September 22, 2061
"Sorry, could you run that one past me again?" J asked.
The man she addressed, a guy about her and Kruyger's age who was seated at one of the three chairs around their little round table, cocked his head, "Sorry, did I misspeak?" He asked innocently.
"No," Kruyger answered with a skeptical tone, "We both heard you."
"Okay, so what's the issue?"
"It's insane?" J ventured.
"Farfetched to be sure," Kruyger added, "but I would be wrong not to let you speak your reasoning at least, Mr. Reyes."
" 'course," Matt said, leaning back in his chair, "As I said I spoke with her step-brother, and he suggested that the tech in her might let her spoof most detection systems."
"Maybe," J said, "but I feel that's not the issue here."
The man leaned back in his seat "What might that be then?"
"You want me to pretend to be a doll, so why? Maybe?"
Matt shrugged, "It was Mike's idea first off, but I do like it. See if our goal is to hide you from unwanted attention, pretending you're just a doll who happens to look like you is a pretty good disguise."
Kruyger nodded slowly, "I won't say it's untenable, but I feel it may not be necessary. I'm quite confident I could craft a suitable identity for her."
"Boss, you're telling me there's no chance one of your old buddies will come through here and recognize her? Doesn't matter how good you fake it, anyone who recognizes her is gonna be good enough to see past it."
"That's just speculation."
"I disagree. You Spetsnaz types are too nosy for your own good. God forbid if we get a Statesec agent who gives a shit performing next year's audit, it'll take them all of ten minutes to see through whatever BS you can cook up."
Unfortunately she didn't disagree. It'd been a nagging thought in the back of her mind ever since she decided to take up Krugyer's offer. Still, this wasn't quite the solution she'd been expecting.
"That's all assuming we can't have her here legally."
"Ha, yeah like that'll happen. You remember the hoops they made you jump through to get me hired, Jasinski, Helian? We were recommended to you by them, Helian isn't even in country, and they still threw roadblock after roadblock our way. You think they'll just let her show up and take the job?"
"And you think this plan of yours will do better. Honestly?"
"Honestly, I do. A human who looks like her will be investigated, but a doll? They'll just chalk it up to a coincidence and move on to more important things. 'Sides it's not like there won't be other benefits."
J raised a brow, "Those being?"
"Well, Gen II dolls are meant to interact with humans in certain ways, listen, obey, be appealing, and so on. It's nice when working with an A-doll, but with converted T-dolls it can make management tough because they'll just follow along with what we think is best. But if we had someone they thought was a doll, who they could interact with on more equal terms, we'd get a peek under the proverbial hood. I'm thinking that we'd be able to boost our efficiency a fair bit if we do."
An interesting idea. J hated to admit but she was beginning to see some tangible benefits to Matt's idea.
"There's no guarantee the Dolls won't recognize her nature."
"That Carcano girl didn't, and she's one of the better equipped dolls to do so. Logs even showed her stretching rumors and reality to fit what she was seeing into a doll mold. Long as they don't immediately recognize her, and no external push convinces them otherwise, I doubt they'll ever notice. I mean, this sounds crazy right?"
The pair of them nodded. It went without saying really.
"So, if one person or doll begins to suspect her, no one else will take them seriously so long as we stick with the ruse. Peer pressure."
Kruyger rested his forehead in his hand, "that's an awful lot of assumptions Matthew."
"Boss, I think it's worth a shot. Worst case we explain it off as an experiment and go to your plan."
J sighed, "You said it was Mike's idea?"
Matt nodded, "Yeah, I think it was a joke at first, but we got to talking and realized it was viable."
"Sounds like him," She groaned and glanced upward, "fine, I'm game."
"Alright," Kruyger said, "We'll need a short list of people to trust to make it work. Someone who knows dolls in and out, and perhaps a doll to assist you. I know you and Miss Carcano have grown close this last month, so I'll see if we can transfer her to whatever your station winds up being."
