Private The Balmorran Extraction

[Sephira Mond]

Sephira looked at the man casually, her jaw setting before she looked back down at the notes, pretending to be ice cold. "Not the only place I'd drag Louis." A ghost of a smile on her lips as she studied the materials some more, trying to commit to memory as much as she could. She flicked through to the next page and had reached the bottom of it by the time he reached over and fiddled with her hair.

Gooseflesh grew up her neck and she half-turned to disguise it. Fiddling with the knob on that particular door was always entertaining, but she did wonder whether it was wise for her to open the door while on a mission...

"Cards?" Sephira echoed dubiously. "What kind of cards?"

She set her dossier to the side and reached for the glove compartment, pulling out a deck of well-used cards. "What do you want to play? Desert Draw? Laro? Full System? Liar's Cut?"

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

A soft tch there.

"Now you are just trying to get a reaction out of me." He drawled there, but even knowing that, she certainly got one. It was silly, of course. They weren't together and with the nature of their job, exclusivity would be a challenge anyway. But the idea of her and Louis... oh, yes, it certainly made him feel just a touch jealous.

He smiled at the way she shifted, trying to hide her own reaction to his move, but Ivo didn't press it.

"How about something a bit more... involved."

Again Ivo leaned in, but now his lips brushed Sephi's ear. Remember the game we played back in college? No alcohol involved this time around, but I don't think that's the worst thing...

 

[Sephira Mond]

Sephira leaned closer, her dark eyes half-lidding as she turned her ear toward him, taking his whisper in her ear. Her eyebrow lifted, arching delicately, as she settled back into her seat. Of course, they had played lots of games during university. There was one with little remoted and tiny characters that raced on a screen. She remembered being famously bad at that one. There had been one where one had to guess a word based on clues given by a partner, while they could not use certain words. Sephira had been a juggernaut with that one.

"I'm... open," she told him.

Adjusting her position, she drew her feet under her in the seat, "But I forget the salient details. Remind me?"

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

"Oh, I am glad you are open..." Ivo said sotto voice. "It involves... winning or losing a round. And if you lose... you lose more than just the pot of money of said round..."

He wondered if she really needed to have her memory stirred.

Or if she was toying with him in return, wanting him to commit deeper, before she pulled the rug from under him. Sephira liked that, keeping him off-balance so he didn't know what to expect.

But Ivo supposed he liked it when she did that too.

Otherwise he wouldn't be coming back to it over and over again.

"Is... a memory stirring, yet? Usually... when you knew we would be playing it, you'd make sure to wear several layers extra." A soft smirk playing there then. "You got quite... warm, from what I recall, but you persisted regardless with it."

 

[Sephira Mond]

Sephira's chin rose in recognition. Not smug, but maybe a little self-satisfied.

"You are incorrigible," said the pilot, rolling her eyes. What's the harm? a voice inside her wondered. It's just a little fun, right? We did used to have such fun. But that was different. That was school. Everyone was stupid in school. Everyone made bad choices and made decisions that they wouldn't have later in life. And yet here she was, later in life, on the verge of making the same decision.

She stood, stretched, tugged her shirt back into place when it rose up to expose the strip between her waistband and her shirt. "All right, Mozorov, you're on. But if you cheat, I'm going to put you out the airlock. Lounge?"

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

"The lounge sounds splendid." Ivo's smirk deepening when Sephira agreed. "Airlock, huh? Don't threaten me with a good time, darling, I haven't had an adrenaline rush in quite some time."

He glanced to the console. Making sure that everything was proper, but it seemed the auto-control procedures were working as expected. It hopefully meant they wouldn't be interrupted.

"You go ahead, I am gonna grab something to drink for us and maybe some snacks." It wasn't the same as having some shots of whiskey every other round, but drinking on the job was a bad idea. You never knew when you needed to suddenly get your ass into gear and actually do something useful for the mission.

In that case you didn't want to be entirely sloshed.

As they parted ways, Ivo grabbed some supplies. Some chips, some fizzy drinks and then for good measure snatched his coat, putting it over his shoulders.

