Ghost in the Shell: Part 3 of 3

Posted on 30 Sep 2014 @ 12:25am by Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & Maria Drake

1,110 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Mess
Timeline: MD 8: 1130

ON:

Leaning back in her chair, the blonde human woman took in the chatter and the noise of the grim but lively mess turned rec room of the mining facility.

At first, she'd been angry with Starfleet's barging in and trampling over the facility. She was pretty sure that it would end up blowing her intel op. It almost did at one point in all honesty.

But...well, interestingly enough, it had served as one mighty fine distraction when they were pointing everyone's attention to what was going on below ground, allowing her the chance to root around what was happening in admin and in facility management to try and figure out how so many materials were disappearing and where they were disappearing to.

Something was wrong here. Numbers didn't stack up. And it was beyond sloppy book keeping. The Cardassians were up to something. Again. Always.

Maria sighed as she leant forward, throwing another card down on the table when it was her go. The trouble down in the mine was nothing to do with her intel op, she was pretty sure of that by now. However, it had stunted production from the mine one way or another.

At the start of the trouble down in the mines, it had been difficult for the undercover Starfleet intelligence agent. Planted as a miner, the slowing down then refusal of many to work down in the mines had been troublesome. However, she'd turned it around and used it to her advantage. She'd used it as a chance to socialise with the others 'in character' as her cover, to talk and build relationships with everyone, building her legend and making sure it held and was convincing enough to keep her cover.

Now, she had people who worked here that would probably call her 'friend' instead of acquaintance, she had people who liked her, she had people who trusted her, and that was the strongest tool for any undercover operation.

Tossing another card down on the table, she was half listening to the chatter of the other players in the game, but she was glancing between the cards in her hand and over to the large doorway that faced on to the corridor.

Maria watched with cool blue eyes as the two Intelligence Officers from the Galileo, who had caught her rooting around in the computer system, walked together down the corridor and past the mess, talking intensely together, as thick as thieves.

More interestingly, only a couple of moments later, Taurus, the Cardassian in management, walked down from the same direction, looking distinctly pissed off and agitated.

She sighed.

So the Galileo intel pair was leaning on Taurus. But he clearly knew it, judging by the look on his face.

She admired their persistence having smelt blood, but if they weren't careful, they were going to find themselves in dangerous waters.

On the one, ruthless hand, it would be an even better distraction away from her. Who would suspect another undercover agent when two intel officers from the Galileo were so publically perusing materials disappearing and got themselves into danger because of it?

Yet...

Maria sighed and shook her head, making a show of being stuck with a bad hand in the game. She slipped a card deftly up her sleeve without being noticed before throwing her cards down in defeat. She laughed good naturedly with the others before making her excuses, standing from the table to stretch her lithe and athletic body before walking out and down the corridor in the direction of the Galileo intel officers.

Glancing around to make sure no one watched, she pulled an old fashioned pencil from her pocket, and let the playing card drop down from her sleeve and into her hand. She wrote a short message even as she kept a quick, confident step.

She looked up as she caught up with the red head and blonde, slipping the pencil away, speeding up to bring her naturally up to the side of one of the women.

Brush contacts were usually carried out between two people who both knew it was going to happen and had the same instructions on how to make the contact and pass information without others noticing. So maybe it was a bit harder when the person the receiving end didn't know it was going to happen, but she had to trust in the two women not to give them away. After all, they'd caught her in the act of hacking a Cardassian computer and manipulated her into a situation where she'd had to help them. It had never happened before. So they had to be skilful.

Keeping her eyes forward, Maria kept her quick pace up down the corridor, so she walked on past the two women without even pausing or glancing to them. For anyone watching, it seemed like she simply was walking past them in the narrow corridor without even acknowledging their presence.

In truth, as Maria brushed past them, she slipped the card into Siren's pocket. And with that, she was in front of them and around the corner, disappearing out of their sight.

Siren frowned as she felt the miner brush past her, looking up in time to see a woman with a long, blonde ponytail, and the familiar profile of the intel agent they'd caught red handed, disappearing out of sight.

She'd felt the touch to her pocket, but her instincts and training kept her expressionless and ignoring it until she and Amynta had turned the opposite way down another stark corridor that was deserted for the moment at least.

That's when Siren touched Amynta's arm to stop her, reaching into her pocket and pulling the playing card out. She spotted the short message written in pencil easily enough.

'You're toasty, T on edge, fall back.'

Siren read it with surprise. It was a clear warning to let them know that they could be getting themselves into trouble...was the Starfleet Intelligence agent they'd found and put pressure on actually risking her cover to help them?

She passed it silently to Amynta, watching her face as she started them walking again, but at a slower pace. " 'T'...Taurus?" she whispered softy.

Amynta nodded, watching her for a long moment before her lips curled into a smirk. "I sure hope so," she said and gave a nod. "I think it's rather clear we need to sit and...have a bit of a chat."


OFF:

PO2 Siren Hex
Intelligence
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Lt. Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo


Maria Drake
Colonist/Starfleet Intelligence Undercover Agent
Lyshan III
[PNPC Blake]

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