Operations and Madeline stood before the metal door of Section One, waiting for it to open and reveal to them the new operative. A few seconds later, it opened and there stood a tall young woman with short silverish-brown hair and yellow green eyes. The woman walked up to Operations and handed him a panel.
Paul looked it over for the better part of five minutes, while Madeline looked directly at the girl to find any form of anxiety. Much to her surprise, she found none. Operations looked up and handed back the panel. "Follow me." He lead the girl to Birkoff's centre. "Upload her panel and get her settled in." Operations left them as the girl handed the panel to the tech.
Birkoff eyed her warily as if worried that she would pull a gun on him. "Um, it will take a while so sit down." He motioned towards a chair in front of a station as he turned back to his computer and plugged in her panel to load its contents into Section One's mainframe. The young man turned back to his guest and gave a lopsided smile which fell when he noticed the gun strapped to her thigh, the gun holster under the jacket and the one gloved hand. Their eyes met, the intensity in hers was enough to make him stop in mid thought. "So, um, what's your name?" Nice going Birkoff, you can just turn around and look it up! He berated himself mentally.
It took her some time to answer. Birkoff was about to ask again when she spoke up. "Alana." Her arms crossed before her and spread her legs as she leaned back into the chair, taking a very unladylike pose.
"Well, um, glad to meet you. My name's Birkoff. If you need anything, just come to me. Most of the time, I'm the mission's operator so we'll be working a lot together." The only answer he go was a curt nod. "Over there is Walter's place. He'll get you anything you need. Guns, panels, tracers, the whole bit." The young man from Section One motioned off to the side to Walter's workshop but she only nodded once again, without even looking.
Nikita walked up to them. She gave a smile to Alana, who nodded again. "How's it going Birkoff?" The woman asked, looking at his screen. She caught a glimpse of something but it was gone before she could make any sense of it.
"Not bad. Nikita meet Alana. The new operative that came in this morning." The tech gave the blond woman a questioning look. "What is it?" He asked, wondering why Nikita had a blank stare all of a sudden.
She snapped out of her trance, her gaze shifting to Alana, who had not moved a muscle. "Nothing. I'll talk to you later Birkoff. Nice to meet you Alana." The new operative nodded once again and Nikita walked away towards Walter's workshop.
0829, Section One
Michael, Nikita, Birkoff and Madeline sat around the briefing table.
Operations looked at his watch and was about to complain that Alana was
late when she walked in. She still had her guns and even had a self-confident
aura about her. "You are late." Paul ground out. She said nothing
and sat down. Operations grumbled something and started on the briefing.
A couple of minutes later, they were excused and went their separate
ways. Alana and Madeline remained because the Section One tactician had
asked the new operative to stay a moment. "You came in late. Make sure
that doesn't happen again." Madeline said, her face covered by an impassive
mask.
Alana stood up. "I was on time." The new recruit looked down
at Madeline, wearing her own indifferent mask. "Anything else, ma'am?"
The older woman waved a dismissive hand in reply. The operative walked
away without a backward glance.
0845, Section One
Operations and Madeline watched Walter at his workshop as he distributed
the equipment to those operatives that would need it. Paul's brows furrowed
as he watched the new recruit, Alana, make her way past Walter's place
and down a hall. "What do you think of her?" He asked Madeline though
keeping his eyes on the place where the person in question had disappeared.
"She seems to have herself well established in her mind. Self-assurance
and almost arrogant. We will see how she does on this mission," was
the second in command of Section One's reply before she walked out of the
perch.