Trance and Profiler: completion of an assignment (backdated)

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Trance and Profiler fulfill the assignment the Archduke has given to them.

"Thank you, your highness." Trance sunk into an elegant curtsey as she finished her conversation with the daughter of the Archduke, Maria Sophia and rose, smoothing out the deep purple silk of her dress, embroidered black flowers rising from the bottom of her skirt.

Moving on, she caught the eye of Profiler, who was close to the bar and on the look out for their target in that area, while she circled the floor. A quick, disappointed tilt of her head let her know she had not succeeded yet.

While Trance was dressed resplendently in her ball gown, Profiler had been forced to play the part of a lowly assistant, wearing a drab, business-like dress.  The tiny broach she worse doubled as a transceiver- which had a wireless connection to the ear piece cleverly hidden behind her hair. They had worked out their visual cues during the plan, which had come in handy since any number of the high born guests had it in mind to go slumming with someone's PA tonight.  Nursing a virgin cocktail, she scanned the room, always checking back on Trance every thirty-seconds or so.

Hope smiled polity at the latest guest who congratulated her on her good luck at finding an internship. "Thank you, ma'am. I cannot quite believe the luck I had myself." Suddenly from the corner of her eye she caught movement and there was the man she had been looking for. Covering it with a quick fiddling at her stole, she tapped the tiny transceiver that was hidden in the brooch keeping the scarf closed to signal Profiler. 

Hope's partner's lip quirked downward, she'd missed the mark's entry.  Quickly scanning the room she found him, in a finely pressed military dress uniform, complete with sash and fourragere, pressing his way past several guests near the door.  She let her gaze pass by him several times as she faked being bored, passing on a tray of offered hors d'oeuvres with an up-turned nose.  Then softly, Profiler spoke to seemingly no one, "Confirmed, proceed."

Retrieving a glass of grape juice from a waiter passing by, she made her way to the edge of the group the man was talking to. Spotting a young man looking uneasy, obviously an aide or something, she sidled over to him and smiled. "Do you often attend such fine events?"

He startled first a little, before returning her smile and replying: "Not very often. And you must be new here as well? I don't think I have seen you before."

"I had the luck of being able to intern with His Grace. This is my first time of attending such an event." Hope gave a gracious nod in the direction of the Archduke. She saw her intended target glancing at her and then doing a retake and she titled her head she had seen his daughter do in some of the video footage.

The General had noticed the new girl approaching- one of the advantages of spending nearly two decades in the military and surviving numerous skirmishes was a heightened sense of his surroundings.  At first, he'd thought it was Isabella approaching him, but that wasn't possible as his daughter was enrolled in college over in America.  They'd talked earlier, something was wrong in her life, he knew it...but she wouldn't admit to it.  The way this girl tilted her head though, it was as if she was a duplicate.  "You attend it beautifully, young lady.  And congratulations on being selected for such a prestigious opportunity."

Across the room, CJ watched the exchange as casually as she dared, not wanting to miss something.  She picked up her phone and checked it, then raised the tool to her ear, pretending to speak into it.  "There is something wrong with his daughter- he doesn't know what it is.  You may be able to press that by pretending there is something wrong in the internship...it could split him off from the rest if he wants to rescue you.  For goodness sake don't move too fast."

"Who would not be exited with such an opportunity, General..."  She let the words hang, giving him the change to introduce himself. 
"General Pablochiva." He accepted her hand for a light shake and Hope smiled again.

"General Pablochiva, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir. And yes, for me it's truly an opportunity. Excellent tutors and a way to explore my skills I never quite had before."

"Yes, our host has quite the eye for talent," he smiled at the young woman, fidgeting with his drink.

Across the room, CJ snorted and spoke into her phone again, "You need to try to get him away from the others- they're starting to get jealous of you."  

"I would be happy to tell you a little more if you are curious?" She placed an hand on his arm and gestured to a nearby settee. Perhaps he would bite at the chance of gathering some more information about his 'employers' program and that could provide a tiny smidgen of information.  

The general excused himself, moving with the young woman to a table, "I would love to hear more about your program- or perhaps, get an insiders view on it."

"Do you have any particular area's you are interested in, General?" Hope asked as they sat down, tapping her brooch three times as a sign to CJ if she was going in the right direction.

Profiler read her signal, along with her well disguised nervousness- a bit of bleed through would just be read by the layperson as first-time ball jitters.  Speaking into her phone, "I have an idea, whatever he asks about- dodge it, get evasive and try to change the subject."

