Something was wrong. It wasn't anything overt or specific that caught her eye but it had been going on for weeks now. It wasn't something she could quantify in words that would make any sort of sense, and "I just have a feeling" isn't seen as an acceptable intelligence source, which is why she hadn't bothered to send out a report.
What was there to say?
Dear Mr. Intelligence Director,
I have a spooky feeling that I cannot shake, I think we should look into it
Sincerely,
Your Friendly GA diplomat
No, no that wasn't something she could do however much she wished she could tell someone about her suspicions.
She was no newbie either, in fact she had been in intelligence work for the better part of twenty years, and before working in arcadia, she had been a case officer for GCI (global central intelligence) on Earth. A lot of people misunderstand the work of an intelligence officer, and who can blame them, spies have been misrepresented in movies since time immemorial.
Even the oldest and most famous media spies, 007, for instance are misrepresented to an incredible degree. Truth be told James Bond wasn't actually a "Spy". The real name for a person like James bond would be a "case officer" the case officer is someone who recruits the actual spies and is the liaison that collects the intel given to them by the people they manage.
It is a case officer's job to recruit spies, and turn members of opposing governments against their employers and convince them to sell secrets. The actual "Spy" is the person a case officer recruits, someone within their own agency who is actively committing treason.
Another misunderstanding a lot of laymen have is the assumption that their own government would never participate in such dirty dealings. People always get up in arms when it comes out that Earth has been spying on Irus or the other way around, but truth be told, good intelligence is collecting on any information that may be relevant to the safety of your own country. Every country with any sort of government does it. There is an unwritten rule in intelligence work that only intel operatives understand.
Everyone is collecting intelligence on everyone else, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter if you are allies or enemies, you better be sure someone is collecting intel on you.
But now, she couldn't help but feel the roles had changed.
Another fact that the public generally gets wrong about the intelligence community, is that foreign governments always know who the case officers are. It isn't a secret, anyone with diplomatic immunity, working a low level job at an embassy is probably a case officer. In fact she had had lunch with plenty of agents from opposing governmental bodies playfully bantering and halfheartedly attempting to turn the other against their own government.
But now the dynamic had changed.
She could feel it.
Something wasn't right. She had been assigned a job on Irus, working directly at the GA headquarters. The rundi were secretive, the charwoman was hard to read, all to the director's annoyance. Coming from a creature that had never known a world with secrets, it was no surprise Director Conn hated them so much.
Despite being allies with the GA, Arcadia was still in the business of collecting as much information as possible, and here she was in the midst of something that was making her feel more and more like a spy and less and less like a case officer.
Again she had no concrete evidence, but things around here weren't adding up.
The day before she had watched two rundi distribute several tiny vials to members of the GA support staff. Had the interaction been done casually, she might not have thought anything of it, but the operation had gone down like a drug deal, behind a little used building late in the evening. The little glances taken over their shoulders and the nervous energy that surrounded them was enough to tell her something was going on
However, not even that was enough.
Sure some GA staff were distributing drugs or something, but that hardly made sense as, whatever had been in those vials, had been distributed by higher ranking members of the GA structure.
If it had been just that, still she might not have been suspicious, but it was that in conjunction with everything else.
The sudden disappearance of the chairwoman, explained away by "how busy she was" or "An unknown illness" or "shes been working on a special project." Again, she probably wouldn't have thought anything of it, but every time the chairwoman was brought up, she got the feeling that they were actively trying to seem nonchalant about the whole thing.
And then of course, there were the people.
It was like everyone around her had been replaced with an imposter. They still looked like themselves, sounded like themselves, but so many of them were off, just ever so slightly. Briefly she wondered if her mind was failing her. Wasn't there a mental illness that presented by thinking everyone around you was an imposter?
She thought she remembered something like that.
But if she was losing it.... Would she be able to acknowledge that she was losing it?
Through all of this she had remind quiet, watching and waiting and collecting information, trying to quantify the strange feeling of unease that had taken over. And eventually her patience paid off.
