He took a bite of his sandwich. There were two more on the tray in front of him. She saw the edge of one peeking out from his backpack. He was skinny as a rail. Either his metabolism was amazing, or he wasn’t used to having food available.

“I just want people to know that curingas aren’t freaks,” he said, leaning forward. There was a blaze of pride in his mismatched eyes. “That we can be heróis, too. That we can have ace powers. You don’t know what it’s like to be a curinga.”

Michelle sank back into the seat across from his. “No,” she replied softly. “But my daughter is a joker and I don’t think she’s a freak.”

He looked a little chagrined. “My apologies,” he said. “I forgot about your daughter. A pretty ace like you—you must have everything—why would you adopt a joker?”

“Because she needed me,” Michelle said. Those damn tears began welling up again. “And I needed her.”

“I can take orders,” he said abruptly. “I can be part of the team.”

She ducked her head for a moment to get the tears under control. Then she looked up at him. “I think you’re going to be fine,” she said. “I think we’re lucky to have you.”

She got up and walked back to her seat. Sheeba was reading the brief they’d all gotten about Talas. It was a thin folder.

The Angel looked up at her with luminous eyes. Sheeba was beautiful, but Michelle had never been sexually tempted by her. It wasn’t just because Sheeba wasn’t interested in women, but Joey tended to be on her mind when those feelings arose.

“Not much to go on,” Michelle said, pointing at the folder. “This is just about the least information we’ve had going into an assignment.”

The Angel nodded. “I don’t like it at all—too many ways for everything to go wrong. And half of the members of this team have never worked together before.”

“True enough,” Michelle replied. She glanced over at Doktor Omweer and sighed. There was no way around it. She had to talk to him. “I’ll be right back.”

Marcel looked up as she approached his seat. He was sitting alone and seemed perfectly happy with that. A frown slid across his face as she sat down opposite him.