Matt raised his hand, "I have an ex IOP guy on my staff. Used to work closely with 16Lab too if that helps."
Kruyger and J met eyes.
"Yes, that'll do," Kruyger said, "If you're willing to take the two of them in."
The man grinned, "I was hoping you'd say that."
"Alright, that's a start then. We'll need to do quite a bit more work until then," Kruyger said, standing, "but I can handle most of it. Since it seems you'll be working together, I'll let you two get better acquainted."
The old man took his leave, leaving them alone at the table.
"So, I suppose I ought to thank you for getting in touch with Michael."
Matt smiled, "Oh no problem, turns out he and I were already familiar from years back."
"How so?"
"Same unit, 1/5."
"1/5 … That would've been right before I met him then. 2033 or so."
"That's about right. I'd just made First Lieutenant and he was a team lead in my platoon for a few months before he went off to that joint training program. I'm guessing you two met there."
"Ja. You never met him after?"
"Oh, sure I did, we'd bump into each other every now and again."
"Small Corps after all," J said with a smile.
"Well, it's not too different from what you are used to is it? What I hear, Gebirgsjägers are also pretty insular."
"Well, maybe. I made the move to GJK once I hit Feldwebel, so I can't say I really made that many connections among the line troops."
"Mmm, well I tell you what, it'll be good to have you on board," Matt said, extending his hand across the table.
"Yeah," She answered, taking the offered hand, and shaking it. Matt had a strong grip, but not domineering, A good sign in her experience. Officers too far one way or another rarely lasted long, "So what's your AO?"
"Sector 9, Chernivtsi Oblast specifically."
Her expression darkened a degree. Of all places.
"I take it you're familiar?"
"Correct."
He gave her a sympathetic look, "Well good news is it's a quiet spot. Most of the issues we do have don't come from human sources."
"How do you mean?"
"How familiar are you with the Sangvis Ferri situation?"
J thought back to her last couple weeks of catch-up research, "Illegal unshackled AI, dolls went rogue, killed all the employees. Situation is dangerous but contained?" She said, listing off the major bullet points.
"Right, well that's the Government line anyway. Turns out the Army is far from ready to conduct any kind of offensive op, so they turned it over to us to keep SF contained for the time being. Sector 09 is the hottest part of that conflict."
"How hot are we talking?"
"By our standards, near ice. Last couple months we've had the occasional raid or incursion by light infantry forces, and sometimes we've seen fit to strike at them and disrupt attacks before they're launched. Really the biggest issue has been making sure they don't reach the locals before we stop them."
J's face twisted in confusion, "The Reds really can't handle this?"
Matt shrugged, "Well, the SF centers of power are pretty far from our lines, and while they aren't particularly strong there are hell of a lot of them. They effectively control a few thousand square kilometers, so it'd be a hell of a strain on the army to secure."
"Ah, not enough trucks and supplies to support the force they'd need."
"That, and casualties would be on the higher end as most of their high-speed units are otherwise occupied at the moment, so they would have to send in the conscripts if they did want to deal with this.. That's about the long and the short of it though, however I honestly think you'll have more issues wrangling our own dolls than SF's."
She cocked her head, "What makes you say that?"
An exhausted look came over Matt. J swore she could see eye rings forming.
"They're… let's say, spirited."
0700, Jan 9th, 2062
"Whyyyy!" M14 groaned, slumping her head against the coffee table.
"Shifts are changing. We're down a few Echelons so I need you girls to take some of the slack," RS answered from behind her steaming mug of freshly poured coffee.
"But" 14 pouted, "So suddenly?"
"You're not the only ones affected. It's only temporary, just stick with it for now."
M14 shot a questioning glance at Cano seated beside Rs, who in turn glanced away and took a sip from her own coffee. M14 then grumbled a few things under her breath and buried her face within her crossed arms.
