Dead Mans Party 1

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Posters. The whole thing was just posters, as far as the eye could see. Rows upon rows of posters, several square feet each, densely packed with text and graphs that made Iris' eyes roll right off of them like they were made of teflon. To make matters worse, everyone was congregating around the posters, forming an impenetrable sea of milquetoast thirtysomethings and twentysomething grad students with nothing behind their eyes. Iris supposed the latter would at least help her blend in.

"Something wrong, sir?" Jackie asked, and Iris scolded herself for frowning so obviously.

"Don't call me that when we're out, alright?" Iris grumbled, scanning the sea of people and posters to find something of interest. "And, I dunno, I guess I just thought they'd have something a bit more... exciting."

Jackie blinked. "This is a geology conference, Iris"

"...Well, were your conferences more interesting?"

"I went to a lot of life science conferences, so no," Jackie said decidedly. "If we brought our work it would either scare the subjects or make everyone there shit themselves and die."

Iris frowned harder.

"Alright, guys, lock it in," Adams sighed. Iris turned to look at the rest of the group, Adams at the front, looking serious in her somewhat goofy-looking outfit of a three piece suit over her full-body super suit, and Anne behind her looking like she was just enjoying watching Iris have a bad time. And Foxx was... uh...

"Where's Foxx?" Iris asked. They'd barely walked into the damn conference hall and he'd already disappeared.

Adams pinched the bridge of her nose, which was always a good sign not even thirty seconds after arriving at an operation. "He wanted to go make sure he has his... uh, 'personal items' where he can reach them."

Anne's head tilted. "He got vibrators or something?"

"Would you - Would you shut the fuck up?" Iris snapped. She was both annoyed that she had let Anne onto the team in the first place, and also strangely thankful that she was at least acting exactly as Iris had expected her to. "He's just weird about his guns, is all."

"Ah," Anne said with a nod. "He did always strike me as one of those super pro-Castle Doctrine types."

Iris decided that asking Anne what that even meant would just make her even more pissed off, so she elected to move on. Mustering a voice that sounded confident enough to seem important without being loud enough to draw attention to herself, Iris reiterated the plan. "Alright, we all know who we're here for, so we just need to get ahold of them. We'll intercept him on the underground floor, so Anne and I will get a few photos of it in advance, and you two - and Foxx, when he gets back - will figure out when he'll be there. Should be just before he's presenting whatever it is that's got command so worried."

"If they were so worried, you'd think they'd help us out a bit more. The goddamn Insurgency could at least get me some pictures," Anne scoffed. For someone who willingly defected from the Insurgency, she sure liked to use her time there to bitch about the Foundation.

"Look, they said they wanted to keep things on a low profile because of 'suspected hostile action.' I mean, it's like they'll have a White Suit, whoever they are," Iris said dismissively. Chances were they were just trying to make things a little bit harder for Iris so the people trying to sell anomaly usage had more ammunition. She could already hear them going on about 'on-site intelligence gathering leveraged by anomalies.'

“So I’m with you, then?” Anne smiled like a child who just got a new toy with an obnoxiously loud speaker. “I'm flattered.”

“Shut up. I just want to keep an eye on you.” That was half true, at least. “Jackie’s in her element here, and Adams and Foxx are…" Properly socialized adults. "...More experienced with this kind of thing."

Anne's expression dropped a little bit. "You know like half of my job before coming here was just talking to people, right?"

"Y'know what? Buddy system. There's your reason," Iris snapped. "Are we good?"

Adams rolled her eyes, Jackie nodded, and Anne shrugged. Good enough. "Alright, let's get going. I know we don't have a set timeframe, but that doesn't mean we should stall," said Iris in a faux-dignified tone.

Iris turned and made her way into the building, trusting that Anne at least had the good sense to not get separated. She felt a little self-conscious as she made an abrupt 90-degree turn to walk along the perimeter of the conference hall upon realizing that she simply wasn't tall enough to see very much in such a crowd of people, but Anne probably didn't notice - no, who was she kidding, Anne was probably wearing a shit-eating grin. Bastard. Iris didn't want to dignify her by turning around to check if her assumption was correct.

She made it to one of the room's four walls, and slowed down a bit to scan her surroundings. In all honesty, she had only started walking to end the conversation earlier. She didn't actually have much of a plan. At the very least, it didn't seem like anyone at the conference was paying her very much attention, as she seemed to fit right into the crowd of disinterested and/or exhausted grad students hanging around the periphery of the room. She narrowed her eyes as she scanned the room, looking thoughtful. As long as Anne thought she had a plan, Iris would be able to tolerate her.

Anne leaned into Iris' field of view. "You don't know what you're doing, do you?"

"Guh...!" Iris choked as her face recoiled from the totally unfounded and completely truthful accusation. She cleared her throat. "Yes I do."

"Aha. You're not a very good liar, you know."

"Shut up," Iris groaned. "We just need to look for a staircase."

"Mmm." Anne gave Iris a knowing look. "Alright, but the door's going to be locked."

