Long time no see. I'm kind of bummed out because I wanted to get my hands on those Infinite Stratos visual novels, but they aren't for PC. It's a real shame, because I wouldn't have minded translating them for the community. Oh well, maybe I can lend some aid to the Little Busters EX translation?

After his peaceful walk on the beach with Laura, Church had waited for everyone to go to sleep before setting out on his minor expedition to locate his attackers from the day prior. Unfortunately, he had very little information to go on to actually find them, but he was not completely without options. The pilot that had attacked him knew all about his mission, and that meant they were privy to Umbra Stratum operations, somehow or another. That said, Church only had one lead to follow as he rocketed across the earth in the darkness of the early morning, praying that all of the girls back in England would be busy sleeping the hours away.

Because of course they would ask questions if they found out he had mysteriously disappeared during the night. He was a good liar and could probably sell some sort of excuse fairly easily, but it was better to not risk it at all. But that was only a secondary concern. There hadn't been enough time to actually think about it during the fight the other day, but it had occurred to Church quite quickly that Rin had been endangered by his attacker. They all had. Attacking him was one thing, but threatening his friends, even if the girls could take care of themselves, was crossing a line. He would put an end to the threats before they had time to endanger his friends again.

And that was why he was currently soaring towards an Umbra Stratum outpost in northern Africa. He needed to get his hands on an Umbra Stratum terminal and do some snooping around. After all, no one knew about Umbra Stratum unless they got involved with them, and that meant there had to be a record somewhere or another of the person that had attacked him. Even if they weren't mentioned in the same light, any information on the matter would be a good starting point to hunt down the enemy.

Unfortunately, it was not as if Church could just fly in and demand access to important files. For one, such suspicious behavior would likely be reported to the Director. Two, he didn't have that kind of clearance. So, that left stealth as his only option. It was a little strange to be sneaking into one of your own bases, but that was how it was going to be. Besides, Church couldn't even show up at the base unannounced, because that too would have been far too suspicious. He had to remain incognito, but that in and of itself was quite the problem.

After all, the Exeter suit was Umbra Stratum property. It had a Friend or Foe Identification Tag, which meant that sneaking through the base would require signal jamming to prevent being identified. But even if you didn't know what was jamming a signal, you at least knew when it was being jammed, and that was cause for suspicion in and of itself. That left just one option... and that was good old fashioned infiltration. No machines, no super fancy jamming technology. Just knowing the layout of the base and some careful sneaking about. He could allow Cerberus to stay with him so long as the suit wasn't activated, and with the A.I. he could be aware of all of the base's security systems in order to avoid them. That said, it was very likely that he would be shot on sight without the suit active to identify him. But he could always initialize pretty quickly, so if he did manage to get caught he could likely survive the situation before shit hit the fan.

Coming to these rather obvious conclusions, it didn't take too much longer for Church to reach his destination, though he was forced to descend to a much lower altitude long before he came within range of the base he was looking for. After all, no advanced installation worth it's salt would lack early warning aircraft detection systems. He would have to deactivate the suit and approach the base on foot.

Needless to say this sucked, because the temperature in North Africa was much higher than anything Church was used to, and without the suit active he had no access to the common comforts of air conditioning. First world problems at is finest. Still, it would have been even worse if he had to wander, but thankfully Cerberus could still run several helpful functions without the aid of the suit, including guiding him to the base. Of course it wasn't like he could just waltz in through the front door, but the base would have ventilation shafts he could make use of.

But even though that was the case, Church still had a quite a ways to walk, and to be completely honest he was tempted to simply kick the door down, shoot the place up, and take what he wanted, as terrible an idea as it was.

If there was one thing no one could ever really miss when it came to eating at a table, it was the absence of someone who was supposed to be there. Needless to say, no one was oblivious to the absence of one particular boy at the table when they gathered for breakfast. Rin in particular was privy to Church's absence because she had not been able to partake in her usual morning routine without him. For the past week or so she had asked him what he wanted for breakfast, cooking for him as they shared the early morning together. Needless to say Rin was feeling very disappointed in her inability to perform the same routine. She had come to greatly enjoy her mornings alone with Church, all the same as Laura and her time with him in the evening. Oh yes, Rin knew all about her beach walks with Church, but she wasn't so petty as to try and get in the way of that. She had her alone time and Laura had hers. No need to be greedy.

