When Shaw returned, she was mildly surprised to find that Root was sitting on the table, not doing anything. Her laptop was nowhere in sight. Shaw's immediate response was to check the room more thoroughly, in case she had missed something during her first automatic cursory inspection. When she saw that she hadn't, Shaw realised that Root was almost certainly listening to the Machine.

Root looked up, and smiled faintly. Shaw wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. "It's time to go, Sameen."

Unlike most people when they're told that they will shortly be breaking into a base filled with people who would happily shoot you on sight and probably know that you're coming, Shaw wasn't nervous. Not just because she was a sociopath but because she had done this sort of thing before. It had been her job. In a manner of speaking, it still was. But she was still somewhat surprised that they were going in now. She had suspected that they'd be breaking in after dark. When they'd broken into the New Jersey facility, there had been a power cut throughout New York, Greer was being held by Vigilance and Shaw had still had to knock out a guard. She knew that they needed a distraction that would be at least as good as that, if there was to be a chance of getting Root and letting her finish whatever she needed to do. Let alone getting out again. "Can't. We need time to prepare a proper distraction. We at least need to wait till it gets dark."

Root's smile didn't change. "Come on. There's some people I want you to meet."

A thoroughly nonplussed Shaw, who was no longer sure if they were going to Decima or not, followed Root outside, to a car which Root expertly jimmied open and then retrieved the keys from the glove compartment. Courtesy of the Machine, Shaw supposed. She didn't ask where they were going, assuming that they were under orders from the Machine and that Root wouldn't be able to tell her anything helpful.

However, when they pulled up outside something that looked very much like a drama studio, Shaw couldn't keep quiet. "This is where Decima is keeping Samaritan? What happened to some high-tech guarded facility?"

"This isn't Decima, Sameen. This is where you get to meet our distraction." Root said. She was still smiling, and Shaw got the distinct impression that it was because Shaw didn't have any idea what was going on. "Come on."

Root went inside. Shaw followed, after a moment's hesitation. She disliked going into a building when she didn't know what she was letting herself in for. Shaw was just in time to see Root nod at a receptionist behind a desk, who greeted Root with "Miss Thrun." This led Shaw to believe the only connection that this place had with Decima was Root herself. She was clearly known here, which was something of a surprise.

Shaw sped up to catch the taller woman as she walked through a side door, which led to a small theatre. There was a raised stage, and perhaps a hundred seats. The front few rows were filled with about twenty people or so, who were talking amongst themselves but instantly went quiet when the pair came in. Shaw's hand automatically went to her concealed pistol.

"Hello, everyone." Root said pleasantly. She shot Shaw a glance, clearly telling her to leave her gun where it was. "I know it's been a while, but I'm glad that you could all make it. As you know, I'm planning on making a small, independent action film. Well, here is the person who's going to help us make this whole thing happen. Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Daphne Koller. Daphne, my theatre group." There was an excited murmuring from the theatre group as they all stared at the newcomer.

'Daphne' waved, a little stiffly, then hissed out of the corner of her mouth "We need to talk."

"Now, if you could all go through your warm up exercises for a few minutes while I talk to Daphne, that would be great." Root turned to Shaw. "What's the problem here? You needed a distraction, and here's some people who will do whatever you say, because they think they're going to be actors. What else could you possibly want?"

"They're civilians, Root! They're going to get themselves killed. We're going to get them killed. The only way that they're going to be of any use would be as cannon fodder, and even then we'd be better off it was just me with a sniper rifle. And maybe a grenade launcher."

"I don't think you understand." Root said calmly. "Greer knows we're coming. Decima will be prepared. I need ten minutes in there. Just ten minutes, but there'll be guards everywhere. I can get past a few, you know that, but once I'm working… and I need you to make a distraction so I can get in. These people would make a better distraction than anything you can come up with by yourself, Shaw. Even if you did have a grenade launcher."

"Root, you've never had to work with civilians. You were a killer-for-hire. You killed civilians. You know how thick they can be. They'll just get in the way, and then they'll get killed." Shaw replied. "And we only have a few handguns and a sub. I can't storm a base with just that. Not even if we go in separately and you've got your Taser. We would be better off if we went and bought an arsenal. Maybe some mercs, too, 'cause they'd definitely be better than this bunch."

Root's smile made a reappearance, which irritated Shaw. "You didn't check the trunk of the car."