A door behind Rs creaked open as Wa and Nagant stumbled out from their room.
"Well, I'll leave you girls to get sorted, I've got more echelons to brief. Message me if you've any questions, yeah?" Rs said, standing up from the table.
M14 offered Rs a huffed affirmative while Nagant and Wa gave her waves as she strolled past them, the two watching the doll as she made her way out before turning back to her and Cano.
"What was that about?" Nagant asked.
M14 looked up at her with distraught eyes, "We're on Janitor duty."
That earned a groan from Wa, who threw herself onto the nearby couch in protest. Nagant strolled up to Cano, who was still sipping away at her coffee and trying not to make eye contact with anyone. The little russian placed a hand on the doll's shoulder.
"Why is your damn roommate making us do this?" She asked.
"I- uh…" Cano tried to deflect.
Nagant wasn't having it, "Cano, tell me."
After a brief final moment of hesitation, Cano relented, "There's something big going on, I really don't know much but apparently the base is on S&R."
M14 gave Cano a curious glance, "Who are we searching for?"
Cano sighed, "She wouldn't say, believe me I asked."
After a quiet moment of internal debate which 14 could see play out behind the doll's eyes, Nagant backed off, "Well alright, I suppose there is good cause. Come! Let us get to it."
The little doll marched off, snatching up Wa from her couch and half dragging her through the front door despite the doll's weak protests.
M14 and Cano trailed behind them. The base was still only just waking up, with some of the other dolls stumbling out from their own dorm rooms and walking off in search of a meal or coffee. Thanks to Rs' coffee maker, her echelon was saved that little journey every morning.
Cano gulped down the last of her own coffee and tossed the paper cup into a nearby trash can.
"So, how'd last night go?" M14 asked.
"Eh, fine, I guess. Though the install was rough."
"Hmmm, why?"
Cano offered a weak shrug, "Her systems are weird."
"Well, yeah obviously. When did you get back?"
"A little after midnight. Took a while to get everything setup right."
"At least she has it now," 14 replied with a smile.
"Mhmmm. It took a lot out of her though, so go easy on her. She puts up with enough between you and Famas already."
M14 huffed, "It's not like it's my fault…"
Cano glared at her, "You don't exactly try to diffuse situations 14."
"But-"
"No. You better get along with her, I doubt anyone will have the time to babysit the two of you."
"I-" She began, "We'll try, okay?"
Cano rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to reply, however Wa and Nagant reappeared with a couple cleaning carts and rolling mops. At their arrival, Cano silently dropped the subject.
"I thought we'd need a key," M14 said.
Nagant shrugged, "The storage was open when we arrived, perhaps the fourth echelon left it that way for us."
"That's nice of them," M14 replied, taking one of the rolling mops, "So what areas are we supposed to clean?"
"Most of the Main except the armory, cafe, and the den. After that it's Hangers 1-1 to 1-5."
M14 balked, "that's a lot… We're gonna be at this all day."
Cano gave her a grim nod, "Yeah, it takes Fourth echelon about eight hours to complete."
That was exactly how much time they had until their QRF shift, when they would then be stuck in a ready room, overheating under several Kilos of weapons, ammo, and camo for another eight hours.
M14 scowled, eyebrows furrowing as she thought how they might avoid such a grim fate. There was no chance of avoiding their duties all together, no, but was there a way to speed things up…?
"You said we're not supposed to clean the armory, yeah? Why not?" she said suddenly, glancing at Cano.
"They like to handle it themselves. There's a note in the network and everything," the doll answered hesitantly, looking at M14 with scanning eyes as if to try and divine what she was thinking.
A grin crept across 14's face, "Hey Babushka, how many carts and mops were in that closet?"
Nagant turned back to her, "Three of each, why?"
The armory was a sizable room divided into two main sections: The front half that was lined with racks and racks of guns, ammo, tools, and explosives, and the back half that was dominated with lines of benches, computers, and a series of metal doors. The two men who primarily ran the shop were hunched over with a few brooms, picking their way around and ensuring the space was nice and clean.