But that was beside the point. The point was that Church was the only person absent from the table for breakfast, the only person no one had seen all morning, and the only person that hadn't been in his room when Laura had offered to investigate earlier. He seemed to be absent from the entire mansion actually, which was cause for some concern among the girls.

Rin in particular was worried the most, alongside Charlotte simply because the French blonde was always worried for her friends. Cecilia was more confused than anything, and Houki didn't care enough to really be worried in the first place. As for Laura, she was not terrible concerned simply because she saw no reason to be.

"Wherever he has gone, I am sure Church can take care of himself. Besides, for all we know he has simply gone for a walk on the beach this morning."

Rin wanted to say that Church never would have skipped on a morning with her for a solitary walk on the beach, but perhaps that would have sounded a little vain. "Maybe, but I feel like he would have let someone know before disappearing like that..."

Houki on the other hand seemed bothered by something else entirely. "I'm more concerned with the fact that he somehow reacquired his suit without any of us knowing about it. When did that happen?"

"Does it matter? He's not obligated to tell us anything like that. We aren't his guards or anything."

"But if he trusts us then he should have said something about it!"

Charlotte glanced over at the Kendo practitioner. "Houki, I don't mean to accuse you or anything, but Church did save all of our lives... I can't see how you would suspect him of anything..."

Houki folded her arms. "I didn't say anything like that. I know that he saved everyone and I don't think he's up to anything bad. But still, you can't deny that he clearly left without telling any of us anything. He was trying to slip away, and that's kind of suspicious no matter how you look at it."

While not overly invested or concerned with Church's absence, Ichika nevertheless had something to say, though he said it with a shrug. "Maybe he just wanted to get away from you guys for a while? Can't say I blame him..."

For some reason Ichika couldn't understand (no surprise there), his comment earned a glare out of every girl at the table, even Charlotte. Cecilia likely spoke for all of them with her indignant retort.

"Are you trying to imply that we're a nuisance to him?"

"H-hold on, I didn't say that..."

"That he doesn't like being around us?"

"I didn't say that either..."

"Then I daresay your comment seems to be entirely wrong, does it not?!"

Ichika shrunk back in his chair, though his comment actually did breed some small doubt in most of the girls that cared to think about it. Of course, Cecilia was once again the voice of their united thoughts, though she spoke to no one in particular. "You don't really think he needs to get away from us do you...?"

Rin's expression soured at the thought of it. "He better not, I've been waking up extra early for him for over a week now, he'd better appreciate it."

Despite her own misgivings about that exact situation, Laura smiled. "What an excellent wife you make Rin..."

For obvious reasons Rin's face took on a rather crimson hue, but contrary to everyone's expectations she didn't blow up or deny Laura's comment or anything, instead shrinking in on herself a little and pressing her index fingers together as her thoughts probably went off to who knows where. Needless to say Laura's little jab had completely backfired, but she was not petty enough to be upset about it.

That said, Laura wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it in the first place. When they had all been pining for Ichika, Laura had often gotten jealous of the other girls commanding his attention. Now that she had moved past that, she didn't feel nearly as irritated by the notion of Rin spending so much time with Church. Sure, she would have liked to be the object of his attentions instead, but it just felt shallow to wish some misfortune on the two of them just because they enjoyed each others' company. Besides, Church had explicitly said that he didn't love Rin, at least not yet... Laura still had time to advance her own position before it became hopeless.

Still, she couldn't help but feel that Houki made a valid point. Church wasn't the kind of person to up and disappear without telling anyone at all. It was kind of suspicious. But not nearly suspicious enough for Laura to suspect anything bad of him. Maybe Church really had wanted some time to himself? While no one could possibly expect a young man like him to want to get away from so much female attention very often, everyone needed some peace and quiet sometime, and Church was almost always being surrounded by one girl or another. Surely he needed a break from time to time...

But Houki was right about Church's silent re-acquisition of Exeter. True, he wasn't obligated to tell them about something like that, but Laura still felt that he should have. It was important knowledge. After all, they had all been operating under the assumption that he was without his suit yesterday when they had been attacked, when in fact he had been equipped the whole time. Knowing whether or not he could defend himself affected how they behaved in battle, so from a tactical standpoint he should have told them.