"Well, then you can just pick the lock," Iris shot back.

Anne brought a finger up to her mouth to feign thoughtfulness that fooled nobody. "Oh? What makes you think I know how to do that?"

Iris only bothered responding with a cold look.

"Well, even if I //did,// it's not like I have any tools," Anne said. Iris inhaled to respond that Anne //should// know she has stuff like that in some of her pictures, but Anne beat her to the punch. "Besides, a scratched-up lock would be a good way to tip someone off that something's up."

Despite how badly Iris just wanted to stare at Anne until she relented, after a solid fifteen seconds without Anne so much as dropping that dopey smile, it became clear that Iris would have to say something. When it came to commitment to the bit, she was simply outgunned. "Well, we'll..." Iris had decided to fill the silence before she knew what to fill it with, and Anne gave Iris a smug let slightly pitying grin. "We'll just talk to a janitor," Iris huffed.

"Okay, that's a good idea!" Anne's voice was reminiscent of the tone you'd use when coaching a kindergartener.

"Don't patronize me," Iris snapped. "You're the one on probation here, not me."

"Bah, and here I thought you just wanted a buddy."

"Shut up," Iris said without any real venom. She only had so much energy to spare on Anne, after all. They could pick this back up once this mission was over, so Iris moseyed on over closer to the staircase.

'Mosey' is an odd term, Iris thought. How does one mosey? She took her hands out of her pockets and let them move back and forth like a normal person. Uh. How did a normal person do that? Now that she was thinking about it, she was acutely aware of the speed and angle of her arms swinging. Were they exaggerated? If they were, someone would probably notice, and then-

Iris felt a light tugging behind her eyes as Anne slid up next to her. "Y'know, I know this is a bit of a platitude - uhh, I mean, um, cliche - but the best thing you can do for these kinds of situations is just to not overthink it. 80% of social engineering is just 'Be cool and people will think you're cool.'" Anne's tone was one of genuine reproachfulness, which only incensed Iris even more. And the fact she was doing that mind-reading thing in order to figure out what to say was just icing on the cake. What, her constipated-looking walk wasn't enough for her.

"You really think you're something, hm?" Iris said tersely. "I was blending in just fine when I met //you// for the first time," she groaned.

"Mm, well, looking so unapproachable that everyone does their best to ignore you is one way of avoiding attention. Credit where it's due."

Iris' mosey faltered a little. Was that really...?

Anne looked back at Iris, grimaced a little, then doubled back to talk to her without needing to raise her voice. "Y'know, I uh..." She trailed off when Iris made eye contact. "Ahem. Seems like we're in luck, there's a janitor over by the staircase." Iris followed her restrained gesture over to a tired-looking man in a black outfit, somewhat grateful that Anne, for once, decided just to not push it with her.

She was quickly reminded why she hated Anne when the corners of her mouth peeled up into a self-assured grin. "Alright, you said I was on probation, right? Just think of this as a test for me," she said as she turned and walked over to the janitor, who had yet to notice them.

Iris grabbed the back of her coat before she could get far and yanked Anne back to her before she could get up to anything. "Do you even know what probation means? It means you can't do any stupid shit," Iris scolded. "I'll handle this."

Anne assumed a doubtful, if somewhat derisive expression. "Alrighty then, Cap'n. The floor's all yours."

Iris frowned, and her cheeks started to feel a bit warm. She felt as though she wasn't sure who was the one on probation anymore.

She shook her head. At least Anne had the good graces - or at least the self-preservation instinct - to not try and read Iris' emotions with that anomaly of hers, so Iris just elected to progress the mission and go butter up the janitor. Actually, hang on, was butter up the right word? Well, she was trying to get him to do her a favor, right? Do... Do people really do things like that for strangers they don't know? Would they need to like the person first? How was she supposed to get a new person to like her? She barely ever met new people, aside from Anne, but Anne was a fringe case since she was probably just a maso-

"Um... Can I help you?"

Oh shit. She had walked right up to the guy without even thinking. Then she jumped back a bit without even thinking. Okay, she could recover from this. Even if she could swear she could hear Anne suppressing a laugh. She just had to lay on the ol' Iris charm that was probably in there. Somewhere.

"Ugh, I need to, um. Get in there." Iris finished off with a quick point over to the door before she figured that she might look dumb holding her arm out, and quickly brought it back down again. Okay. That sounded pretty normal. She told herself she definitely didn't feel like Anne was staring at her because there was nothing to stare at.

"...Excuse me?" The man leaned in and turned his ear towards her, and she instinctively recoiled back. No, that was bad. That was gonna make him think she thought he smelled or something. That was counterproductive.

Iris forced down a small jolt of annoyance at having to repeat herself. Alright, speak clearly, and confidently. Well, maybe not totally confidently - Adams liked to put on a helpless-sounding affectation when trying to win men over - but she should at least sound fluent. //Would you be able to let me through that door,// Iris repeated in her head. That was all she had to say.