Both their heads turned as the Third echelon, with M14 at its head, marched in rolling carts and mops.
"Hey, what're you doing?" One asked.
M14 put on an innocent look, "We were told to clean the first floor, so here we are."
The man shook his head, "You shouldn't be cleaning in here, we'll handle it."
She was unfazed, "Commander told us to, go get some breakfast or something we'll be quick."
The other man groaned, but set aside his broom, "Alright, fine. Just don't touch any of the equipment, okay? It's sensitive and we like it where it is."
"We'll be careful," M14 replied with a bright smile.
The two men stepped out, and the door slid closed.
M14's grin turned devious. Time for step two.
The team made a show of getting their cleaning supplies out, especially Wa who grabbed some glass cleaner and went over towards the black half sphere camera huddled up in the corner of the room. She snagged a stool and reached up to clean the glass, and as she did, she plugged in a small white chord hidden with her sleeve which now wound all the way from her UDC port on the back of her neck into the exposed input port on the camera mount.
Wa gave a thumbs up over her shoulder. Cano continued to clean the front end of the shop M14 and Nagant dashed over to the back end.
Nagant took a seat beside one of the doors while M14 fired up the computer terminal nearby. After a couple quick keystrokes, the mechanisms hidden behind the door whirred. A moment later, and the door slid open, revealing four near identical versions of Nagant rolling out on a rack.
The four dummy frames were in an inactive state, with closed eyes and slack faces. However, after Nagant plugged herself into the system and M14 typed in a few commands, they began to stir.
Two of the four dummies unplugged themselves and stepped off the rack. Nagant herself also unplugged.
"All links are solid, I am ready," She announced. On cue the dummies began moving to clean the armory.
"Cano, come here," M14 called, typing away. The now empty rack slid back into the wall.
"We-" the doll hesitated, "Shouldn't we ask first before taking these?"
"You said yourself, Rs' pretty stressed right?"
Cano nodded, "Yeah…"
"So we shouldn't bother her with something so trivial right? I'm sure she'd say yes if we asked anyway."
"Sure but… we should still ask."
M14 shrugged, "Naw waste of time. Besides it's not like she'll ever actually know."
"I- I guess," Cano relented.
As Cano took a seat and was just getting jacked in, another rack of four dummies appeared. The same process as before was repeated for her, then Wa, and finally Cano got M14 linked up.
In the time it took to get the four of them linked, the armory had been thoroughly mopped, trash emptied, and every surface they thought they could safely polish sparkled.
M14 felt like an evil genius. The solution seemed so obvious in hindsight, why hadn't anyone ever thought of this before? Linking two dummies each let them be in up to three places at once, which meant they would get their chores done three times as fast and have some time to themselves today.
The last step of course was to wipe the linking terminal's logs of the linkages, which would make the network system think that nothing was amiss.
"So, what now?" Wa asked.
"Each group gets a cart, and we spread out," She chimed in reply, "I'm thinking one group on the top floor, one on the bottom, and then we'll get the hangars. Should be far enough to avoid suspicion, right?"
She glanced at Cano, who was looking particularly uncomfortable. However, the pink haired doll offered a weak nod.
M14 grinned, "Let's go!"
As it turns out, there were downsides to this plan.
M14 grumbled as she swept her mop back and forth across the hangar floor. She also grumbled as she mopped the fourth-floor bathroom, and as she carefully maneuvered around the tight confines of the basement hallways.
Dummies were good out to a hundred fifty meters from the Mainframe, after which the signal began degrading too much to be usable, but even just past forty like they were currently it was a chore to control two separate frames doing two different things in two different places while she also did her own thing.
Beside her, Nagant's furrowed brow as she furiously scrubbed away at oil stains in the concrete spoke to how much difficulty she was also having with the multitasking.