And Laura knew that Church would believe the same. Under any normal circumstances he would have told them, so what had the situation been to stop him from doing so? It really was something that didn't add up, but Laura didn't want to entertain such thoughts. He was kind and witty and smart, and had risked his very life to save them all. He couldn't possibly have any bad intentions, it was inconceivable.

Inconceivable, yet Laura couldn't shake the feeling that something important was hiding behind the scenes.

Having guided him past all of the many detection systems this particular base had in place, in the span of a few hours Church had successfully reached an inconspicuous ventilation shaft that would lead him towards his destination. Church was surprised that such an entryway would be left completely unguarded, but he supposed they were out in the middle of nowhere: who was going to find this anyway, save those who were supposed to know it was there?

Even so, Church knew that he was only halfway there, and he had only accomplished the easy half. Getting to the ventilation shaft was easy. Sneaking through the base itself and reaching some sort of information terminal would be much more difficult. That being the case, Church decided to lose his scarlet red jacket for this part. He felt practically naked without it, but his undershirt was black and much less likely to help security spot him. He would definitely come back for it though. That jacket was the focal point of his entire look to be honest...

I cannot believe you are worried about fashion sense in our current situation Operator.

Well I'm somewhat hoping that Umbra Stratum will be up to no good. Then I can betray them in good conscience, and I'll need to look good to impress the girls you know.

While Church said such things in a joking manner, he knew the situation was not so simple. Things were far more precarious than that. If he did find out that Umbra Stratum was pulling some next level bullshit, Church wasn't sure what he would do. All things considered, maybe he would just go along with it. Maybe he would not have a choice... and he was not above committing evil to protect what was dear to him. That would obviously be a problem if things continued for too much longer, since he was rapidly coming to care deeply for his current female companions... with a bit more time he would never be able to act against them, even for the interests of the other things that were precious to him.

It was all bullshit, but it was bullshit Church couldn't circumnavigate just yet. He couldn't imagine how just yet.

With nothing he could do to improve the situation just now, Church took to infiltrating the base instead. He mobilized only a part of Exeter around his hand: as long as the helmet wasn't activated, the IFF tag would not be detected. With his mechanically enhanced strength, Church pulled the grate covering the ventilation shaft right off, figuring that he would only need to use it one more time after this and it was unlikely that anyone would discover it before he made his escape. With his point of entry now open, Church wasted no time in shimmying down the ventilation shaft, moving his body in a way that he was almost certain was reminiscent of a particular Christmas cartoon.

Unfortunately, being what it was, the ventilation shaft was uncomfortably hot. Hot enough that prolonged exposure to the heat would have lead to rapid dehydration, had Church not possessed a cheat code of sorts. With Cerberus' help, he could spend the least amount of time possible in the vents because the AI could plot the most effective route for him. This meant less heat exhaustion, which was good for the young man currently reenacting some scene from a Mission Impossible movie.

Thankfully this guidance made sure that Church reached the point closest to his goal as well, so he'd have to worry about less detection than usual. Even so, he would have to be extremely careful. If there was one thing Church knew very well about Umbra Stratum, it's that all of the guards were trained to shoot on sight. There wouldn't be time to identify himself as a fellow operative before they filled him with holes. That being said, Church was extremely careful in removing the next grate he came to, only after ensuring that there were no personnel in the halls below him first.

Even after that, he jumped down to the floor below him only after Cerberus assured him that there were no security systems that would detect him when he reached that point. At least Church was already familiar with the atmosphere of a Umbra Stratum base. It was hardly any different from the place he had done most of his training. The walls were still made of dark steel, illuminated only LED lights and door consoles every few yards. The place was still deathly quiet, populated only by the hum of hidden machinery. It was a functional installation, built for a purpose and dedicated to that purpose. If there was one thing Umbra Stratum didn't do, it was waste resources. Time, money, manpower: if they were going to use it they were going to make sure their purpose was achieved. No frivolity was accepted.

Aside from his passive observation of the base, nothing was too terribly unusual. Cerberus tapped into Church's ocular network and displayed a line that would guide him directly to the nearest information terminal. It was strange to see something through the naked eye that you knew was not really there, but Church had experienced so many similar sensation through a Heads Up Display that it did not phase him much anymore. Cerberus took the time to highlight threats as well, outlining the dangers of the base in the form of guards, security cameras, auto-turrets, and laser tripwires. Standard fare for any Umbra Stratum facility, but still considered overkill even by most military standards.