"Is there something you are curious about in particular?" Hope asked, flipping her hair out of her face.

The general nodded crisply, "What sort of group discussions are you and your fellows having?"

"They cover many topics. From world history and government to the latest developments in science. I think His Grace believes well-roundness is essential." From the corner of her eye she could spot CJ, hoping this was giving her the information she needed. 

"What has been your favorite topic thus far?" the general asked, following up on the young woman's statement.

Across the room Profiler was internally face-palming herself.  With a breath, she let go, ignoring that her partner had decided not to follow her advice.  "Okay, answer in a way that will lead to you being able to ask him about his opinion of the Archduke," hopefully this time she'd listen.

"All are quite interesting, but the discussion of how to revitalize the economy of Ksavia is one that immediately pops into my head. His Grace was so kind to explain them himself." Hope painted an adoring look on her face.  

"Oh," the general shifted slightly, passing his glass of bubbling alcohol from one hand, to the other.  "Did His Grace mention that we've been able to cut military spending over the last year by thirty percent?"

Across the room, Profiler arched an eyebrow and did her best not to look toward the mark, "He's lying- I don't know about what, but he just lied."  
Delicately biting her lip, Hope thoughtfully tilted her head. "I think he might have. He mentioned some revolutionary new way to make that possible... Wait... you were involved with those, General?"

"Indirectly," he said with an enormous undercurrent of pride in his voice.   "All I did was sign off on some things in order to ensure that the state had the money it needed for its...social, programs."

"To lessen the cuts in that area? I had heard that was a sensitive spot in much of the population. Wait..." A sudden fact from the file jumped into Hope's mind, namely the frequent trips to Irzit she had seen and one of the classes on Ksavian history. "You helped to save all those jobs in Irzit?"

Profiler noted that the mention of Irzit had made the general visibly tense-up...she didn't even need to use her powers to see it.  "You've got him, see what else you can get him to say while we've got him on wire."

The general set his drink down on the high table and cleared his throat, "Yes, the Irzit villagers would have been lost were it not for my intervention."

"I just do not understand one thing. Why were people so surprised at the choice for this small plant? Local business is a very popular topic right now..."

The general paused, picking up his drink and taking a sip, "Were they surprised?  I can't imagine why. I worked closely with community leaders to ensure theirs was the right town."

Profiler's mouth quirked to the left as she spoke softly into the phone, "He's getting suspicious, be careful."

Flagging down a passing waiter, Hope acquired a new glass of whiskey for the General across from her, dropping one ice cube in it and a glass of bubbly grape juice for herself. "Here you go, General." Gently steering the conversation back on topic, she asked: "Was I mistaken? One of my fellow interns mentioned it, but I could have misunderstood..."

The general relaxed slightly, taking the drink but stopping short of tasting it, "Perhaps, because I met with those village elders so many times they accepted me into their families."

That was, in Profiler's experience, the nature of a lie- it grew with each retelling, and if told enough even became something of a truth to the teller- but it wasn't and the general knew it.  Trance's partner leaned back against the counter and waited, listening for the general to incriminate himself further.  

"Quite an amazing thing." Hope agreed, sipping from her juice. Then she leaned forward, popping her head on a hand. "So that is the secret? Forging a personal connection with the people you need?"

"Yes, very necessary," he said, taking a sniff of his drink before downing a sip.  "It is much the same with the military, my men love me- and would do anything I asked of them, because of those connections I've made with them since they joined my army."

Profiler was very, very glad that they had this man threatening one of the Archduke's students on tape, "Careful- that was a threat."  She hoped that Trance could tell that on her own, but wasn't very confident in her partner's sensibilities.

"Such loyalty is truly impressive." She caught a strange twinkling in his eyes and Hope pulled out her most vapid impression. "I think I could learn much..." Not that she had much hope he would quite take it, but hopefully he would think she just was trying to stroke his ego... 

"Perhaps His Grace could lend you to us for a day.  My men would take excellent care of your education," he raised his glass to her.  "You could see what a true Ksavian soldier is about."

"Full of valor, I am sure." She replied vapidly and giggled. "But please excuse me..."

Of course," he gave the girl the slightest of bows, trying to remain at ease after the way she had just spooked him.

Profiler watched on and spoke into her phone, "Do you think that is enough?"

"It will have to be." Trance muttered as she moved away, her skirt swishing around her legs. "I am not going back to that creep again. Him and his men. Ugh." She stiffened a little to prevent shudder from running through her.
 
