The Sound and The Silence

[Dante Sotari]

It hadn't been a particularly hard assignment. Honestly, a monkey could have done it. But Dante had specifically asked for something offworld and without a certain [member="Morgan Vance"], and this was what had been available. Sure she had some leave acrued, but what was she going to do? Hang around Bastion and run into him at every turn until he was cleared for combat duty? No. Actually go on vacation? Outside of the Sith Legion, Dante knew that someone, somewhere, was still potentially eager to end her, and there would be no relaxing if she went somewhere like Spira or Velusia.

Work was better, and she'd been sent off on a relatively simple job. Her 'partner', code name Whisper, had been working a parallel mission, handling some of the back end elsewhere while Rook took out a series of three targets. She wasn't entirely comfortable without a spotter, someone she knew had her back, but the risk on this one was low, and everything had gone smoothly.

Dante arrived early at the designated safehouse. Checking it out, making sure it was clear, she propped her rifle up in a corner and sank down into one of the ratty, overstuffed chairs. No expense spared, she thought balefully as something crawled along the ceiling across the room. Dante made a face and peeked over her shoulder and out the boarded up window. She and 'Whisper' would be meeting here, waiting for a joint extraction. Simple, straight forward, everything of import was already finished and it was just time for the ride home.

Her head tilted slightly as she heard the board outside the door creak. Her hand slipped to her sidearm, hovering for a moment. Then-

Tap tappity tap, bang tap tap.

Dante relaxed back into the chair- mostly. She'd done the same before walking in, just in case. Didn't do to spook your partner. Her hand moved away from her blaster.

[member="Raena"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Five years ago Rae had started her career by breaking into a One Sith base on a suicide mission, and now here she wasworking for their successor state on a mission not too unlike what she had been tasked with back then. Granted, the security here was about as tight as a Zeltron dancer. The risk had been minimal but it kept her stomach from running on empty. Not that it had ever really been a thing for her. She was very good at what she did, and she never charged for anything less than what she was capable of after thirteen years of learning the trade. One small part of which was the secret knocks on doors. Really, it was something that had amused Raena even as a young thirteen year old taking her first small step into the scene. The pattern went tap taptap tap, a thudding bang with the back of her hand, and two more taps before it was over. Her hand gripped around the blaster on her hip without letting her finger slip anywhere too close to the trigger.

The safety had been turned off and the tension in her left hand grew all the more tighter as she reached for the handle on the door. Cold hands grasped at steel that was almost as equally cold to give it a gentle tug and pull. The hinges creaked and ‘Whisper’ stepped through the door. Eyes caught sight of the blonde as the door closed behind her with a slight snap. So this was her? The one who had watched her back on the job? She didn’t quite look the way she had imagined her to look. In fact, she hadn’t expected it to be a ‘she’ at all as much as a dumb grunt with a rifle and instructions clear enough for someone around age four to understand. There was of course nothing to say that this woman was any less moronic than that, and truth told Rae held little in the belief that she was anything but. To expect the people around her to be idiots had a way of proving Rae right and she had no intention of stopping herself now simply because of who their mutual employer was. If anything it was twice the reason for it.

Regardless, perhaps she owed the other woman a hello. The hand that had been wrapped firmly against her blaster eased off the handle to show that she had no weapons in hand. Her left hand sunk by her side as her right hand swept in a single motion to wave ‘hello.’ Mutual exfiltration was always a pain. Paid less and let the employer think they had you by the arteries if you suddenly had no practical use for them anymore. To trust someone to such a degree was a good way of getting yourself killed. There were contacts planetside that could help Rae if she so desired, but for the sake of keeping the appearance of someone who wished to butter up the Sith she would play along. For now.

[ How did things go on your end? ] Rae signed. It was a long shot. The understanding of sign language was a eighty-twenty shot at most. Perhaps a part of her hoped this woman was different, but part of her suspected she wasn’t. She had a track record of disappointment after all. [ Any complications? ]

Her mind drew an internal sigh as she awaited the response, praying to any of the self-proclaimed gods out there that she had someone who could understand her at hand...

... No pun intended.

