A/n: Jack needs to talk to Eleonora, privately. Oooooooo!
Shortly after Ch. 10. Hard swears because Vandham's a little stressed, okay? Slight spoilers to some side quests.
All the good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft. Lila (offstage) is mine and feeling pretty poorly.
"Hey, Eleonora, buy you a cup of coffee?" His voice was clipped and far from casual, no matter how hard he seemed to be trying.
"Commander, what a lovely offer." Eleonora smiled up at his frowning face. Usually, he tried to look mild. Tried and failed miserably. Today he was a fearsome, glowering force. The smartly dressed blonde paid no attention to all that. "But I'm quite busy, as you can see." She gave an economical wave at the BLADE mission board, lit up green, amber and red, like a hyperactive contestant in a Texas Christmas tree decorating competition. She nodded to the cluster of BLADE team members eagerly reading the listings.
"Lin made some pie," the Commander said.
Clearly she wasn't going to be able to say no. She smiled again, silently recalculating her morning, and scanned the street for a replacement. Ha, there was Kirsty, she'd do. She flagged the woman down. "Kirsty, sweetie, I need to step away for a moment. Won't you keep an eye on things? Oh, and do NOT let Corwin take any assignments up north. None. Home or west, that's what's best." Eleonora giggled harmlessly, but her eyes skewered Kirsty.
"Um, I don't know…"
"Thanks, back in 5." She smiled brilliantly one last time, patted the confused Kirsty on the shoulder, and trotted after Commander Vandham. He'd already crossed the street and was punching the barracks' entrance key coder with far too much vehemence. She slid smoothly by his side just as the door was opening. If this was going to have to happen, better it be done quickly and let her day go back to normal.
By the time they'd sat down, he'd forgotten about the pie and the coffee. He clearly wanted to get this over as fast as possible too. "I got a visit from Chausson yesterday evening."
"Yes, I know. What did our Director General have to say?"
"You know?"
Eleonora wrinkled her nose slightly to keep from laughing. "The mission board IS directly across from the barracks. Not so hard to notice who comes and goes."
"That and the implants you've put in everyone's butts," he growled. She ignored this remark. She'd been ignoring Vandham's remarks for several years now. She looked at him cheerfully and with just a little determined blankness.
He sighed and scrubbed his hair with one hand. "So I'm guessing you know the exact speech he gave me."
"Well, no, of course not."
"But you know."
"Maybe. I don't know. Sometimes he surprises me."
She did not intend to help him. Vandham sighed again, and she noticed how very sad his eyes were. She decided to wait another 30 seconds before saying how busy she was, and pointing out that he must be very busy too.
"He said that Lila had been working for Naval Intelligence from the beginning."
Ah, so the real conversation had finally started. She'd long ago decided not to deny anything, when it all came out. That little love match was never going to be stable, and it was best to have a plan. True, it had been rather sweet to watch while it lasted. The pair had been so awkward and obvious. She'd have managed it better, given a chance. But no one had asked her. Anyway, Vandham deserved better. So, to a lesser extent, did Lila. "And this was a surprise? I believe that's what the big blow up was about."
"So you did hear about that."
"Dear, outposts in eastern Oblivia heard about it. The commercial district is not the place to have a private shouting match, even at six in the morning." Eleonora made a tisk tisk noise.
"I was the only one shouting. She just froze me out. Hasn't said anything besides 'yes, sir', 'no, sir', and 'fuck off and die, sir' since then."
Eleonora looked politely blank. Actually, Eleonora knew for a fact that Lila hadn't said word one to the Commander since that last meeting. Still, it wouldn't do to point out Lila's stubborn silence, nor to mention that Lila wasn't much for obscenities. Lila was far from perfect, but she hadn't adopted a more typical naval vocabulary. A bigger weakness was her tendency to revert to 90% parade stance, 10% mule when things got heated. Also an apparent fondness for bull-necked, mustachioed engineers who possessed all the subtlety and charm of a brick wall. Make that a concrete wall. Would it have killed somebody to beat a little charm into either of them at some point? Charm sometimes worked so much better. Eleonora stayed silent.
