Participants:
| Scene Title | The Valkyries Agenda, Part IV |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Saria Kershner scores a two-for-one at the Speakeasy Hotel and Casino. |
| Date | January 27, 2010 |
201…
202…
203.
Stepping up to the rather unremarkable door, a woman dressed in a simple black suit seems unprepared for the convenience that today has brought to her. Leather gloved hands wring together, and angling a look of blue-eyes down the faded carpet halls of the second floor of the Speakeasy Hotel and Casino, Sarisa Kershner feels as though she lives a charmed life. She'd come here for Rachel Mills and happened upon Diego Smith like some serendipitous gift from the heavens.
Regaining her composure, the blonde brings a gloved hand up to the door, rapping three times ins teady succession before letting her hands fold behind her back, and her face take on the casual mask of a smiling professional, less so than a stern commander than the marine behind door 203 knows her as. If recruiting the other members of the team is this easy, than Sarisa is going to begin considering the idea that just maybe she's doing something right int his world, and this is her reward for it.
But that's getting a little ahead of things.
Rachel gets up off her couch, from where she was watching CNN and eating on some chinese take-out to open the door. Her eyes looking at the woman in front of her and then blinks a couple of times. Straightening a little, and falling back on habits that have been taught to her for a very long time, Rachel salutes before saying, "Hello, Ma'am. What.. brings you here?" Her eyebrows knitting together while she stands there, dressed in little more than some sweat pants and a sports-bra.
Brows creased together, Sarisa eyes Rache's state of dress for a moment, then cracks a smile. "Well, good to see you're relaxing on your time off Miss Mills." Stepping a bit closer to the door, and then looking inside the apartment, Sarisa angles blue eyes back towards the brunette marine with a crooked cast to her smile. "I was actually hoping you might let me in to talk for a little bit. I've got something that came down from Washington with your name on it, and I think some privacy might well be in order."
"Nothing bad," Sarisa quickly appends, because it never sounds good when a CIA agent wants to come into your residence. "It's actually an opportunity to get back out into active duty, but also a change of scenery." She looks past Rachel into the room, then back again. "May I?"
Rachel nods her head a little and holds her hand in an invitation gesture as she says, "No, please, come in. And, don't mind the mess, I was just eating breakfast." She moves towards the couch, not missing a beat to go back to eating her food. As talk turns to going to active duty, she states, "Well, with that, I'm up for my renewal of my contract with the Army this year. And, still haven't quite made the decision on if I will or not. I mean, not much else I /can/ do, but I figure that it is worth looking into." That, and getting away from people after them finding out who she is is also rather tempting.
Closing the door behind herself as she comes in, Sarisa is very much like a too-nosy parent come to inspect a child's college dorm room. "New York is an interesting choice for your leave…" she opines on her way in, boots tracking a few spots of water form melted snow off of the treads on her way inside. "What made you decide to come here, rather than go out west to see family?" Sarisa turns, halfway to the sofa, looking over her shoulder at the marine. "You're a creature of habit, like most people in your profession. I'm surprised to see a deviation to the normal."
Distracted by the news on the television, Sarisa squints at something that passes by on the screen about the tragedy in Antarctica, offering a shake of her head before settling blue eyes back on Rachel, expectantly.
Rachel looks back over at Sarisa, before she shrugs her shoulders a little and replies, "Never been, thought it'd be a good idea to visit for once. See ground zero and stuff." Her eyes look out towards the window, before she replies, "And, I change in scenary was needed from the normal, after what happened in Madagascar."
Grimacing at the mention of Madagascar, Sarisa nods her head once and bites down on her lower lip. "Well, hopefully you like what you've seen here so far. I had a talk with General Autumn after you registered following completion of Operation Apollo. We sat down and crossed our information, and came to a determination that you have something very special. With your newly acquired ability, some of the past— strikes— on your reports seem a little less important."
Making her way towards the sofa, Sarisa just traces her gloved fingertips over the back. "Autumn and I both would like you to join Frontline as it's weapons specialist for Squad 2. We're putting together a team of very dedicated individuals with remarkable skill, and you have years of front-line field expertise and urban combat engagements in Iraq. Your background makes you the perfect candidate, and your ability makes you eligible."
