01-30-2020, 02:39 PM
Lumeniola Polytechnic Institute, LOM
27th January - early morning
Charlotte Delorenzo wasn’t happy. She’d been waking up early each morning shaking from nightmares, convinced she was about to be captured and locked in a cell. Today was no exception. In her dream, she’d been running down an endless corridor pursued by angry armed men, shooting at her every so often. She woke eventually screaming as a pain shot through her, thinking she’d been shot. She woke on the floor of her room, having fallen out of bed and hit her leg on the edge of a textbook she’d left on the floor.
Her roommate was sitting up on her bed, glaring at her.
“You know, Charlotte, I’m really done with you. Could you, for once, maybe not wake me up at 5am with your nightmares!?” she snapped, then grabbed her dressing gown from the end of the bed. “I’m going to shower!” she announced and then stormed out of the room.
Calming her breathing, she put her head in her hands and waited a few moments, then walked over and opened the window, looking out over the courtyard outside. She glanced in the direction where the sun would soon be rising, the light of dawn already spreading over the campus. It would be a clear day, a lovely one for her to enjoy - if she was even capable of such emotions any more. But alas, she was far too anxious to enjoy anything these days.
When she’d first come to LOM, she’d been full of excitement and hope for her mission. LOM was classified as a high priority target for sabotage, her ultimate mission. Kerlile was not the biggest fan of the Maximusians, and it was seen as a difficult country to shift ideologically - sabotage was less of a priority in nations like Lauchenoiria and Laeral who were seen as more open to feminist ideals. So she’d been instructed to choose a technical career, and thus had chosen to study engineering, with the aim of eventually sabotaging the Maximusian tech industry in the future.
She no longer believed she would have a chance to carry out that ultimate mission. She thought back to when she’d received the initial message warning her (and, presumably, the others) that they were in danger following a new set of leaks. She’d been uneasy since the Charissa Clarke revelation, but it had been so much worse the past couple of months. She was unable to settle, she was exceptionally paranoid, she thought everyone was out to get her and she was absolutely convinced she was about to die.
This couldn’t go on. She would be absolutely useless to the Matriarchy if she was living in constant fear for the rest of her life. She doubted she’d be able to do much anyway, if there was a systematic hunt for her kind. No, if she remained here, she would be nothing but a net loss for the Matriarchy, resources put into her training just for her to die before her 20th birthday. They had offered her the chance to withdraw and come home to safety, and she intended to take it.
*
Airport, Xiomera
29th January 2020
When she landed in Xiomera, Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief. Upon contacting the Matriarchy, she’d been instructed to head via Xiomera on commercial flights. Her situation wasn’t deemed sufficiently risky to request an extraction team - she had no concrete reason to believe her cover was broken, and nor did Kerlile. Her assigned country wasn’t classified as exceptionally dangerous, so she was on her own. She would be safe in Xiomera before getting a connecting flight to Kerlile.
Sitting in the airport waiting for her connection, she sighed, twirling her fake Maximusian passport in her hands as she sipped coffee. It was an exceptionally well-made fake, it was almost impossible to detect. She felt no connection with it, however. She had never quite felt comfortable in LOM, never really adjusted to being in the country. They’d told them in training that some people would get used to their false nationality, would start to identify with it to some extent. She never had.
When she boarded her flight to Kerlile she was very eager to get back home. She gave a massive grin to the flight attendant who stared at her, bemused. Charlotte had the feeling that most travellers to the Matriarchy weren’t as excited about it as her - especially on this particular route, which was mainly used for business. She settled back in her seat and turned the page in her book, a feminist novel by a Lauchenoirian that she knew was on the (short) list of foreign literature that was permitted in Kerlile, and thought eagerly of home.
27th January - early morning
Charlotte Delorenzo wasn’t happy. She’d been waking up early each morning shaking from nightmares, convinced she was about to be captured and locked in a cell. Today was no exception. In her dream, she’d been running down an endless corridor pursued by angry armed men, shooting at her every so often. She woke eventually screaming as a pain shot through her, thinking she’d been shot. She woke on the floor of her room, having fallen out of bed and hit her leg on the edge of a textbook she’d left on the floor.
Her roommate was sitting up on her bed, glaring at her.
“You know, Charlotte, I’m really done with you. Could you, for once, maybe not wake me up at 5am with your nightmares!?” she snapped, then grabbed her dressing gown from the end of the bed. “I’m going to shower!” she announced and then stormed out of the room.
Calming her breathing, she put her head in her hands and waited a few moments, then walked over and opened the window, looking out over the courtyard outside. She glanced in the direction where the sun would soon be rising, the light of dawn already spreading over the campus. It would be a clear day, a lovely one for her to enjoy - if she was even capable of such emotions any more. But alas, she was far too anxious to enjoy anything these days.
When she’d first come to LOM, she’d been full of excitement and hope for her mission. LOM was classified as a high priority target for sabotage, her ultimate mission. Kerlile was not the biggest fan of the Maximusians, and it was seen as a difficult country to shift ideologically - sabotage was less of a priority in nations like Lauchenoiria and Laeral who were seen as more open to feminist ideals. So she’d been instructed to choose a technical career, and thus had chosen to study engineering, with the aim of eventually sabotaging the Maximusian tech industry in the future.
She no longer believed she would have a chance to carry out that ultimate mission. She thought back to when she’d received the initial message warning her (and, presumably, the others) that they were in danger following a new set of leaks. She’d been uneasy since the Charissa Clarke revelation, but it had been so much worse the past couple of months. She was unable to settle, she was exceptionally paranoid, she thought everyone was out to get her and she was absolutely convinced she was about to die.
This couldn’t go on. She would be absolutely useless to the Matriarchy if she was living in constant fear for the rest of her life. She doubted she’d be able to do much anyway, if there was a systematic hunt for her kind. No, if she remained here, she would be nothing but a net loss for the Matriarchy, resources put into her training just for her to die before her 20th birthday. They had offered her the chance to withdraw and come home to safety, and she intended to take it.
*
Airport, Xiomera
29th January 2020
When she landed in Xiomera, Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief. Upon contacting the Matriarchy, she’d been instructed to head via Xiomera on commercial flights. Her situation wasn’t deemed sufficiently risky to request an extraction team - she had no concrete reason to believe her cover was broken, and nor did Kerlile. Her assigned country wasn’t classified as exceptionally dangerous, so she was on her own. She would be safe in Xiomera before getting a connecting flight to Kerlile.
Sitting in the airport waiting for her connection, she sighed, twirling her fake Maximusian passport in her hands as she sipped coffee. It was an exceptionally well-made fake, it was almost impossible to detect. She felt no connection with it, however. She had never quite felt comfortable in LOM, never really adjusted to being in the country. They’d told them in training that some people would get used to their false nationality, would start to identify with it to some extent. She never had.
When she boarded her flight to Kerlile she was very eager to get back home. She gave a massive grin to the flight attendant who stared at her, bemused. Charlotte had the feeling that most travellers to the Matriarchy weren’t as excited about it as her - especially on this particular route, which was mainly used for business. She settled back in her seat and turned the page in her book, a feminist novel by a Lauchenoirian that she knew was on the (short) list of foreign literature that was permitted in Kerlile, and thought eagerly of home.
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