Then of course there was the worst part.
"This is so dull," M14 muttered under her breath. Three times the bodies meant three times the mind-numbing boredom to experience.
"We have only just started Tovarisch!" Nagant said in a breathy huff.
"We know," she grumbled.
On the far side of the room, Cano and Wa swept and dusted with far more ease than she or Babushka could dream of at that moment. Wa moved with almost robotic efficiency, walking quick and straight between workstations with her duster, whereas Cano was almost dancing a waltz with her broom, humming a tune to match as she flowed across the hangar floor.
"Must be nice to be an elite doll," M14 commented as she watched Cano twirl around her broomstick before elegantly sweeping a swathe of dust up into a pile.
"Yes, it must be," Nagant said, "but it will be a cold day in hell before they beat me at housework."
"They'd never dare compete with you Babushka," 14 replied with a grin, "They know better."
Nagant nodded, "mmm, they better."
14 dunked her mop once more in the cart's tank of cleaner, "So, do you know any way to make this more enjoyable?"
Nagant looked up and smiled, "Company."
M14 snorted as she smacked her mop onto the concrete, "Uh-huh. You haven't gotten sick of me yet?"
"Not just yet. Of course, I have a solution should that occur," the little doll said in a devious tone. She reached into her coat, and withdrew a small aluminum flask which she shook, letting M14 hear some liquid slosh around inside.
"Uh, isn't it a little early to drink?"
"Nonsense," She said, returning the flask to its hiding space, "Besides I have not yet begun."
"Well, be sure to share whenever you do."
"Only if you cease your complaints."
Thankfully the first three hangars were low use, so they took little time to sort out. M14 found her team moving onto 1-4 within the hour. On entering they found this hangar far more cluttered, with six mottled brown and green Griffin Humvees and JLTVs which Sixth Echelon was crawling over and maintaining.
"Eyyy, if it isn't the Roseglass girls. Having fun?" One of the Sixth echelon girls asked, a tall blonde by the name of M2HB. M2 had her usual white crop top on, which was stained with grease and metal shavings from the open engine she had been working on when they entered.
"We wouldn't call it that Deuce," M14 grumbled in reply.
M2 walked up and smacked M14 on the back, "Ah come on, that's not the right attitude! You gotta keep a positive outlook!"
M14 scoffed, "Easy for you to say, at least you girls get to do your actual job."
"No, we're getting all kinds of fun things to do today," 1911 voice called from one of the JLTV's
"Like what?" 14 asked.
1911's head popped up from the vehicle's turret behind its mounted MK19, "We're taking fifth echelon's usual duties, so loading unloading, storeroom organization, and so on."
"Ah."
"Plus, the commander wants us to do a pickup contract for someone tonight, we're heading out to some village out west to run materials for some rich city douche," M2 added.
"Aw you get a real job!" 14 protested, "Is he sending anyone with you, or is it just you guys?"
"Just us!" M2 stuck a thumb at 1911, who was busy fiddling with one of the MK19 AGLs mounted in a turret, "Our illustrious leader has been given a new purpose. I suppose the commander wants to test out her mettle."
"Try not to get too jealous, Deuce," 1911 called back in reply.
"Jealous? As if! You think you can out do me with that little peashooter?!"
1911 chuckled and tapped the mounted weapon beside her, "If this is a peashooter, then what do you call that little thing you heft around?"
M2 flipped off the doll," fuck you!"
1911 returned the gesture, "fuck you too."
Beside her, Nagant stifled a chuckle as she rolled their cart up to them.
"C'mon, let's get this done," M14 grumbled, grabbing her mop as the Sixth Echelon girls continued their bantering.
After a minute M2 went back to her engine with a smile on her face as M14 scooped up her mop and began working around Sixth Echelon. Similarly, the rest of her team began working much as they had before.