Giving himself some leeway if she ended up improving her game compared to the last time they had played it.

 

[Sephira Mond]

It was some hours later when Sephira cranked the knob control of the sanistream shower in the 'fresher to an almost too hot extreme. After holding her wrist out to test the temperature, Sephira shucked her robe and slipped in before pulling the shower door shut behind her. She took a cloth and the soap and set about her work, scrubbing.

She wasn't surprised, exactly, that she had en see ed up in bed with Ivo Mozorov again after all these years. If she told herself the truth, she'd admit that deep down she knew it would probably end up that way. Ivo was charming in that matinee idol, darling kind of way. Sephira wasn't stupid or naive enough to mistake it for love. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. What did surprise her was that all it took was one stupid juvenile game of strip sabbac. Sephira thought she had more discipline than that, but all evidence to the contrary.

Maybe she was just easy, and being a competent career woman, a confident adult, was just a comforting lie she told herself.

The thought landed with a thud against her chest, but there was no taking it back now.

She rinsed and shut the shower off, dried quickly, and dressed. A few minutes later she was alone in the cockpit, overseeing the reversion to real space. On command, Sephira busied herself with preparing and transmitting their landing paperwork. Then they were on final approach to Balmorra. She pinged the bedroom on the intercom.

"Landing in five," Sephira announced without preamble.

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

"Yes, wife dearest." Ivo's voice filtered through the comms in return.

A few minutes later he came into the cockpit. Dressed to the nines, in an outfit that was this side of quiet wealth. Enough to signal to others that they were comfortable, but without being so gauche that you were a walking boom box. That was exactly the type of people that would go to Balmorra for an arms deal to support the Imperial front.

He leaned against the chair and watched as they approached the landing pad. His hand settled on her shoulder.

"No regrets?" Ivo murmured quietly, glancing down at her, meaningful. They both knew exactly what he was asking about. It was up to Sephira if she wanted to acknowledge it or pretend it had never happened.

Ivo would play it however Mond wanted it to.

 

[Sephira Mond]

Sephira brought the ship through security scans, into the customs checkpoint, and through the other side with calm, expert hands on the yoke. Then programmed the landing sequence in time to hear Ivo enter the cockpit. Reaching for the caff cup in the holder, she brought it to her lips, blowing the steam for a moment before sipping. He leaned over her shoulder, as if to watch she wasn't fucking up the approach.

No regrets?

She didn't look up at him, keeping her eyes on the approach, one hand on her coffee cup, the other on the yoke. "I'm a big girl, Mozorov," she said, her voice flat. If it wasn't the answer to his question, it was all the answer he would get for the moment. They had business to attend to. Half an hour later, the ship was parked, the pair disembarked, and checked into the hotel under their assumed names.

Sephira unpacked the dampening device from her bag and set it up in the center of the room. It would dampen any listening devices and prevent eavesdropping if it functioned appropriately. Next, she pulled out the holomap and set it up on the table, flipping it on to show Balmorra. "Here we are," she said, pointing at the city on the map. "Now, how do we play this?"

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

He wanted to hear more from her, but he recognized he wouldn't get it.

Maybe it had been a mistake, but even if it was, now was not the time to figure that out. Instead Ivo just nodded, squeezing her shoulder softly and then got busy with the preparation.

In the end they reached the hotel.

While Sephira was unpacking the dampening device, he scanned the room himself. Mapping the exit's, entrances. The way the windows were positioned and how thin they were. If there were any obvious sniper angles. It might have been overkill, but Ivo wasn't about to lean on assumptions and they had the time for it right now.

"Here we are."

Ivo agreed as he settled on the couch and looked at the map himself.

"Command gave us a few leads. There is a party tonight, it will have all the high-leading officials of the government and half a dozen arm magnates. At least some of them are busy trying to root out our mark and take her down." He scratched his chin there while studying the hologram. "If they know anything useful, it might be worth it."

Then up towards Mond.

"Tomorrow morning there will be a black market in the city as well. A good starting point, she might show there." Eyebrows up at her. "What do you think? Gala, market? Both?"