Church slid along the hallways of the base, careful to stick to any shadows he could find, which were unfortunately few and far between. The nature of the halls left little to darkness, but with the help of Cerberus' guidance, Church managed to avoid security patrols simply by avoiding close proximity until they moved down other paths. In the end he managed to slip, slide, and crawl his way past almost anything that would have alerted the base to his presence, and he soon found his way to the room he was looking for, protected by a sliding steel door labelled 'Operations.'

This is where things were going to get dicey. It was practically guaranteed that there would be personnel inside of the operations room. In fact, Cerberus had already identified them, and there were three, plus two guards that watched the door. Sneaking in would be absolutely impossible. He would have to incapacitate them all, quietly and quickly enough to prevent the alarm from being raised. On the bright side, he could make use of all of Exeter's systems aside from the helmet. He was armed, and armed well enough to probably deal with the situation before worse came to worst.

With that in mind, Church readied both of Exeter's gauntlets, equipping each of them with multi fire tasers. Completely useless against IS, but one of the useful leftovers from the production stage in which Exeter had been an infantry weapon. All he had to do was open the door, quickly stun everyone, and get the information he needed before slipping back out of the base. And with Exeter's enhanced reflexes, he could easily do just that, even against the highly trained US security personnel. After all, man alone was no match for man and machine together. Infinite Stratos had proven that well enough.

That said, Church, like everyone else, had heard the notion of women winning a theoretical war with men in but a day or two, but he didn't believe that for a second. I.S. were powerful, but not invincible. Moreover, they were limited in number. Even with their superior mobility, one I.S. would face significant danger from a squadron of fighters, or a handful of SAM batteries. EMP was still a perfectly viable option against Infinite Stratos, and even with their superior technology the combined armaments of the modern world could likely claim victory over the relatively minuscule number of Infinite Stratos units, especially considering that more than half of those units were training models without expert pilots to use them.

Still... even if man did come out on top in this theoretical war, it would not be without massive losses. Time had proven that the superior numbers tactic had one massive drawback: it always came at a huge cost. World War Two had been evidence enough of that. Russia had defeated their Nazi enemies, but had also suffered one of the highest casualty counts in the war. Superior numbers was often a win all trump card, but not without half or more of those numbers being wiped out by superior tactics and technology.

This was the problem with the current balance of power. Anyone with an I.S. at their disposal had the capability to dish out massive damage even if they lost in the end. In the case of this theoretical war between men and women, it was likely that men would actually win, but only after being crippled entirely. Of course, it wasn't like ultimate weapons were anything new. When nuclear weapons were first developed, America had seemed invincible, in an entirely unfair sense. But the difference was that nuclear weapons were owned by the entire nation, and not one small segment of one gender.

All of that aside, Church decided to put an end to the mental distractions and carry on with his mission. It was dangerous to lose himself in thought in a situation like this. That being the case, Church simply let Cerberus go to work on the door between himself and his enemies, and readied his stun weapons to take care of a business. Being the advanced AI he was, Cerberus took very little time to get the door open, and as expected, the US personnel inside were quick to react when an unannounced arrival made himself known. Umbra Stratum at least knew how to avoid second rate guards.

Even so, they were only human, and no amount of training would make them faster than a machine. With Exeter equipped everywhere but around his head, Church stepped into the room faster than his human opponents could follow. Granted, Church's own eyes could never follow what was happening fast enough to manually control the suit under these circumstances, but Cerberus made sure to take care of that.

Within a second of the door opening, Church had already fired taser darts into the necks of the only armed guards in the room, and the few station personnel that scrambled for an alarm or a weapon themselves found themselves likewise dispatched before they could do any such thing. With all potential threats incapacitated, Church wasted no time in moving for a computer console that would likely hold the information he was looking for before some diligent individual felt like checking in with this room.

Thankfully Cerberus could probably make this quick. With his hacking abilities, Church doubted he would be in here for more than a few minutes. What took him the longest would probably be sifting through the things he found. Still, regardless of how fast Cerberus was time was of the essence, so Church went ahead and brought Cerberus to the access point he would need to actually investigate Umbra Stratum's files. As expected, the AI had nearly every operation Umbra Stratum had ever conjured up available for reading on a holographic display, past, present, and future.

