Alexandra Van der Walk's Story

"I have no doubt that he deserved what he got, Kaufman," Brinley admitted, "but the way you handled it was all wrong." She shook her head, groaning. "...besides, you weren't even technically supposed to STOP him. You were dressed as a hooker for crying out loud. Your mission was to infiltrate the downtown Elysium dens, not save some pubescent prostitute. Save the superhero work for the NPA." She reached towards her telephone and hit the intercom.

"Darvis? Send agent Van Der Walk up now." Brinley rolled her chair back and slid out of her seat. "I hope you don't mind, Kaufman," she nodded as she turned to a file cabinet near her desk and began shifting through folders, "but the message I'm about to give you is the same message I need to give to Miss Van der Walk. Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, have the both of you in my office at the same time." She retrieved two manilla portfolios and slapped them down on her desk. "You know who agent Van der Walk is, right? Phoenix? She's one of the more decorated sublevel agents on staff. Almost on par with Marshall, minus all the sexual harassment charges."

Shelby sighed, though the news that Agent Van der Walk would be joining them likely meant she wasn't about to be fired. She hid her distaste at the mention of Austin though. It wasn't that she had much against him as an Agent, but she didn't much care for him as a person. She had the fortune of having not had to work with him yet - though he had come on to her in the office often enough for her to have developed a dislike of the man.

She had been told she needed to loosen up, but something about the man just bugged her. Maybe it was the string of sexual harassment charges.

She shifted in her chair again, still restless. She hated being stationary.

"We've met," she replied.

Alexandra had heard rumors, and various small noises circling her department over the past month. Something about a new project about to be handed down from Brinley, but she wasn’t one to bank on rumors however enticing they might have been. Alexandra preferred to keep her head down, and do what needed to be done without a second thought, that was probably the only reason she was where she was today. She kept all of this in mind as she made her way up to Brinley’s office.

Knocking on the director’s office, she waited a few moments before entering. “You wanted to see me Director Brinley?” The woman asked politely. She seemed to be the serious type about her job, and more than likely ex-military judging by the way she dressed and her neat, almost regulation personal appearance.

"Yes, agent," Brinley nodded, "please have a seat next to Agent Kaufman. I'm not sure if you two have met." Brinley cleared her throat, resuming her own chair before turning to the files on her desk.

"I have here both of your dossiers," she nodded to each of them, "illustrious things, I admit, though in different ways." She looked first to Van der Walk. "Phoenix. Your mission record is gold." The director nodded, opening her file. "You've completed nearly every assignment we've given you and you've never had a problem improvising to see your objective through. You are the ideal sublevel agent: decisive, tactically-sound and obedient to the powers above you." She looked next to Shelby. "Kaufman. In your brief time here as a floorlevel agent, you've gotten yourself into quite a bit of trouble. Four compromised missions and not a single perp successfully put away in court. By all rights, you should be on desk duty for life." She opened the file and began sifting through it. "...that said, your tests scores are some of the finest we have on record. Your martial skills are also considerably honed, and I know you'd be one tough girl to take in a fight even without the training we've given you. You demonstrate a keen desire to do good for your community, even if the means to that good aren't strictly legal."

Brinley sat back, pushing the files away. She looked at each of the two agents carefully. "You're very different the two of you, but you're united by a single defining purpose: the will to protect Terra at all costs." Her eyes returned to her desk as she collected the dossiers. "I'm sure word has reached you both by now of a certain task force I've been charged with putting together." She looked back up. "...HAVE you heard anything about it?"

Taking a seat next to Shelby, Alexandra surveyed the other woman briefly before turning her attention over to Brinley. She seriously hoped she wasn't being pulled off her current project to train another agent. However, she didn't voice her concerns immediately, knowing now was not the time or place to do such. When the woman began to talk about her mission record, she felt a brief pang of slight embarrassment, and hoped yet again that she hadn't been brought in to use as an example for the junior agent sitting beside her. It wasn't her job to train kids fresh out of academy, or petulant little girls who couldn't follow orders from a superior.

"No ma'am. Nothing but rumors and the occasional office gossip." She said carefully, hiding her annoyance at having to spend her afternoon in a one on one meeting with Brinley. In truth she wasn't exactly sure what the woman wanted, all of what she'd heard she'd immediately dismissed or taken with a large grain of proverbial salt. The office was a notorious gossip mill, and it was almost always what was Marshall doing, or who was he dating and if not was he available. Gritting her teeth, Alexandra scowled briefly at the thought of having to share a mission with either Shelby or Austin. She worked alone.

