Damned If I Do *Matt Murdock* (book one of Damned)

23) I'm not giving up...

Vera thought that being on the ground floor of the enormous building, eyeing the polite woman with a professional smile (Vera wondered whether she was born with it, because it seemed to be glued to her face), she was somewhat ready for the encounter.

She didn't know if she would be able to get in and score a meeting with Mr. Stark. She came up with a ridiculous story and a fake name pointing him to the direction of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, hoping he would take the hint and it would catch his interest – from what she understood, he was a genius and a very busy man, so it wasn't an easy task. Vera even wore Matt's mask around her neck. Truth to be told, it was more like a lucky charm than anything else, but maybe it would play a part in his decision to let her in. Or not.

She had a huge stage fright, feeling like the guards at the entrance were watching her suspiciously as she was standing by the reception desk, expecting them to escort her out any minute. And she was there for very long minutes before she was admitted. She sighed in relief when the woman nodded as she was listening to whatever instructions coming from her headset and directed her to the elevator, asking her to press the top button with a number so high it made Vera dizzy. The button was framed with silver, lighting up as she touched it. The elevator dinged as its doors closed, but didn't move up.

"May I ask your name, madam?" a pleasant male voice with British accent demanded from behind her and she yelped. Turning around, she didn't find anyone.

Of course she didn't! There was no one in the elevator when she got in!

Examining the large space, she hesitantly answered. "Dianne. Dianne Inn Ferni." She really hoped she was not being interrogated by some invisible supernatural being with ability to sense lies. She had enough of living polygraphs in the last few weeks, thank you very much.

The voice, sounding a little mechanical now, coughed tactfully. "Of course. May I ask your real name? It's just a formality."

Vera's heart hammered in her chest and her breathing hitched. She thought that making it to the elevator was a small victory. Apparently, she shouldn't count her chickens before they were hatched. Because she was busted. The elevator suddenly seemed much smaller and its walls seemed to be getting closer to her with each second.

"Miss?"

The elevator most likely wouldn't move until she said a different name. Her true name. She took a deep breath. Okay. "Veronika Macháčková," she squeaked, waiting for the consequences with eyes squeezed shut.

To her shock, there was another ding. "Thank you. Mr. Stark is expecting you."

And she went up. She was trying to get herself together, gathering her courage. "Uhm. Great. Thanks... Sorry, who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Jarvis. Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. I'm Mr. Stark's AI," answered the voice enthusiastically.

Sure. Okay. No big deal. This building had an artificial intelligence controlling the elevators. Vera probably shouldn't have been surprised. She came to conclusion she wasn't ready for meeting the Avengers. At all.

Terri had tried to prepare her. She had ditched Victor to meet up with her downstairs of her apartment building, eyes wide and shining with curiousness. ("What happened?" - "Well-" - "Is this the mask of the Devil of Hell's kitchen around your neck?" - "Uhm..."). Vera had briefly caught her up to speed, feeding her a story of an S.O.S. call from him (which Terri totally didn't buy, but let it slide) and her decision. Terri had whistled and hailed them a cab, giving Vera more information about the superheroes she was about to meet. Vera had only done a short researched after Terri had told her about them the very first day as MDDC employee after all.