12-02-2019, 09:12 AM
Department of Internal Security Center for Data Analysis
November 28th, 2019 - 8:00 AM
Janet Ashton knew something was wrong the minute she stepped out of the elevator on her floor. There was a certain tension in the air that she had been taught to read back in Kerlie. Something was about to go down and Ashton was 99% sure it was bad news for her. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek as she walked over to her desk and took off her jacket.
In truth, Janet knew she was in a bad place. The Department of Internal Security had records on how often the President of Libertas Omnium Maximus brushed his teeth (after every meal). Janet was pretty sure that an organization that had that kind of information could weed out a mole pretty easily. For nearly a week now, Janet was biding her time in hopes of finding a solution to the mess that the Aurora hunt was becoming.
Janet was analyzing a satellite image of a drug den when she got called into her supervisor's office. Although she saw something like this coming all day, she was still shocked by the suddenness of the order. Knowing that if she made a run for it now, she would blow any remaining vestiges of her cover identity, Janet begrudgingly walked to the supervisor's office with her head held high. She was going to have to talk her way out of this.
The door opened with a groan as Janet walked inside and took a seat in front of her supervisor's desk. Janet confidently looked her supervisor, a small, plump man, in the eye before asking innocently, "Sir, may I inquire as to why I have been summoned?"
"Why, of course, Mrs. Ashton." the man replied before fumbling with a control panel on his desk and continuing. "I have been told to have you review some footage of the mugging of a high value individual. It is of greatest interest to us that you analyze the entirety of the event and give us your input."
Janet let out an internal sigh of relief. Perhaps she had been wrong. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about after all. Janet smiled as a screen flickered to life on the side wall of the supervisors office, revealing a highly grainy video feed of a back alleyway. Just like that, Janet's heart sank. It was the same dark alley that she had been cornered in the night before. Things were looking very bad. Janet decided that her best bet was to play it cool and "play along" with whatever mind game the DIS had cooked up for her.
On the screen, a man suddenly appeared. He walked down the alley and put a ski mask over his head. He then cracked his knuckles and fell into a fighting stance. A moment passed before a young woman, clearly Ashton herself, appeared on the screen. Janet watched in horror as her former self took down the thug, clearly a DIS agent in disguise, in a manner that could be only be done by someone with a considerable amount of professional training.
Janet turned to face her supervisor who looked entirely unmoved by the video clip.
"Miss Ashton, kindly analyze the clip for me."
Ashton's supervisor said it so kindly that she almost believed that all he wanted was for her to tell him what she saw in the clip. His kind face was so different than most of the stone faced killers she encountered in her line of work. She had even grown to like him. She had even called him Bob a couple of times, his first name being Robert. Janet understood quite fully now why Libertas Omnium Maximus deserved to be destroyed. Even the most genuine among them would have her killed in a moment. They believed more in their pathetic country than in anything else. They were the archetypal patriarchy and Janet was now more resolved than ever to watch the country burn. She began her analysis regardless of this sudden burst of anti-maximusian sentiment.
"Well, sir, this woman is clearly on the younger side. She's in her 20s probably, maybe early 30s, based on her stance. I could confirm an age if I could see her face better. She looks to be working a desk job, looking at her cloths and purse, but she clearly isn't rich since that jacket looks pretty cheap. Based on her movements during the fight, she looks professionally trained. That sidestep is almost certainly straight out of a military handbook. That jab to the back of the head also would indicate a military or paramilitary background since neck jabs aren't often taught in self defense classes as they can result in the recipient of the blow dying or being paralyzed from spinal injury. She isn't unsteady on her feet despite being in high heels. This indicates that she has trained to fight in high heels. A rather odd thing to do."
Ashton slowly looked into the eyes of Robert and drummed her fingers on the table innocently.
"Miss Ashton, may I inquire as to what type of of person the woman is?"
Janet saw Bob's face grow cold. Suddenly his smile turned to a sneer. He was enjoying this little act.
"Um, this woman is a mid level office worker who has a background in a paramilitary organization."
"Ok, let's add in a little wrinkle: This woman claims to have no military or paramilitary experience. She claims to work out for about 30 minutes a day but has no experience with any fighting techniques"
"The woman is lying. She clearly has the training. She took out a man who was six inches taller and at least 30 kilograms heavier in five seconds flat. She has the training."
"Ergo? What is she?"
"She is a lier."
"New wrinkle: She works for a national security organization and is privy to sensitive information daily."
"She must be a mole. Maybe for an organized crime syndicate, maybe for a foreign nation, it's hard to tell."
"Another wrinkle: Most of the information that passes under her nose is of little interest to any mob."
"She is the agent of another government then."
"She must be. Any idea where?"
"No. I couldn't tell you. She is probably not Zamastanian since the type of information she has access is largely known to them as a close ally to LOM. Laeral doesn't have much of a history with moles, I can rule them out."