"Would you be able to let me - uh - I mean, can I get through that door - I mean into the staircase //past// the door, but I guess I... just need the door." God fucking dammit her mouth just didn't stop moving once she opened it. She bit the inside of her cheek. She could hear people around her talking, just like before, but now she could swear they were saying something about her. She was suddenly assailed with thoughts of how comfortable her room was when she was alone in it and how much she'd rather be there.

"Oh, uh... Sorry, I can't let anyone back there." The janitor sounded confused, if apologetic.

"Oh, yeah, that's fine. Sorry..." Iris said, turning to slink back to- No, wait, hold on, that wasn't fine at all. She needed to get through there, one way or the other... Right... She'd just have to pull her gun out and threaten him.

"Sorry about my friend, she gets nervous around new people sometimes. I promise, she's really quite nice once you get to know her, eheh." A somewhat forced laugh, but convincing enough if you didn't know how Anne normally laughed. //Anne.// Of course she had to come in and make everything worse, right at the worst possible time. Hey, if Iris was already gonna take her gun out, maybe she could just...

"Oh. It's no problem, really. I was just - um - surprised someone came up and started talking to me." The janitor fell for it. Of course he did, Iris realized his cheeks were rosy. This only served to make her more upset. She would not be reflecting on the fact that she would have gotten more annoyed no matter how this situation developed.

"Aha, no problem." Anne gave a nonchalant wave of her hand to accompany her easygoing smile that betrayed nary a hint of an ulterior motive. "It's just that... well, if you can keep a secret, me and my friend messed up, and we could kinda use your help, is all."

"Oh? Uh, okay." The janitor leaned forward, clearly invested.

"We're helping out Dr. Woodrose with some of his research into theoretical cryovolcanic phenomena, so we needed to conduct some experiments over in the Physics Research Building in order to - ah, sorry, it's not important," Anne said with an apologetic chuckle. "My point is, we left some of the data readouts back in the sublevel hallways when we were leaving, and if we don't get it back, we'll kinda be... well, a little screwed. Can we get down there real quick to grab it?"

"Um..." The janitor furrowed his brow, appearing deep in thought for what was a yes or no question. "Well, I can probably run down there and grab it for you. What's it look like?"

"Oh, me and my friend here will find it a lot faster. It's just a stack of papers, and we already know where it is, so we only need to run down and grab it. You don't even have to leave the room, it'll just be a minute." Anne clapped her hands together as though she were praying. "Please help us out?"

Iris, for one, thought she was laying it on a little thick. Did the woman not have any shame...? Well, she did ask to work under the woman who shot her and almost beat her to death. So Iris probably already knew the answer.

The janitor visibly waffled for a bit, but even Iris could tell where this was going from his response to Anne's bait. Sure enough, once he had confirmed that none of the scientists were paying much attention to the nondescript janitor, he unlocked and even held open the door for the two of them. "I'm not really supposed to let anyone down there, but if you two can already get in there during normal hours, it's not a big deal. Just don't tell anyone, okay?" He asked as Anne strode confidently through the doorway.

"Oh, of course!" Anne replied in a conspiratorial yet good-natured tone. "We'll be just a minute. You've been a huge help!"

Iris walked behind her as they descended to the lower levels, trying not to look as sheepish as she felt. Humiliating. Getting shown up by Adams - hell, even Jackie - was one thing, but Iris felt like she just challenged a child to a game of chess to teach them humility then got her shit rocked. An analogy that only further worsened her mood by digging up a particularly unpleasant memory from a time she made a bet with Anne back at Site-17.

"I just took some bullshit words I saw on some of the posters and trusted he hadn't seen any of them," Anne said, unprompted, as they reached the lower level corridor. "For the professor's name, I just saw who one of the more recent additions was to the faculty list when we entered. The janitor would be less like to know enough about a new guy to call me out."

Iris just looked at her. Noticing the lack of response, Anne turned back to look at Iris with a... shockingly non-judgmental expression. "Name-dropping a mutual acquaintance or someone important's a good way to make it seem like you belong somewhere you don't. That's why I wanted to get specific with the professor."

A couple seconds passed in the empty hallway, the indistinct sounds from upstairs doing little to alleviate the stale air. Iris recognized that the ball was in her court here, but she wasn't entirely sure what Anne was expecting. Well, whatever. "Cut the small talk. We should get these photos and get out." Iris straightened out her posture and walked past Anne to get a good angle for a photograph.

As Iris was making sure everything on her camera was in order as she took it out of the case resting around her neck - not that anything would be off with how well she treated it, but a habit's a habit - Anne moseyed over to her side. Iris huffed as she could just sense that Anne was going to push her luck here. Maybe she should have scolded her properly for undercutting her with the janitor.

Moving into Iris' peripheral vision like a bug crawling across her bedroom wall, Anne cocked her head to the side. "C'mon, don't make me get a read on you. You're way too tough to do it easily," Anne nagged. "How'd I do?"

A pause. "I'll take a simple 'thank you' if that's all you're feeling up for."

