Elena smiled slightly at him. She had finally gotten her usual mood back, the cheerful one, not much minding about anything anymore really, may it only be for this single situation however. The person in front of her put her in too much of a good mood to just ignore this opportunity to get rid of the thoughts pulling her down.
"No, I don't really need your name -that- badly", she replied while the man in front of her put his helmet on again. "At least for now, Red well do it for a while I guess. However..." She grinned a bit at him again, obviously enjoying their talk. "... if you don't mind, I'll bug you a bit more in the future about it. So unless you want to find out about my annoying side, you'll tell me sooner or later." A kind of confident smile appeared on her face as she said this.
"A good motivation for both of us to have future interactions, then," The last thing she would see from his face was that inviting smile, before he pushed the buttons to have the mouth part reappear and hide his face entirely. "I think we are done here, then. For now, at least. Do your job as soon as possible and for your own safety, don't mention any details about it on the neural net. Don't tell anyone about this meeting, only the people you really can trust. Don't mention me, don't mention anything related to me. Contact me when you're done with the job and we will meet again." With that, he moved towards to the corridor they came from, leaving Sarah and Elena behind. "Good luck, Miss Fenn, Blueberry."
Returning to his Roc, he wondered where Troy went. Keeping his eyes open, he was expecting to see that beardy guy coming around any corner, yet it didn't happen. A few moments later, the Roc was leaving Bethlehem, vanishing in the direction of New York.
She was quite surprised by the sudden use of her nickname, as only a few people called her that way and she had gotten used to the formal Ms. Voigt over time. Especially as she hadn't expected him to know about it either. The word echoed in her mind for some seconds. "This guy truly knows too much about me already", she mumbled silently to herself, so that not even Sarah, who still stood beside her, could hear it. "Good motivation for sure, boy..."
Turning to Sarah, she said with the usual tone. "Well, yep, that's it I guess. That date has been quite interesting, hasn't it?" She chuckled slightly, grinning at her before going on. "Unless you plan on the two of us checking out the bars in here as we used to do in the good ol' times, I'd leave too for now." She tipped at her cheek a few times with one of her fingers, obviously thinking twice about the statement she had just made. "Anyways, didn't you think as well that..."
What would follow now was quite guessable actually. The usual girl's talk when a rather impressive man had just left two young women alone together.
Just as last time, the Operative was fully covered in his rather tight black suit. The leather-ish material it was made of was reflecting the many neon lights of the main deck of the Thunder Bay Depot. Other than on Rochester, there was not too much going on here, even less than on Bethlehem. It was good. Not too many people would see them. It was bad. Those who were around would definitely see them. Thus the Operative didn't talk to the Forlorn Knight Captains. Instead, he made sure they would see him, and then moved and thus guided them to where he wanted them to be.
Thunday Bay definitely didn't have the enormous scales of Barrier Gate, but still offered some various services to the visitors. A few of them rather exotic, or at least trying to look exotic. They all had one thing in common, though: The owners were either in control or, more often, controlled. On stations like this, the strong people were ruling. It reminded the Operative of the words Erik Nodtviet spoke out loud and publicly when the Core sieged Freeport 11 for the first time. And it reminded him of one of his Kishiro Service Robots who what been programmed to use the same voice, just with a cold.
Elena and Nick would follow the person who once more put much effort into appearing untouchable. The person was talking with an obese guy behind a counter, receiving a key card from him. The Forlorn Knight Captains would watch it, seeing the neon sign a few meters over the counter, saying H-O-T-E-E-L. Next to the letters was a neon sign with an animation of a steaming eel. When the Operative turned around to them for a short moment, to make sure they were still around, he lead them to a door, not far from the fat guy at the counter. They left the open main deck and followed him through a corridor. In the end, the Operative stood infront of another door, one of what looked like dozens. He looked over to Elena and Nick, waiting for them, until they reached him. Opening the door, he lead them into the room.
It was a cheap room, however big enough for a couple. Comprimated for efficiency and less for attractivity and comfort. One corner had a bed, the next corner a table with two chairs, the third corner two cabinets, the fourth had the door they just used. Next to the bed was another door, leading to the bathroom, which was of exactly the same size. Other than what most people would expect from a cheap room of a cheap hoteel on a Junker station as far away from the points of interest in Liberty as Thunder Bay, it definitely wasn't dirty. No rust, no blood, no alcohol stains, no vomit, no piss, no semen. Even the Operative was surprised. As they entered the room, he was already heading for the bathroom. They would see it was interestingly containing a rather nice looking bathtub with candles around it. And the Operative sat on the edge of the bathtub, taking a lighter from his pocket to ignite them. "Make sure the door is closed and put all your electronics on the bed, including the PDA. Everything." Placing one of the candles back to where it stood before, he looked at Nick. "Well, everything you can take off, at least." The voice was modulated like last time, like both of them knew it already from space.
As Elena recognized the Operative and saw him going a certain way, she together with Nick followed him silently through a variety of different corridores, hallways and doors. All the time, she kept the valuable gift that was the PDA close to her body under the leather jacket she wore. Even though they were obviously not in danger of being robbed, she felt like having spent too much time with collecting all the datas to then lose all of them.
Actually, she felt somewhat uncomfortable onboard the station, however the mere reason for this was her dislike of shady places, and Junker bases without a doubt could be counted as a part of this category. Looking at the shadowy corners of the corridores, she was lost in thoughts for a few moments which individuals could suddenly jump out of there. It didn't exactly frighten her, in fact she was used to much more frightening places, however it made her worry a little. Although realizing she was with two men who were obviously not weren't keen on her getting injured in some way made it a lot better. What made it even better though was the fact that she could grab the two pistols tightened at her belt at anytime she'd feel the need to shoot somebody down. Pistols make so many things easier..., she thought.