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Oh good, you're here. 'Whisper' right? Rook, but you probably realized that."

Looking her up and down with a frank and unhindered appraisal, Dante paused and waited. She only barely registered the hullabloo going on with the other woman's hands. Nervous tick or something? Well, the best agents were prone to that kind of damage. Not that Dante had that problem. Nah, Dante was fine. She kept her chit on lock down and didn't let it interfere with a mission. But she wasn't gonna judge someone else if it slipped away every now and again.

But her brow furrowed slightly when the other woman didn't respond.

"Everything went okay on your end? No problems?"

Again, nothing but vaguely spastic hand flaps.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Got poisoned? Did Timmy fall into a well?"

She quirked a brow, lip curling up slightly in confusion.

"What's *this*" She mimicked the last hand movement she'd made, poorly. "What are you doing?"

[member="Raena"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Oh great, she was actually stuck with an idiot. Rae withheld the urge to roll her eyes and groan out of sheer courtesy. Her eyes would not roll, but they would certainly drift off to the side. Needless to say she considered the idea that the Sith had sent an incompetent grunt to help her as something that hadn’t been all that wrong then. Maybe the grunt wasn’t wearing a full soldier’s getup, but mentally she could only assume that the cover sniper’s thoughts would have troubles going beyond reminiscing about the last time she had imbibed upon humanity’s most basic and carnal desires. Truly there were few people as important yet utterly worthless as the basic grunt until they proved themselves otherwise.

Regardless of whether or not she liked her seat it was the one she was dealt. Shaking her head she leaned against a nearby counter and brought out a hologram projection of a screen from a wrist-mounted device. Fingers swiped at the soft holographic surface until finally she could press play.

”I am signing. It’s a common thing to do when you are mute.” The device spoke with a man’s voice.
[ I wish they had sent someone more capable to help me. ] Rae signed underneath.

Fingers swiped again.

“No complications on my end.”
[ Not that it matters, I guess. ]

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Oh. Okay. I thought you might be having a stroke or something."

Dante shrugged, either not aware or not caring about just how offensive that was. It was hard to tell.

"Yeah, everything was peachy. Um. If the bot is working, why bother still signing? Or is it just like a habit you can't help?"

Pushing herself up out of the chair, she wandered over to the window, peering out with a frown. Other than the deeply problematic commentary, Dante didn't actually have a particular problem with her 'partner's' disability. There was no trace of an assumption of incompetence, for instance. Just....

Well, Dante was kind of an arsehole, especially when she was sober.

Something, however, was bugging her. And it had nothing to do with Rae. To the point where any reaction to her words from the other woman would be completely missed as her brow furrowed.

"Someone should have made contact with us by now," she muttered, peering between the blinds.

[member="Raena"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

A stroke? Did she think Rae had a freaking stroke? What kind of a stroke involved deliberate hand movements and subtle face gestures? What kind of a stroke involved the grace and fluidity with which the fourthborn moved with? No, this grunt was trying to get Rae steamed and angry, and she wouldn’t be getting that out of her. At least no visual clues for it, a prolonged frustrated groan and sigh parted the girl’s lips as she tapped away on her arm device again.

“Yes. Habit.” Even the device was curt. The blessing of proper punctuation. “I sign because I can.”

Yet the blonde had a point. Usually by now there would have been contact, but there was nothing. Rae approached the door and put her ear to it as Dante checked out the blinds, two people at the same station would do them no good and be a waste of resources provided that the blonde could do what she needed to do. Something that Rae was growing all the more convinced she was not, but hey call it the benefit of a doubt or something.

The volume on her device was lowered as she put her ear to the door. It didn’t seem as if anyone was outside. Slowly she began to venture over to the rest of the furniture of the room to kneel down, stand on her toes and in general check every single nook and cranny that she could think of to hide a bug in.

[ Check for taps, bugs, anything that might listen in or record us. ] Rae made the mistake of signing to Dante. Another sigh burst through her nose as she wrote a new message on the surface of her device, turned it around on her wrist and showed it to Dante.

“CHECK FOR BUGS.”​

Big red letters and all.​

The device twisted back around her wrist again and Rae went back to her investigation.