Pursing her lips, Iris begrudgingly turned to look at Anne. Despite her last comment, it didn't look like she was getting a kick out of Iris' reaction. Iris... couldn't really get mad anymore. Damn that woman and her sympathetic country girl eyes. "...Is that it?"

Anne raised her eyebrows a bit. "What? You want the full rundown? Sorry, it's just that usually when I start talking for any length of time you just-"

"No, I mean..." Iris became aware of how poorly her tongue fit into her mouth. "I just, y'know. Seems like low-hanging fruit is all."

"Oh, that?" Anne seemed surprised Iris was even bringing it up. "I'd have to be a pretty big asshole to give you shit for something that's hardly your fault." She tapped her forehead a couple times, adding "Hence the advice."

Iris wasn't really sure how to take that. So she tried to turn her attention back to her camera, which, if nothing else, wouldn't be analyzing her. "...You //are// an asshole," she mumbled halfheartedly.

"Well, yeah, but I got standards, too." Anne turned her head to the side. "Thought you knew that by now."

"Mm. Maybe I did." Iris' noncommittal response trailed off...

...Still, she felt something nagging at her. "So, what? Was I on probation too?" She asked, barely more assertive than a mutter.

"What, from me?" Anne pushed air out of her nostrils. "Nope. I pretty much had my mind made up about you from the day we met." She looked back up to meet Iris' eyes. "Never took you for much of a liar, 's all."

Iris' mouth opened, just a little bit. Anne wasn't being annoying, at least not trying to, but she was being... well, she was being //something,// and Iris didn't like it. After a couple seconds, she clenched her jaw, then it was her turn to look off to the side. "Well." Now what was she supposed to say to that. "I don't really know how to take that, Anne."

Anne watched her for another few seconds. One thing that could be said for her, though, is that she had a good sense of the flow of conversation. Mercifully good, even. "Hey now, don't worry about it. Lying's not a good skill to have." A hint of something crept into her voice before she brushed past it. "Besides, honesty's one of your charm points," she added with a wink.

Alright. Iris knew how to respond to that. "You've got to be the most insufferable person I've met," she groaned. "Let me focus on taking these pictures, alright? Can you manage that?"

Anne offered Iris an ear-to-ear smile, the kind that made your eyes squint, and Iris wondered how much of it came naturally and how much of it she practiced. "Oh, don't worry about me, Cap'n."

----

Geologists had a tendency to be defensive when it came to their chosen field of study. It wasn't exactly surprising, all things considered, as most people tended to find things that move or at least change to be of more interest than rocks, Jackie included. 'That's actually a common misconception,' they'd reply, clearly seething but making a commendable effort to appear approachable, 'but geological formations are actually changing around us all the time!'

Right. Of course. And the sun was getting closer to blowing up all the time, but she still didn't care. Jackie understood, of course, that geology was an important field of study, but truthfully she never spent much time considering the field or those that worked in it.

And yet. Despite all this, she found herself looking at a display case with rock samples that, if the manually typeset captions were anything to go by, hadn't been opened since the general voting public was still afraid a Catholic president would make the country a vassal state for the Vatican.

So why was she letting her eyes trace over the old captions instead of gathering information for what might be a critically important mission for one of the most powerful organizations in the world? That was a wonderful question. Sure, she had told Iris that she was up to the task of asking around, but despite her academic background she didn't feel particularly well-suited for information gathering. Having had a professional career, simply yes-and-ing her superior came as naturally as anything else.

They didn't need her as long as Adams was on the case - she was more of a warm body just to fill out the task force's 'anomaly' roster from the start.

Of course, it's not like this was the only mission she felt was pointless.

Of course, it's not like she only felt that way during missions.

Jackie allowed herself a few seconds to let that feeling gnaw at her before she decided to find something to distract herself. The rocks certainly weren't cutting it. She should have known better. But, then again, what else was there? A bunch of posterboards that don't even have rocks, just pictures of rocks. It seemed someone else even came over to the display to distract themself.

The person was at once attention-grabbing and forgettable. A smaller build and an androgynous face that made it difficult to tell how old they were supposed to be. Aside from the tall and thin... cylinder thing they held on their back wrapped in fabric, it might have been difficult to discern any distinguishing features on them. To top it all off, they were staring at the mineral samples as one might stare at a wall of dry paint - Jackie couldn't even see their eyes moving much.

That was, of course, until their eyes darted up to Jackie.

Jackie found herself with a newfound pity for walls of dry paint, seeing their eyes staring right into her. She felt like a bug under a microscope despite quite handily having a good foot and a half on them, but then again, Jackie was never very good with kids. It was always hard to understand where they were coming from - but maybe she was getting ahead of herself. For all she knew, they could just be a late bloomer.

After a couple seconds, it became clear that this wasn't just one of those things where you accidentally make eye contact with someone then mutually try to act like it never happened, so Jackie decided it would be good to introduce herself. Didn't want this getting awkward.

"Hello."

No response. Maybe she thought Jackie was going to continue?

"My name's Jackie."