Unfortunately Church would have no choice but to investigate every single one of them. He could leave no stone unturned, but clearly there was no time for that here. He told Cerberus to begin downloading all of the files while he quickly browsed them. Some of them he recognized, though most he did not. Operation Sheer Force was a total war contingency plan as a response to the potential alliance of any two world powers, though the caution had been mostly geared towards Russia and China. Operation Attrition was a contingency plan in the case of military defeat at the hands of an invading force, in which case US members would engage in guerrilla warfare indefinitely.

But the one operation that caught Church's eye the most was the most recent of their number: something called Lightning Shiver. What was even more striking was the fact that this Operation required Level Nine clearance to access. He hadn't even known there was a clearance level above eight.

"Cerberus, I need access to this file, now."

"Of course, Operator."

As expected of his AI helper, Church was quickly afforded access to the file he wanted to investigate, and time being as short as it was, he wasted no time in immediately diving into its contents.

In conjunction with Directive Zeta 000429, Operation Lightning Shiver is to be initiated if the potential odds of defeat in an upcoming war are too high. This preemptive operation aims to both destroy the enemy and bolster the nation's defense through alliance simultaneously. Should the military firepower of a potential enemy nation exceed U.S. armaments by a ratio of three to one or higher, infiltration units will be deployed to both gather hardware intelligence for personal arsenal upgrades and destroy enemy armaments. After the completion of these objectives, Phantom Task-

Before Church could continue, the display before him turned entirely red, and the words of the file began rapidly deleting themselves. It was too fast for even Cerberus to stop, having been caught unawares.

"Cerberus, what's happening?!"

"It appears there was a complex self destruct fail safe in place Operator. The downloaded copy has likewise self destructed. I believe security personnel are also on their way here."

Church cursed to himself as he prepared to make an escape. Even if he had to fight his way out, he still couldn't let any Stratum personnel identify him. If word of this essential treachery made it back to the Director, Church would be in deep shit. Definitely deeper shit than he had ever been in before, and that was saying something.

"We're going out the way we came in, and fast. Let's get the hell out of here!"

With little reason to disagree and every system that didn't include the helmet available, Church rocketed back into the hallway he had first dropped into, quickly locating the vent he had used to make his entry and leaping back into it, just as alarms started blaring throughout the base. Needless to say Church crawled fast, just in case the base had systems to detect him in the vents, and soon enough he was back outside. With little time to spare considering the base's full alert status, Church quickly grabbed his jacket and began running off into the hills, still unable to fly thanks to the aerial detection systems in place.

Needless to say, the mission had been both a success and a failure. On one hand he now had absolute certainty that Umbra Stratum was up to something he was not privy to. On the other hand, he had no idea what it was that they were doing. All he knew was an operation name, and some sort of tie in with an organization called Phantom Task. And that alone was more worrisome than he cared to admit.

By the time lunch came around, Church had still not returned to the mansion. Needless to say the girls that had not seen him all day had become quite worried about him, but even so there was nothing they could do to find out where he had gone or why. That said, they were all reacting in very different ways. Rin seemed especially down, likely because she was lonely without him considering how much time they had spent together lately, and probably because she was still going through some stage of puppy love, though she never would have called it that.

Cecilia had launched into a tirade some time ago about how Church shouldn't have made them worry so much, but no one was really listening to her at this point, though it didn't stop the blonde from continuing. It was just a show to hide her concern anyway, because Cecilia often had trouble expressing emotions that could have been considered weakness.

Houki, as the least familiar with Church of them all, was mostly fine ignoring the problem. Not that she didn't want the American pilot to be alright of course, but aside from her lingering suspicions about his actions, she didn't really care what he did on his own time. She was more than content to simply spend the time she could with Ichika, since he too was likewise unaffected by the same thing that afflicted everyone else.

This was ironic, all things considered, not that Houki was aware of it. Charlotte was Ichika's girlfriend, but she too was too worried about their missing companion to really enjoy herself doing anything at all. Houki probably wouldn't have found it funny, but it was the universe's inside joke anyway.

And of course, Laura was fretting over the situation too. Anyone could tell that by the way she was constantly fidgeting, which was mostly out of character for her. What no one could tell was that Laura was more than just worried, but bothered too. Ever since Houki had commented on the suspicious nature of Church's behavior, the idea of it had grown considerably in the German's mind. It was strange though, because she refused to accept it. Even though logically she couldn't deny that something didn't add up about all of this, emotionally Laura absolutely could not fathom even the possibility of Church being up to something bad, or that he could be purposefully lying to them about something. This contradiction gave her a headache, but until she could dispel her doubts she could do nothing to quell it...

