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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 10:47:08 GMT -6
Far from the prison at Wrentham, on this particular Tuesday afternoon, Ahmad Fazari was deep in the throes of his fourth meeting of the day, this one with the harried MP Marieke Sjünneson-Bjørnstad, who kept frowning and fanning herself with a Chinese takeout menu while Ahmad tried to explain for at least the eighth time why he really couldn't do anything about the Terra Nova encampment at the Wing City hospital, because, for god's sake, that was a military and diplomatic issue, not a deputy director of intelligence issue. They could analyze, report, and advise. No, they could not just assassinate the Terra Novan Empress because Sjünneson-Bjørnstad's constituents were afraid. No, they could not secretly reactivate Drulović as a field agent, either. And no, they could not install hidden cameras in the Empress's closet. Not easily, anyway, but Ahmad didn't bother explaining that, and besides, Lisbeth would probably kill him if he let the good minister in on their potential willingness and well-honed capacity to do just that.
When he saw Aerilyn's call come through, he had to fight very hard not to pump his fist in the air with a shit-eating grin and instead politely said, "Ma'am, if you'd please excuse me; I'm very sorry, but I have an urgent matter to attend to." He was already out of his seat, apologetically and very rapidly backing out the door, and once safely away from the minister, and ensconced in a janitorial closet that reeked of bleach, pulled out his phone. "You just saved my ass. Thank fuck."
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 10:56:41 GMT -6
"I feel like I've been used to get out of a meeting again." She responded, clearly amused. "Any time handsome. You know I'm always happy to call." She had done so more than once after all. "Tell me you aren't hiding in some closet somewhere again?" He was totally hiding in a closet. She knew perfectly well why he didn't just return to his office like a normal person probably would. People could find him to hassle him there.
Well, at least he was relatively predictable. And he could always make her smile. Aerilyn debated which was to go, then decided to head towards the fort. She wasn't allowed on it anymore of course, but there was a nice eatery near it that she could meet her husband at. Plus, it had a definitely tasty chicken salad she absolutely loved.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 11:04:38 GMT -6
"I'm not hiding in a closet! I'm..." Ahmad looked around the dark space, the large basin sink, the mops and brooms, the industrial-size trash bin, the washrags tossed over the cart's handle. He sighed. "Okay, I might be in a closet..." He leaned gingerly against the wall, eyeing the sliver of light coming through the crack between the door and the wall, watching as Sjünneson-Bjørnstad sat rigid, casting glances to the door of the conference room, alternating between tapping fingers on the table and fanning herself with the menu. Did MP's even eat Chinese takeout? Ahmad supposed they had to. Otherwise, she wouldn't have had the menu. Unless she'd swiped it from a poor analyst's desk. That was also a distinct possibility. "Never mind about the closet though... Are you okay? Is the Director okay?" He didn't think he would ever break that habit. It was too deeply ingrained in him. "How is she holding up over there?"
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 11:18:14 GMT -6
"Not well." She admitted. "She's...she's not doing well. She looked worse than ever." Aerilyn was honest with him on that. "Once the trial is over, I think you should try for a long visit with her. Maybe we can bring her some home cooking then. Something soft and easy to eat." She didn't think her friend could handle much more than that. "Though I don't know if she could stand up to a long visit." Hopefully she'd be well rested enough for it.
"I'm fine though. A little shaken from seeing her. She's skin and bones." There was no way that she was eating as much as she should be. At the rate she was going, she'd need medical intervention, and she'd hate that and try and deny it too. "I'm worried about her."
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 11:26:44 GMT -6
Through the crack in the door, Ahmad saw Sjünneson-Bjørnstad swivel to stare at something in the window that he couldn't see past her head. He could imagine the homicidal look on her face though. Probably a bird. Or a window cleaner. He heard voices approaching, speaking in some obscure Belkan language he didn't quite recognize, and he pulled the door a little more shut, until almost no light came into the closet. "Shit... Why wouldn't they make sure she has something to eat? It'd be ... I mean, even if only from a PR perspective, it'd be a PR nightmare if she died in custody. I mean, I hate to have to think of it that way, but, it doesn't make any sense." The voices passed and he breathed easier, opening the crack another inch or so. "I heard from, uh, Idris over in government affairs that the Director was supposed to have an off-site doctor's visit at the hospital last month. Did she tell you how it went?"
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 11:29:57 GMT -6
"She didn't mention it at all. Would she even have gone? She hates going to the doctor." Unless they forced the issue, she wouldn't go. "She didn't look like she's been to the doctor." Rather the opposite in fact. "It's going to be a PR nightmare once the public sees her anyway. She looks like she's being tortured and starved." It wasn't pretty.
Aerilyn sighed. "She asked me to do a favor for her."
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 11:38:04 GMT -6
"What?!" Ahmad yelped. Right as he realized his mistake, he saw Sjünneson-Bjørnstad jump to her feet, gather her purse with a huff, and head for the door directly across the hall from the closet. He slammed the closet door shut, fast enough that he didn't see her turn to look, probably instantly suspecting where Ahmad had gone. He lowered his voice, hearing his own heartbeat in his ears. "What do you mean, she looks tortured and starved? That's not supposed to be how... that's not what... Jesus Christ." He shook his head. "What did she ask you to do?" He hunkered down against the wall, hoping the minister wouldn't actually come looking for him, or worse, tell Lisbeth exactly what had happened. "I really hope it doesn't involve destroying evidence or something..."
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 11:42:40 GMT -6
"She's...she's obviously been tortured. It's clear, just seeing how she holds herself. Not...not by Terra. Or at least, not during this imprisonment." Aerilyn didn't actually believe much in Terra's government. It was an interesting place to be given her husband's position. "But...it's like every injury is magnified. I don't think she'll....we should be prepared. Sometime in the next year or so. We should...we should be prepared." God she wished she was there to hold him now.
