Day 54: Breakfast

[arc_wrench]

For once, HK was working very hard to hide a giddy facial expression as he met his nurse at the door. He'd already hidden his scalpels in his clothing. The wonderful, sharp implements of doom would be needed today. “Statement: Despite my reticence towards all processed meat and plant products, I am experiencing intolerable levels of hunger,” he

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[ninelivesonce]

One moment she was standing in the hallway, listening to Doctor Landel attempt to regain a semblance of control over the chaos he'd unleashed. Perhaps deliberately so; the man wasn't stupid, whatever he pretended, and she doubted the maneuver was anything but deliberate.

The next, a soft noise from outside her room was alerting her that she'd been transported and rendered unconscious again, without a blasted thing accomplished. Damn. There was commotion outside, but even her hearing couldn't tell if it was just early-rising patients, or if this Eagle had bothered to pay a visit. She was at the door and dressed as soon as the door opened; the 'tech went pale -- no, paler at Taura's crisp, only mildly-ironic salute. The uniformed guards behind her gave a silent explanation that only asked more questions than it answered, but Taura didn't try. Neither the staff nor the grunts would know anything other than the party line, and she'd learn more of that by listening to other patients queries. Other doors were opening now, behind her.

She padded down the hallway on the balls of her feet, deliberately betraying her training, but not putting a single toe beyond the line that had been drawn between grey and black. Very sinister, those uniforms. Miles would offer to polish their boots, and get name, rank, how many kids, and a few other tidbits without even trying. Taura...would listen. She tugged at the corner of the little bandages on her ears; they really were quite thorough about things, eh? Little round circles fore and aft, much more obvious than the already half-closed piercings.

She had business, after all. Another night wasted. They couldn't have all been kidnapped, could they? Or sent away? Attacked? She left a carefully vague note, and contemplating pacing the floor until someone showed up. Then her stomach growled loud enough that three heads -- one of each uniform color, turned to look. Well, that answered that.

She put together a tray, and spotted a familiar face. At least someone still looked to be in good repair. "TK!" She waved, and crossed the cafeteria to where he was sitting. "This is different, yeah?" A flick of the hand to indicate the new arrivals was redundant, but she did it anyway. It got exactly the reaction she was hoping for from the 'tech who'd shadowed her in, who glared and scurried off.

[loyal_soldier]

622 looked up, swallowing a large mouthful of food, giving Taura a nod in acknowledgment. Then, having noticed the wave, he responded in kind, a little belatedly and awkwardly.

"It is," he agreed. "We need to do something with this." In between rants, Landel always tried to say that he was on their side, but empty, unsubstantiated words weren't enough to show that. Landel had said they needed to behave today, so obviously, he was showing a massive weakness that could be taken advantage of.

[ninelivesonce]

"Question is, what? They're not distracted enough." She tore off a third of a sandwich in a single bite, barely chewed it, and swallowed. "Yet."

"I wonder if Marc knows about this? Could he have engineered this somehow?" Surprise inspections weren't hard to trigger, with the wrong -- or right -- kind of military mind at the top. A word here, and credit chips were being bounced off bedsheets even if the night watch was asleep in them.

Either way, it was still too quiet to do more than keep their eyes open; the few patients who looked like they agreed with Landel's Condensed Sleep description were outnumbered by bleary-eyed civilians.

[loyal_soldier]

"I don't know. I've never been the best man to ask about strategy." That was above his rank. And, frankly, his intelligence. He finished his second sandwich, picking up a third. The nurse had only let him take four.

"I don't know. Landel mentioned military oversight before, but there's been nothing like this the entire time I've been here." There had been many, many other things, but no military ever getting involved.

[ninelivesonce]

"Never know 'till you try, right?" She'd spent years thinking she was a complete failure at being a soldier, but what she'd been was untrained. TK just needed a little more confidence. But now wasn't the time for a pep talk. Proving the point by doing would be much more effective.

"If you don't mind me asking...how long have you been here? How far back can we be sure?" There'd been an attempt at a timeline in von Karma's notes, but it was far from his usual thorough style, and reports had clearly been thin coming in. "I heard going after the big guy himself's a lost cause, and if Landel has some kind of shielding, I expect this Eagle does as well."

[loyal_soldier]

"I'm fairly sure if I'd shown aptitude for it, it would have been reflected in rank," 622 responded. "But... There's no one else in our chain of commands here, so I suppose I should stop with that sort of talk."

"Twenty-seven days," he responded immediately. "Most of the prisoners I've seen have been around for much less. Turnover rate seems exceedingly high." It was something that always bothered him. How much of these were casualties, versus those who just disappeared?

[ninelivesonce]

"Yeah." He had to be thinking the same thing she was -- about how many deaths had been confirmed, versus all the missing. "One of my roommates made it home. The night the doors turned into wormholes. Or...we were all there, and in the morning, she hadn't come back."

"What d'you think they want from us?" It was the question she asked herself in the dead of night. And if you knew, would you give it? That one she'd keep to herself. She drained an entire glass of milk in two gulps. "It seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a few weeks worth of data."

[loyal_soldier]

622 really wasn't sure what to make of that. He didn't trust anything this place showed him, really. If they'd seen their home, how could they know it was real?

"I don't kn--" Before he could expand on his ignorance, someone started yelling. That in itself wasn't all that uncommon, but the shower of food that followed was. Then a few people started returning fire. "Well. I think we just got an opportunity to take advantage of." He ducked a piece of something slimy that sailed over his head, turning to look and see how the guards were reacting to this development.

[ninelivesonce]

"I think that sounds like a plan," Taura said, voice soft rumble.   An ear-to-ear grin stretched across her face before she put a hand over it.  No sense giving the game away.  She turned it into a stretch that doubled as a chance for recon.  Three doors.  The kitchen would be filled with staff; the front foyer with troops.   If this riot was Marc's plan, which way they went wouldn't matter.  If it wasn't, well, maybe it would be a chance for him to improvise.  She gave the courtyard door a long, deliberate look, making sure TK saw it.

There were people out there who could put on personalities as easily as a new pair of shoes.  Taura wasn't one of them, and she knew it.  (Even after taking into account how hard it was to find shoes for feet that were sized proportionally to an eight-foot talk woman. With clawed toes.)  She flicked a glance at the fight.  An entire tray of food went flying; her stomach rumbled.  Ah, that would work.  The one kindness this place shows us, and you use that as your distraction?

Enough of a kernel of truth there to let her summon a disapproving pout and slip from her seat, inching away from the commotion.  More food flew -- she recoiled, as if it were a needle grenade.  That won them a good meter. The closer they could get to the door before their real purpose became obvious, the better, though they were nearing the decisive point.