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The door creaked open, letting light spill through the opening onto the concrete floor. Gale Harmonia, Ace of Hearts, stepped through, blocking off the beam. The door clicked shut behind her. Almost immediately her nose was assaulted with the smell of old socks, and she felt a muscle in her cheek twitch. Before her was a table, a single lamp hanging above it, casting a beam of light that lit the metal surface but managed to leave the rest of the room in shadows. She took her seat in a chair that had been pulled out, and stared ahead with icy blue eyes which refused to reflect the casual smile she wore on her lips.

"I assume you know the reason I'm here," the woman opposite her spoke up. Gale's expression didn't change, but her eyes flickered up and down, trying to take in what they could of the woman in the dim light. Her hair was dark, contrasting with Gale's own platinum, near white blonde, and it had been cut in a bob that barely touched her shoulders. Her face was soft around the cheeks, pointed around the chin, and calculating around the eyes. Her skin would have been fair, had it not been for the workers tan that left it dark and formed a spattering of freckles across her nose. The edge of a tattoo curled just out of the collar of her plain, black shirt.

"I know you're our new Ace of Spades," Gale replied, her southern drawl thick. She tried to ignore the muscle in her cheek that refused to stay still. "Mara Daniels. You're here to supervise and report back to headquarters, am I right?"

A smile spread over Mara's lips, showing off the kind of perfect dental work you expected from movie stars.

"You certainly know your stuff. It should be no surprise that I'm here to keep an eye on you after recent events. Then again, you've been operating without an Ace of Spades for a good two years now, so it's not like my coming is unprecedented," The smile faded, but echoes of it remained on her lips. "But I want to be clear, I'm not your enemy here. I'm not trying to change the way you do things, I'm not trying to become some snitch that tears apart what connections and contacts you've made for yourselves. I want you to be working efficiently, and frankly you folks know more about how to keep that happening than I do."

If the desired effect would have been to put Gale at ease, it clearly hadn't been successful. Her eyes narrowed by an almost imperceptible degree, and the smile broadened, showing teeth.

"Then why am I here?" She asked, cutting to the point.

A file landed on the table, spun to face Gale. Frowning, she picked it up, then looked Mara more closely in her deep, brown eyes. In the back of her mind she was reminded of something, but she brushed it away, concentrating on the folder.

"I know what's written here," Mara said after a pause. "I simply want your version. Summarize, if you have to."

When she next looked up, Gale's expression had gone almost blank. Only the slightest upturn at the corner of her mouth betrayed her.

"The entity, codenamed Syren, has made appearances in multiple cities and towns in our range. She... It has been witnessed a total of eighteen times in the past month alone, at times in totally separate locations tens of miles apart, with only a few minutes in between," Gale rattled the information off like she was reading from a script. Mara's eyes glittered and again Gale felt as if she recognized something.

"Every single time it has appeared, a Cardians agent was no less than a minute from the scene, and every sensor we have went haywire at the exact same time. At this time we have been unable to make contact, and the Syren is considered a Class 4 Predictive Entity."

Mara nodded. "But she has made contact, hasn't she?"

Gale felt her stomach churn as she met Mara's eyes again. Realization dawned on her as she finally caught the threads of recognition. The woman's eyes were the same color as her mother's coffin. Mahogany.

"Yes. A total of Seven times. Again, as soon as it appeared our equipment recorded almost every single energy signature they're programmed to detect, all leading us toward the entity. The only difference was her distance from our agents. Rather than a minute or two, time until contact was clocked at five to ten minutes."

"And this is why you've requested the formation of a cell."

"That, and in recent months the contact with entities has increased dramatically. We're a simple research and development unit. The only reason we have an Ace of Hearts is because I used to be stationed in the Seattle division before it was disbanded."

"And your Ace of Clubs, this Rasputin Rucks, has connections in the area," Mara said, sounding distracted as she pawed through a different folder. "Uratha?"

"Only wolf blooded. He's loyal, ma'am," Gale responded. She felt her cheek twitch again. This woman was younger than her by almost twenty years. Why was she calling her ma'am?

"I don't doubt it," Mara said, waving her hand dismissively. "The folks back at HQ simply like to embellish details. I think one from a certain Roberts said your Ace of Spades transformed in front of him and proceeded to tear a vampire apart."

This time the smile touched Gale's eyes. "I don't doubt he would tear a vampire apart, but transforming is out of the question. Any chance of him going through a First Change has long since passed."

Mara's eyebrows rose. "We'll have to get into that later. What about Dom?"

Gale shrugged. "Our Ace of Diamonds... Well... If you'll excuse the phrase, Dom is Dom. If you want something built, you go to Domani. If you want something invented, you throw it at Dom and hope you don't end up with a toothbrush that also absorbs any blood from your gums or something like that. Dom does good work, and anyone who isn't a Diamond stays out of the way."

"Right. Well, that answers most of my questions. That just leaves us with the final one. You want to start up your own cell, correct? In that case, tell me about your candidates."

Drawing a deep breath, Gale focused back on those mahogany eyes and opened her mouth to speak...

