40 Days (in the Desert): 10 am--City of Angels

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

Lorna isn't the only one who has been doing research.



The door to the office opened with a perfunctory nod, respect and familiarity balanced in a way that raised it to an art. Arturo, dressed as always like the Armani ad he used to be, proceeded across the heavy pile carpet and held out a black leather portfolio. "The final on the candidate." After a moment he laid it on the desk and flipped it open to the first page, then stood back and waited for his cue to go on. He knew better than to presume, even when he was perfectly aware of what his boss's response would be.

Zala leaned over the portfolio, pushing up a pair of fashionable square-rimmed reading glasses as she perused the information. She held up the photograph of her "sister" and quirked an eyebrow. "Green hair? So very eighties."

"It's natural, by all accounts. She apparently used to dye it brown to cover the color." Arturo shrugged gracefully and made a florid Continental gesture to demonstrate the insanity of the girl's failure to continue. "As you know, she's 23. She lives, if you'll believe this, in a school for mutants in New York. You'll recall Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters? Miss Dane is a teacher and professional chef. She will be graduating from Westchester University this spring with a degree in Geophysics. Despite some erratic attendance--the reasons for which are, of course, detailed in the file--she appears to be very bright and an excellent student." He managed to make the recitation sound natural, despite clearly having been practiced.

A dark eyebrow rose as Zala went through the contents of the folder. "Hawai'i? Hmph. This is all well and good, but what about the important bits? What is her mutation exactly? Anything that can be useful to us at this time?" Xavier's? Why did that ring a bell?

"Magnekinetic." He smiled blade-thin when she looked up, "I thought you'd like that one. She's incredibly well-trained as well. Got a good deal of it first hand from the master at that sort of thing from what we can gather. That would be the...time spent in Florida? We're still looking into precisely what occurred in that instance." It had been surprisingly difficult to come up with anything on the girl, truth be told. She seemed quite surrounded by the sorts of security net that was more common to people like his employer.

"Really?" Zala said, this time sounding interested. "From the master himself. Mind you I'm not to big on crazy ideology. Tell me, Arturo, has my baby "sister" ever expressed any radical leanings one way or the other? Any photos of any rallies waving signs and the like?"

Arturo's smile curved just a bit more. "I think you are looking for page 22. The teachers at Xavier's have some interesting hobbies. Quite in opposition to the ideology expressed by Lehnsherr but radical nonetheless. I'm rather fond of the couture myself, do you suppose we could get something like that ourselves?" He lost his smile, "I'm afraid I had to call in a favor to get those photos. Santiago. By and large, Miss Dane seems to prefer to stay off camera and out of the public eye. If it weren't for the mutation, I would call her wholly unremarkable."

"Well well well, Lorna, aren't we the budding superheroine?" Zala held up page 22. "Unfortunately my tastes do not run towards black leather, Arturo, what you do on your downtime is strictly up to you as long as you keep it to yourself and don't get yourself noticed by the authorities." She winced inwardly at the favor to Santiago having to be called in, but sacrifices had to be made. Especially when investigating someone with Lorna's potential. "How about friends? Does she have many connections with the locals? A paramour?"

"Close ties to Alison Blaire, the pop singer," said much in the same tones as 'lab rat', "who made all those headlines with her coming out? No current relationships unless I'm completely misreading her. She goes out occasionally with friends, always people from the school or associated with the school. She was engaged, actually. There's a clipping from the paper announcing the matter."

"Hmph," Zala said, finding the aforementioned clipping. "A mister Alexander Summers? Well, obviously it didn't go well. She does seemingly have very strong ties with the school, Arturo, what do they offer her? Good pay? A place to live?"

Arturo hesitated. "Paolo believes...it's an ethical concern? He spoke to her longest and says that she seems loyal and quite idealistic. I imagine that combined with her history, she sees the school as a...debt? She owes them and believes in their mission." This was outside his realm but Zala didn't pay him to say 'I don't know'. "In my opinion, money nor ambition is the motivation. Her emotions are."

"Emotions. Well then," Zala set the portfolio aside and removed her glasses, setting them back into their case and closing it with a snap. "She seemed very interested in meeting me, and has retained close ties with my parents. I believe then, that we shall try to appeal to her on an 'emotional' level. She is someone who would be a very valuable asset to our company, don't you agree, Arturo?"

"The entire organization, Mrs. Delgado?" Had she looked at the file? Not heard what he'd said about idealism? Arturo's chiseled features remained stone-faced. "I'm sure we could find her some entry level opportunities, give her a chance to test her legs. It wouldn't be wise to move her into a position of trust too early." He wanted, after all, to keep his job. Sharing it with Paolo was bad enough. Sharing with the mutant superheroine was out of the question.

"Oh, don't yet your boxers in a bunch Arturo," Zala said dismissively. "My sister would make a very valuable operative in the field. A magnekinetic would make a perfect bodyguard, think about it, someone who can catch bullets with her mind. And she is, after all, family," Zala smiled. "We'll pull up something for her, I can be very persuasive. Family is more important than an ideal."

Arturo sniffed. Boxers ruined the line of a pant. Everyone knew that. "Yes, Mrs. Delgado. Shall I have one of the girls create the standard package for her?"

"Yes yes, if she needs anything extra we can throw something together." Zala pulled out her phone and then looked back at the folder in front of her. It was as a clear a dismissal as if she'd spoken it.

The man didn't bother to respond. She was done with him, anything further would simply annoy her. He inclined his head ever so slightly and left as he'd come. Once in the front office again, he flicked his wrist at one of the secretaries. "Package A, Starla. For a 2 o'clock."