straight ahead, a flash of fear in her eyes, and a determination to keep it under wraps.

“All right,” Cynthia said. “Let’s try that again. You think she’s good for it.”

“The needle’s barely twitching.”

“Yeah, she’s acing it. It can only mean one thing.”

He turned to frown at her. “That she’s telling the truth?”

“OK, make that two things.”

With a forced sigh, he turned back to face the screen and folded his arms.

“She’s telling the truth, or she’s pathological.”

“Next thing I know you’ll be telling me all about why polygraphs aren’t admissible in court, how you can be trained to fool them, hell…” He waved at the screen. “How she’s been trained to cook the whole thing up.”

“So you do like her. For it, I mean.”

He spoke with lots of space between his words. “She is acing it. That. Is all. I said.”

“That’s good, Ocho. Wouldn’t want to think you’ve lost your skepticism and sour outlook of the world.”

“Can we get back to regularly scheduled programming?”

Cynthia tapped on the glass. The polygraph technician looked up from his laptop screen, scowling at the window. She tapped three more times. The guy scowled at her for another five seconds or so, then turned back to his equipment to wrap it all up.

“You didn’t let him ask the hardest questions,” Ochoa said.

“You mean, about stolen heads-up display microchips from local defense contractors?”

“You sure made it sound like your silver bullet.”

“So boring, though. Especially when I already know the answer.”

“I’m not quite following your logic.”

Cynthia turned to him and gave him a gentle double-slap on the cheek. “I saved that one all for you. Perhaps you can use it to build rapport, and all of that touchy-feely stuff. See how well you like her for it, then.”

I hope you enjoyed reading the beginning of Virtual Identity. As we speak, I am readying to release this story next month, February 18. To stay up to date about this and future news, join my Reader’s Club. Oh, and let me know what you think of this story!