An Amicable Meeting

[Liz Krest]

The Lane Hacker remained reaction-less to the Commander's otherwise positive response to her earlier question. The typically, by now, indifferent look on her face however would not mirror her emotions for a change, a rather exclusive occurrence to this one meeting and one that Liz was certainly not accustomed to. She felt as if a faint smile was about to appear on her lips. She felt as though Damien's response made her joyful, perhaps trivially so, but joyful nonetheless.

"You couldn't have been more on point, Damien, but genuinely... What if both suggestions have some degree of correctness attached to them?" Liz's response followed the end of Damien's statement, pausing only for a moment to further intrigue the man sitting in front of her, "What if I not only substantially enjoy people's obsession with figuring out the motives behind my actions and don't care about what they have to say one bit?"

A long pause would follow. The Infiltrator expected that many assumptions could be made after her final comments. She would return to the subject after leaning forward and resting her arms on the table, adjusting her uniform slightly before doing so.

"They're not my friends, Damien, and you - or anyone for that matter - have never heard me refer to them in such way. They are my colleagues as you have so aptly described," the Lane Hacker continued, stopping only to take a quick glance of the approaching employee before her eyes met Damien's again, "they know about as much as they need to know and as much as is beneficial to both my and the organization's profit." The look on Elizabeth's face during those last few sentences was one that Cobra had never seen before. A significant aura of solemnity characterized her every word, a cold-blooded gaze adorned her single eye and the delicate palms that had previously rested on the table were now clenched into fists.

It would take an exceptional fool not to notice the prominent anger in the Infiltrator's body language and speech patterns, and she was well aware that Damien would very quickly and easily catch up on it. The sigh that followed her emotionally heavy words, coupled with the immediate break in eye contact would even further suggest that the subject their conversation had brought to the surface was one that troubled the Infiltrator on a significant level. Whether or not she would be willing to discuss the matter further was unknown to the Lane Hacker at the moment; she was uncertain if she should continue conversing about something so personal, and it was very likely that the Alliance Commander's reaction would be the deciding factor.

"A Starkiller Deluxe for me," the Infiltrator ordered surprisingly quickly, almost as if she'd decided what she wanted long before the waitress arrived. The cocktail she ordered was a classic of most of the bars she had visited around Sirius; a peculiar, fizzy and fruity drink with a lingering aftertaste - her favorite among others.