"Vous l'avez?"

"Je fais, mon ami."

"Il a été chiffré?

"Oui, il traduit par 'Rousseau', mon ami."

"Rousseau? Un nom?"

"Oui, nous le croyons."

"Il doit être ... son nom."

Madeline sat at the table, pouring spoonfuls of sugar into her mug of coffee, while Sniper next to her was already downing his.

"So I hear you're having nothing to do with kids."

"Oh, Hell no. I'd probably kill one o' me own if I 'ad any. Wouldn't mean it, y'know, but it'd probably 'appen. Annoying ankle-biters aren't for me."

"Shame, heard your mother was hoping for grandchildren."

"...You keep me mum outta this."

Spy heard the whole conversation, but easily managed to make it look like he only just entered.

"Bonjour, Monseiur, Madame," he said. Sniper let out an annoyed grunt as he finished off his coffee, and Madeline gave a small wave.

"Spy, I've been meaning to ask, how goes the info-gathering?" Madeline asked. He grinned to her, and dropped a new folder, titled "Rousseau" in front of her.

"You're friend RzUYW3ZWs 'ad quite ze hidden trail," he said with a smile. "It was such a thrill for I and my acquaintances to track down."

"Thank you so much," she said, fingers touching the cover of the new folder. She was anxious and a little bit scared to finally find the answers.

"I shall warn you, petite," he said, growing serious. "Zhis 'ad a very covered up trail. It almost was not found." He put a hand on her cheek, and pulled her face to look at him. "I will not stop you, mon amour. But zhis was covered for a reason."

"A reason?" She opened the folder, flipping through the neatly written notes and sources.

Spy slinked his hand over hers, pressing gently till it was shut again. "I, ah, would read zis privately." He glanced at Sniper, who glared back. She looked at Sniper quickly, before her eyes returned to Spy, with a nod.

"Yeah, Spoy, I can tell ya' don't want me around." He said, blatantly. "Don't be an ass, you can ask me to leave."

"Uhm, I'm gonna go flip through these. I'll see you both later." She gathered the folder in her arms, and stepped out of the tension-filled room.

"Are you in love with ze girl, Assassin?" Spy's smile curled into an evil grin. "Do I 'ave...competition for ze heart?"

Sniper scratched the back of his head. "I thought Spoys weren't allowed to love."

"Us Spies live for breaking ze rules."

"So, that's why you're lettin' 'er lookin' into info that our contract says we shouldn't 'ave?" Sniper said, jaw dropped. "You're riskin' her life!"

"I was deported 'ere, jou know," Spy said. "Because I 'ad zat same information. And RED must 'ave gotten ahold of it. Zhat is why it was in REDs 'ands, when it was clearly BLU information."

"Then why don'tcha take it form her? Like the Spoy ya' are?" He growled. "Instead of risking 'er life, risk your own. She'll be deported to another base if this keeps going."

"Si je ne peux pas l'avoir..." Spy growled. "...If I can't 'ave 'er, neither shall you."

"Hm, Rousseau, is it?" she said to herself. She flipped through the papers. "So young... only twenty-two. And a Spy, as well." She lost her breath at the marked date. "This... the Stage Six photo," She held it to her face. The date marked on the back was exactly four months ago, nearly two months before she arrived to Viaduct. It was the picture of the man from the past photos, only much skinnier, more ragged and sick looking, and nothing but long and black colored appendages from the waist down.

Then there was yelling from the hallway.

"HEY! GIT BACK HERE, YA DARN CONTRAPTION!" Madeline ran to her door, only having to back away as the wood splintered. "STOP BEFORE I GO AND POWER YOU DOWN."

She pulled the door open as she heard electrical beeps and whirrs.

"Engineer?" She saw him look up, hands pressing down on a sentry.

"Good evening, miss," he said, nervously. "How are ya this fine night?"

"...Engineer, why are you messing with a sentry right outside my door?"

"A-ah'll be honestly with ya, miss." He pressed harder as the sentry whirred. "I was tinkerin' with those blueprints you got to me. Built in a new program, changed some of the wiring, that sorta deal."

"And?" She crossed her arms, and leaned over too look at the sentry. He slowly let go, and it revved its new wheels, and raced itself in a circle before stopping infront of Madeline's boots and the blue painted body rotated, and she could hear cameras focusing as it registered her. "...What is it?"

"It's a level 2 sentry if we're goin' by gunpower," he said. "But it's name is I.V.A.M.G."

"IVAM G?" Madeline said. "Please tell me its an acronym."

"It is, lil' lady." Engineer grinned. "He is the Interactive Vehicular Automated Machine Gun. IVAM G. Though IVAM works just fine."

"Is it remote controlled?" she asked as it drove in circles around her, beeping happily.

"Well, he's supposed to be." He held out a handle with buttons on it, meant to be held with one hand. It had a rectangular radar dish on it, with a center antenna shape. "Darn thing won't work." He slipped it into his back pocket.

"So, what is it supposed to do?" Madeline asked, prodding the blue casing, causing IVAM to whirr and jump.

"Patrol during battle, when there's less people in the building. He can carry decently heavy boxes, he likes to help bring me my tools." Engineer smiled. "He's been my pet project for awhile. I'm just upset the wrangler remote doesn't work on him. But essentially, I want him to just help around."

"It's so cute you keep referring to it as a him." She smiled back. "I like IVAM, hopefully he doesn't get broken too often."

"Like anythin' I make breaks," Engineer said proudly. Madeline reminded him his machines broke every so often, just he's always been around to fix them before they fully shut down. "Err, I reckon that's also right an' true." The two of them looked at IVAM, who looked back at them with his single camera eye.

"Uh, he's a sentry, you said?" Madeline said, noticing a blinking red light on the front plate of Ivam's main body.

"Sure is!" He can fire at-"

"Then why is he blinking?" Madeline pointed out the light.

"Oh! He's just in standby mode. So if someone from RED was in here right now, boy, they'd get a face full of bullets. Since it's late and safe..." He reached under the blue body of IVAM, and held down a button for a few seconds. The red light went out. "There. His two auto-turrets are locked, he couldn't fire if he wanted to."

"Really?" Madeline asked, amazed he throught of this safety procaution.

"IVAM, shoot Madeline." Engineer said with a grin.

"Wait, what?" She flailed her arms for cover, and realized all IVAM was doing was clicking, trying to fire, but failing to do so.

"Alright, IVAM, that's enough now, boy." He said, tapping his siding with a boot, and the little sentry went into a rest position. Madeline fixed her glasses.

"Couldn't you have given me a little warning?" she asked, brushing off her coat. He chuckled, before telling her he was going for some dinner and a beer, and that he'd see her around. "Oh, fine then. See you later."

She watched him dissapear around a corner, and heard a quiet whirr, followed by feeling a nudge. Madeline looked to see IVAM was still next to her. "IVAM, don't you need to go to the workshop? Engineer's room? Follow him?"

IVAM just stared at her with his one camera "eye".

She slinked back into her room, and IVAM was caught in her door when she attempted to shut him out. "I guess you won't tell anyone about my papers, you can't even speak." She opened the door just a little more, and IVAM rushed in as fast as a child on sugar, or Scout when he drinks his BONK! soda.

She sat at her table, and flipped through the notes. "Huh...so they were doing this to create underwater warfare? Bases were being made on the coast and at sea... So that's what they're doing out at Upward. We were told it was an oil rig..."