"Could she be a Bjeorgite spy?"
"I doubt it. She would have to have been deployed before 1991 based on how closely we monitor them and she doesn't look like she was even born in 1991."
"So, who could she be a citizen of?"
"Maybe Shen, Xiomera, probably not Lauchenoiria, I doubt they have the money to keep her connected. She isn't Gardavasque, they have no stomach for this type of thing. She isn't Shuellian, if she was Shuellian, we never would have caught her. In fact, this looks staged to me since the building this camera is attached to looks abandoned and, therefore, wouldn't have a working CCTV camera."
"I'm curious, why did you think this was in LOM? I never explicitly stated that. This could be any back alley in any nation. What made you think that this was in LOM and that, therefore, it was the Maximusian government she had infiltrated?"
"Because... that video recording is of me."
"So, put the pieces together. She is a woman who has infiltrated the Maximusian Department of Internal Security. She has this event staged for her by the DIS so that they can determine whether or not she is a mole. The DIS is actively looking for Kerlian Auroras. What is she?"
"I don't know."
"What is she!"
"I don't know!"
"What is she!"
Janet stared speechlessly at her supervisor. He began to cackle before pressing a button on her desk. Two well dressed men immediately bursted through the office door and grabbed Ashton by the arm. They silently lifted her from her chair and dragged her to the back corner of the office. Knowing that their was no use resisting, Janet made no effort to fight them off as one of the agents injected her arm with a serum of some kind.
Analysts on Janet's floor looked on in shock as their fellow office worker was dragged out of the room convulsing violently and vomiting. Robert, her supervisor, ran out of his office behind her shouting "Help! Help! Miss Ashton needs medical attention now. Call the ambulance now... someone!"
The "paramedics" arrived in record time and quickly loaded Janet, who had since fallen unconscious, onto a stretcher before ferrying her out of the building. They tossed her in the back of an ambulance where a DIS agents injected her with the antidote to the poison she had been injected with earlier. The ambulance drove not to the hospital but to a desolate street. There, Ashton was moved into a black SUV and taken back to the DIS headquarters.
According to the records at Litudinem Metropolitan General Hospital, Janet Ashton died at 11:47 PM that same day of a perforated small intestine, likely the result of a medicine she was taking at the time. In reality, Janet was uninjured in a holding cell 30 meters under the lobby of the DIS headquarters. LOM had caught its first Aurora.
November 28th, 2019 - 8:00 AM
Janet Ashton knew something was wrong the minute she stepped out of the elevator on her floor. There was a certain tension in the air that she had been taught to read back in Kerlie. Something was about to go down and Ashton was 99% sure it was bad news for her. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek as she walked over to her desk and took off her jacket.
In truth, Janet knew she was in a bad place. The Department of Internal Security had records on how often the President of Libertas Omnium Maximus brushed his teeth (after every meal). Janet was pretty sure that an organization that had that kind of information could weed out a mole pretty easily. For nearly a week now, Janet was biding her time in hopes of finding a solution to the mess that the Aurora hunt was becoming.
Janet was analyzing a satellite image of a drug den when she got called into her supervisor's office. Although she saw something like this coming all day, she was still shocked by the suddenness of the order. Knowing that if she made a run for it now, she would blow any remaining vestiges of her cover identity, Janet begrudgingly walked to the supervisor's office with her head held high. She was going to have to talk her way out of this.
The door opened with a groan as Janet walked inside and took a seat in front of her supervisor's desk. Janet confidently looked her supervisor, a small, plump man, in the eye before asking innocently, "Sir, may I inquire as to why I have been summoned?"
"Why, of course, Mrs. Ashton." the man replied before fumbling with a control panel on his desk and continuing. "I have been told to have you review some footage of the mugging of a high value individual. It is of greatest interest to us that you analyze the entirety of the event and give us your input."
Janet let out an internal sigh of relief. Perhaps she had been wrong. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about after all. Janet smiled as a screen flickered to life on the side wall of the supervisors office, revealing a highly grainy video feed of a back alleyway. Just like that, Janet's heart sank. It was the same dark alley that she had been cornered in the night before. Things were looking very bad. Janet decided that her best bet was to play it cool and "play along" with whatever mind game the DIS had cooked up for her.
On the screen, a man suddenly appeared. He walked down the alley and put a ski mask over his head. He then cracked his knuckles and fell into a fighting stance. A moment passed before a young woman, clearly Ashton herself, appeared on the screen. Janet watched in horror as her former self took down the thug, clearly a DIS agent in disguise, in a manner that could be only be done by someone with a considerable amount of professional training.
Janet turned to face her supervisor who looked entirely unmoved by the video clip.
"Miss Ashton, kindly analyze the clip for me."