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

The door creaked open, letting light spill through the opening onto the concrete floor. Gale Harmonia, Ace of Hearts, stepped through, blocking off the beam. The door clicked shut behind her. Almost immediately her nose was assaulted with the smell of old socks, and she felt a muscle in her cheek twitch. Before her was a table, a single lamp hanging above it, casting a beam of light that lit the metal surface but managed to leave the rest of the room in shadows. She took her seat in a chair that had been pulled out, and stared ahead with icy blue eyes which refused to reflect the casual smile she wore on her lips.

"I assume you know the reason I'm here," the woman opposite her spoke up. Gale's expression didn't change, but her eyes flickered up and down, trying to take in what they could of the woman in the dim light. Her hair was dark, contrasting with Gale's own platinum, near white blonde, and it had been cut in a bob that barely touched her shoulders. Her face was soft around the cheeks, pointed around the chin, and calculating around the eyes. Her skin would have been fair, had it not been for the workers tan that left it dark and formed a spattering of freckles across her nose. The edge of a tattoo curled just out of the collar of her plain, black shirt.

"I know you're our new Ace of Spades," Gale replied, her southern drawl thick. She tried to ignore the muscle in her cheek that refused to stay still. "Mara Daniels. You're here to supervise and report back to headquarters, am I right?"

A smile spread over Mara's lips, showing off the kind of perfect dental work you expected from movie stars.

"You certainly know your stuff. It should be no surprise that I'm here to keep an eye on you after recent events. Then again, you've been operating without an Ace of Spades for a good two years now, so it's not like my coming is unprecedented," The smile faded, but echoes of it remained on her lips. "But I want to be clear, I'm not your enemy here. I'm not trying to change the way you do things, I'm not trying to become some snitch that tears apart what connections and contacts you've made for yourselves. I want you to be working efficiently, and frankly you folks know more about how to keep that happening than I do."

If the desired effect would have been to put Gale at ease, it clearly hadn't been successful. Her eyes narrowed by an almost imperceptible degree, and the smile broadened, showing teeth.

"Then why am I here?" She asked, cutting to the point.

A file landed on the table, spun to face Gale. Frowning, she picked it up, then looked Mara more closely in her deep, brown eyes. In the back of her mind she was reminded of something, but she brushed it away, concentrating on the folder.

"I know what's written here," Mara said after a pause. "I simply want your version. Summarize, if you have to."

When she next looked up, Gale's expression had gone almost blank. Only the slightest upturn at the corner of her mouth betrayed her.

"The entity, codenamed Syren, has made appearances in multiple cities and towns in our range. She... It has been witnessed a total of eighteen times in the past month alone, at times in totally separate locations tens of miles apart, with only a few minutes in between," Gale rattled the information off like she was reading from a script. Mara's eyes glittered and again Gale felt as if she recognized something.

"Every single time it has appeared, a Cardians agent was no less than a minute from the scene, and every sensor we have went haywire at the exact same time. At this time we have been unable to make contact, and the Syren is considered a Class 4 Predictive Entity."

Mara nodded. "But she has made contact, hasn't she?"

Gale felt her stomach churn as she met Mara's eyes again. Realization dawned on her as she finally caught the threads of recognition. The woman's eyes were the same color as her mother's coffin. Mahogany.

"Yes. A total of Seven times. Again, as soon as it appeared our equipment recorded almost every single energy signature they're programmed to detect, all leading us toward the entity. The only difference was her distance from our agents. Rather than a minute or two, time until contact was clocked at five to ten minutes."

"And this is why you've requested the formation of a cell."

"That, and in recent months the contact with entities has increased dramatically. We're a simple research and development unit. The only reason we have an Ace of Hearts is because I used to be stationed in the Seattle division before it was disbanded."

"And your Ace of Clubs, this Rasputin Rucks, has connections in the area," Mara said, sounding distracted as she pawed through a different folder. "Uratha?"

"Only wolf blooded. He's loyal, ma'am," Gale responded. She felt her cheek twitch again. This woman was younger than her by almost twenty years. Why was she calling her ma'am?

"I don't doubt it," Mara said, waving her hand dismissively. "The folks back at HQ simply like to embellish details. I think one from a certain Roberts said your Ace of Spades transformed in front of him and proceeded to tear a vampire apart."

This time the smile touched Gale's eyes. "I don't doubt he would tear a vampire apart, but transforming is out of the question. Any chance of him going through a First Change has long since passed."

Mara's eyebrows rose. "We'll have to get into that later. What about Dom?"

Gale shrugged. "Our Ace of Diamonds... Well... If you'll excuse the phrase, Dom is Dom. If you want something built, you go to Domani. If you want something invented, you throw it at Dom and hope you don't end up with a toothbrush that also absorbs any blood from your gums or something like that. Dom does good work, and anyone who isn't a Diamond stays out of the way."

"Right. Well, that answers most of my questions. That just leaves us with the final one. You want to start up your own cell, correct? In that case, tell me about your candidates."

Drawing a deep breath, Gale focused back on those mahogany eyes and opened her mouth to speak...