"Yeah, right, no big surprise," the concrete wall continued. "Maurice's statement didn't do much for me. He said she'd also found the White Whale project on her own hook. Asked for my reference by luck. Nothing new. She'd told me something like that herself." He sounded like he still needed convincing.
"Not by luck. She's a very intelligent little thing. But, yes, I don't believe she was sent to the project."
"You'd know. IF she wasn't."
There was no need to be obvious. "You were on the White Whale campus, too. You know I was in charge of hiring, Commander," she reminded him, pointedly. "I read the personnel files and I know where they came from. She sent her resume in quite independently. If she hadn't mentioned your name, it would have gone straight into the trash. I wasn't given the least push about her from anyone else."
"My name." He looked, if anything, bleaker and more angry.
Eleonora's five minute window was closing rapidly. She really needed to get back on the concourse. She gave a little shrug. "Well, this is all very interesting, but not exactly new." Actually, it was a little boring. She was almost disappointed in their Director General.
"He said her job was strictly to observe." He laughed a very bitter laugh. "Obviously, that's a lie. He hoped I wouldn't cause any more commotion."
Now that was interesting. Maurice had actually said something almost useful. Not enough, that was typical. That grey, hatchet-faced man always neglected to add enough information to really help a person. Or when it would make himself look better, more human, he'd leave that kind of favorable information out. Why he avoided that, she didn't understand. Perhaps he preferred to be disliked and arcane. She, on the other hand, was useful and cheery to the core of her being.
"Do you know how she ended up on your team?" Eleonora asked. Perhaps he didn't. That might make a largish difference.
"Because she was on the goddammed make for me!" Vandham was finally shouting, his familiar bellow bouncing off of the break room's walls. "From before any of this started! From the moment I set eyes on her in San Diego, she was gunning for me. Set up as a trap. Stupid rookie mistake on her part. Like I'm going to mess with my own team. Nope, not me. What an ass I was. What a waste of effort. It was damn fool honor that stopped it, and if I had known..." Vandham stuttered to a stop, closed his eyes, and said in a voice so thin and strained it seemed impossible to be coming from his oversized frame, "If I'd have known, it would have happened long ago and to hell with it all."
Eleonora smiled again, just as brightly, but not with her eyes. But her voice sounded just as sweet and unconcerned, which was all that mattered, since Vandham still had his eyes closed. And his head in his hands for that matter.
"She was scheduled to work on living quarter designs, of all things. A complete waste, clearly, but I suppose it would have made the, well," Eleonora coughed demurely, "… the social aspects highly suitable. But we all know that was not where she ended up. She asked me to transfer her to the engineering team, did you know that? Her direct request. And I agreed. We really couldn't afford to waste anyone's talents." That was her official line, and she'd stick to it. Eleonora had been in a silent, impotent fury at the time, but she hadn't fought the impossible. "After that, I suppose, honor took over." Eleonora paused, and added cheerfully, "Are we quite sure whose honor it was?"
Vandham looked blearily across the low table at her, like he couldn't quite bring himself to believe it.
"Anyway, I'm sure you can decide on your own how useful all this information is. Many things happened on Earth, and not all of them made it to Mira, and nothing made it here unchanged. Mira is just full of surprises." She left the sentence hang, ready to stand up and leave.
Vandham closed his eyes again, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Square, satiny, with a hinge. He pushed it across the table towards Eleonora.
"Why, Commander, I didn't know you cared." Eleonora really couldn't keep the laughter from her voice, although she couldn't say she was surprised. Those two had been burning up NLA for weeks, months to be honest, even before it was official, not so much heedless as completely unaware of the notice they were drawing, which made the crash all the more obvious and spectacular. She reached out and flipped the box open. "Oh, but it's lovely. Hmm, miranium, correct? And wherever did you get such a beautiful blue stone?"
"Sylvalum."
"Those deposits are green, if memory serves."
"Not all of them."
Well, her five minutes were long over. She had things to do, BLADES to organize, missions to make sure were cleared by the right teams at the right times. Besides, it wasn't fair on Kirsty. She snapped the box closed and passed it back to the Commander. "It's a lovely ring, but you can probably return it."
"Don't want to. I just got the damn thing yesterday."
"After your little talk with Chaussen?"