While following the Operative, she glanced at Nick from time to time as well, wondering what he thought about all this.
As they reached the room, which was indeed big enough for a few people to stay in more or less comfortably, she couldn't keep her expressions under control and frowned slightly. She hadn't expected the meeting to take place in such a ... personal environment. Not quite sure how she should feel about this, especially keeping the look of the bathroom in mind, she glanced around the room, from the bed over the cabinets to the desk with the chairs. It was surprising how the environment onboard a station could change so quickly, from rather rusty and dirty to what one with lower standards could have even called luxurious.
Elene grinned slightly, having a look at the Operative, who was once more disguised in his suit, as he sat at the edge of the bathtub, lightening one of the candles. Heck, is this going to be a date or what?, she thought to herself. "Well, I didn't expect you to choose such a personal place I must say, though I can understand you. Confidential talks -should- take place under four eyes - or in our case, six", she said in a neutral tone as she closed the door behind her and revealed the PDA that had been under her jacket to carefully put it onto the bed. Actually, it could have reminded one of the way a mother tends to put bring her child into bed, carefully and caringly.
After she had bent down a little towards the bed, she positioned herself in front of the Operative, preferably straight, and looked straight into his visor, having her arms folded behind her back.
Nick stalks along the corridors behind Elena and the Operative, bringing up the rear. Unlike the others, he openly carries his weapons, a pistol and a carbine. Nodding briefly at the clerk as he gestures to his weapons, he asks a single question, "You gonna have a problem with these?" Anxiously shaking his head to indicate he wouldn't Nick simply smiled at the clerk. "Good. Keep it that way." Continuing after his two companions, Nick idly wonders if all Junker stations are as makeshift as this one. Rochester was more so, but he'd never been on another to compare it to otherwise. Rolling his shoulders, he suppresses yawn before entering the room.
Somewhat lost in his own thoughts, he almost bumped into Elena before realizing they had all stopped. Checking the door a second time to make sure it was locked properly, Nick would lean over and deposit his own commlink, pistol, carbine, pda and other items on the bed, before taking a long look at his own cybernetic arm. "I could take the arm off, but I have several other implants I cant remove... I'll just leave the arm on and deal with it. Such is life." Nick says with a smile. Before casually leaning against the wall next to the door. He raises an eyebrow when he sees the bathtub and rose petals. "I hope we didn't come all the way out here for a date."
Taking his sweet time to make the other candles shine, the Operative didn't turn his head away from what he did as he answered. "Don't worry, the balls won't touch," the synthetic voice gave him back, rather dry. After the last candle, he stood up and looked at Elena as she was infront of him. Then he moved to the bed and took something out of his pocket, unfolding it. It looked like some sort of bag, not too big, but big enough to put a few of the electronics into it. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I would have prefered to meet on Bethlehem again, but it is better to not visit the same places twice in a row. For now, this here should suffice. Did you lock the door?"
After having put the most important items into the bag, he closed it with a zipper, making sure it was really closed, then placed it back on the bed, turning around to face Nick and Elena. "I suggest moving to the bathroom and sit down somewhere, by the way."
She watched as the Operative was calmly lighting the other few candles without really minding the waste of time. This actually quite romantic behavior found a sharp contrast in form of his modulated voice, which plainly said sounded awful. How she felt about it was pretty obvious, as her expressions indicated her heavy dislike against the modulator. However, she chose to say nothing about it.
What she couldn't suppress though was a slight laugh as Nick said loudly what she had been merely thinking. "As much as a date would be exciting, I gotta agree that's not the reason why we're here", she said, still with a grin on her face. After that, she nodded. "Yes, the door is locked."
Following the Operative's suggestion, she moved into the bathroom, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub as well while taking one of the candles and moving it away a little. In the end, she crossed her arms before her, and looked at him with doubtful eyes. "What is this all about?"
Nick rolls his eyes."Look man, I don't like you that way." Nevertheless Nick steps into the bathroom, and just for the fun of it, snuffs a candle with his cybernetic hand. "Fire hazard." He says when he notices Elena and Red watching him. Shrugging he leans against a wall. "Well now, lets get on with it. I'm not getting any prettier standing here." He says softly. Still leaning against the wall, he idly fidgets with a worn metal coin.
When they were ready in the bathroom, the Operative loosely opened his helmet, however kept it on his head. His next move was taking a little metallic object out of his pocket, Elena and Nick weren't able to take a closer look at it. They heard however some noise coming from it, some beeping, starting with the moment he pushed a button on it and dropped it down. Taking the bag with the electronic stuff, he moved to the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Sitting down next to Elena, they would be surprised by how the beeping stopped. Suddenly, everything was silent. And dark. A small EMP burst originated from the room next to them, and especially Nick would feel the difference, with his electronical components not working anymore. The only light they now had were the flames of the candles.
Taking off his helmet, Nick would see the Operative for the first time, although Elena probably had told him about the person behind the mask. Placing the helmet to his left, while Elena was to his right, he chuckled with his normal, unfiltered voice. "A trick I learned from an old, evil woman. Back when she did that, she was just bluffing, with a child's toy in her hand. In Omega-55 in the bar of the Junker station there. The idea isn't that bad, though. The EMP will ensure nobody else will listen. It will just looked like a crazy fetish threesome here in the bathroom," the Operative said, smiling at Elena, then at Nick. "Thanks for coming and being patient. I'll make sure it is worth it. The lights should be back in thirty minutes, so there is plenty of time for us."
Taking the bag with the electronics, he opened it in his lap, taking out the PDA, then he closed the bag again. "I hope you had a good time in the recent days?" he said, looking at the PDA, inspecting it, however not trying to turn it on already.