However, as they did this, one of their dummy teams was busy mopping away on the third floor of the main building. M14 could see and hear everything her dummy did, it was very much like being in three places at once, so when her dummy spied an all too familiar blonde strolling around a corner, she felt a twitch of anger spark in her chest.
In the hangar, Cano paused her sweeping to give her a pointed glare.
Famas strolled casually in their direction, quick glances out of the corner of M14's dummy's eye revealed the doll to be expressionless, as always.
"Enjoying yourself M14?" Famas asked off hand as she walked past.
M14 refused to acknowledge the question, instead focusing her mind elsewhere.
"Ignoring me? Fine, enjo-" Famas began, before cutting herself off. The doll had stopped walking too and was looking straight at her dummy as it continued to mop.
Sensing danger, M14 had it pause its work and glare at Famas.
"Need something?" She asked.
Famas' azur eyes scanned her.
"Ha," she scoffed, "never mind."
The doll strolled off, casting the occasional glance over her shoulder at the dummy team before she turned a corner out of sight.
Back down in the hangar, M14 felt Cano place a hand on her shoulder.
"Good job."
"Yeah," She replied, "thanks."
At long last the hangars were wrapped up, and with the dummies nearing the completion of their designated areas, Third echelon began trudging back towards the Main building.
As they began wandering back, M14 noticed two streams of dolls heading their way. They were all armed and had lines of their dummies behind them. She recognized both teams as they grew closer, it was the Fifth and Fourth echelons.
They exchanged waves as they passed by. The Fourth echelon girls under MP5 looked a bit guilty as they walked past. They all turned to watch them march off to the main gate, where a quartet of ten ton trucks sat waiting.
"Guess they're off on their mission," Wa commented once the lines of dolls had passed.
"I wonder if they will be successful," said Nagant.
"Hope so. Be nice if we don't have to do this for too much longer," M14 replied.
"I'm sure they will be. MP5 and Sturmgewehr are good at their jobs," Cano concluded, "Come on, we've got somewhere to be."
It was about time for the Armory's lunch shift, taken everyday right in the middle of the morning QRF shift when they had the least to do. With the designated areas now cleaned, Third echelon had to return their dummies without being noticed. This was the best time to do it, afterall the armory guys would be suspicious as hell if they tried to pull the same stunt as before.
Failing that they'd be stuck with the dummies until their QRF shift starting at 1600, with no hope of explaining why or how they had them.
Nagant went ahead, scouting through the halls in search of the two armory workers while the rest of them carefully positioned their dummies nearby, but not close enough that passersby would become suspicious.
"They just left. Hurry!"
Nagant's voice beckoned the rest of the team towards the awaiting door, picking up their scout along the way. Despite the electronic lock, Wa's hacking got them inside in under a minute after which the doll immediately dashed towards the camera.
M14 wasted no time in getting Nagant hooked up to the system and withdrawing her empty dummy rack. The dummies stood atop it and replugged themselves in, with Nagant following suit on the nearby bench.
The de-linking process was more complex than its inverse, as each dummy had to be severed one by one to ensure a safe disconnection. Luckily M14 was practiced; the Armory guys often had echelon leads do most of the linking/delinking work during QRF rotations.
In just under ten minutes, the last of Nagant's dummies returned to their inactive state and the rack withdrew into the wall.
Cano and Nagant swapped places, and after another nail biting ten minutes Cano's dummy rack also withdrew, the door sealed. They then got through Wa's dummies, and finally her's. Once done she then got to work scrubbing the terminal's logs.
However, her fingers froze part way as she heard a voice in her head.
"M14, report to the TOC immediately," said the voice of RS9.
She glanced back to the rest of her echelon, all silently waiting for her to finish her work. Cano shot her a questioning glance, right before her eyes widened as she apparently received her own message.
The doll shut her eyes, shaking her head in defeat.
Slowly, M14 finished deleting the very last of the logs, shut the terminal, and began her march up to the TOC.