The person-of-indeterminate-qualities blinked. Probably for the first time. "Okay."

No further communication. Alright, well, maybe Jackie shouldn't push them for their name. Some people were just picky about that. Yet, at the same time, she didn't want to be the one to break eye contact or just walk away. Well, she did, but she didn't want to upset anyone. She just wanted to wrap up this interaction without a headache. Perhaps they were looking for her to move the conversation (she was using the term loosely) along?

"Um... what do you have there? Seems interesting."

"An oboe." Answered immediately, without a hint of pride or... much of anything, really.

Jackie squinted. That seemed like an odd way of carrying something so expensive and fragile. "Don't those come apart to go into cases?"

This, at least, caused the oboe-player(?) to stop for a second while thinking of an answer. "Yes, I think they do."

"...So why don't you do that?"

They blinked again. "Do what?"

Jackie pursed her lips. Now what the hell was she supposed to say? Maybe she should try just shutting up. If she couldn't manage that, she'd have no business telling Anne off.

Seemingly arbitrarily, though, the oboist just turned back to look at the display again, much in the same manner they had been - seemingly oblivious to Jackie's presence. Jackie waited a few seconds like she was expecting another odd interaction to just happen //at// her, then decided that she should clear out before anything else happened. Maybe go find Iris and make it look like she was working hard. Or hardly working. Eheh.

"Jackie," the oboist said the second she had started to make her way back towards the crowd. Spoken like it was just two syllables rather than a name. Damn it. She should know better than to have acted so friendly. She'd gotten too used to acting all nice after spending all that time with her boss.

The oboist turned to Jackie and pressed a finger to the glass, either not noticing or not caring that Jackie had clearly been leaving. "What's that?"

Well, in for a penny. Jackie walked back over to the display case, not letting her annoyance show too much - but, y'know, not //not// showing it at all - and looked at where the oboist was pointing, already back to staring pointedly at the crystal in the display case.

Jackie squinted. She didn't know much about geology or anything, but she did know her elements, at least, even if the person who was making the labels back in the Eisenhower administration gave up before getting to that side of the case. "That's a bismuth crystal," she said in a blasé tone. If nothing else, she could see why the iridescent angles of the thing caught their eye.

They were both silent for a moment, and Jackie looked back at the oboist. Rather than staring ahead blankly, though, they seemed to be staring intently - or maybe they always were. "Bismuth," they mumbled, feeling the word in their mouth like they were happy to collect it for themself. They moved down the display a bit, then pointed at a picture of a similarly angled specimen with iridescent coloring, or at least a photograph of one.

"Jackie. What's this?"

Somewhat begrudgingly, Jackie followed her across the display. She really shouldn't be bothering with this, but she didn't want to make a scene, and she had sort of made her bed by wandering off in the first place. Besides, she really didn't know much about geology, and if anything, she liked to keep it that way. Unless the next sample was, like, copper or something, she was going to be out of luck. She wasn't even sure why the oboist had asked her in the first place.

She took a better look at the photo... and clenched her teeth a little. As luck would have it, she did know that one. It was, perhaps, the one mineral she was the most familiar with.

"That's shocked quartz. It's only made in extreme pressures, like nuclear blasts or meteor impacts. It's rarely made by lightning, but it's used to test sites for the previous events." Jackie was just listing off information she'd heard a thousand times before. She'd had to test for samples of this rock, out in the field, hundreds of times, easily. From craters made from forests. Wastelands made from cities. Calderas made from schools. Hell, she was pretty sure she might have seen this university turn into shocked quartz once.

"...So it can tell us where something like that happened?" The oboist didn't take her eyes off the photograph, but their voice seemed... a bit less distant, perhaps. Behold the power of fun facts.

"Sure. Not like a few rocks have ever stopped another bomb from dropping, though." All the shocked quartz in the world couldn't tell anyone how to stop an asteroid. All it told them was how screwed they were. Not like all those samples Jackie took meant she still had her home to go back to. They never even told her why it was gone in the first place.

She really hated geology.

"Morgan." A stern voice interrupted Jackie's train of thought, and she turned around on instinct, only to find herself craning her neck upwards - something she had rarely needed to do after her augmentations. Standing in front of a light so as to cast Jackie in her shadow as if to appear //more// menacing, a woman with black hair, a surgical mask, and unforgiving eyes looked down at the oboist, paying little heed to Jackie. Well, at least that was better than what Jackie had just gone through with the oboist. Plus, she was getting a bit dizzy looking up at the impressively built woman.

The oboist jumped a little. "Ah. Sorry Gamma. I was just-"

"Séverine," the woman corrected.

"Sorry. Séverine. I was just. Examining the surroundings." Their stop-and-go speech seemed to indicate they were in some form of trouble.

Séverine(?) looked at the display case, then to the oboist (Morgan?), then to Jackie. Jackie only smiled, a half-hearted, reflexive smile. In truth, she wasn't used to being looked down upon, and found herself on the backfoot at the mere acknowledgement of her existence by a woman who looked like she could snap her cybernetically-enhanced spine like the wishbone of a particularly cheap turkey.

