The pilot took a moment to inspect the living room of her new "holding cell", still finding it absolutely bizarre to be led here of all places. Mayer was an odd one. Ambre could generally read people and understand them easily, but this one was an absolute enigma. His actions and expressions seemed friendly, going against what she thought of Libertonians and especially their higher-ups in general. She reclined onto the couch to give her back some rest - the entire journey wasn't something you could call comfortable on military vehicles and freighters. The relief was a welcome change from the barrages of stress she's starting to get used to now.
"You've said this is an officer's apartment. Why?" she asked quietly. The question "why" was revolving in her mind for days - the more she tried to find answers, the more stumped she was in the end. She would have never thought to have ended up in an officer's apartment in the heart of Liberty from being assaulted by an alien and barely getting away in the process.
She looked at Mayer listening intently, hoping to provoke a response on why they decided to put her here, of all places.
John placed the glass on the table and leaned back. "Why here? Good question. As I already told you, I tried to arrange a small apartment on Los Angeles but they had a 'better' idea." John shrugs and looks at Lachance. "As for the reason why they choose an officer's apartment, I don't know, I can only speculate." His looks wandered back to his glass on the table. Small water drops ran down on the side of the glass, forming a small ring of water around the glass. As he started speaking his sight rose to the libertonian flag right in front of the couch. "My best bet would be to intimidate you, not with militaristic force rather with being in the heart of your enemies home. And quite frankly..." John stopped as soon as he heard a door open. The man, that had vanished in the bedroom when they arrived, has now left said room and stood behind them. "Sir, Miss. The apartment is now ready.""Thanks, you can leave now." The man silently nodded and grabbed the bag that stood next to him. With a smile he left the apartment and closed the door behind him.
John let out a sigh and turned to Lachance again. After he quickly cleared his throat he continued. "And quite frankly I don't think this is a good idea. It just drives one crazy and lets one loose its own mind. No one should suffer from that." John grabbed his glass again and emptied it with one jug. He then turns over to the libertonian flag that was previously placed in the room. Taking a few steps towards it he extends his arms and takes the flag off the wall. Proceeding to fold it he placed it on the table in front of Lachance. "I don't suppose you like the look of the flag."
His sight glided from one door the the other and finally he walked closer to one of them. "Don't you want to take a look at the different rooms? After all you might have to live here for a while." He opened the door and walked into the bedroom. A huge window covered a whole wall of the room, allowing to the inhabitant to watch part of the district. John stepped closer and watched silently out of the window for a while.
The meeting was a frustrating one. A lot of things had been going on in the division. An agent injured in Bering, and a lot of analysis connected with it. Special intelligence flights in the front and surrounding regions and more trouble in home systems. All of that needed her attention, and all of that was being asked by the admiral. For Elizabeth, the prisoner was a great chance to get a lot of information. However according to the admiral, it was taking too long. He wanted her to get something out of it the soonest, so Elizabeths plan wasn't going to be hindered. Nonetheless she had this feeling of underperformance, as the admiral was calling for someone else to pick up on the interrogation. And old wingman of his with quite a story in the Navy and the LSF, Marissa Marshall. That was just one more thing itching Elisabeth now.
And along with that came thunder and rain greeting her as she got out of the building of Alpha section. Looking up she let out a sigh as she hurried to the military vehicle waiting outside.
"To the officer houses." she ordered the Liberty Marine Private. "Yes, ma'am. he responded. The ride was short and she kept silent all along. The raindrops were hitting the windshield and the wipers were squeaking as they shook the drops off. Just like someone on taking care of never ending problems.
The vehicle came to a stop next to the entrance of the officer residences building. "We have arrived ma'am." said the private to the sound of the brakes being activated. "Thank you private. Goodbye." As she opened the door and the sound of the rain was quite louder the private responded once again. "Anytime, ma'am." She nodded as she left the car and the droplets were starting to form on top of her navy dress blues uniform.
She went inside and shook the rain droplets off her uniform as she wondered what it was like back in the apartment and what to do about the coming situation. Wasting no more time, she swiped her card and went inside.
The two were interrupted by her walking in with a cold straight face. "Mayer, a moment." she pointed to the room with her eyes, the she moved her attention to Ambre. "And you, sit down and stay there." With that harsh cold tone and stare she moved to the next room.
John was a little bit baffled by DeGrange's tone, although he knew what had happened. John entered the room just behind DeGrange and closed the door behind him. The kitchen wasn't too big but both of them had enough space, to not stand on each others feet. "Guess the meeting was worse than you told me in the transmission. I'm sorry for not being the best interrogator, it's the first time I have to do this kind of work." John leaned against one of the free walls, his arms crossed.
"It seems we get to meet an old friend of the Admiral and additionally we have to scrap our whole plan." Mayer sighed and let his head fall forward. "Anyways, I guess you're going to 'lecture' me, right?" John looked up again and waited for DeGrange to say something. The air felt colder than before and an annoying itch started to appear on Johns neck. He started scratching his neck as his eyes moved around the room, searching for something that had forced the air to get colder over the time he was talking to Lachance.
"No Mayer. None of that." Elizabeth responded quickly. "Its just me telling you we've been dismissed." She looked at him as she removed her hat and letting her hair fall free over her shoulders. Her beauty was however compensated by the strict tone she got back to after the meeting. "For what it counts, we did good for as while as it was our responsibility."