 

[Sephira Mond]

A party tonight, a market tomorrow. No rest for the wicked, it seemed.

"Tragedy tomorrow," she mused in response as she studied the map, the blueish light making her eyes seem ethereal. "Comedy tonight."

She turned and shrugged out of her coat, moving to hang it on a hook by the door. "Does HQ think they're after our mark because she's our mark, or because she's -- whoever she is?" Mond asked, putting hands on hips. "What I mean is, are they after a mysterious and shadowy rebel cell leader, or are they after Dr. Avenyx Bevan, specifically?"

She loosened the collar of her blouse and crossed back over to the table, beginning to sort through the things there. "I think both, don't you? We can't let anything pass us by, after all." Sephira paused a beat, dark eyes lifting from what she was rifling through to catch Mozorov's through the map rotating slowly between them. "What do you think?"

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

And oh, yes, his eyes were on hers.

Warm.

He hadn't forgotten the previous night and all that had come with it. But Ivo was trying to be good, trying not to make a situation out of it. He had offered to talk about it, she'd take him up on it when she was able to.

Brows furrowed at her question and he turned, settling on his back, long legs resting off of the arm of the couch.

"Good question..." Ivo murmured, eyes closing, thinking about it for a moment. "We should go from the assumption it is both, yes." Nodding there quietly. "I imagine they don't know it is one and the same person. Which makes our life easier... or harder." He rubbed the spot between his brows, trying to remove the frown there by hand.

Eyes flickered open, coincidentally at the same time as Sephira tried to catch his gaze.

"Do you think she will come easily? Is she trapped here? Or is she in her element and are they trapped here with her?"

 

[Sephira Mond]

Sephira set about unpacking some of her things from her travel bag. Some of the things would stay in the hotel room -- she would, after all, have no need for a little black dress in the field. Other things would come with her in her rucksack when she deployed. As she did she considered Moz's question.

"I don't really see the full lay of the land yet," she conceded. "But if I had to guess it's probably some of both. The Empire doesn't take kindly to insurgents, so the idea that they'd be pleased to have her here is pretty far-fetched. But they may well be after her, as herself, because she's apparently got some pretty heavy qualifications when it comes to weapons research and development." Sephira shrugged. "Who knows if they've even connected the two individuals -- rebel cell leader and research scientists -- in their intelligence operation."

She turned back to him. "You think she'll come quietly?" Sephira asked quietly. If he could ask questions that couldn't be answered, only wildly speculated about, then turnabout was fair play, right? "If she's such a firebrand and iconoclast, that is. She might not be much of a joiner-upper at all."

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

It was a question that he had been contemplating too.

Did they realize that the scientist and rebel leader were the same person? If they did, it could complicate things for them. If they believed they were separate entities however... well, it would mean their search would also be split. Half the resources for each rather than the full bonanza for one shadowy figure.

"I think we got here in time." Ivo finally said, thoughtful. "Good thing you dragged me here." A smirk there as if they hadn't both been specially requested for this mission and assigned to it.

As if they had a choice.

He hesitated again when she posed the next question, bouncing it right back to him.

"I... don't know." The man finally admitted as he got back up, sitting down now, watching her move around. "I would like to think she will see reason, that there is a larger fight that isn't just on Balmorra, but as you say... firebrand. Some say eccentric. She might not see things our way." His eyebrows rose up at that thought.

"What does the mission parameters say about that possibility?"

 

[Sephira Mond]

"Nothing," said Sephira flatly. "There was no psych profile, just her CV and a brief dossier. Avenyx Orla Bevan. Before she entered the defense industrial complex as Director of Research at Heliox Logistics, she earned a B.S. in electrical engineering at the University of Coronet -- hey, look at that, we're alums -- and an M.S. in industrial engineering at the Royal College of Engineers on Naboo. Nothing about whether she's a crazy person who is likely to set us on fire as soon as deal with us."

