Posted on the Bulletin Board....

[divisionrogue]

WORK WANTED.

Former operative for an Earth U.S. covert organization, 21st Century, available for short or long-term temporary work. Skills include: extraction, S&R, surveillance, bodyguard, undercover work. Other work negotiated on case-by-case basis. Contact Nikita at 555-NIKI. Some references available on request.Nikita studies the posting with

Comments

[furiousmaximus]

There's a man at the bar. He's perched on a stool, leaning back against the bar comfortably and eying the patrons.

Well, just the one patron at the moment. Pretty openly.

It's actually kind of ridiculous. No one his size can 'perch' on a stool without looking pretty... less than impressive.

[divisionrogue]

Never let it be said that Nikita doesn't have a sense of the ridiculous.

She orders a Green Eyes, then cocks her head at him. "What are you looking at?"

Not as a challenge, but curious about what his answer will be.

[furiousmaximus]

"Just admiring the view."

Yeah. Apparently some people still use that line.

[divisionrogue]

Nikita folds her arms and smirks at that, mildly disbelieving. "Thank you. The aesthetics are nice from this angle too." She takes her drink and raises her glass to him.

[first_runihura]

Tarik isn't close enough to read the note posted on the board, but he has seen the woman who posted it, and she has caught his attention, for reasons other than the obvious. The way she moves, the way she stands controlling her surroundings... And her presence too, not just the beauty, but the perfect awareness of how to use that beauty. How to enhance it or subdue it when it's necessary. He has seen all that before, in one of the most dangerous groups he has met in his long, dangerous life.

Where he is from they are called Odalisques.

[divisionrogue]

Nikita notices the man across the bar, and acknowledges him with an inclination of her chin. Somewhere, Amanda was smiling secretively, knowing how close Tarik was to understanding what she'd wanted Nikita to become.

Some things were innate, though. Nikita's headtilt of join me? is nothing she had to be taught.

[first_runihura]

People who succeed in their kind of world usually have an inborn talent. You can train them, and you can hone their skills. You can even put them through things like Runihura and make them something slightly more than human, but a good operative is almost impossible to make from scratch.

Tarik nods faintly in acknowledgment and stands, picking up his rifle and slinging it from his shoulder as he walks across the bar towards her.

[divisionrogue]

Nikita gestures to a server, ordering ice water, and waits until Tarik is close enough to ask, "And for you?"

[luvitwnurescume]

Dixie is mightily impressed with Nikita's forthrightness. "That's the most interesting wanted poster I've ever seen."

She's teasing, of course.