Participants:
| Scene Title | The Valkyrie's Failsafe, Part I |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Sarisa Kershner makes an unexpected appearance at the home of Katherine Marks with an unusual offer. |
| Date | June 7, 2010 |
It used to be quiet here in Summer Meadows, a couple of years ago, it used to just be a little-known neighborhood on a steady decline. Now Summer Meadows has been transformed into something else, given a fresh coat of paint, given a facelift both physically and socially and from what the world sees on the outside rebuilt to be something better and cleaner. If the snow hadn't started falling, all of that might have actually come true as well. As it stands now, with the snow melting, Summer Meadows gives the appearance of something that was raised up and then dropped at the very last moment.
Scaffolding covers some of the buildings that hadn't seen their refurbishing finished before the snow fell, having been revealed by the descending levels of melting snow. Stacks of fresh bricks, waterlogged bags of mortar, entire vehicles that had been trapped by the onset of the storm and even light construction equipment litter sites of unfinished repair.
They have a saying for this sort've thing; almost is not close enough.
Set against the backdrop of Summer Meadows' dimly lit silhouettes and buildings with the sun sunken down into the western horizon, the black sedan pulling up outside building 111 looks remarkably out of place. The mercedes rolls to a stop, idiling on the side of the street, reflecting a muted glow of the orange sun on its windshield and roof before the engine turns off and the driver's side door swings open.
"…well you'll just have to keep me in the loop on that, because I don't have the time to spare right now to keep abreast on that situation myself." In mid-conversation on her cell-phone the operations director of FRONTLINE's New York branch, Sarisa Kershner, is just as out of place in this neighborhood as her car does. "Alright… okay. No, no I understand, just let me know if they make any more administrative changes and make certain they keep him on a short leash." Furrowing her brows, Sarisa flips her phone shut and runs a gloved hand thorugh her hair on approach to the house, tucking the phone within an interior pocket of her black peacoat; strange how it only feels like Spring in the beginning of June.
On her approach up to the house, Sarisa looks left and right across the snow-dampened lawns with patches of melting ice and snow still some three to five feet deep. The shoveled walkway is wet underfoot and several inches of standing water elicits Sarisa to hop over the puddle before landing on the front steps of the residence.
Blue eyes peer over the tops of dark sunglasses before she brings a gloved thumb up to the doorbell. That distant chime ringing through the house is her greeting, and it's as much of a forewarning that Katherine Marks gets to her arrival.
It's been a long day. A long winter. Most were shut in for the duration, but Katherine Marks was not one of those. Working as a paramedic, you don't tend to get to stay shut in for long at all. There will always be emergencies, mostly tragic ones, that'll keep your world moving. It's been a long year for her, consider she was considered dead over a year ago. Whatever science kept her alive long enough to live again, she may never know, but there'll always be a part of her that's grateful for that.
Today, however, she's ready to draw a bath, read some of her book, then go on to bed. Being part of the rescue crew has been a draining experience for her, giving her emotional muscles a working out. Things are slowly coming back to her and things that seemed so strange to her before, are starting to become more familiar. Those quirks she had for the most part are starting to fade away, though she finds herself doing them on occasion. Irritating to say the least. The water is running when she hears the doorbell ring and she turns glancing out into the living room with a curiously furrowed brow. She.. doesn't get visitors. Ever.
The water is shut off and she ties her robe tighter around herself as she walks to the door and opens it only as far as the security chain will allow. "What?" is blurted out before she can catch it and internally she scolds herself for the rudeness. "I mean, can I help you?"
There's a raise of one of Sarisa's brows in a curious quirk in response to that greeting. Reaching up with one hand, she draws her sunglasses off and folds them closed, brows furrowed as her stare flicks up and down Katherine. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything," she notes carefully, tucking her sunglasses inside of her jacket, and in that same motion withdrawing a black leather folio and flipping it open to reveal her credentials.
"Agent Sarisa Kershner," th3 badge says CIA in large blue letters, but she doesn't feel the need theemphasize that point. "I'm here on behalf of the FRONTLINE organization and General Sebastian Autumn…" Blue eyes lift up to stare over Katherine's shoulder, then as the credentials are closed her attention settles back on the brunette.
"Do you think I might be able to come in and we could talk about this a little bit more in detail? I promise, you're not in any sort of trouble." Which, naturally, would be of some concern despite her agency's lack of operating on home soil.
There's a moment of contemplation that crosses the paramedic's face as she studies the credentials, then the woman behind them. The organization that Elisabeth is a part of, Frontline, right? The sound of metal sliding as she unlatches the door and opens it wider. "Sorry. I don't often get company, so I was being cautious. Though there is a little bastard that's running around ringing everyone's doorbell and running off." She comments off the cuff, out of the blue and motions towards her couch. The one that barely gets any action, since she's rarely there.
"If I'm not in any trouble, then why are you here?" She's not going to offer cookies and milk, since she really hasn't any, nor does she have any coffee in the house. There might be a slice of balogna in the fridge. Maybe. In fact as she's taking, she's walking out of the room entirely, with only a brief pause as she comes back wearing jeans and a t-shirt, before she takes a seat in a chair and tucks her legs underneath.
Sarisa lingers something like a curious housecat that hasn't yet chosen where to make itself comfortable, standing silently in Katherine's living room with her hands folded behind her back, coat still on and attention directed to the minutae of the house, seemingly more attentive of personal effects than she is anything else. Katherine's return has Sarisa offering a mild smile, quietly tugging off her gloves presumably now that she's indoors, tucking them into her coat to hang limply oout the side of the pocket.