"Meet me in the ladies room in three minutes then," Profiler made a show of turning off her phone and  taking a sip of her drink.  She knew she should be happy they'd just successfully completed their assignment...but somehow she wasn't.

***

"I think that went not too bad for the first time we worked together?" Hope spoke softly as the final woman left the room. She popped open a tube of lipstick and skillfully applied the substance. 

Profiler let down her hair again and began to tease it back into a manageable state before putting it back up in a professional style.  "You ignored my advice, and basically used me as a mutant lie detector- but yes, mission accomplished."  She was flustered, she didn't like being flustered.

"I did what you suggested... I just did things my way. That is the only difference." Hope protested, returning the lipstick to her purse and then gathering up her foundation to touch upon a few spots on her face.

With a roll of her eyes, Profiler tried to find her center-which was much more difficult around Trance- "It got the job done, I suppose that's all that matters to you."  

"It is the most important thing. And above that... it keeps us out of hands of Goose. What else would you wish for?" Carefully patting the sponge to blend in the foundation, she raised an eyebrow in the mirror at her companion.

Hope had not yet the pleasure of Goose's company, unlike herself.  Her mind went back to it for a brief second, causing the eyeliner she'd been holding to fall to the sink with a loud clatter.  "Oh," she came to her senses, wiping a tear away from her eye, "clumsy me."

She quickly glanced over as her fellow 'intern' dropped the eyeliner in the sink, but how she had come to know CJ, she would not appreciate her paying any special attention to it. "Life here is so uncertain, CJ... I think we need to take what we can get..." She did soften her voice a little though and chose to use her companions real name instead of the formal 'Profiler'.  

With a sniffle and deep breath, CJ found her center and turned to face Hope, who'd she'd always tour of as a rival.  "You did well for this being your first time," she said, with no real frame of reference.  She looked around to make sure the bathroom was empty, then back to her companion.  "I need to ask you something..." she wasn't sure she could, if Trance told Goose...she resisted the urge to run away.

Curiosity peaked, Hope turned towards her, a questioning expression on her face. "Yes? Is something wrong?" 

Looking into Hope's eyes, she took a deep breath.  "You thought what Scanner was saying about Genosha wasn't true- why?"  There it was- the truth she'd been holding in since that day, and if this was Trance, and not Hope that she was speaking to, CJ knew her punishment would be severe.
To trust her or not? Hope was not sure... Still, for her to have mentioned noticing Hope doubting Scanner's story, that she would not do without a reason. "I know some people who were there." She replied honestly, but leaving out as much information as possible. 

Unfortunately for Hope, CJ didn't really need her to tell her everything in order to know what she meant, "People who were there- people from your life...before."  Looking uncharacteristically nervous she looked around, checking again to ensure they were alone and that their wire was turned off.  "Why would Scanner not tell us the truth?"

"I think you know very well why she would not tell us the truth, CJ." Hope replied gently. Better to let the girl draw her own conclusions here.

CJ nodded, starting to be less sure on the exact amount she loathed her companion, "We should get back to the gala before we're missed."  To press the issue further was beyond her capabilities right now- the thought of Goose's torture was too much.  With a deep breath, CJ calmed herself and put on her Profiler mask.

"I kinda need to..." Hope indicated the doors with a gesture of her head. "Why don't you head out and I will join you in a few minutes?"

Profiler nodded, her face once again a passive mask without emotion, then headed out the door back into the ballroom.

Moving towards one of the doors, she paused as glittering caught her eye. Gathering her skirt and crouching down, she pulled a beaded purse from behind the potted plant. Frowning slightly as she thought if she had seen someone with it, she quickly opened it to look for some idea. But...

There...

Valium... it could not be.

A possible something she could use... Quickly she pulled the bottle from the purse and tucked it away in her own. Another glance at the purse she had found and she dropped it back behind the potted plant. Hopefully there were no camera's here.

Seven minutes later she joined Profiler and smiled at her. "I hope I did not miss anything?"

Profiler's eyebrow arched an almost imperceptible amount, "Are you alright?"  It was a stupid question, she posed to Trance, who walked past Profiler living up to her code-name.  Something was wrong with her, she had been tense in the bathroom, now she was relaxed and...giddy?  It didn't make any sense- though that was the case much more often lately.

"Oh, I am perfectly fine!" She smiled cheerily and made her way to another small cluster of people.