She frowned and flipped through her datapad and tilted her head this way and then the other. "Then again, we have confirmation that she has participated in a rebel cell, so that's... promising, at the very least." She uncapped a bottle of water and took a long sip. "And the dossier said she blew the data stacks at Heliox Logistics. If she hates the Empire enough to blow her own research sky-high, and she participates in rebel cells, I think the picture gets a little clearer."

She manipulated the bottlecap like a poker chip, racing it along her knuckles absent-mindedly, flipping this way and that, almost dancing. "Also says she's, uh... not so good at being social. I'll let you deal with her when we find her. She may need charming."

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

He listened quietly, but in truth enjoyed what he heard.

Avenyx sounded like a riot. A right pistol. A firebrand. And Ivo believed that was exactly what the Path needed. Someone who could lit the fire under their collective asses and get them into gear. The Empire wasn't going to defeat itself... not any time soon anyway. Theories always said that Imperial fascism would collapse under its own contradictions, which might be correct over a long period of time.

But what about all the people who suffered in the meantime?

I'll let you deal with her when we find her. She may need charming.

"Oh?" Tone was innocent, but his gaze on her was interested. "Am I charming then, darling?"

Starting to push himself up to his feet to approach her.

"Can I apply some of that charm to you in that case?"

 

[Sephira Mond]

"You have done," Sephira said. "Or have you forgotten already?" Dark eyes glanced up from her reading, a smolder there. "It's a bit soon for another application of your... charm." She half-turned, buried within her reading, but her cheeks flushed all the same. The operative wandered away from him, considering all that they had discussed, and absent-mindedly she paused to observe: "You know, Moz, if everyone is a darling, no one is."

Sephira set the bottlecap and the datapad down. "I think I'm going to go to the fitness center. You know I don't feel right without getting my cardio in, and Cresh has steadfastly refused my requests to install a treadmill on the station wagon." She shrugged. "Cheapskate, I tell you. Um, someone should stay to look after the equipment, but maybe we can get food delivered when I get back?"

She disappeared into the bathroom and emerged a few moments later in her workout gear. A little over an hour later, Sephira returned, flush, hairline damp with sweat. The agent took her black dress from the wardrobe and hung it on the back of the bathroom door, so the steam would release any wrinkles that had gathered while it was tucked up in the bag. She picked up the room service menu and examined it before handing it over to Moz. "Can you order me the pasta?"

By the time she came out of the shower, she was dressed again, hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. "Anything happen while I was out?" she asked as she hung the dress back up in the wardrobe. "Did Bevan ride through here on a kaadu or something?"

Ivo Mozorov​

 

[Ivo Mozorov]

Sephira Mond

Sephi was... a tough one to crack in some ways.

He never knew exactly where he stood with her or how much effect he was having on her. Some days he thought she was above it all, others she blushed at just a sentence from him.

Strange, but... intoxicating at the same time.

"I... well, I can call you love instead, if you so desire." Ivo said to her back with a bit of a charming smile. "But I do think you are a darling, with or without charm."

She didn't let him a word in after however.

Off to the exercising.

He would have accompanied her, but Ivo got the distinct impression she needed some space and alone time. Time to work out some aggression, perhaps use the imagination of his face as a punching cushion.

"No, I wish she did, then this would all be much easier." Ivo said with a laugh when she suggested Avenyx Bevan 's mode of transport and if she had passed through here or not. "Pasta for you... I think I will do a pizza myself."

Then a glance towards her, taking in her form.

"Had... a good exercise?"

 

[Sephira Mond]

"I got a good run in," Sephira answered. She sat on the edge of the bed to pull on a pair of clean socks and looked over at him. "They really should give us some kind of exercise equipment on the ship. They have these physical standards we all have to keep up, but then they send us on these boondoggles in a situation where we're supposed to drink and party to fit in, and no treadmill on the ship. Insane."

Her fingers tugged the other sock into place, then pulled her shoes toward her and worked her foot into one.

"What did you do with yourself while I was gone, darling?" she asked as she tied up her shoes, then she crossed to the table to sit next to him. "Did we get any more tips from home, or are we more or less on our own?"

Ivo Mozorov​