She had been in the middle of her official job, chaperoning some documents to an upper level office, when she caught wind of a quiet conversation spilling out through an open office door. The rundi's voice was soft, unaided by translation equipment. Her implant was unable to pick up the signal, but she had learned to speak the Rundi language long before this assignment was given. So she slowed, down, tilting her head for a better listen.
Two voices as far as she could tell.
"Drink this, and.... That's it?"
"That's it."
"What will happen?"
"You will become a part of something.... Bigger."
There was no other explanation, and with the sound of footsteps she quickly backtracked, and then started forward again like she had been making her way up the hall. Two Rundi exited the room, one of them palming something in his fist as he walked, and for a moment, she thought she saw a flash of orange.
The two rundi looked up at her, and they exchanged a nod. She smiled as she walked past.
The one on the left shifted with unease at the expression, but the one of the right didn't seem all that perturbed.
She continued on down the hall, listening as the two rundi's voices faded into the distance as they walked the other direction. As soon as they were around the corner, she stopped and turned, reaching into her pocket and pressing the small button she had hidden there. There were cameras everywhere in the GA headquarters, but this would give her a few minutes.
She turned quickly, slipping back into the Rundi's office, and began poking around, occasionally glancing back at the door.
This wasn't her usual area.
Planting bugs, eavesdropping, and manipulating were all familiar to her, but what she was doing now was.... The work of spies.
Luckily for her, the object she was looking for wasn't really hidden, and she found the little black case resting in the top drawer of the Rundi's "Desk" so to speak. Inside were no less than thirty vials of pulsating orange liquid.
She took one, and quickly hurried from the room, leaving no trace of her presence behind.
The vial would have to be her proof.
***
"Targeted analysis on interstellar shipping manifests moved through large scale ports indicate a nearly 2,000 percent uptick in the distribution of artificial bulb fruit flavoring. If that weren't enough, the distribution is inconsistent with purchase rates of the areas the flavoring is being shipped to. We believe that this is consistent with attempts to redistribute the pesticide mixture, if this is the case, we can expect Void operatives will be using any means of food distribution to infect the populace."
Conn tapped his fingers against the desk ribbons flexing and undulating in great waves at his back. Before him, a team of his intel analysts all sat with their waiting presentations.
He didn't need them to give the presentations at all. In fact, they could have simply walked into the room and allowed him to read their minds for a few second before dismissing them, and he had originally tired that model. However, he had learned rather quickly that such actions decreased morale and made the troops feel like they were undervalued.
He could put up with listening to them talk if it meant being able to manipulate them into doing what he wanted.
He knew it.
And everyone here knew it.
"That's a good catch, I want market analysts examining stock prices, and value tables for the next week, report any sudden changes like this, and make sure to include it in the packet that we send over to Kelly."
The analysts nodded and took their seats.
He sensed the visitor before they knocked, and motioned for his secretary to get the door.
The analyst outside almost fell in over the threshold as he went to knock, and missed the door entirely. Stumbling inside, the man went rather red before straightening himself. The urgency in his thoughts, alerted Conn to something strange, and he din't bother to wait for the man to speak before rifling through his most recent thoughts
He held out a hand "let me see."
Disoriented, but quick to recover, the man proffered a small, flat box to Conn, which he took and flipped open.
The box was full of confidential documents, all red stamped and in hard copy, but it wasn't the files Conn cared so much about as he did the little vial of mystery orange substance that came with it.
Picking it up between thumb and forefinger, Conn examined the sloshing liquid inside.
"Where?"
Still, he shuffled through the man's head even as he asked the question.
"From GA headquarters, sir."
The implications of that hung in the air for a moment before conn determined that bit of intel warranted a swear, "Shit."
He rose from his seat, a billowing cloud of ribbons, and adjusted his suit jacket, "I need a line to Adam, and get Eris and James if you can."
The room burst into a flurry of nervous activity.
Conn had used zero euphemisms, made no lewd comments about adam being his "baby daddy" and openly taunted no one, so clearly whatever he had gleaned from the small orange vial.
Was very serious.