"Well, we wouldn't likely be working here if we hadn't heard something," Shelby remarked. "But nothing of substance."

She settled back in her chair as she gave Alexandra a glance. She like Alexandra preferred to work alone. In fact, she seemed to spurn all manner of close relations with much of anyone, be it romantic, friends, or co-workers. She largely dismissed such things as unnecessary distractions. It was perhaps not the healthiest of mentalities, but it was how Shelby preferred things.

"Good," Brinley nodded, "this was supposed to have a lid on it. Word got out after some of the interviews, and I'm not happy with the gossip." She sighed, resting her hands on the table. "Let me clue you two in. If this task force takes off, it's going to be, perhaps, the most expansive thing the TIB has ever done." She looked critically at each of them, her expression bland and unfeeling. "It's effectively Terra's first intergalactic counter-terrorism squad, an elite strike-team of commando agents, armed to the teeth, with absolute authority over the direction of their mission. We point the finger and give you the tools you need. You figure out how to make it work." She nodded. "Obviously I'm telling both of you this because I want you to join. Believe me, this isn't something I'm saying lightly. We examined the profiles of every single sublevel and floorlevel agent in this building, matched skills and personalities and reviewed dossiers." She pointed to the both of them. "We chose you two. We chose you two for a number of different reasons, but we mostly chose you because you've both demonstrated that Terra's wellbeing is the absolute most important thing in your lives. More important than money. More important than death. More important than any notion of love or friendship." She was quiet for a moment, a deep silence filling the room.

"Does this sound like something you two ladies would be interested in? This squad is voluntary due to the risk involved. I can't force you to join."

Well this was what she had wanted, wasn't it? To get back out in the field. She should have been exhilarated at the prospect, but truth be told, it wasn't exactly the line of work she had been pursuing when she got involved in law enforcement. Unfortunately with her record that door was closed to her. The TIB was her future now.

She gave it the thought it deserved though.

She could decline the offer and go back to working the streets here in the city. It was safer work, but really were the streets getting any better at the end of the day? This new squad could well give her what she hadn't been able to find in Van Leugen. A sense of making a real difference, a difference that didn't involve watching scumbags walk because they threw enough money around, or because they knew how to play the law.

When she was still an officer working for the police department, it seemed for every man she put away, another ten were walking free. The inefficiency of the 'system' was the source of most of her assault charges.

This city was indisputably and irrevocably corrupted. And yet, it was her city. She had been born and raised here, and she was as much a part of this city as the criminals that ran rampant. She wasn't sure she was ready to be reassigned to a squad to go gallivanting around the galaxy.

"Can I have a few days to think about it?" she asked finally.

Alexandra was silent after the extension of Brinley's offer. She wasn't too sure what to think about it. Wasn't it something that every TIB agent dreams of? To be offered carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, and have little if any repercussions. "It is interesting..." She said slowly as she listened to the other woman ask for a few days to consider it all. Alexandra was a little surprised she wasn't jumping for the chance to elevate her status within the bureau.

Mulling over the offer for a few moments, she knew that she'd never receive another opportunity this good. "Yes. I would be interested Director." She stated simply preferring not to mince words, or use anymore than was absolutely necessary.

"I'm afraid not Kaufman," Brinley shook her head, "the sensitivity of this assignment requires that I recieve a straight answer from you now." She cleared her throat, straightening her sleeves. "I understand that you've never really had any serious missions like this before. This whole thing might be a bit of a shock to you. I've been assured that your first few assignments will be on Terra. Wing City, Van Leugen and Solinus. You'll have some time to adjust, if that's any consolation." She nodded. "...but you WILL be doing good. Both of you. Far more than you ever could here under the directors of the TIB. Competent as they may be, they are still restricted."

She nodded to Van der Walk. "I'm glad your with me. But before either of you give me a solid answer, there are some things you should know. This is going to be a very 'honest' team. Nothing will be hidden from you, and every action you take will be by your own design." She drew a deep breath. "...naturally you'll be handling some very sensitive missions. Missions that require the utmost discretion. For this reason, the resources of the TIB and NPA will not be available to you once you begin. We'll load you up with everything you think you'll need and then we're out. If anything happens to anyone on your team, it's out of our hands. Your existence is completely deniable in our records." She held up two fingers. "Secondly, these are very dangerous assignments. I know we say that about every assignment, but these more-so. There is a very, very good chance you will not survive more than a year on this team. Should you die, there will be no burial and no acknowledgement on our part. You are absolutely on your own once you're on the field. Am I clear on that?"