Looking from the sofa up to Rachel, then the window she's standing by, the blonde's attention seems momentarially taken by the Red Hook skyline visible outside. "What do you say? Opportunities like this don't come by more than once in a lifetime."
Rachel folds her arms a little, as her eyebrows draw together and watches Sarisa while she sits there. "Because of my… abnormality, it makes some of my past strikes look less important? What strikes? I am assuming that you mean the false story that was fed to the media that resulted in my demotion," Rachel states. Now, that definitely wasn't the best way to frame that response.
"Refs make bad calls in football all the time," Sarisa admits with a shrug of her shoulders, "doesn't make their calls any less valid once they're accepted on the field; A strike's a strike. We can argue the semantics of what happened out there, and we can do it till we're blue in the face, but ultimately what it boils down to is that unfortunate incident doesn't much matter anymore, in light of those changes you've undergone."
Shrugging her shoulders, Sarisa tucks her hands into the pockets of her slacks. "It might not be the most fair assessment in the world, or the fairest way for this opportunity to fall into your lap, but it doesn't change that it did. You'd be crazy to turn somethign like this up, especially with what a position in Frontline can do for you. We need you, Rachel, and frankly you need this."
Rachel keeps her arms crossed and a frown on her face for now while she stands there. "I need this? I'm not sure I see your logic in that, but whatever." Her eyes look towards the window, before she adds, "You're going to have to talk more in detail, however, if you want me to even think about signing on. I want to know everything that yuo can tell me."
"There has to be one tough nut to crack in every team…" Sarisa admits with a shake of her head. "That depends all on what you want to know? About Frontline itself? It's a civllian defense force designed to combat Evolved threats. It operates on United States military funding and training, but remains independant of the military complex as a whole. They field test military tech advancements, and currently Frontline is testing some new combat armor and communications equipment expected to roll out around 2020."
Breathing in a slow breath, Sarisa considers the question again, exhaling a huffed sigh. "Frontline can make a good impression on people that matter. I don't know where you think your military career is going, Rachel, but being a private at 25 likely means you're going to maybe hit Captain by the time you're at the age where they start stuffing you behind a desk. You're not going to become high ranking officer material, and you're more likely to get shot in the head and die in some dust-bowl Arab ditch."
She's being rather frank, which is surprising for her line of work. "Frontline lets you make a difference, lets you work with a group of people you may never have had the chance to, against a threat that conventional armaments and weaponry are typically useless against. It's better than what you have waiting for you, Rachel. You're better than what's waiting you another five or ten years down the line with the Army."
Rachel shrugs her shoulders and doesn't bother to correct the woman that she is a Marine, because really, its not worth it. Her eyes watch Sarisa for a while, seeming to consider while she sits there before she replies, "What the hell, I might as well. But the pay better be damn sight better than the Marine Corp." She stresses her employer more than a little.
"The pay is a sight damn better than you'd expect," Sarisa offers with a crooked smile, reaching inside of her jacket to retrieve a sealed envelope. She offers it out longways towards Rachel. "That's a plane ticket from JFK international, you're leaving Friday for Anapolis Maryland for a twenty-day training regimen. You'll be meeting the other members of the team, as well as the team captain of Squad 1, Michael Spalding." Sarisa looks from the envelope to Rachel. "You'll be able to take the hour flight from there to here at your leisure provided it doesn't interfere with your training. Mostly this is to get your team aquainted with one another, and get you aquainted with the hardware you'll be using as a Frontline member."
Rachel takes the envelope, and nods her head a bit while rubbing at her temples. "Right, I'll keep that in mind." She flips it on to the coffee table she's been eating off of and eyes it. "Well, I suppose this when I tell you to have a good day, Ma'am."
"I suppose it is." There's a considering look from Sarisa to Rachel. "…and, if you see a tall, black guy with a really friendly dog downstairs? That's Captain Smith, your soon to be Intelligence officer." Sarisa cracks a smile, so proud of her two-for-one she's managed here. "Feel free to spend the rest of the week as you'd like, just make sure you're on that plane on Friday, or you may as well consider the deal off."
About to turn, Sarisa hesitates, furrowing her brows, and looking up to Rachel. "Oh, and— you did good out there, in Madagascar. I expect you won't disappoint me here either… I have a good feeling about you."