Week 91: Oracle HQ

Enrique pulled up in the underground car park in his Bronze Stallion, got out and wandered to the lift down into the complex.  He idly wondered if the place will have changed since he was last there. Some new scorchmarks maybe?

One new thing in the headquarters was, at least in the main lobby, the smell of marijuana... Or at least fine synthijuana, mixed with various sweet smelling chemicals that made it less cloying. At the center of the smell was a woman, young looking, with frizzy bleach blond hair and a red trench coat. She wasn't visibly smoking anything, but she was sitting on a chair intensely playing a game on her cell phone. Her phone chirped a happy tinkling noise as she swiped her fingers rapidly across the screen. She did not seem to notice Enrique.

Pausing briefly to check his filters were acive and straighten his suit, Enrique politely cleared his throat as he approached the woman. When he got a bit closer he introduced himself, holding out his hand: "Hi, I'm Enrique. I don't think we've met."

Carmen only seemed to notice the stranger when he cleared his throat, and she gave him an appraising glance as he got closer. Her eyes narrowed, but not... suspiciously. After a second, she took his hand. "Enrique. I received your email. I am Carmen." Her Russian accent was thick enough to float bricks. She didn't get up, but shook his hand for a few moments before dropping it. She considered something for a moment, and then added, "I'm new."

Enrique smiled. "How new is new? I've been away for about 6 months now I think. How have your missions gone so far?

The door Enrique had just came through opened again, letting in a thin looking short haired woman wearing a bulky gauntlet over one arm, tapping on the side facing her. As the doors closed again, she looked up and nodded to Carmen, heading over to the other woman before pausing and looking at the other agent. "Agent Enrique, I assume?" she asked.

"I have been around a few months. My missions have... been more for other members of Oracle than Oracle itself." That was as far as she got, before Amets walked up. She smiled a little at the other hacker, and nodded. "He's Enrique apparently, yes."

Carmen didn't really seem in any hurry to stand, now, and instead clicked the shimmering and trembling stars that lit up her screen. A simple sliding puzzle, it looked like, on a high level.

Enrique looked round as Amets spoke, briefly looked her up and down. "Yes, I'm Enrique." He extended his hand to Amets. "Another new face I see. Looks like we've been doing some reasonable recruiting while I was gone. What do you two specialise in, by the way?"

Carmen watched Enrique's hand and then grinned at Amets. There was a visible port behind her temple, just under the hair, though the shape and size looked archaic. A fashion statement, perhaps? She began to grin, her eyes not leaving the agent's extended hand. "Oh, can you not tell? We're both experts at swordfights." She began to giggle, softly.

Amets' eyes met Carmen's for a bit before snapping back to Enrique. She took Enrique's outstretched hand in her gauntleted hand, allowing the other agent to see the keyboard built into it. "Don't say that, Carmen. He might expect us to actually sword fight someone on a mission." She said, although she was smiling. "Amets Basamortu." She said, shaking his hand. Her accent was strange.

Enrique smiled. "Ha! You may joke, but for all I know you might rampage round in a heavy cyberframe. Would definitely explain the destroyed factories in the news." The smile faded and he added thoughtfully, "At least I assume those were us. Are we still running with last minute extraction plans?"

Carmen slowly stopped giggling as they talked, but she was still smiling. There was a bag beside her, and she opened it. She removed a large bag made of crinkly foil and opened it. Immediately a smell of salty fried mixed with her natural perfume of sweet chemicals and weed. She removed a bun that was full something brown, fried, crispy. Real agent food. "The last mission was good, during the leaving." She smiled at Amets, and then Enrique. "But I probably have not been on enough missions to give a real opinion."

Amets nodded. "I prefer to have a number of escape plans ready." She sat down next to Carmen, a metal sheathe folding over the keyboard. "I think we've been on the same number of missions."

She looked up at Enrique. "We're both computer specialists. Yourself?"

Enrique considered for a moment. "Hmm. Well I specialise in cybernetics and robotics, but I've branched out a fair bit since joining, and haven't had much time for proper R&D. I think I tend to spend more time surveilling, though I suppose the robots help with that." Then with a chuckle he added "And I know you joked about swordfighting, but it turned out learning some close fighting techniques really helped..."

Amets nodded. "I dare say it does. I do enjoy surviving." She lent back on her chair. "You've been in the Corporation for a while. Any thoughts?" she asked, pulling out her own food from her bag.

Enrique leant against the wall. "About what in particular? The corp? The sorts of missions we do? I do know it's definitely worth having some sort of bolthole planned just in case things go wrong." Enrique thought for a moment "Oh, and don't focus the missions too much on a single corp. We had one or two relatively nasty retaliations. And try to keep the UIG on our side, or at least slightly on the positive side of neutral. I am a little worried about the more recent UIG related stuff I've come across in the mission reports and the CEO's personal jobs. I'm not sure why we're risking pissing off our only safety blanket."

Carmen gave Amets some visible side-eye, chomping happily on her massive bun. She licked her lips, and then spoke with her mouth partly full. "Is good question, I feel. Could be the CEO doesn't care about keeping us safe?" There was sarcasm in her heavy Russian accent. Bitterness, too. She took another massive bite of her bun, raising her brows and waiting for Enrique's reaction.

Amets didn't reply, but she quietly removed the lid to her tub of food, a fishy smell rising out of it. She glanced up at Enrique, her face mostly blank, but with a slight air of curiousness.

Enrique paused to consider before replying. Then, in a more measured tone, "I don't know. I do know from the reports that he called for our rescue from the Ai Jinn satellite, though I don't know where he got the intel, nor whether it was about us, the data we'd taken or some beef with them, and I'm not sure, considering we're still working in a corporate framework, if that really matters. I do know that I'm very grateful for the rescue and that the agents who freed us did so at enormous personal risk."

"According to the book, the agents on Earth arranged it themselves." Which was interesting, come to think about it. There was a bunch of unspoken words about the spiny, supplicating one, some hidden romance that the moon agent had stuck her foot in her mouth about. Still, it was hard to care about when there were more pressing issues. Carmen took another bite and chewed a few times before adding, "But you can't believe everything that you read."

"The CEO provided the location and ordered the prison break. He very specifically did not order the subsequent de-orbiting of the space station, saying that it would be a mighty shame, although given the events which spiralled out from that, he took advantage of the situation impressively well." Amets' eyes narrowed. "As for exactly how he knew where you were being held, well, that I can't help you with."

"Hmm. Maybe we should look into that at some point, though I wouldn't know where to start."
Then, turning back to Carmen, "Would that be Hugo's book, Carmen? Maybe I should pick up a copy. I wonder how much he actually wrote in. Surely it's a legal nightmare."

"As someone with insider knowledge, I say it is only part accurate. But, also, a very... interesting read." She flashed a quick glance to Amets, and then looked back up at Enrique. "He doesn't mention Silvia, and apparently that did date. Is interesting. He may have omitted more details; that I do not know." She shrugged a little, and went back to stuffing her face with bun.

Amets slowly nodded, eating a much smaller meal than her companion, and swallowed. "Any particular details of the Corporations activities appear to have been carefully removed or made vague enough to not matter. I can identify several Oracle agents, both active and non, from the descriptions given in the book and our personnel files." She took another small bite. "That, and we have not been tasked to kill Agent Zumisimo for revealing Corporate secrets, so it is unlikely to be an issue. I'm not sure what other details he may be omitting; other than Agent Tsukuda I could identify most of the analogues."

"Should be an interesting read. Something to do while I get the next batch of cybernetics." Enrique eyed the food. "You know, you two are making me hungry. Do you know if Keng's is still going?"