Shelby frowned at that. This was a massive life changing decision to dump in her lap and expect her to have an answer right then and there, and the conflict in her was plain to see. On one hand, what did she have to lose? And what sort of future would she find here in Van Leugen? Was there anything keeping her here at all other than some misguided notion of belonging to the city, and the arrogance thought that she alone could make a difference here?

But on the other hand, if she said yes... all of this would be gone. Her life as she currently knows it would be over. Her records wiped, her existence and involvement with the TNG erased. She would become a ghost. She would live and die for her country, but no one would ever know. It was likely she would go down in the books as a traitor and a terrorist. But even that... did she really have any family or friends that she would leave behind to live with that burden?

She pursed her lips.

"How soon do we start?" she asked.

Austin Marshall leaned calmly against the dark, oakwood desk that was meant to be the centerpiece of Drulovic's office. The agent looked idly around the room, wondering if the TIB director had been in this office even once during the six-something months since it'd been issued to her. It was a massive piece of space staged away in Susurrus' sublevel administrative division. Couches. Televisions. Even a grand piano was tucked away in the corner, a thin layer of dust settled over the ivory keys.

Austin sighed, straightening his tie. His hand reached idly towards a cup-holder filled with writing utensils. His fingers grasped a black ball-point pen and began to flip it dexterously between his nimble fingers. Austin Marshall was a man who'd been forced to wait for things all his life and still never really got used to it. He hoped it wouldn't be too much longer. He wasn't sure who the new field agent was that was being assigned to the Volaria project in his place, but he was curious to meet him.

He was also eager to see Drulovic again and fill her on recent events. It felt like he hadn't seen the director in a long time...

"Hasn't anyone ever taught you to stand still?" A woman asked, her voice dripping with derision. "Also it's not very polite to start plucking things off other people's desks, or are you five today?" She continued as she walked into the large office.

Alexandra was a no nonsense type of woman, who couldn't understand why people like this man currently waiting with her in the Director's office was presently employed. He lowered the statistics of the agency, and over all made them look like the laughing stock of the galaxy; well no worse than those LDA agents the Aschen were so fond of. At least, she reflected, she was allowed some individuality in her choice of dress with this job. Having chosen a dark gray wool skirt suit, and crisp ivory blouse, with black heels, Alexandra looked more like a secretary that TIB agent.

"You must be Austin Marshall, I'm Alexandra Van der Walk." She said extending a hand. Her nails were kept short, but well manicured with a vivid shade cerise. Her make up was kept classic and natural, with minimal jewelry to be seen, except a pair of ruby and gold studs. "Your reputation I must say precedes you." Alexandra added smirking slightly. She knew his reputation, and knew he had the attention span of a gnat when it came to anything other than women.

"A skill I never quite mastered," the agent replied suspiciously, his eyes running up and down the immaculately-dressed Van der Walk. Even decked out in her Sunday-school best, there was still a lot worth looking at. He took his time.

"Glad to see I've still got a name for myself around here," Austin smirked, "though you have quite the reputation yourself, Ms. Van der Walk." He shook her hand firmly. "I've read up on some of your work. Istanbul. Asteria. You're efficient and thorough." Austin grinned boyishly. "...not much for theatrics, though. I think you could stand to have a bit more fun when you're on the field." Austin knew her type. Tight-ass sublevel agents with their Gauss pistols on safety and all their buttons done up in a row. Sure, they were just as well trained and prepared for the various death-defying operations that demanded the full physical and mental capacities of a TIB field agent, but there just wasn't any soul in what they did. No heart. No laughter. They were machines sent out to do machine work; killing, espionage, sabotage... it didn't matter. They did it all with a grim line for a face and blank white sheets for eyes. Corporate loved them, though. Maybe that's why she...

Austin's eyes widened. Wait a second...

"Hold up..." he held up a hand, "...are you the one that command has chosen over me to oversee see the Volaria investigation?"

"You have the attention span of a gnat Marshall." Alexandra commented sarcastically. "I have fun," She said stepping close enough for Austin to smell her perfume; a subtle blend of vanilla, silk, and a dozen different exotic florals. "Just not with you." Alexandra finished stepping back, implying that there was much more to her than Austin could ever hope to realize knowing.

