The Bear's Cave - Sedona Station, Baffin (Formerly Freeport 14, Yukon)

[Susan Ward]

- "Well met, Mr. Jethro." said the woman between two spoonfuls of soup. She indeed looked hungry. Was Liberty Security Forces personnel not fed regularly? Otis naturally concluded all this was a trick used by this agent... But for what purpose?

After having emptied the bowl, the woman leaned back, as to take a comfortable position for a well deserved digestion. Otis waited patiently while sipping his scotch, considering this was again a psychological maneuver used by this agent.

- "First of all, Mr. Jethro..." suddenly said the woman, "I believe I owe you an explanation, and it is my conviction honesty is vital during a first contact, so that trust can be earned by both parties."

The woman suddenly burped before putting a hand before her mouth, looking horribly embarrassed. She then proceeded with her speech.

- "Right... As I was saying, honesty is a valuable trait. I see you were kind enough to trust me, uncovering details about your past. Consequently, I feel obliged to tell you this exquisite and well mannered person you have in front of you is Ms. Connor Ashley, citizen of House Bretonia, and formerly en route to Planet Malta to serve as unqualified workforce. Ms. Connor had the good fortune to be dropped at Barrier gate station, following a rather successful transaction made with her 'manager'. Of course, Ms. Connor was kind enough to do a little favor to the persons who saved her from that leisure trip, before being guaranteed to be returned to House Bretonia as soon as possible."

The server came with the water and another bowl of soup, that the woman welcomed with a reserved smile. After having drank some water, she went on.

- "As you certainly figured, Mr. Jethro, Ms. Connor serves as a proxy for our little gathering, and repeats what I tell her. Word for word. Please do not feel offended by such an artifice. I'm sure you can understand in my line of work, keeping one's identity secret can grant a significant advantage, and I'd rather keep mine secret till we are acquainted. As for the concerns you may have about what Ms. Connor could remember about this little gathering, she benevolently agreed already to take chemicals that will suppress her short term memory during a few hours, which will be more than enough for us to conclude this meeting."

The woman timidly took her spoon in order to empty the second bowl of soup. But she suddenly stopped and added :
- "I hope those clarifications will help you proceeding with that discussion in an appeased manner, Mr. Jethro. As for what you just told me, your CV is rather impressive and it is a certainty you could bring a lot to our agency. If you allow me, however, I'd like to ask you a few trivial questions first :
Why would you want to help us and what kind of contributions or actions you imagined doing for this agency?"