Song of Extinction

Chapter 8

"I haven't seen Blank in like a week." Lyra injected between taking a bite of her, honestly awful looking, cafeteria dinner.

"Right. Last time I've seen her was in the bus after that mission. - Asha added. - Maybe she's finally getting punished for something?

"Bullseye." Martin exclaimed, balancing a tray with his only working hand. He put it down with a clank, spilling his drink in the process. "Fuck."

"You've got some inside information? If I see her goddamn face somewhere near me she'll get to taste my fist." Cam was for once in her life eating in the cafeteria instead of spending every waking hour in the medbay. Ever since their return from the Liberty Fountain she was taking care of Ivanka and working on the vaccine. She told them they'd had some trouble with the formula and she was working on it so long that she could not look at the white walls anymore. Asha suspected Cam felt guilty for idolizing the Doctor who turned out to be a huge dick post mortem.

"She's actually stuck babysitting."

"So she has a newbie in her team?" Lyra asked, drawing everyone's attention. "What? I did hear your comments on my first day."

"Oops." Asha did not sound apologetic, she knew Lyra had no hard feelings about that.

"What I meant by "babysitting" is that she's assigned as the Doc's daughter's bodyguard."

"What?" everybody at the table exclaimed.

"The girl really wanted to go out on missions but Dylan told her to fuck off, since he needs her alive to do tests. She threw a tantrum, he told her to stay in the base and assigned Blank to both protect her and enforce some rules for her. Which is also a perfect punishment for Blank, since she won't be able to go out either."

"This punishment is bullshit, she deserves worse. Also, why the fuck would Jazz need protection inside the base? And even if she does need it who who would pick Blank to take care of anybody?" Cam was going off, clearly a mixture of lack of sleep and a first hand experience of results of Blank's actions were doing their job.

"For her it has to be hell. No missions, just trailing behind our guest? She must be going crazy." However Asha knew that was clever of Dylan. Under the guise of punishing Blank gave Jazz some sort of protection against the mole. Of course there was no guarantee that Blank was not the spy or that she would even do her job right. Honestly, Asha had been thinking about who might work with the cult and Blank always came to mind, especially since she managed to take two agents out of commision in a very short time. At the same time she suspected the mole would at least try to be less suspicious and Blank was the least inconspicuous person she knew. Dylan was right to keep some information to himself, ever since Lyra told her about the situation she felt slight paranoia gnaw on the back of her mind.

"Mhm. Director probably just wants Blank to be occupied. Maybe she'll actually behave. - Lyra added, surely similar thoughts going around her head"

Suddenly there was a beep near the table next to them along with several others in the cafeteria. Gavin, sitting close by sighed heavily.

"Another portal."

"Guess I'm not going this time." Cam said, checking her own pager. Asha and Lyra also did not get any notification.

Soon the room almost emptied out, leaving only a handful of agents behind. Asha realized that most of the agents left in the base were the injured ones and their partners, and for some reason a cold shiver ran down her spine. However, nobody at the table seemed to mind as the lighthearted banter continued. They finished eating and Lyra and Asha waved to Cam and Martin, who moved the opposite direction, towards the infirmary, along with Nina, trailing some distance behind them.