"I don't think I need to explain to you the situation that this city's been in over the last few years, miss Marks. You of all people should be tacitly aware of the amount of danger than New York is in at any one given time…" treading across the floor to stand beside the sofa, Sarisa looks down to the couch, then over to Katherine.
"I know you're an acquaintance of Elisabeth Harrison, one of the officers who is situated in one of the two squads that are under my perview. I know you and Harrison worked together in the past as well on several instances in 2008 and 2009…" Casting a look askance at the front door, Sarisa's brows furrow before she looks back to the brunette. "Are you happy with the work you're doing right now?"
Katherine hasn't much in the way of personal possessions. In fact, the apartment she's in is rather bare. One couch, one chair, no table. There's one barstool that sits near the counter where she apparently eats. It's definitely the apartment of someone who doesn't spent much time here as there are no decorations of any sort on the wall or lying about. On the other hand, it's a very clean place as nothing really seems out of place.
"I know her." Her memory of working with Liz is fuzzy at best. There are moments that she thinks she recalls, but they sort of blend together and don't make a hell of a lot of sense to her. "I.." She stops, having had to explain the circumstances of her near death to very few people, so instead, she changes back to the question at hand. "I guess I'm happy enough. I mean, I really like being a paramedic.." Her voice kind of trails off as finds herself wondering about the question. "Why are you asking me about this?" She gives a curious smirk, "What's going on here?"
"You may not entirely be aware of it, miss Marks, but you have a very specific and unique set of skills and training that could be of use to your country again." It's a somewhat straightforward assessment Sarisa makes, as much as she's typically inclined to at any rate. "I know you've had some personal problems as of late, and I'll try not to add any additional stress to you, but there's a certain urgency to my meeting with you here and I thought I'd cut straight to the long and short of it."
Shifting her weight to one foot, Sariaa's eyes dip down to the floor in thought and don't quite yet raise even as she continues to address Katherine. "There are currently some restructuring plans going on within Frontline at the moment, and in that restructuring I have considered new faces to be added to the team. With the weather situation having abated, I can finally start acting on it."
That's when Sarisa's eyes come up, when her brows furrow and when she offers Katherine a square look. "I'd like you to consider a future with Frontline. We have two potential openings in Squad-02 at the moment, and both of them I believe are within your areas of expertise. Ideally I'd like to bring you on board and train you for the intelligence position, given your strong working relationship with Harrison, those two jobs interact on a regular basis. If you're not comfortable with that sort of cerebral work, then I'd still offer you a position as medical officer."
There's a look of confusion at first that crosses Marks' face and she reaches up with her hand and works her fingers through her hair on the side of her head several times as she considers the offer layed before her. Her gaze drops to the floor as her mind begins to process the possibilities. "I like being a medic, I mean, I really like it. I wouldn't mind the chance to try something more challenging however." It's like she's actually talking to herself when she stands on her feet.
She starts to pace back and forth on the carpet as if no one else was in the room. Maybe she should talk to Veronica, or Elisabeth. She shakes her head and stops, turning to Sarisa, dropping her hand from the tangles of her hair. "Can I have some time to think about this? Is there someway I can reach you?"
"Of course…" Sarisa notes casually, lifting a hand to reach inside of her jacket and retrieve a business card for her bureau position with the CIA. "The second number on this card is my mobile, you can reach me any time on it. I'd like to hear back from you about this sooner, rather than later, I hope you understand?" The question is posed as Sarisa reaches out to offer the card between two fingers to Katherine. "But I understand how much of a huge change this could potentially be, so do think about it."
There's an incline of her head at that and the card is tipped up and away from Katherine for a moment. "Keep in mind," she emphasizes clearly, "that joining Frontline is a very large responsibility and will come with some training time to acclimate you to both the procedures and advanced technoology that we work with on a daily basis. Don't hesitate to defer to Harrison about this, though, she'd be a good source of advice…" With that, the card is angled back towards Katherine again.
As Katherine reaches for the card, it's pulling back slightly. Kat doesn't move her hand from mid-air where it waits for the warning to be given and the recommendation to contact Liz and ask for advice. When the card comes back to her, her fingers clasp it and pull it back and she inspects the card for a long moment before she nods. "I should know in the next couple of days." She walks towards the door, opening it up for Sarisa to exit. She wonders how much Sarisa knows about her time in the Company and what she's done. Probably plenty.
The card continues to burn at her fingertips as she stands there with the door open, the cool of the outside starting to creep inwards and chill the room, which at this point is a welcome change for the paramedic. "Thanks for coming by with this." Whatever her decision, she knows that from this point forward, there will be change. One way or another.
"Don't thank me yet, you haven't met the people you'd be working with." It's a somewhat tongue-in-cheek commentary on the Frontline situation, but ultimately seeming good-natured. "All joking aside, it's been a pleasure finally getting to meet with you," is said in such a way as to imply that she's known about Katherine for a while, and given what she can do she likely has in one way or another.
"I think that's about all I'd come here to bother you about," Sarisa adds with a crooked smile and with the card taken offers something else equally innocuous but in truth far more weighty afterward; a handshake. "Hopefully this offer didn't complicate matters too much for you, but I'm looking forward to hearing your response."
If ever there was a moment when Katharine was blown away, it would be now. She nods her head at the pleasantries given, "It was nice to meet you too." Katherine is definitely at a disadvantage in the prestaging department here. As Sarisa departs Katherine closes the door finally allowing the chill to subside and at least give the temperature a chance to start to rise. She leans her back against the door and holds the card in her hand, studying it.
After several moments, she finally pushes herself off the door and walks over to the counter where she picks up her phone and dials. "This is Katherine Marks. I was wondering if we could meet tomorrow. Call me." She clicks the button, hanging up the phone, the walks in to drain her cold bath water.