"W-Was that your... friend?" Jackie looked for some way to appease the woman. "They're very intelligent." She wasn't //just// being nice; in her experience, asking a lot of questions counted for more than having things memorized.

"They're my sibling." Séverine responded, curt and cold. Okay, so they //were// non-binary. Cool. Good for them. Jackie could see the family resemblance, even if Morgan was a bit of a shrimp. Séverine turned her attention back towards Morgan. "Your siblings were wondering where you were. Let's go. And stay close to me. Or at least your other siblings."

And with that, they turned at left, Morgan following a half-step behind Séverine like a duckling. Séverine didn't say anything to Jackie as she left, but Morgan was at least kind enough to look back at her once as they left.

Jackie watched them leave, then found her eyes looking back to the shocked quartz. She allowed herself a few seconds to wallow until she would go and find someone from Alpha-9 to distract her.

----

Although she wasn't used to crowds anymore, Iris at least retained the skill of finding a short person in a dense crowd that was granted to all older siblings, and made her way back over to Foxx, trusting that Anne was enough of a grown-up that she didn't need Iris to hold her hand as they pushed through the throngs of flabby scientists with disproportionately muscular hiker legs.

"You guys get what you need?" Iris asked, ignoring Foxx's attempts at a greeting.

"Oh, yeah," he replied without missing a beat. "He'll be getting his stuff ready in a room behind the lecture stage, we'll go talk to him then." The euphemism rolled off of his tongue so easily, Iris almost missed it. Her eyes followed his finger over to the stage - what was really just a corner of the room with a slightly elevated floor with a lectern on it - and an empty doorway to a hall behind that.

"You guys check it out?" Iris asked, peering into the doorway. She couldn't see in very well from the angle she was at, not to mention the fact that geologists were somehow weirdly all taller than her.

"Sure, no security or anything, and nobody's back there but the next lecturer. We don't need to check with anyone before we head over, and besides, eggheads love talking about their work," he said with a grin.

Iris glowered. "Are you some kind of fucking Saturday morning cartoon goon? Who the fuck says egghead?"

Foxx seemed taken aback. "What? I thought it was just something people said in America."

"//No//, we say, like, //scientist// when we talk about scientists." Iris squinted and leaned forward. "...Hey."

Foxx averted his eyes.

"What //other// slang terms have you picked up?"

"...Well now I don't want to say anything." Foxx replied.

"Whatever." Iris sighed. If Clef was going to force her to take some random guy along on her missions for fire support or whatever, he could have at least picked one who didn't act like a moron. Anne acted like and idiot, Iris thought as she turned to look at her, but at least-

Anne wasn't behind Iris. She lost her somewhere in the crowd. Good god Iris hated these people.

She began to feel for her mother during the times when Iris wordlessly got distracted by a toy display in a store, but she shook those thoughts out of her head. Anne was a grown-ass woman. She probably just ran to the bathroom or something. Would've been nice if she checked in.

"Hey, Iris?" Foxx asked. Iris realized she'd been quiet for a little while as he was making faces thinking about Anne.

"Guh. Whatever." Iris waved her hand flippantly. "You got photos of the room he'll be in?"

"Sure do." Foxx produced a small stack of photos. Not from Iris' camera, but they were at least clear enough that she could monitor the situation through them. "You figure out where he's coming from and when?"

"His lecture's in twenty minutes, and he'll be coming in late today. Beyond that, no, not really." Foxx shrugged. "Can't expect these people to know everything about a co-worker. Uh, co, um... I feel like there's a word for this for scientists..."

Iris //also// felt like there was a word for that, but she got the feeling she was just going to be thinking about it until she felt stupid, so she chose to ignore Foxx's tangent. "Alright, you and Adams watch the entrances and let me know when he shows up," she muttered, only loud enough for Foxx to hear. The general cacophony of a crowded hall was doing most of the heavy lifting in keeping the conversation private. "I'll keep Anne with me and check the photos over in some corner. That sound good? You want Jackie to help you out?"

"Nope, all good on my end," Foxx said with a smile. Foxx was at least confident in his abilities. If he was an idiot //and// he sucked ass in a firefight, Iris would have made more of a stink about him. This saved her the energy. "Don't worry. I've got some special... tools to help me out."

Iris felt her teeth grind. "I swear to god, Foxx, I let you do this shit on other missions but if a civilian finds-"

"Hey, don't worry about it, Iris! I'm careful about this stuff!" Foxx said like he'd just been accused of something. "I'm very careful about this stuff. As a gun owner with a child in the house, I have to be."

That made a certain amount of sense, even if calling the man a 'gun owner' was a bit like calling the president someone with a 'managerial position.' Still, Iris realized that if he ended up being responsible for some horrible accident with his stashed arms, she'd probably have some responsibility, at least morally. She should probably grill him about all that once the mission was over.