Shaw blinked. "Damn, Root. We've only be in the city about five minutes. When did you have the time to get an arsenal?"

Root just kept smiling.

"What do we have, then?" Shaw said, interested despite herself. She still felt that there was a high chance that they would get killed and accomplish absolutely nothing, but at least she could do it well-armed.

Root told her.

"Hmm." Shaw said. She knew what the most effective distraction would be. She could arm a few of the actors with guns and let them fire them near the Decima facility. Decima, already on high alert, wouldn't have any qualms about mowing them down, which would give away their positions so that Shaw could shoot them, which would have the added benefit of causing panic because, if she was very careful, they wouldn't know where they were being shot from. Meanwhile, Root could sneak in while the guards were trying to find out who was firing at them.

But on the other hand…

Shift Supervisor Michael Carter was busy keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. His superior had told that there would be, and he'd been shown pictures of two women who were supposed to provide some sort of threat to the company. He hadn't been given any details, but then, he didn't need them. That wasn't his job. His job was to make sure no one got in, and to that end he had ordered more patrols, to make sure that they even made it to the front door. Meanwhile, he was sitting with a security guard watching the surveillance footage.

"Sir?" a voice came in through Carter's radio. "There's something going on outside. You might want to take a look."

"Show me the outside feeds." Carter said to the security guard, who promptly pulled them up.

People were running towards the building. About twenty, in all. None of them were the people that he'd been warned about. They were waving their arms and shouting something.

"Scare them away, Officer." Carter said into his radio. "Today's not the day for this."

"Sir, they're screaming that someone's going to kill them. They want to come in, so that they're safe. What am I meant to tell them?"

"There just happens be some killer herding people here, today? No. It's a distraction. Make them leave."

"Yes, Si- oh Jesus."

Carter didn't have to ask what was going on. He'd seen it on camera.

One of the people had gone down in a fountain of blood. There was no shooter, at least not one that was obvious. "Find the gunman, Officer! Find them, and take them out."

"Yes-" There was a pause as another one of the people was shot. Most of them had reached the building by now, and they were being held off by guards who looked like they would quite like to get inside too. It was one thing being willing to kill yourself so that your loved ones got a stupendous pay check, but it was quite another to be standing outside while some hidden gunman was mowing down people in cold blood. "-sir."

More people were collapsing, lying in puddles of blood. Still, Carter couldn't see a gunman on the footage. In fact, he could only hear one shot at a time, which didn't explain why more than one person was dying at a time.

"It's goddamned murder out here, sir. Permission to withdraw?"

Carter had been in the military, as had most of Decima's private security. He knew that when a sniper was picking people off it was generally a good idea to go somewhere that would make that impossible. There wasn't anything he could do about the people being shot. He certainly wasn't going to risk any men checking to see if any of them were still alive. They'd just get shot too. Carter changed his radio's settings so that all his men could hear him. "Retreat. Everyone, fall back." He watched the last of the civilians getting shot. "Damn it, get the hell out of there!"

Carter watched his men get back inside. To his surprise, the sniper didn't do a thing. He wondered why, briefly, before the answer came to him.

"Get out of there!" Carter roared, pulling up the feeds from inside the lobby. He was just in time to see a flash of light that whited out a couple of frames of footage. He knew that his men probably couldn't hear him, but he still yelled "It's a stun grenade! Get out! Get out!"

He watched helplessly as a woman walked into the room and began shooting his men. She wasn't killing them, Carter noticed, but they certainly wouldn't be chasing her with their knees shot. Then she looked up at the camera, smiled, and vanished.

Carter slumped back in his chair. He'd recognised the woman. She was one of the women he'd been warned about. And now she was inside. She had neutralised the perimeter force and gotten inside. He didn't know how she had erased herself from the feeds, but there were more guards inside. He knew that she shouldn't be able to access anything important.

"Sir?" said the guard next to him, tentatively. "You should see this."

Carter looked despondently at the monitor. He saw that the people that he had seen shot were getting up, dusting themselves off and walking away. It was then that he realised just how masterfully he had been played. "Blood packets, Officer. I bet there wasn't even a sniper."

He knew that there was no way that the woman should be able to do anything to threaten the company. There were just too many guards. Nevertheless, Carter wouldn't be surprised to find that, if he went down to the computer labs, to find the woman sitting calmly at a computer surrounded by kneecapped guards.