Too close to the sun: Rising Overwatch Scientist dismissed for controversial work…
Konrad looked silently at the datapad in his hands and sighed heavily. Although he had been recovering within the local hospital but he tried to keep up with the events that happened back at HQ. He considered himself lucky when it came to visitors, there were days he was visited by his colleagues at the central Med-Bay and other departments at Overwatch
He was even more thankful to be visited by at least a few Blackwatch agents.
"Shit…this was just released a few hours ago…I'm surprised," Konrad commented quietly.
Konrad glanced at the man at the side of his bed, the new scar on the man's cheek, Ruben Sanders or Van Gogh was one of the Blackwatch agents that visited him more than once.
"Did you know her?" Ruben asked.
"Barely. I knew of her but I didn't really work with her. I mean I'm a nurse and she's a scientist…you know where I'm going with this," Konrad replied.
"I suppose…"Ruben trailed off.
"I'm surprised you're here, everyone seems so busy," Konrad began.
"That is true, but I came because I wanted to see you before I left for my next mission," Ruben replied
"Aw, aren't you cute?" Konrad chuckled.
"I am serious Konrad," Ruben replied.
Konrad sighed as he placed the pad on the side table next to his bed, he ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair.
"Let me live a little, I've been stuck here for almost a month…"
"When are you expected to be discharged?" Ruben asked softly as he leaned back in his chair, hands in his lap.
"I dunno…they said there's still remnants of the poison in my system and my surgery they want to make sure my recovery isn't affected,"
"Hopefully not much longer yes?" Ruben gave a quick but crooked smile.
"Hopefully, I miss y'all," Konrad smirked.
"I see that you have picked up McCree's vocabulary," Ruben smirked.
"Yeah…it's addicting," Konrad chuckled.
"Indeed. Well…I must leave now. When I complete my mission I will come to see you again," Ruben began as he stood.
"Sounds good, how is everyone?" Konrad asked. Ruben crossed his arms and looked at the man in thought.
"I am sure you are aware this is not the best place to discuss things as such but…nearly everyone is on the field…including the Intel Director," Ruben stated.
"Well shit. It's gotten to that point…" Konrad muttered.
"Unfortunately but that is normal in our line of work. I am sure you're aware," Ruben smirked and gave a slight nod.
"Yeap," Konrad nodded to the man and watched as the man silently exited the room.
"I need to get better and get the hell out of here," Konrad said as he picked up the datapad again and focused back on the shocking article.
"Damn…O'Deorain…what did you do?
"Who knew it would be so awkward to be out in the open with you," Thea began as she sipped her drink.
"I'm offended you would find it awkward to be out with me. I am just a normal person," Kallista commented casually. Thea pursed her lips together and adjusted her sunglasses as glanced at the woman across from her.
With a sigh, Thea sipped her coffee as she leaned back in her seat, her attention now on the people as they meandered along to handle whatever business they had to attend to that day. Thea and Kallista were seated on the ground floor of a chic boutique café in San Jose, California, near their target location.
"Yeah...but I mean…you are my boss and I feel like I'm underdressed," Thea commented as she pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and looked Kallista from head to toe before she looked at her clothes, jeans, sneakers, and a basic tank top.
"This is just who I am and the clothes I picked up on short notice," Kallista replied as she placed her cell phone face down on the table. "Now…"
"Picked up on short notice huh, you look like one of those social media influencers or models or whatever they call themselves," Thea commented, Kallista smiled.
"Maybe...in a past life," Kallista replied simply. Thea arched an eyebrow at the woman's answer but opted not to ask...for now.
Normally, Thea saw the woman dressed in what came to be her normal khaki bomber jacket, dark-colored jeans, and her sleeveless turtleneck crop top and boots. Today she wore a white loose short-sleeved blouse with a pastel pink knee-length pleated skirt and white heels.
"Fine, Fine, focusing on recon," Thea shrugged and placed her glasses back on.
"A quick rundown of the pharmaceutical company…"
"Mendoza Pharmaceuticals. Looks generally like an office building, wasn't able to get a layout of the building but with enough time a 3D layout could possibly be made," Thea began.
"That might be helpful but time is against us," Kallista began as she leaned back in her seat. I know about the CEO already so you can skip that part," Kallista said and sipped on her hazelnut iced coffee.