"She wanted me to deliver some ashes to another gravesite, off planet. She said the ashes were in an urn at the garden she made at the bureau." She didn't like this at all. "So I doubt it's destroying evidence. Just returning a daughter to her mother off planet."
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 12:03:58 GMT -6
Ahmad fell quiet. From the other side of the door, he heard the soft clicks of the minister's heels as she strutted away, probably violating some protocol because he was pretty sure he was supposed to be escorting her while she was on the premises. Too late for that now. "Yeah, I mean, we all know she survived a lot of... horrific things. Before. I was just worried you meant, well, now." He rubbed his hand on his jaw, the beard he'd grown smooth and thick to the touch. A full two inches now. "Are we sure the ashes don't belong to someone she, you know... " He trailed off, unwilling to say the word, to put a name to it. He did not like to think of Drulović that way. He knew what she was, of course. He couldn't have been at the Bureau so long without knowing. But it all seemed so crass.
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 12:08:44 GMT -6
"She said they belonged to Jirhya Sampathkumar." Aerilyn said. "I guess you could check that way? I'm supposed to take the to Lenore Sampathkumar's grave on Ưi'dhàr." She was pretty certain that was the way around it went at least. "Apparently the girl's...Lenore I think, sister worked for the bureau." She really would have preferred to have been able to take notes, so she could be certain she had it the right way around.
"So I guess...I don't think she'd lie about whose ashes they were at least." Though she didn't know why Arianne would keep around ashes of someone she had killed. Or done worse to, she supposed. Intelligence wasn't a friendly business.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 12:17:58 GMT -6
When Ahmad was confident he couldn't hear anyone in the hallway anymore, he slipped from the closet, shutting the door behind him, and bolted for the now-empty conference room, shutting its door. Sunlight at last. He squinted for a moment, adjusting the blinds, the fumbling and rustling clearly audible over the phone. "Sorry, finally got my, um, meeting out of my hair. OK. Hm. Well, I hope that's the whole story. I don't recognize either of the names. There is someone who I think has that last name who used to work here, though. Hopefully that's all it is. Though... that's kind of an odd request? What do you think she meant by it?" Return a set of ashes the old woman had buried in the Bureau's garden, to some location on another planet? "You don't think she's just ... run out of things to do in prison, do you?" Or sent them on some bizarre errand for her.
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 12:22:15 GMT -6
"She said it was a promise she made. And that she didn't think she'd be able to fulfill it without our help." Which was pretty true. "I think she has a lot of unfulfilled promises, and maybe its weighing on her? This is...kind of a big favor. But she thinks I can talk a sorceror around and find a pilot to take us there. Apparenlty, my aeromancy will make this all possible. There are strong winds on Ưi'dhàr according to her. Strong enough to kill." It didn't sound like the sort of planet that there would even be a grave on, but from the sounds of it, they hadn't always been that bad.
Aerilyn switched lanes and cruised past a particularly slow car, more annoyed than not that they were going the speed limit on the highway. No one went the speed limit here. That was how you got into an accident.
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 12:48:10 GMT -6
"A pilot? Is she giving us money, too?" It was a futile question. Ahmad dropped his face into one of his hands, balancing the phone in the other. "I mean, I know a few sorcerers... There's this one guy here at the Bureau, the Director had involved him in some... Some very classified stuff," he finished, cringing as he spoke. "Years ago, though." He remembered Têmardo Waystation. He remembered Marlene Angel's resurfacing. He remembered Drulović's refusal to discuss, even with him, exactly what had happened with Marlene, but had seen her rubbing at some of the scars on her arms, sitting too long alone in a room. "Though, if the winds on Ưi'dhàr are that bad... Do you think you can manage them? That sounds incredibly dangerous. I don't know if this is a great idea." He shuddered to imagine Aerilyn alone on a strange planet, just her and her beret against some world-shattering wind.
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Post by demikara on Mar 24, 2020 12:52:47 GMT -6
"I'm hoping for some young, dumb, erutin to get us there. They have entire legions of pilots who are bored senseless because of the lack of war. And she said the wind comes in 16 hour shifts. 16 on, 16 off. If I get us there at the beginning of the 16 off, then we should be good. And that'll give us time to find some solid shelter to hunker behind, so I can just direct the winds around it a bit farther than it otherwise would." She'd be dead on her feet.
"She said to talk to Haroun Kim about being the sorceror for the journey." She hesitated a moment. "I don't actually know if I could handle them on my own. I'm hoping to find a decent enhancer for my aeromancy before we go. Just in case."
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Post by Ylanne on Mar 24, 2020 12:58:06 GMT -6
Ahmad inhaled through his teeth, then exhaled slow and shaking. "I don't know... Even with an enhancement. Or if Haroun Kim says he'll go, which, wait... She's volunteering Bureau employees for her personal side quests?" He sat straight up at that realization. "Lisbeth is going to kill me. Or her. Whichever of us she gets to first." So much for keeping the appearance of non-involvement with the Bureau. "I mean, the party's already separated, with the Director in prison, and me here, so, I guess we're doomed." He felt that word echo in his mind as if he'd already fallen into some inescapable chasm, except that it was one entirely of his own making. It'd been his choice to stay, after all. "Why ... why can't Director Drulović ask someone else? Someone who already has a ship. Someone who knows how to get to this place. Someone... anyone except for you. This trial is in just two weeks. I have to ... I have to go up there, and... I don't think I can do it if you're not there with me. What the hell is she thinking?"
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