The doorbell ringing was the only sign of Church's return when he finally made back to them. They found it odd that he would ring the bell of a home he was a welcome guest in, but perhaps waltzing in unannounced after all this time would have been even more strange. That said, the girls that had been worried over his absence were quick to gather in the main foyer, questions regarding his whereabouts burning on their lips before they even saw him. When they did finally come face to face, Church brushed aside all of their questions with a cheeky smile, holding out a bag he had with him.

"Sorry I was gone so long. It took longer than I thought it would to find presents for everyone."

Church's retort to their questions made it difficult to be angry: it actually made it impossible. He had just been out shopping... to get gifts for them no less. He had certainly been gone long enough to put them ill at ease, and maybe he should have at least said he was going out into town, but in the end it was obvious that he had wanted to surprise them.

It put a smile on everyone's face, but more than that, it put Laura at ease. With a reason to the actions she had deemed suspicious now presented, she was all too happy to completely bury the doubts she had been experiencing. It was more than enough for her, and it was more than enough to keep her from asking questions for just a while longer yet.

Deep withing hidden facilities that even Umbra Stratum's own members weren't fully aware of outside of the very top of the chain of command, the Director stared down into the hangar bay that had come to house an old toy that had finally made it back into their hands. It was broken, battered, and torn, but it could be rebuilt, and it could be rebuilt better than before. I.S. cores were extremely limited, and the recovery of this particular core had made him a very happy man.

That was good, because Phantom Task had been making him rather dour lately. Those pushy, self serving bastards were pushing him more and more to accelerate the mission time frame, lest they take matters into their own hands, more so than they had already of course. The Director had nearly experienced an aneurysm when he had learned of a Phantom Task attack on Epsilon and the Exeter suit. He had only avoided such an outcome because Exeter had emerged victorious.

Even so, Phantom Task had shared their observations with him, and provided they weren't twisting the truth to manipulate him, the Director did not like what he heard. According to the pilot Phantom Task had dispatched, Church had displayed all the qualities of a loyal comrade to his so called 'friends.' On one hand it could mean that the boy's loyalty was faltering. After all, he did have the guts to go against orders and more or less tell his superior officers to go fuck themselves because he could do what he wanted.

But on the other hand, he could have just been ingratiating himself with his targets to better achieve his mission. He had to at least look like their ally to gain their trust. There was no guarantee that he wasn't doing that.

But somehow the Director felt otherwise. He certainly was not considered a close friend of Epsilon: he didn't know the boy on a personal scale. But he knew enough about people like him. Bleeding hearts that asked too many questions and tried to do 'the right thing' rather than their orders. The Director hated individuals like that. In fact, he would never have chosen Epsilon as the Exeter suit's pilot had the boy not been so astoundingly compatible with the system. But what was done was done, and for now, there was a precarious stalemate between them.

Epsilon had things he wanted. Goals he wanted met... people he wanted taken care of. Umbra Stratum was footing the bill for those particular desires so long as Epsilon remained in their service. Technically the Director had every right to withdraw that payment due to Epsilon's disobedience. But on the other hand, pissing off the pilot was a bad idea. There was nothing to stop Epsilon from using the suit to wreak havoc and destruction on Umbra Stratum if they angered him.

But that would be retaliatory in nature only. The only situation in which Epsilon would do that would be if Umbra Stratum took away the support he needed for his 'goals.' Obviously Epsilon didn't want that. So even though he could potentially destroy their organization, he was reluctant to do anything that would jeopardize the financial support they offered him for his continued service to their cause.

Thankfully the situation would not remain as such for long. The Director glanced at the machine being reconstructed below his observation deck once again. The Silver Gospel was a wreck right now, but the core had survived, and it had evolved too, undergone a Second Shift due to the data it had accumulated from its battle with the Academy's pilots. It would be stronger than ever: strong enough to handle Exeter should the pilot get any funny ideas, even with that moronic engineer on his side. Then again, the Director was fairly certain that he was going to do something about that very soon.

The plot thickens, mostly in the thoughts of the people involved. But the charade keeps going, inevitably spiraling towards self-destruction. And man, that is going to be a bad time.