“Does she always suck that hard?” Atasi was pacing with obvious annoyance. She and Nyx were discussing the current development while 5 and 6 had a ‘discussion’ with Kate and Victoria.
“Unfortunately.” Nyx could sympathize, but was hoping she’d at least be a little quieter about it, “but hopefully this little meeting will be over soon.”
“Meeting?” Atasi said crossing her arms, “This is more like an internal affairs inquisition.”
Nyx couldn’t really argue with that point. She was similarly annoyed that 6 was horning in on her territory. Sure Nyx, or 7, was the only one that openly worked with ‘sapient anomalies’, at least as far as she knew, and more often than not anomalies were dangerous to say the least. That meant that she could understand some level of concern.
The butting in was definitely a source of friction given the directors were broadly supposed to be on equal footing, for the most part. Nyx being the overall newest made her hesitant to too directly confront 6 as yet. Though if the woman’s behavior continued…
6 Shifted some documents “So you don’t know where you came from, don’t really know what you even are, and yet expect our implicit trust that you’re on our side?”
Kate suppressed a growl. This conversation had looped more than a few time up until now. Always poking at a finding out more about her, or just fishing for any shred of ‘evidence’ that Kate wasn’t as ‘on side’ as she had been claiming. A fact that Kate herself was starting to agree with in all fairness.
“I’m on THEIR side.” Kate said, “YOUR’s on the other hand is increasingly up in the air.”
“Your kind has always been a threat so that’s hardly surprising.”
“Speak for yourself.” Kate snapped, “This city is my home. I’ve protected it since your grandparents were still shitting their diapers, or even longer.”
6 Glared back, “And what if your ‘illustrious expertise’ was no longer necessary.” She said with some sarcasm, “We can take care of our own world.”
‘Or break it in half’ Kate managed to stop herself form saying, the invasion has precipitated in large part by the other ‘anomaly’ in the room after all, even though it was inadvertent and certainly not the intention. What she did say was “And how is that going? We cleared out an invasion, and from what I hear you are dealing with insurgents you can’t find.”
6 started to say something else, while 5 seemed to get some sort of call and touched her ear to answer it. Kate had liked the squirrel scientist lady a bit more than the bitch. Sure Kate got the impression that, given the slightest permission, said scientist would go full ‘alien probing’ on Kate for every shred of information she could learn. However, she at least wasn’t overtly suggesting that Kate was some violent monster just biding her time. Either way, Kate was certain that whatever 5 was talking about would be far more interesting than the accusation loop with 6. A surety that only grew when 5’s expression got a fair bit more sour and she turned to glare at her alleged ally.
“I think this interview should end.” She said holding a mostly professional tone.
“I’m not done” 6 snapped, “These things nee….”
“I think it IS, Dawn.” 5 said.
Dawn? That was new. And based on the look of sheer annoyance on 6’s face Kate guessed that might have been the woman’s real name. One she was definitely not pleased to have just blurted out like that.
“You know protocol, 5” 6 said clearly seething, “What gives you the right to….”
“… To conduct an operation in my territory without my knowledge or consent?” 5 said, finished the sentence for her and also giving a pretty big clue as to what the call had been about.
The ‘interview’ ended almost immediately after that as ‘Dawn’ was suddenly in agreement to take the conversation outside. Leaving Kate and the, up till now, silent Victoria.
“I think that woman is going to try to kill us.”
Kate huffed.
“You aren’t concerned about that.”
Kate shrugged.
“The kids of resources these people can bring to bear if they really want to, I mean…”
“And invade a population center looking for an invisible angel and a ghost in a puppet body that could jump into any Wi-Fi network you want?” Kate shook her head, “This is a scare tactic of some sort. WHY? That I’m less sure about.”
“Or she’s just a bitch”
“Or that.”
-------------
“I was no…”
“Bull. I just got work that we found two of your guys. Down a few teeth, but otherwise kitted up for SOME kind of operation. Few dead cybers too.” “Well if that’s true, then maybe my people were just clearing up some of the mess you missed.”
“Again, Bull, Dawn. You are up to som…”
“This is over” Dawn Said and started to walk to the door, “And if you continue to insist on breaking protocol, Lauren, it is going to end up being a problem.” The door slammed behind her as Dawn stormed out. As glad as Atasi, and presumably, Nyx were to see her go that little tiff was concerning. Something was clearly getting under 6’s skin to have her acting in this manner.
“Care to fill us in?” Nyx asked.
“If only I knew. She’s more unstable than usual, and now I have some calls to make.” Lauren said, pulling out her phone, then to Atasi spoke again, “I do apologize for this, and I hope your wife will at least be open to staying in contact, for the sake of scientific understanding.”
“I’m sure we’ll keep it in mind” Atasi said, meaning none of it. Less bad or not, Nyx was already enough ‘director’ hanging around for both of them. Atasi would be glad to see both these interlopers go and stay that way.
----------------
Dawn furiously dialed her secure line as her helicopter took off, quickly flying out of the city and towards her own territory. Over the com one of her underlings responded.
“Ma’am”
“Are we running any operations in district 5?”
There was a pause on the lien before the response came, “Other than assisting with the aftermath on the plateau, after the cybers. But that’s finished.” “We don’t have any squads in the area anymore?”
“No Ma’am, none that I can see. May I ask why?”
“5 says our guys were conducting an op in her lands. That they even have some injured.”
“Sorry Ma’am, but we aren’t doing anything like that…. Unless…”
Ya. ‘unless’ that was good word here. ‘unless’ had lots of possibilities, though for this one Dawn was pretty sure what the only major one was.
“We may have just found the missing squad…” She said rubbing her temples.
