xp_logs | Nathan, Angelo (and Rollins), Thursday afternoon

Nathan picks a meeting with the UN ambassador from Oman to come to a partial - and very public - resolution on the matter that's been bothering him all week. Angelo and Joel are a little startled, but generally supportive.

"This is an interesting approach," Nathan said dryly, looking sideways at Joel as the two of them and Angelo headed towards the conference room Joel had reserved for their meeting with the Omani ambassador. "We have a problem in Yemen, so let's see if we can establish a program to address it - in Oman."

"You're a teacher, Nathan. Surely you're familiar with the concept of peer pressure," Joel replied, amused. "We're dealing with neighbors, here."

"Plus call it gettin' him to set a good example", Angelo chipped in cheerfully. "Maybe more countries than Yemen'll take notice."

"They're neighbors who don't generally get along very well, the agreement over the border in the nineties notwithstanding," Nathan countered. Maybe this was making him sound sour, but seriously, it sounded like a very ass-backwards way of coming at the problem. "Their cultures are different."

"True. But what you're forgetting, Nathan, is that it's still worthwhile addressing the issue in Oman as well," Joel said seriously, "simply for the sake of addressing it. It's a win-win situation, either way."

Angelo blinked. "I thought Oman was pretty good about this stuff. Issue? Or d'you just mean helpin' them?"

"Oman is economically stable, yes, and will probably become more so now that they've signed a free trade pact with the US, but they have the same basic problem as Yemen in that the tribes tend to follow their own customs and have some of the same prejudices." Joel laughed softly. "We'll need to send someone to do some research. Preferably not Nadia."

"Yes, I think Dom gets to stay out of Muslim countries for a while..." Nathan muttered.

"She'll complain", Angelo said, laughing. "You already don't let her blow anythin' up, now you're goin' to stop her scandalisin' the clerics?"

"One has to admire her energy," Joel said in a deadpan voice and led the way into the conference room. The ambassador, Salim al-Sinani, and two of his aides were already waiting. Joel greeted him cordially, introducing Nathan and Angelo.

al-Sinani, a portly man in perhaps his mid-fifties, smiled his diplomat's smile and bade them be seated. "I was intrigued, Mr. Rollins, to receive your message."

Joel gave him precisely the same sort of smile in return. "I'll take that as a positive sign, Mr. Ambassador, and thank you very much for seeing us. Did you have a chance to glance over my proposal?"

"A member of my staff did," al-Sinani said, inclining his head at one of his aides. "He found it very interesting. Somewhat... out of the ordinary, for such things."

Nathan glanced at Angelo as Joel and the ambassador continued to exchange what could only be described as small talk. #I hate this part.#

#It'll get more interestin' soon,# Angelo returned. #Let Joel do his diplomatic thing, he always gets it over quick.#

The opening part of the conversation grew more protracted than usual, however, as the ambassador displayed a surprisingly level of curiosity about Elpis, quizzing Joel on several fronts. Joel's answers, informative and delivered in the most amiable manner possible, seemed to satisfy him.

"I suppose it is, how do you say, a sign of our times that such organizations as yours will emerge," al-Sinani said thoughtfully. "I wonder, though, what it is that drew you to this particular work, Mr. Rollins?"

"Well, I've had much experience in this field. But in terms of this particular work... my daughter, Petra, is a mutant," Joel said. "You could say, perhaps, that while I appreciate the opportunities she received because of where she was born and what her family has been able to provide, I understand that her situation is unusual."

al-Sinani nodded, smiling professionally again. "A very logical and commendable set of motivations." He glanced at Angelo. "As for you, young man - I am correct in assuming that you are a mutant yourself?"

"How'd you guess?" he said with a wry smile. "Yes, I am. I manifested at sixteen and came East not long after."

"So, what drew you to this work?"

"Nathan, really," he answered honestly. "He offered me the job before Elpis really existed. But I'd probably have wound up doing something similar anyway."

"Ah." al-Sinani gave Nathan a look of restrained curiosity, the question implicit.

Nathan, after a moment, smiled - more crookedly than professionally. "I'm a mutant myself, and the father of another," he said, "which was a strong motivation."

al-Sinani raised an eyebrow. "You are a mutant, then?" He looked from Nathan to Angelo and then back again. "Not as your young friend is..."

"Not all mutations are visible, no." He wasn't sure whether the man was being entirely serious, or merely fishing for information. Nathan gazed at him for a moment, thinking about it... "I'm a telepath, actually," he said quite calmly.

Angelo sat up a little straighter, surprised by the easy admission - but then, it had come up, it wasn't out of nowhere - and tried not to look wary about where this conversation might go.

Joel's only reaction was a slight twitch of his jaw. Nathan ignored both him and Angelo and smiled at al-Sistani. The ambassador gazed back at him, clearly dubious.

"I have had no personal experience with telepaths myself," al-Sistani finally said, frowning, but his eyes thoughtful - if wary - as he gazed at Nathan. "I will admit that I have always found it a deeply troubling ability."

"You wouldn't be alone in that," Nathan said, all too aware of Angelo with whom he'd had a particular conversation already this week sitting right there. "But the ability in and of itself is neither good nor bad. Like most power, wouldn't you say? It's what you do with it. And today, most days in fact, it's a case of what I don't do with it. Especially given that I'm sitting across the table from you, a honorable man who's agreed to meet with us to discuss the well-being of some of the most vulnerable members of his society."

Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan saw Joel smiling.

Angelo visibly relaxed, both physically and mentally, and shot Joel a relieved smile of his own.

al-Sistani was smiling very slightly himself - and it wasn't the standard diplomatic smile. "You didn't need to volunteer that information."

"It's not a secret." A number of people he'd met so far during his work with Elpis knew, and the knowledge had somehow made its way to that ass Calero in Nicaragua back earlier in the year. How much more differently would that meeting have gone, Nathan wondered suddenly, if Calero hadn't thought he was revealing that he knew Nathan's dirty little secret as a way of warning him against using it? "I thought perhaps it was best to be forthright. So that you knew-"

"-so that I knew you were approaching this meeting in good faith." The smile was downright sincere, now, and al-Sistani nodded. "An interesting choice of tactics, Mr. Morrow."

"He always does go for the most interesting", Angelo said very, very quietly.

#Brat.#

"As you can see, Ambassador," Joel said, stepping in smoothly, "none of us consider possession of a mutation a reason to be ashamed, either collectively or as members of our own society. Unfortunately, such is not the case in some parts of the world."

"Such as among some of our more remote tribes in Oman."

"Yes, sir."

al-Sistani gazed at the three of them for a moment - and then nodded. "Let us hear how your organization would go about setting up this specialized medical assistance," he said. "Then perhaps we can speak about how the Sultan and the Majlis al-Shura may assist."

--

This meal had a much better atmosphere than the last time he and Nathan had been at the Ambassador Grill, and Angelo was smiling as he dug into his steak. "That went well."

"Apart from Nathan nearly giving me a heart attack," Joel said dryly. He had however ordered a glass of wine with lunch, a sign of his good mood. "Nathan, may I suggest that you refrain from announcing you read minds on a regular basis? al-Sistani's something of a forward thinker, so you can't count on that type of reaction most of the time."

Nathan took a sip of his water, to buy himself a moment to think. "Actually, Joel," he said finally, "I think I might disregard your well-intended advice. No offense intended, of course, but I think you're not seeing the whole picture here."

"If he tells them upfront, they won't think he was keepin' it a secret to do somethin' to their minds", Angelo pointed out cheerfully.

Joel tilted his head, thinking about it. "True," he said, turning his attention to his soup, "but on the other hand, we'll get people who won't sit down to talk to us with you in the room, Nathan."

"I know. It's a trade-off. But as long as I'm not upfront about it, the people who find out anyway are going to assume the worst. Besides," Nathan said, "why should I be hiding it?"

"If that happens, then Nathan goes out of the room or we find another way to deal with it. And it'd make him look ashamed of it to hide it."

Joel gave both younger men a long, thoughtful look. "This is not something that just came up today, is it?" Nathan shook his head, smiling slightly as he looked down at his salad, and Joel sighed, looking amused and a little worried. "I'm so glad Petra just flies. Such a nice, uncomplicated ability."

Nathan snorted softly, looking back up at Joel and raising an eyebrow. "Weren't you just complaining the other day about needing to padlock her window so she didn't sneak out while she was grounded?"

"Well, true. How many other fathers have to worry about that when they live on the fortieth floor..."

Angelo looked interested. "Wings, or powered?"

"Black-feathered wings," Joel said with a chuckle. "I call her my little crow. She growls at me for it."

"That's another side of it," Nathan said. "Your daughter and Angelo - they can't hide what they are. Well, they can, but Petra's got what, a seven-foot wingspan, so it would be very difficult. And Angelo needs an image inducer."

"I wouldn't want Petra trying to hide what she is, anyway," Joel said after a moment, thoughtfully.

"So why should I?"

"Because you read minds?" Joel raised a defensive hand before Nathan could respond. "Devil's advocate, here."

"But look at it the other way", Angelo said, even if he was repeating himself a bit, "an' that's exactly why he shouldn't."

"It's a bit of a high-stakes tactic, like al-Sistani suggested," was Joel's reply. "Then again... he also took it as a sign that we were serious on the general issue, which was helpful."

"I imagine it would blow up in my face from time to time," Nathan said, his eyes distant, "but I think that as a secret, even a poorly-kept one, it's almost more likely to be damaging."

"Well," Joel said seriously, "it's your ability to work as a lobbyist that's at stake here."

"If it comes to that - an' it won't all the time - that's what he's got you an' me for. An' Bobby an' maybe Medusa."

"It's a question of being able to look at myself in the mirror, too, Joel." Nathan smiled a bit and shrugged at the very curious look he got in response to that. "Call it trying to find a middle ground."

"Interesting. This sounds like something you should be talking to your other boss about." Joel shot Angelo a wry look. "Let me guess, you've already suggested that."

"Oh, yeah. An' Jack, as well." He shrugged, what can I do?

"The only thing I'd point out is that there's no real going back if you start doing this on a regular basis," Joel said. "Once the knowledge is out there, it's out there."

"It already is, to an extent," Nathan said firmly, and from the look of it, Joel and Angelo both knew that this was his decision. "This is just me stopping with the fence-sitting on the subject."