Ashton's supervisor said it so kindly that she almost believed that all he wanted was for her to tell him what she saw in the clip. His kind face was so different than most of the stone faced killers she encountered in her line of work. She had even grown to like him. She had even called him Bob a couple of times, his first name being Robert. Janet understood quite fully now why Libertas Omnium Maximus deserved to be destroyed. Even the most genuine among them would have her killed in a moment. They believed more in their pathetic country than in anything else. They were the archetypal patriarchy and Janet was now more resolved than ever to watch the country burn. She began her analysis regardless of this sudden burst of anti-maximusian sentiment.
"Well, sir, this woman is clearly on the younger side. She's in her 20s probably, maybe early 30s, based on her stance. I could confirm an age if I could see her face better. She looks to be working a desk job, looking at her cloths and purse, but she clearly isn't rich since that jacket looks pretty cheap. Based on her movements during the fight, she looks professionally trained. That sidestep is almost certainly straight out of a military handbook. That jab to the back of the head also would indicate a military or paramilitary background since neck jabs aren't often taught in self defense classes as they can result in the recipient of the blow dying or being paralyzed from spinal injury. She isn't unsteady on her feet despite being in high heels. This indicates that she has trained to fight in high heels. A rather odd thing to do."
Ashton slowly looked into the eyes of Robert and drummed her fingers on the table innocently.
"Miss Ashton, may I inquire as to what type of of person the woman is?"
Janet saw Bob's face grow cold. Suddenly his smile turned to a sneer. He was enjoying this little act.
"Um, this woman is a mid level office worker who has a background in a paramilitary organization."
"Ok, let's add in a little wrinkle: This woman claims to have no military or paramilitary experience. She claims to work out for about 30 minutes a day but has no experience with any fighting techniques"
"The woman is lying. She clearly has the training. She took out a man who was six inches taller and at least 30 kilograms heavier in five seconds flat. She has the training."
"Ergo? What is she?"
"She is a lier."
"New wrinkle: She works for a national security organization and is privy to sensitive information daily."
"She must be a mole. Maybe for an organized crime syndicate, maybe for a foreign nation, it's hard to tell."
"Another wrinkle: Most of the information that passes under her nose is of little interest to any mob."
"She is the agent of another government then."
"She must be. Any idea where?"
"No. I couldn't tell you. She is probably not Zamastanian since the type of information she has access is largely known to them as a close ally to LOM. Laeral doesn't have much of a history with moles, I can rule them out."
"Could she be a Bjeorgite spy?"
"I doubt it. She would have to have been deployed before 1991 based on how closely we monitor them and she doesn't look like she was even born in 1991."
"So, who could she be a citizen of?"
"Maybe Shen, Xiomera, probably not Lauchenoiria, I doubt they have the money to keep her connected. She isn't Gardavasque, they have no stomach for this type of thing. She isn't Shuellian, if she was Shuellian, we never would have caught her. In fact, this looks staged to me since the building this camera is attached to looks abandoned and, therefore, wouldn't have a working CCTV camera."
"I'm curious, why did you think this was in LOM? I never explicitly stated that. This could be any back alley in any nation. What made you think that this was in LOM and that, therefore, it was the Maximusian government she had infiltrated?"
"Because... that video recording is of me."
"So, put the pieces together. She is a woman who has infiltrated the Maximusian Department of Internal Security. She has this event staged for her by the DIS so that they can determine whether or not she is a mole. The DIS is actively looking for Kerlian Auroras. What is she?"
"I don't know."
"What is she!"
"I don't know!"
"What is she!"
Janet stared speechlessly at her supervisor. He began to cackle before pressing a button on her desk. Two well dressed men immediately bursted through the office door and grabbed Ashton by the arm. They silently lifted her from her chair and dragged her to the back corner of the office. Knowing that their was no use resisting, Janet made no effort to fight them off as one of the agents injected her arm with a serum of some kind.
Analysts on Janet's floor looked on in shock as their fellow office worker was dragged out of the room convulsing violently and vomiting. Robert, her supervisor, ran out of his office behind her shouting "Help! Help! Miss Ashton needs medical attention now. Call the ambulance now... someone!"
The "paramedics" arrived in record time and quickly loaded Janet, who had since fallen unconscious, onto a stretcher before ferrying her out of the building. They tossed her in the back of an ambulance where a DIS agents injected her with the antidote to the poison she had been injected with earlier. The ambulance drove not to the hospital but to a desolate street. There, Ashton was moved into a black SUV and taken back to the DIS headquarters.
According to the records at Litudinem Metropolitan General Hospital, Janet Ashton died at 11:47 PM that same day of a perforated small intestine, likely the result of a medicine she was taking at the time. In reality, Janet was uninjured in a holding cell 30 meters under the lobby of the DIS headquarters. LOM had caught its first Aurora.