"Mm, I figured as much…" Thea trailed off and noticed the woman patted her forehead with a napkin.
"Too hot for you Director?" Thea grinned.
"Not yet acclimated to the weather…nor do I want my face to melt," Kallista sighed. "Switzerland's temperature is pretty tame to California summers,"
"Didn't you used to live in Mexico?" Thea questioned.
"Someone has been doing research," Kallista smirked as she adjusted her sunglasses. "I did but it's been six years since I've been there,"
"Do you want to go back?" Thea questioned.
"At some point…but with house arrest, it is a bit more difficult,"
Kallista leaned back in her chair as the thought of her home filled her thoughts. If she really wanted to she could have easily traveled to Dorado with no issue. None of the items she had were tracked except for her cell phone which she could have easily disabled but that would alert people she didn't care to confront about it.
But it's been six years, would they really take the time to review her travel log?
A moment passed and she completely dismissed the thought because she knew that Gabriel would look into if there was something abnormal about her travel.
A slight pause settled between the two as they sat idly.
"I see," Thea commented quietly.
"But here I am living in Switzerland where I've been spoiled by tame summers and now I am melting in the Californian heat," Kallista sighed.
After Kallista had rested the next day the two women were on their way to San Jose- to the city where the possible source of the Cheshire cat originated from, Mendoza Pharmaceuticals. A place where Kallista had visited although illegally. She used Overwatch's prototype cybersecurity technology to visit its networks in the data cloud.
The two women were now seated in a trendy coffee shop near the main building scouting for Mendoza employees. Kallista knew she could have launched her own infiltration into the networks of the company but knew the request would be immediately dismissed by both Gabriel and Morrison and it would be risky. Everything now was risky, too much time had passed and she and the others were not fully aware of how capable the Cheshire cat was or how it would respond to her.
They had to take a different approach. Infiltrate and decimate from the outside in.
"I'm surprised that Reyes doesn't show up here more often," Thea commented breaking the silence between the two women.
"Why is that?" Kallista questioned.
"I'm sure you know he's from Los Angeles, I think he has family in LA but I'm not entirely sure. Melody wouldn't confirm or deny it," Thea sighed.
"I knew he was from LA but I didn't know he still had family. That's not something that we…talk about," Kallista replied as she narrowed her eyes at the woman.
"I'm surprised," Thea grinned.
"What's that shit-eating grin for?" Kallista arched an eyebrow.
"Well normally," Thea began "Uh…look there's a group," Thea began as she adjusted her sunglasses. Kallista casually glanced in the direction of the group of employees from the Mendoza Pharmaceutical company.
"Perfect," Kallista smiled. "Would you like more of what you ordered or a snack?"
"Yes to both. I forgot to eat," Thea grinned sheepishly.
After a moment Kallista took her phone and began into the café towards the counter where the group of Mendoza employees stood and waited in the queue. Kallista stood quietly behind them and focused on her phone in her hand.
Kallista knew snagging the badges would be near impossible, the badges were required to pass the guard station before even entering the building, and also she was no petty thief. With prototype technology from the R&D department, she took this chance to test out how functional the programs and devices were. For this specific program she just needed to take a picture of an identification card with a chip and with that picture, the program would scan the encrypted chip inside of the badge, de-encrypt the chip's data to make it customizable to suit the job, encrypt the data again and finally print an ID badge.
A duplicated and fully customizable ID from a simple scan phone image.
Without much of an issue, Kallista was able to take a photo of the first ID that hung from the unsuspecting man's belt loop. She needed one more so that both she and Thea would be able to join her in the infiltration. As the queue moved Kallista saw that the two had turned towards her as they picked out things they wanted from the bakery. In the guise of taking a wide photo of the bakery, Kallista took a picture of the two women and moved in closer as if she too were looked at the options available.
One of the women looked directly at her and smiled, Kallista at that moment unsuspectingly snapped a photo of the woman's badge as she leaned her phone on to the edge of the counter. Kallista smiled and took off her glasses.
"All of this looks delicious. I could not help but take a picture for my blog. What do you fancy?" Kallista asked.
"I've tried everything. It's all amazing you can't go wrong with anything," the woman replied.
"That's good to know. Hopefully, I can decide on what to pick," Kallista smiled.
After a few moments, Kallista returned back to the patio with a tray of various different tea sandwiches, pastries, and more coffee.
