Miss Pauling walked down a hallway, her flats making little noise on the concrete floor.
She had been down this hall countless times, yet something felt different. Not bad different, but not good different either. Miss Pauling shook her head to try and clear it off this offending feeling, but it wouldn't leave, so she just tried to ignore it as she found herself in front of her destination.
The Administrator's office.
The Administrator, or Helen as Miss Pauling knew her by, was a woman shrouded in mystery. She hired Miss Pauling and nineteen mercenaries to work for her company: Mann Co. and since then has pitted those nineteen murderous men, split into two teams nicknamed RED and BLU, against each other in seemingly endless battles, both unknowingly fighting for the same employer.
Miss Pauling knew more about the Administrator than anybody, which was saying much as she knew little. But they weren't anything more than co-workers. Helen even stated that they weren't friends, she was her employee, she was her boss. Simple as that.
Miss Pauling slowly and carefully opened the door to Helen's office, peering into the darkened office, which was barely illuminated by several television screens, she called out.
"Administrator? Ma'am? Are you there?"
When she was answered by silence, Pauling almost went to close the door before a voice called out from in the room.
"Miss Pauling. Come In."
Miss Pauling quickly opened the door fully and stepped in. She walked over to where the Administrator was sitting at her desk, her back to her employee as she watched the camera feed on the television monitors. Her cat-like yellow eyes seemed to glow the darkness as she stared straight ahead, unblinking. She didn't even seem to move or react as she snapped at Miss Pauling as the smaller woman made a move towards her.
"Stay where you are! And. . .watch with me."
Miss Pauling stepped back slightly but watched the cameras. Several shots of the landscape of Dustbowl were being shown, with both RED and BLU mercenaries fighting for ownership of a control point. RED was losing as several BLU members closed in on the final control point, then out of nowhere, a Medic pocketing a Scout rushed in, uber-charged and ready. They were able to weaken the opposing force for their teammates to clean up the wounded. The Administrator leaned forward, pausing the action. She finally turned around to face her assistant.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Miss Pauling?"
Miss Pauling looked at the screens and then looked back at the Administrator's expressionless face.
"No, ma'am. I don't"
The Administrator then turned around, grabbing a file off of her desk, she handed it to Miss Pauling. The other women opened it and saw it was the file for Scout.
Name: Jeremy
Age: 25
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
Class: Scout
Weapons Of Choice: Scattergun, Mad Milk, Boston Basher
"The RED Scout is doing better, even without his Medic friend there. His skill and overall performance have increased greatly over the past few weeks."
The Administrator stopped and took a puff of her cigarette before continuing, "And I want to know why. Scout's earlier work has been rather. . .chaotic. He didn't care before, so why does he care now?"
"I'm not quite sure, Ma'am."
"Well, I have a simple assignment for you. I want you to go to the RED base and stay with the mercenaries. Get closer to the Scout and figure out why he's doing this. If you find out anything that may jeopardize this company, you must terminate Scout."
Miss Pauling nodded, quiet and grim.
Then Helen turned around in her chair and faced the cameras again without another word. She then turned to leave, but as she made it to the door, The Administrator called out to her one final time.
"And Miss Pauling?"
She turned her head and stared at the back of the chair, "Yes, Administrator."
"Do not fail me."
Miss Pauling nodded again and left without another word. She had job to do. And she was going to do it.