A slightly opened window was bringing in the cold wind and the white noise of the rain. "The admiral wants me to focus elsewhere so i will have to leave when the other agent comes in." Elizabeth moved closer through the small kitchen to the window, pushed it and turned the handle, fully closing it. "However you might as well stay around longer unless you're told otherwise." As she came back to john she unbuckled her jacket, taking it off to hang it later on. "Understood?"[/color] She asked for a confirmation. "Now, lets go back to miss Lachance." She proceeded to opening the door and making her way to the living room and sitting somewhere next to Ambre who would just be getting adjusted to the new environment.
With her cold stature she asked Ambre. "Got your yourself together?"
While muffled, the door still gave way to the sound to reach Ambre. She overheard some parts of the conversation here and there - not being used to the accent, she could only get the impression that a change was coming soon. She barely even had time to get used to the place, but that's not what she wanted to do regardless. After having slept in a proper officer's bed, she did regain some of her strength. The exhaustion from the recent experiences were still there, but it wasn't completely overpowering as it was before.
"So what will happen now, Libertonian?" Ambre spoke in a calm tone, again ignoring the questions they were asking. The way she was speaking gave hint to the usual disrespect that she enjoyed showing.
"For now? Nothing that concerns you." John's face turned grim as he looked past Lachance. He now proceeded to walk towards the door, knowing that they won't stay terribly long today. "Let's just say, some things are going to change." John was leaning against the door frame, looking at the flag he placed on the table. The room was quiet for a moment and John collected his thoughts. 'It is obvious that we took way too long. What have we gotten out of her so far? Nothing besides insults and questions. And the occasional confusion.' John let out an audible sigh and started to look down on the floor.
'I don't think that it would have taken much longer to break her silence and get answers. We got her to calm down a lot in this time. I wonder who is going to get in charge of this. And most importantly, how this is going to turn out in the end.' John took a deep breath and looked in Lachance's direction again, waiting for someone else to say something.
Elizabeth was expecting an answer, that she did not get. With an ironic and evil smile she approached her. "I will take that as a yes." she then sat next to her and continued. “What will happen next, is called “getting to work”. You will meet your interrogator and you’ll remember my apartment as a luxuary soonafter. You will answer to all of their questions and do as you are told. Otherwise...” She put on of her hands on her gun. Otherwise.. if youre not going to be useful, even if i spare you the bullet you’ll be left to rot like like an animal in the.. rehabilitation facility. She chuckled. But for now? For now? Now, we wait for tomorrow and you will get some rest. To make her authority clear to ambre, she asked again. ”Understood?”
Tomorrow morning she had to take her to the ESRD facility just nearby for processing. She took a look at her watch and then grabbed a chocolate from the table in the living room. Giving Ambre a fierce mean look from her cold usual self, she expected her to slightly break apart again.
Ambre nodded after some delay. She had gathered enough hints of what was going to happen soon, so news of the charade being over wasn't surprising for her. She had expected these interrogations and dark rooms ever since she woke up in their hands - but despite any sort of preparation she could get in this time, a sense of anxiety and despair still tickled her back. The uncertainty of what would happen to her was scary. Ambre already knew that they were lying with their fake smiles and overt friendliness, but dropping the act all of a sudden was hardly expected. It did seem like their commanders have a short fuse.
Lachance had just gotten out of bed early in the morning when she heard the keypad beep as the doors to the entrance slid open. She must've woken up after hearing their footsteps behind the door, survival instinct kicking in. A wave of anxiety washed over once more - they're here to take her to whatever else they had in mind. Their "rehabilitation facilities"?
Quickly trying to straighten out her hair to prevent it from getting in the way, she went up to the door to listen who might've come - hearing nothing, strangely. The pilot reluctantly opened the door and took a peek inside - seeing only the two-faced snake staring at her from the distance. Her upset expression was different from what she usually saw. It was a bit amusing, actually. Already accepting the fact that there's no point delaying it, she walked into the room.
"So your superiors decided to throw you out for incompetence, from what I understand? What a shame..." she told the woman by the table. A barely noticeable smug smile formed on her lips. She tried to play off the mounting dread, attempting to still keep her tough cover. In reality, her hands would probably be shaking if held up,
"Incompetence?" Elizabeth chuckled. Patting her custom revolver holster and shaking her head she continued. "Not in the First Fleet. Not in my division."
Slowly approaching Ambre she paused for a moment and reached in her dress jacket’s inner pocket. "We just met. But I could make you a friend of mine in many different ways." She pulled out something looking like a card in a plastic evidence bag. Removing the wrapper it turned out to be a photograph, very familiar to Ambre.”But youre in luck. Unlike in your fucked up kingdom, I wrote you off as a POW and I have a certain procedure to follow. And on that part the Admiral has taken in an interest himself.” Spining the card on her hand and taking a breath she continued. “Which allows me to take on other poor souls like you instead. Of course, for as long as you dont make him change his mind.” She grinned.
She grabbed Ambre’s hand and placed the photograph on her grip. ”By the way. You dropped this when you crashed.” Giving her the usual cold emotionless look in her eyes she added. “The young one is pretty cute. Felix right?” Smiling, she now expected Ambre’s knees to be weak as she stood next to her ready to take her outside.