"That's a lot of food," Thea commented as she took off her sunglasses and focused on the tray of food.
"I got distracted," Kallista replied as she placed the tray on the table.
"I assume you got what you wanted?" Thea asked as she eyed the sandwiches.
"Of course," Kallista smiled as she took her iced coffee from the tray. "I'm just hoping that this works. I have a lot of prototypes but I can adjust if I need to," Kallista replied and reached for a sandwich.
"Um…excuse me…Miss?"
Kallista and Thea froze for a moment and turned their attention to an older looking woman that stood behind Kallista. Kallista turned to look at the woman
"Y-yes?" Kallista quirked an eyebrow.
"Are you Camilla Torres De Luciano?"
Thea looked to the older woman and then back to Kallista confused at what the woman called her.
"I am," Kallista smiled.
"I knew it. I told my girlfriends that you were her. You looked like her from a distance," the older woman began. "I hope you are doing well, you haven't been on television in years," the woman began as she looked at Kallista with worry.
"Ah yes. I have been tackling health problems, hopefully, I will return once I have my health all sorted out," Kallista replied.
"That's good to hear. I apologize for disturbing you and your friend here, please take care of yourself,"
"Thank you, you as well," Kallista smiled at the woman and watched as the woman returned to her friends.
"Camilla Torres De Luciano…huh?" Thea began. "Television?"
"A previous life," Kallista replied quietly.
"So mysterious and secretive Miss Director. You're even posher than I thought you were," Thea smirked and took a bite of her sandwich. Kallista sighed softly and took a sip of her coffee.
"…sorry," Thea added.
"I am an English woman, what else did you expect? But don't worry about it, I was wondering when this would happen," Kallista began. "I'm sure Gabriel knew as well…hence the house arrest," Kallista gave a small smile before she took a sandwich.
After several hours of surveying the location and building, Thea and Kallista made their way to the train station back to Los Angeles.
"Today was fun…I was able to get out and enjoy the sun, eat some really good food," Thea began.
"Right. I had fun too. It's been a while since I've been able to do something like this," Kallista added as she ran a hand through her hair and looked at her cell phone.
"Does Reyes not take you out on dates?" Thea began and looked to Kallista. The woman's sharp blue eyes were already on her.
"Uh—"Thea began nervously.
"I didn't know—"Kallista began when echoes of shouts rang through the bustling train station.
"WE WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE THE CORRUPT GOVERNMENT! OUR EYES ARE OPEN!"
Kallista and Thea both turned to look in the direction of where the voice originated from and the civilians that were focused on the area.
"That doesn't sound good," Thea commented as she glanced at Kallista and Kallista at her.
"NO LONGER HELD BY THE SHACKLES OF THE GOVERNMENT. WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE OMNICS TO HAVE POWER. WE WILL RISE UP! WE WILL RISE!"
"Is this—"Thea began as she could clearly see more people had gathered while some began to quickly walk away from the impending commotion.
"THIS IS OUR TIME"
Kallista watched with a critical eye as security guards began to approach the group of people who had started to shout when suddenly they lunged at the security guards that approached them as did the other members of the group.
"Holy Shit-!"
The sound of the train horn boomed through the tunnel and train station and sped past its expected stop followed by an explosion. Immediately, chaos erupted in the train station.
"So Nattie…the truth finally comes out," Lyudmila commented.
{Yeah…I'm sorry it came out this way…and especially about Vincent…}
"I wish you would have said something before it got to this point," Lyudmila said as she adjusted the cell phone by her ear.
{I know…I couldn't make up my mind… and now that I have children}
"You have to do what is best for you," Lyudmila replied.
{I understand. I'm also sorry that I'm telling you instead Gabo}
"Oh no. You're still going to tell Reyes. You're not weaseling your way out of this one," Lyudmila replied.
{C'mon Lyuda}
Lyudmila chuckled as the woman's whine, it had been months since she had heard the woman's voice, and they only communicated through emails or texts and never a phone call.
"This is something you have to do. I cannot and will not do this for you. When Reyes returns you can tell him. I can also assume you will need to talk to Morrison as well. He's worried about you,"
{I…know…I heard about what happened with him and Vincent which is why I've been avoiding him…}
"It's going to catch up with you Natalie. Do something before it becomes worse,"
