Read Online Hulk by Peter David - Free Book Online Page B

“Galoshes? Who says ‘galoshes’ anymore?”
    She stopped briefly at the snack machine, gave it a solid punch in exactly the right place, and scooped up a bag of Doritos. So practiced was she that she barely had to pause for more than a few moments before continuing on her way. She nodded to workers as she passed, one of whom pointed at her in congratulations and said, “I heard you killed at the meeting.”
    “I wish,” she said cheerily.
    She rounded a corner, and a voice called from behind her that she didn’t recognize instantly—but only because she didn’t want to.
    “Betty,” came the voice, “Betty Ross!”
    Her mind turned it over and over, refusing to believe it. Slowly she pivoted on her heel and stared. “Glen?” she said.
    Sure enough, there was Glen Talbot, almost exactly as Betty remembered him. His face was a bit more full, but it added maturity and even a bit of character to him. His hair had grown out since the army-reg do he had sported back in the days when they were dating, but that canniness in his eyes—and that way he had of taking in the entirety of her with a glance which she found ever so slightly chilling—that was still there. What she was most surprised to see was that he was wearing a sharply styled blue suit, crisp salmon-colored shirt, and what appeared to be—yes, she could see the initials—a Pierre Cardin necktie.
    She had no idea what to say, having had no warning that he was going to be showing up, and no clue why he had done so. In many ways, she felt as if no time at all had passed since the last occasion on which she’d seen him, and parted with him, under less than cordial circumstances. That odd sense of “just having seen him,” combined with the obvious physical evidence that time had passed was very jarring. The first thing she wanted to say was, “Well, this is awkward,” but that hardly seemed like an appropriate opening gambit.
    Grasping at conversational straws, she commented, “What happened to your uniform?” She promptly started kicking herself mentally and walked into the lab just to distance herself from him.
    Talbot looked surprised, as if she’d come up with a complete non sequitur—which, to a degree, she had. Then, smiling gamely, he stepped back, put his arms out to either side, and turned in a small circle like a model on a runway. That way Betty could admire his sartorial splendor. “I switched over,” he said, following her into the laboratory. He glanced around appraisingly. She definitely didn’t like the way he was looking things over. It made her want to toss drapes over everything to shield it all from view. “Still work with your dad, but you know, the military’s subcontracting out all the most interesting work, and I can’t argue with the paycheck. I basically run all the labs on the base now.”
    She in fact hadn’t known that at all. It wasn’t as if she chatted regularly with her father—or at all, really. For some reason she suspected that Glen was fully aware of that, but had chosen to appear oblivious to the strained relationship she currently had with her father. In the meantime, acting as if he had just thought to assess her demeanor, he gave her a quick look over and said heartily, “Hey, you’re looking good.”
    Betty inclined her head slightly, acknowledging the compliment. No reason she couldn’t be cordial, particularly until she learned just what he wanted. “So,” she said, “why are you here?”
    But the neutrality of her reaction and the lack of enthusiasm she bore for his sudden reentry into her life were all too evident to Talbot. Voice dripping with sarcasm, he said, “I missed you, too.”
    “At least you’ve had my father,” said Betty, matching sarcasm for sarcasm. And as with all great sarcasm, there was a very large kernel of raw emotion at its base. The simple fact was that it had never been lost on her just how much old Thunderbolt had doted on Glen Talbot. It was evident in