"Alright. Get going. Go let Adams know, too. Send over Jackie if you see her, I'll send a text message to her either way." With that, Iris turned to walk over to a relatively unpopulated corner of the room where she could leaf through a stack of photos mostly undisturbed. Foxx went to go find Adams, wherever she was.

Iris didn't make it five steps before she was cut off by a tall woman pushing her way through the crowd with nary a thought as to how difficult it //should// be for someone like her to push her way through a crowded room. Well, most people were tall to Iris, but this was just absurd. She made Jackie look short, and Iris seriously had to work to be okay with hanging around someone that tall.

Another, considerably smaller, person scurried behind her in the hole she left in the crowd behind her. They reminded Iris of those cars that drive behind ambulances after they clear the road. Probably a good thing, though, since they were carrying some kind of wrapped stick that looked to be almost taller than they were.

The shorter one scurried out in front of the tall one, over to another woman chatting with a presenter alongside what looked to be her somewhat bored-looking younger brother. The brother immediately perked up when he saw the stick bobbing towards him through the crowds.

"Morgan!" He hissed. "Where were you?" Upon hearing the name, the older sister turned her attention away from the presenter and leaned down towards Morgan.

"Ah, sorry. I was looking at something that ended up not being important. Gamma came and got me," they replied.

"It's //Séverine,// Morgan," the older sister said with a sigh as she held out her hands. "Did anything happen? You really shouldn't wander off in crowds - it's harder for us to find you."

Iris squinted at them. Were they using codenames or something...? Well, Iris supposed she also wouldn't want people to know she was French. If it was for anything important, they'd clearly be more practiced. Anyways, she should hurry over to her isolated corner, as was her forte. Watching a bunch of siblings acting all nice was just going to put her in a foul mood.

The area seemed to be a few circular tables too far away from anything of note to warrant use, with several of their chairs relocated to more populated areas. That suited Iris just fine, as long as people were less likely to sit anywhere near her.

Iris checked for any security cameras, looked for any gum on the seat, and then dragged a chair over so she'd have her back to the wall and sat down. Nobody was paying any attention to her - as they should - so she pulled out her stack of photos and started leafing through them. She'd rather have them spread out, but when she was in public, it was fine to just hold them close to her chest. Besides, it was nice to just feel the paper as she moved from scene to scene. She wouldn't exactly say it was nostalgic, but it felt... comfortable. Like doing anything you knew you were good at. If nothing else, it helped her calm down after thinking about her team members for too long.

And good thing, too, because if the scraping of a nearby chair was anything to go by, she was about to be upset by a completely new thing. She did her best to keep her attention on her photos, but the scraping stopped on the opposite side of the table she was sitting at. Of course it did. Why would someone want to sit at a table that had nobody else taking up space on it when there was a table that was already occupied?

Iris side-eyed the newcomer as he settled into his chair. Long black hair in a ponytail and a nondescript face. Come to think of it, he reminded her of those siblings she saw earlier. Then again, he looked generic enough to remind her of a lot of people.

As soon as she looked at him, though, he grimaced. Not in the way you would if a stranger saw you looking at them, but the way you would if you just realized something you wished you hadn't.

"Ah. Figures," he said to nobody in particular. Then, to Iris, "Looks like they did a number on you. I'm sorry."

Iris was taken aback. It sounded like he meant it. "If you mean the scar, it's just from a car accident," she said, her drab tone obscuring any lingering feelings she might have had. "Can I help you?"

The man seemed to think about that for a second. "Aha. Well, maybe, broadly speaking. But I'm on the clock right now, so I'm really only here to satisfy my own curiosity."

"Oh yeah?" Iris tense up. Was this guy going to be a creep? "I think you've got me confused with someone else."

"Mm. Maybe. I think I've seen you somewhere before, though." He moved forward in his chair a bit, and Iris moved back. The gesture, however unintentional, seemed to hurt him. Iris didn't know why, but she hated that. "Well, I might be getting ahead of myself, but I'd like to give you a job offer. I don't have the go-ahead from the boss lady, but I get the feeling she'd appreciate your help."

"No thanks. I've already got my own obligations," Iris said as icily as she could manage. "Now, you've got the wrong person. I was doing something, so if you could-"

"Hey, hear me out here. This new gig should afford you... a lot more freedom of movement, you know. And that's only in the short term," the man said in a knowing voice. From the emphasis he put on the words, it was clear what the implication there was.

Iris retreated farther back in her chair and slowly, deliberately moved her hands to her pockets. Her left hand pressed the panic button on the phone that was provided to all the members of the task force. Her right hand reached into the photograph she never left her room without and closed around a cold steel trigger guard and a polymer grip.

"Look, let's not do anything too hasty. Besides, I don't expect an answer right now." The man stood up, sensing Iris' clear hostility. "I'll come find you soon enough. Then, we can have a real talk. And one more thing, Iris." He leaned over the table a bit, careful not to say her name too loud. Even so, she drew her right arm back out of the photo, though still in her pocket. "There’s no backup for you, I already checked. I don’t know who they’ve got you running with, but unless it’s //the big guy// - which I know you wouldn’t do, and I of all people can't say I blame you - you don’t stand much of a chance. Don’t say I didn’t warn you."