Famas was standing outside, the doll's eyes sparkling with an excitement that belied her calm exterior. As 14 approached a small grin also sprouted on her chin.
"You messed up," the doll mouthed silently to her.
She sidestepped Famas, pressing her company badge to the scanner beside the door and waiting a moment for it to slide open. On entering M14 found RS seated behind a desk on the far side, her makeshift office that was filled with files and papers.
Rs glanced up to her, nodding to a seat on the opposite side of it to her, which M14 then trudged over to and took.
The adjutant then glanced at Famas, who'd followed her in.
"That'll be all Famas, thank you."
A quick flash of disappointment came over the doll, but it was gone just as quick.
"Very well," she said, nodding before retreating out of the room.
Rs sighed, looking back at M14 with tired eyes.
"Famas said you were using dummies, which you did not check out nor have the clearance to use. This true?"
She nodded bitterly.
So, what the hell were you thinking?" Rs asked her.
M14 sat up stiff, trying desperately to hold herself together under the adjutant's gaze.
"We were just trying to get our work done quickly."
Rs raised an eyebrow, "Was this purely your idea?"
"Yes."
Rs took a long breath before continuing, giving M14 just enough time to feel a spark of guilt in her chest.
"Why didn't you ask for permission?"
"I- "she began, her lip trembling, "We didn't want to bother you, we know you're busy."
"It would've taken twenty seconds. That, and how quickly you girls finished up, and the fact that you have QRF later in mind, I would've okayed the dummies."
"I'm sorry," she whimpered.
"I'm sure you are, but you're on thin ice 14. We have rules for a reason. Those dummies need maintenance and checkups each time they're used, if they're worn down from constant janitorial use it hurts our combat readiness, and it takes time out of the armory guys' schedules to keep them running."
M14 nodded quietly, not even able to meet Rs' eyes.
"So, tomorrow. If you're still assigned this duty, you will ask me before you link, and file the appropriate check forms before and after you use them. Ask Springfield if you need help with them, she'll probably be in there for the same reason if you go at the start of your shift. Understood?"
She nodded again, a little more vigorously this time.
"I also want a complete report on everything you did today regarding this, top to bottom. That includes everything you tasked your team and all their dummies with. Understood?"
"Yes," She managed to say despite the tightness in her throat.
"Alright," Rs said, clearing her throat, "I'll report this to the commander, you go enjoy the free time you've earned."
M14 shuffled her way back out of the TOC, stopping at the door to glance back at Rs. The adjutant was buried back in her work, her laptop's screen lighting her face in white light.
14's fist clenched as she made her exit, stepping out into the hall.
"How did it go?" Famas' voice called to her across the hall.
14 stopped, shooting a glance to the side and meeting Famas' gaze.
"You snitched on me."
Famas shrugged, "I reported you for breaking regulations, it's your fault for breaking them."
She took a couple steps towards the doll, "How did you even know?"
Famas tapped the corner of her eye, "Dummy eyes have no depth, easy to tell."
"Not that, how did you know we weren't allowed them? Plenty of dolls are allowed dummies for different jobs, so why report us?"
"I assumed; correctly might I add, that you weren't."
14 felt her clenched hand grip tighter into a fist, "We were trying to save everyone time, but you hassled Rs with this when you didn't have to."
Famas' eyes narrowed, "Don't try and put the blame on me. You were just lazy."
14 held a glare at the doll for a moment, thoughts swirling in her mind. For a moment, she considered stepping closer to Famas, getting in her face, shooting back with some remark.
Instead, she let her hand go slack, let out a sigh, and began walking away.
"Walking away? Rs must've really whipped you in there."
"We've got our team waiting on us, don't you as well? Or have you abandoned them just to harass me?"
"You-"
"Bye Famas."
M14 made her exit quick as she felt the doll's ire burning behind her. She allowed herself a victorious grin as she rounded the nearest corner.