"Yes, and unfortunately it cut into my vacation. I hear you got into a tug of war with one of the Matriarch's guardsmen's over a sword. How'd that work out for you Marshall?" She asked innocently enough.

"I should think you might have learned not to doubt my decisions some time ago, Mr. Marshall." Arianne Drulović's steady voice cut immediately through the office as she stepped through the door, leaning heavily on a gently curving wooden cane. Though the unnecessarily large office suite seemed disused, for all its well-appointed furnishings, Drulović's commanding presence immediately filled the space. "Good morning, Ms. Van der Walk."

She nodded toward Austin. "If you wouldn't mind taking a seat." With not a bit of irony in her arched eyebrows, she added dryly, "I think Mr. Brogan would be rather dismayed at the prospect of polishing that desk again." Drulović gestured for Alexandra to sit in one of the leather-backed chairs. "I'm terribly sorry for my lateness; there was an incident in Terrier-Paix about an hour ago. I can't say I'm too fond of their MP."

Austin stepped forward, his quick-tongue already formulating the beginnings of a rebuttal... when Drulovic entered the office. The agent quickly withdrew, adjusting his mannerisms ever-so-slightly. His posture was just a tad bit straighter, his demeanor slightly more professional.

"Director," he nodded, "it's good to see you again." He stepped aside so as to allow Drulovic access to her desk, eyeing Alexandra with a cold suspicion Drulovic offered her a seat. Austin remained standing.

"It's no trouble at all, director," Austin nodded in regard to her lateness, "agent Van der Walk and I were just getting... acquainted." He smiled at his counterpart. "I suppose I'm something of an admirer. She has an impressive slew of operations under her belt. Nearly as many as my own."

"Good Morning Director Drulovic." Alexandra replied, ignoring Austin. She could tell that she had kept him on his toes, and even somewhat surprised him; it was going to be a good day. Taking the proffered seat, she was perfectly content to let Austin Marshall make a blithering idiotic fool out of himself. She obviously didn't need to help him, as Drulovic hinted at a past relationship with him doubting her command decisions. Alexandra wondered just what sort of a problem child in Marshall she was going to have to be dealing with in the coming weeks.

"I think what Agent Marshall means to say is he wasn't expecting a woman to be in operations of a nature similar to his."

"I can't say I'm particularly surprised, Ms. Van der Walk," Drulović replied, the edges of her lips turning upward in a faint smile. The lines in Drulović's face deepened in the soft lighting. Both her features and clothing seemed worn and frayed, held together only by whatever rugged toughness or determination had helped her survive repeated imprisonment and attempts at assassination. "I trust you are more than qualified to take the lead in this matter. I did take the liberty of reviewing your file again last evening."

Rather than walk around the desk to occupy the executive chair, though, Drulović merely eased herself into one of the seats for visitors in the main part of the office. She balanced her cane against the side of the chair and then straightened the lapels of her fading navy blue suit. "Mr. Marshall, please, have a seat. Your feet will be tired later."

"O... Of course, director," Austin quickly resumed a nearby chair, "my apologies, I uh..." He swallowed hard, vaguely aware that he was making a complete fool of himself. While that wasn't anything particular new, he had something to prove to Van der Walk. It wasn't her status as a woman that offended him (though there was, granted, a slightly sexist part of himself that had expected a man to be taking his place in Volaria), it was what she represented. Alexandra Van der Walk was the epitome of the 'newer' breed of field agents that'd been taking the TIB by storm. They were tough, experienced and thorough in their work... but utterly without imagination. As far as Austin was concerned, Alexandra was a cold, calculating robot who just happened to be in possession of a suit and a very nice pair of breasts.

The agent smiled to himself, briefly regaining his composure. "Tired feet, director?" he grinned, "I think that's the least of my concerns now that Ms. Van der Walk has taken the Volaria assignment off my hands." He reclined slightly into the chair. "Not that I'm complaining. I'm glad to be rid of that dreadful political shark-tank." He looked slyly at Alexandra. "...and I have no doubt that Ms. Van der Woods is in full possession of all the social grace required to navigate the administrative mine field of the Volarian courts. Certainly, she has the tongue for it."

He looked back to Drulovic. "I'm afraid the situation in Volaria is a bit more dire than we first believed, director. Our contacts report massing AXIS ships preparing for departure in our space. The Taiyou grip on the Shintenchi isles is tightening. We only have so long before the entire chain of islands becomes a economic powerhouse and military bastion of foreign power... right here on Terran soil."