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xp_logsBackdated to Monday April 18th 2022
Kevin meets Jubilee at the airport, and they have a discussion on what is and what is not operational standards and why it matters
Jubilee placed her glass of Riesling on the table and slipped into the seat in front of Kevin, primly curving her legs inward. She was dressed in the height of executive assistant finery, her roller bag enough to carry three days' worth of whatever it was EAs carried on these types of trips.
Her choice of cover may have had something to do with being able to travel business class for once but it did suit her purpose just fine.
“So, you’re not happy,” she said in way of greeting. She had no particular interest in being a brat just now, despite her normal inclinations toward that sort of thing. “How’d I fuck up this time?”
"If this is a two-person job, you need to plan for it as a two-person job. You get an awful lot of latitude to use your judgment in the field, Lee, but we don't deploy as volunteers. We plan and strategize how we move our assets." Kevin took a long drink from the glass of sangria he'd mentioned and refilled it from the terracotta jug. "So, I'm now in Spain. I have no idea the op. No idea the factors beyond some kind of meeting that are in play. And I have no idea what kind of eventualities I need to prepare for. Do I need guns? Surveillance equipment? A football mascot costume? This is the kind of sloppy shit that gets people killed."
“Kev, first, It’s a one-person job, I just wanted another pair of eyes on what I’m doing,” Jubilee explained, settling back in her seat. “I didn’t think having an extra pair of eyes on what I was doing would be a bad thing, but like, ok, I fucked up on not planning that out to start with. Not having one of you wasn’t gonna be a deal-breaker.”
Kevin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, a gesture harkening back to the days when agents like this caused headaches he could no longer have. "Lee, you have been trained to do this right. If all you needed was an extra set of eyes, you send back a profile of the op and what you need. This isn't a fucking pick-up basketball game." For once, Kevin was actually angry, something she hadn't seen in a while. He stopped and took a deep breath. "We don't follow these processes because I just like making up rules. We follow them because it helps lessen the odds of something going horribly wrong."
Jubilee stayed silent, breathing through her initial responses as she took another sip of wine. She didn’t like people she cared about being angry with her. Frankly, she wasn’t a fan of conflict at all when it came to people she knew, despite her sometimes adversarial relationship with some of her teammates.
Most of that she could always shrug off as surface bullshit anyway, she rarely let what people said to her travel deeper than that. For them that she respected though? That was different.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said.
"Do you know what the hardest part of my job is?"
Kevin said.
“I don’t, honestly,” Jubilee responded. Her shoulders relaxed slightly as she realized he wasn’t going to curse her out. She’d honestly been expecting much more discussion on just how badly she was doing.
"One day, regardless of everything you've been taught, every precaution we take, every step we have to mitigate risk, I'm going to send one of you to their death. There will be all kinds of excuses. It will be bad luck. A small mistake at the wrong time. Just fate. But the guy who gives the order that turns someone from a friend into a corpse is me." Kevin said, open for once. "I can live with that, but only if you all do everything you've been taught to make it the smallest chance possible. Because if I send you to die because you haven't been paying attention or I let you get sloppy, that's on me too."
“I’ll be more careful, plan it better next time so I’ve got someone beforehand,” Jubilee said, her tone sincere. “Believe it or not, I don’t really like working alone just because I can. I’m not arrogant enough to think I’ll see everything, no matter how well I prepare.”
"I just want to know I can trust you to do things the right way."
“You can, and I will,” Jubilee promised, maintaining eye contact as she said it. “Just, don’t give up on me, yeah? I’m still learning, much as I’d like to pretend otherwise.”
"If I was giving up on you, you'd be done today. So do better, This is the warning." Kevin said. "Now, tell me about this job."
Kevin meets Jubilee at the airport, and they have a discussion on what is and what is not operational standards and why it matters
Jubilee placed her glass of Riesling on the table and slipped into the seat in front of Kevin, primly curving her legs inward. She was dressed in the height of executive assistant finery, her roller bag enough to carry three days' worth of whatever it was EAs carried on these types of trips.
Her choice of cover may have had something to do with being able to travel business class for once but it did suit her purpose just fine.
“So, you’re not happy,” she said in way of greeting. She had no particular interest in being a brat just now, despite her normal inclinations toward that sort of thing. “How’d I fuck up this time?”
"If this is a two-person job, you need to plan for it as a two-person job. You get an awful lot of latitude to use your judgment in the field, Lee, but we don't deploy as volunteers. We plan and strategize how we move our assets." Kevin took a long drink from the glass of sangria he'd mentioned and refilled it from the terracotta jug. "So, I'm now in Spain. I have no idea the op. No idea the factors beyond some kind of meeting that are in play. And I have no idea what kind of eventualities I need to prepare for. Do I need guns? Surveillance equipment? A football mascot costume? This is the kind of sloppy shit that gets people killed."
“Kev, first, It’s a one-person job, I just wanted another pair of eyes on what I’m doing,” Jubilee explained, settling back in her seat. “I didn’t think having an extra pair of eyes on what I was doing would be a bad thing, but like, ok, I fucked up on not planning that out to start with. Not having one of you wasn’t gonna be a deal-breaker.”
Kevin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, a gesture harkening back to the days when agents like this caused headaches he could no longer have. "Lee, you have been trained to do this right. If all you needed was an extra set of eyes, you send back a profile of the op and what you need. This isn't a fucking pick-up basketball game." For once, Kevin was actually angry, something she hadn't seen in a while. He stopped and took a deep breath. "We don't follow these processes because I just like making up rules. We follow them because it helps lessen the odds of something going horribly wrong."
Jubilee stayed silent, breathing through her initial responses as she took another sip of wine. She didn’t like people she cared about being angry with her. Frankly, she wasn’t a fan of conflict at all when it came to people she knew, despite her sometimes adversarial relationship with some of her teammates.
Most of that she could always shrug off as surface bullshit anyway, she rarely let what people said to her travel deeper than that. For them that she respected though? That was different.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said.
"Do you know what the hardest part of my job is?"
Kevin said.
“I don’t, honestly,” Jubilee responded. Her shoulders relaxed slightly as she realized he wasn’t going to curse her out. She’d honestly been expecting much more discussion on just how badly she was doing.
"One day, regardless of everything you've been taught, every precaution we take, every step we have to mitigate risk, I'm going to send one of you to their death. There will be all kinds of excuses. It will be bad luck. A small mistake at the wrong time. Just fate. But the guy who gives the order that turns someone from a friend into a corpse is me." Kevin said, open for once. "I can live with that, but only if you all do everything you've been taught to make it the smallest chance possible. Because if I send you to die because you haven't been paying attention or I let you get sloppy, that's on me too."
“I’ll be more careful, plan it better next time so I’ve got someone beforehand,” Jubilee said, her tone sincere. “Believe it or not, I don’t really like working alone just because I can. I’m not arrogant enough to think I’ll see everything, no matter how well I prepare.”
"I just want to know I can trust you to do things the right way."
“You can, and I will,” Jubilee promised, maintaining eye contact as she said it. “Just, don’t give up on me, yeah? I’m still learning, much as I’d like to pretend otherwise.”
"If I was giving up on you, you'd be done today. So do better, This is the warning." Kevin said. "Now, tell me about this job."