"Before." He was staring at the box, lying in his cupped hands, unable to close his fists over the little thing.
Oh, now, that was very interesting. And frustrating. This whole conversation had been unnecessary, although she supposed it might relieve some of Vandham's anguish. Poor soul, he'd fallen hard. So had Lila. That woman had looked somewhat desperate in the days afterwards. Just like when you get a cold after fighting it for weeks, it is always so much more nasty. Better to take to your bed at the first hint. Or never catch it at all.
She stood up, politely, cheerfully, when Vandham spoke one more time. "Am I the biggest goddamn fool on Mira?"
"Pound for pound? Perhaps." Eleonora added sweetly, "I suppose some Prone might give you a run for it. But worst? No."
Suddenly, she was tired of being coy, being sweet, being oblique. She spoke coldly, quickly. "Lila was a good asset, better than we deserved, and stable. Blessedly stable, even when she took some hits. You don't know the kind of rot we've been dealing with since the White Whale took off. Powell, Alex, all that nasty stuff that you've seen is only what's been bubbling to the surface. She scoured that ship for us. Lila did her best by New LA, too, and it was a good effort. Even after your little tiff, she didn't lie down, though heaven knows she looked like death. She used all your insults to our purposes. You would not believe the people who decided to suddenly talk to her, when everyone was half convinced she was working for the Ganglion. If she hadn't been injured, who knows what she might have given us? We should be more grateful, really, instead of complaining about what she didn't do. She never made you because she categorically refused to, and it was either stupidity or a miracle that she held out so long."
Ha, ha, so silly. Eleonora didn't say a word of it, of course she didn't. Not out loud. It would be a foolish indulgence, even if their chances of survival now were so slim as to be pointless. She smiled again, took a deep breath, and said, instead, "Really, I've enjoyed this talk, but I must be going. Perhaps you could discuss this with Lila when she recovers from the blast."
"If she recovers."
"When, dear," said Eleonora, and this time her voice was crisp and without a trace of joking. "It's only been a few days." Vandham looked at her, cradling the ridiculously tiny box in his massive hands, willing it to be true, miserable still, but perhaps not quite so close to despair.
Eleonora nodded, and smiled yet one more of her endless harmless smiles. She turned around smartly and headed for the concourse. She'd said perhaps a bit too much, and she was definitely going to have to manage dear Maurice a bit better, but all in all she was pleased with the results. Vandham, never the easiest of personnel, looked less like he was going to blow something up, BLADE, Ganglion, Tatsu, whatever came up closest.
Eleonora smiled serenely as she returned to her post. Not a minute too soon. Kirsty was losing an argument with Corwin, she standing stiffly with crossed arms and sharp words, he leaning in and poking out his complaints. Clearly, Eleanora had overstayed her 5 minute break. Eleonora made short work of that little problem, relieving the unnerved Kirsty and somehow convincing the obstinate Pathfinder that, of course, he had always wanted to check the western beaches for important information, that his heart had really always wanted to adventure in that direction, that his team alone could find the crucial piece that everyone had overlooked. All the while, she thought, if Lila recovered, no, WHEN the dear girl recovered from the unfortunate blast at the refueling station, they might have a little chat themselves. Maybe Eleonora could shift the little radical element someplace more useful. Why, she might even make a nice replacement for working the missions board. The thought of the grubby and serious brunette, apparently so happy when soaked in machine oil and crawling under the treads of this or that skell, being forced to wear a prim uniform and kicky little heels, gave Eleonora's smile a slightly malicious but not unfamiliar tinge as she turned her gaze to the rest of the waiting crowd.
a/n: Eleonora is either NLA's George Smiley or Alvis, can't decide which. (Alvis. She's Alvis.) I'm sure there are blue crystals somewhere in Sylvalum, and someday I will find them. Until then, I am willing them into existence. Lila told Vandham about finding the Whale in "Twitchy Tales of the Whale/2/Doors". Shameless plug is shameless.
Next up: Well, after XCX Chapter 11, who can bring themselves to care about mere personal betrayal? Vandham has stuff to fix. Do you think he can do it? Do you think he can punch out Heyreddin, the Territorial? Yes, and yes he can. Bonus: Lila explains stuff, even though Jack really is past caring.