"Yo, Iris, I know phones aren't your thing, but you should at least know not to butt-dial me."

Iris' head jerked up at the mention of her name. There was Anne, hands still a little damp, looking annoyed. "...Butt-dial?"

"Yeah, I told you I was going to the bathroom. Had to run out. You need something?" Anne's eyes finally moved to the man on the other side of the table and narrowed. "Hey, at least do something with that hair if you're going to do a bad job hitting on people. You look like a fucking libertarian."

"...Mhm." It seemed like the man didn't quite know how to take that. Iris didn't either, but she could at least see that Anne was going up to bat for her, which she appreciated, even if she had seriously misread the severity of the situation. Then again, Iris was the one who fumbled around at her phone in her pocket and missed the single most important button on it. "Well, I'll get out of your hair. Remember what I said - you of all people should know the importance of knowing when to fold 'em."

He waved back to Iris as he left. "Take care of yourself, kid."

Iris felt something stab into her chest.

The two women watched him disappear back into the crowd, and Iris' eyes lingered where he was. That was... no. No. There was no way. Someone had just lifted some old files and was fucking with her. All that she learned was that the data breach she heard about earlier was worse than she thought. They just picked up some Omega-7 articles and wanted to mess with her. That was all.

"...Hey, Captain? Everything good?" Anne leaned to the side to try and get a better look at Iris.

Shaking her head, Iris stood up from where she was sitting. "I think..." She trailed off, and Anne stepped over to her side so she could whisper. "That data breach compromised us. We have hostile contacts."

Anne looked around. "So, what? Do we pull out?"

Iris bit her lip and thought about it. What could be such a threat that she'd need... //him// for it? A White Suit? A Church zealot? A Karcist? God, no, nobody could sneak any of those in. She needed to think. God dammit, she couldn't catch her breath. Fuck. This is exactly what that asshole wanted. Just a reminder of those two got her like this, god. God.

The phone in Iris' pocket buzzed. She checked the notification from Adams - "our guy just came in from the next building going to get something from sublevel."

"Iris?" Anne was getting antsy.

Iris huffed and called everyone on the task force at once. Anne seemed confused but let her put the phone up to her ear. Adams picked up immediately, then Foxx a second later, then Jackie.

"Yello?" Foxx opened in a chipper tone.

"We're compromised. Assume hostile contacts," Iris said. Foxx was real quiet as Iris took a moment to think. "Adams."

"Yeah?"

"If we had anomalous combatants, would you manage?"

"I've got my helmet here. Should be fine up to a White Suit." Adams paused. "What should I expect?"

"Don't know." Iris left the ball in Adams' court.

Adams considered it for a second. "...I'll be fine if I have backup."

"Are you //sure?//" Iris pressed.

"Yeah. Give me Foxx and we'll be good."

"Understood." Iris decided to trust Adams' judgment. Part of her wanted to call things off, but she still hadn't caught her breath. She needed to make a decision and she herself wasn't thinking straight. Adams could be trusted for this much if nothing else. "Jackie, get back to me and Anne, the corner of the room to the right of the entrance."

"Yes, sir," Jackie replied, quickly and clearly.

"Foxx, go with Adams. Get the package off the target before he comes back aboveground, I don't care if you have to mug the guy, I'll take it through a photo and then we meet back up at the entrance and get the hell out. I don't want this to take more than a minute. I'll watch through photos. If shit goes south you run. Immediately."

"Understood." Adams and Foxx replied in unison.

"Then go." Iris hung up and pulled out her photos.

Anne's hand reached into her coat and rested on her holster, more for reassurance than anything. "Need anything?"

"Make sure we've got a clear exit, and stay close."

Anne nodded and turned to do her job without delay - Iris supposed she //had// been an Insurgent for a while - and Iris called out to her.

"Anne." She stopped and turned back to her commander. "Just... be careful. And, you know. Get ready."

Anne's serious expression broke into a smile, and she gave Iris a sloppy two-finger salute. "If ya say so, cap'n."

----

Gamma's communicator buzzed. She checked it - Adrian's number. An external communicator was a concession made to reinforce her cranial structure, but at the very least, smartphones were light and convenient. She brought it up to her ear. "Séverine speaking."

"Gamma." Her communicator buzzed with Adrian's voice. "Looks like Foundation's going to the sublevel. Follow them."

"Understood." Gamma pocketed the communicator and saw the door to the sublevel closing, whoever opened it already out of sight. "Eliza, with me. Morgan, mind your brother."

Zeta nodded. Delta sighed. "You really need to be less precise in your wording," she bemoaned.

"Clear communication is paramount to success," she retorted after a short consideration.

"//Yes,// but, people say you sound like a computer when you talk like that," Delta sighed.

Gamma blinked at her.

Delta pouted. "Well - //yes,// but we don’t want //them// to know that."

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