Launch

There was a stack of papers on his office desk. They weren't unfinished business, necessarily; they were mostly there so that Goujun could shuffle through completed assignments and successful missions at moments of stress and remind himself of greater travails than these. He could remind himself, for instance, that the aliens had most recently attacked and taken no less than three military bases surrounding Europa, which put their vanguard within a day's flight and a jump of Earth. He could remind himself that while two of the giant aliens had been taken down eventually by the mechs, the military was still missing a leg and most internal organs from one of them. Compared to these, giving a new agent a mission was supposed to be the proverbial piece of cake. Still, if he were to shuffle the papers in a manner proportionate to current stress, they would be blurring in his hands as he waited for his latest agent.

The knock on the door was an upbeat little two-one-two rhythm, an un-military quality to it that he couldn't help but describe as peppy. It instantly set his teeth on edge and, having read the file in question, he was very much under the impression that the effect was both deliberate and intended. "Come in," he called evenly.

Kenren, when he came in, turned out to be both surprising and precisely expected. He wasn't in uniform, which Goujun hadn't expected - it seemed rather blatant a provocation even for someone whose exploits the file enumerated with the sort of tooth-gritting devotion to detail that indicated towering frustration on the part of his former superiors - but he was exactly as charming and unnecessarily good-looking as described, as he sauntered over to Goujun's desk, saluting in a way that deftly blended technical correctness and practiced insouciance. "Captain Kenren, reporting for duty, sir." His voice was so perfectly modulated into nearly-not-nonchalance that Goujun had to marvel at it, in an academic way.

Goujun looked him over, and raised an eyebrow. "Is that the attire in which you usually report for duty?"

Kenren managed somehow to sigh non-vocally. "No. Sir." The pause was, down to nanoseconds, exactly short enough that Goujun couldn't call him out on it. "There's been a mixup with my duffel. I'm assured that it's en route."

Goujun didn't quite believe him, but probably he wouldn't lie quite so blatantly as all that. "First time working in intelligence, I see."

"Yes, sir." There was definitely the sound of at least one bitten-back response in his voice, and Goujun was somewhat meanly satisfied by the effort it clearly took.

"I'm given to understand you're something of an….authority problem."

Kenren stared straight ahead, all military now, which left Goujun with the unmistakable impression that he was being, somehow, at this very moment, very impertinent in the privacy of his mind. "If that's what the authority says. Sir."

And that pause was definitely abandoning that privacy. "Hm." Goujun made a show of looking at the file, and then went directly for the jugular. "It says here that you slept with your last C.O.'s husband, and then beat him up. The C.O., that is. Not the husband."

Kenren managed that same non-vocalised sigh again, slouching a little more, which made his shirt gape open just a little more, to Goujun's annoyance. "He swung first."

Goujun raised an eyebrow. "Because, if I may hazard a guess, he caught you fornicating with his spouse, with whom I dare say he hadn't made arrangements to accommodate such a thing."

"Seems like he swung at the wrong guy then, doesn't it?" Which left Goujun at something of a loss, since he didn't disagree.

"Hm. Well. You're going to be under substantially more scrutiny due to this and your ongoing issues with your superiors. We're fighting a war, and I expect better behaviour from you in the future."

Kenren's gaze remained fixed on the wall a precise six inches above Goujun's head. "War's tough to miss, sir."

To his own horror, Goujun found himself tempted to chuckle. "I believe so, yes." Kenren continued to look at the apparently fascinating wall, and Goujun sighed a little. "My instructions are to deploy you as an individual agent to ferret out alien-body smuggling. One of the few consistent positives in your evaluations is your ability to infiltrate and extract information. Presumably, working alone will also put paid to your less desirable instincts."

Kenren looked at him for the first time, then, and it was oddly disconcerting to be the sole focus of his gaze. It was almost disturbingly direct, in a way that Goujun's lifetime of high society and low politics hadn't accustomed him to at all. "Bits have been going missing, then."

"In ways that suggest military collaboration, at the very least." The increased professionalism was, oddly, difficult to handle. The man had the sort of centred calm that Goujun was much more accustomed to seeing in pictures of large wildlife. "You'll be working out on the orbital mech assembly stations, to infiltrate the smuggling ring. There are serious concerns that attempts are being made by criminal elements to reverse-engineer some of the bioweapons the aliens carry and deploy."

Kenren considered that for a moment, clearly thinking, extrapolating, a speed and efficiency of thought in it that Goujun found himself reluctantly impressed by. "What are my intelligence vectors? Where they're going, who's taking them….involvement?"

Goujun nodded a little, pleased with his immediate reaction. "I've already given you access to a dossier with the information the last agent managed to collect before his cover was blown. Our best guess so far as to the eventual destination of most of the parts is science labs funded by….the criminal underworld, for lack of a better term."

Kenren's expression suggested that he could think of several better ones, without actually changing in any substantial way. "Thank you, sir. I'll start right away."

"You'll depart on Thursday evening's shuttle. Your dossier contains your first contact." Goujun paused, and added, a little reluctantly, "don't botch this. You're already in a world of trouble."

Kenren smiled at that, just a little curve of that oddly expressive mouth, but a world of wry amusement in it, giving him a little half-salute. "Thank you for the guidance, sir."

Goujun snorted softly, charmed despite himself. "Your current attitude is, in fact, visible to me."

"Yes, sir."

Goujun smiled at him, just a bit. "You're dismissed. Do try not to start any bar brawls on your two whole days of vacation."

Kenren saluted, somehow managing to convey a higher level of impertinence in it by making it more crisp. "I never start them, sir, but I'll do my best for you."

Goujun sighed. "Endeavour also to not participate."