The Hood was motionlessly lying in Dublin space, the lack of activity around it resembled the state of the the IMG's activity in Dublin after they had been forced to relocate their mining to Cambridge: calm, peaceful, quiet. Not so inside.
Jack had been spending hours to make sure he was prepared for the visit. Not being the most organised person in Sirius and with a bad habit of forgetting small, seemingly unimportant things that later proved to be of relevance, he had checked his plans and preparations twice and still he did not feel entirely comfortable.
"Why?" he asked himself, standing inside his Hood office that has not been so tidy for weeks. He knew the answer. The last woman he had been romantically involved was Violet Vontaine. Not much more of a memory remained of the short passionate time they had spent together. It felt like many years ago.
Kalliste was different. Jack looked at a picture of her on the screen that one of the hangar cams had taken. Why did he find her fascinating? A short click and some audio material was replayed, in which the Silver Reaver talked on system wide comm channel in Dublin and people fled. Shortly afterwards Hood registered detonation ripples hitting its sensors. Another series followed.
He concluded that her strenght, her selfconfidence and trust in her abilities on the one side, her cool but beautiful looks and these determined eyes on the second, and her vulnerability on the third side made her so attractive to him. A merciless killer, working for the one with the most money. No morals but the codex of loyalty for sale to the highest bidder. "She would kill you at night, if someone paid her enough."
He tried to shake the tought with a shake of his head: "Let's see, what happens." and seconds later the proximity alert showed a Reaver ship coming towards Hood.
___________
When she arrived at the Hood hangar bay 2, he was already waiting. He was wearing a dark blue, almost black suit with a white shirt, and he seemed dressed especially for the occasion. He greeted her with a friendly smile, then took her luggage and said:
"Nice to have you here, Kalliste. You look fabulous...." and then he starts walking towards a small taxi shuttle where there was already a pilot waiting who opened the door for them.
"I would like to take you to a... special place. It's not a long flight, just a few minutes. But..." he offers to hand her luggage to the driver, then he remembers what could be in there if she had received his planning messages... and puts it into the trunk himself before he rejoins her.
"The problem is..." he reaches into his pocket and takes a narrow, silken blind-fold from it... "... its location has to stay secret. So..." he smiles apologetically... "... if you trust me, I can take you there. I promise, it's worth the effort." he says in the end, holding the blindfold in his open hand, waiting for her reaction. "You will understand once we are there..."
