1556/Hidden Whispers

Hidden Whispers
Date of Scene:	07 May 2020
Location:	Triskelion Offices
Synopsis:	Mockingbird and Achilles track down the elusive Cpt. McMannis and learn a portion of the truth surrounding the Livewire Program that created Gothic Lolita.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Achilles, Gothic Lolita

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
"Welcome to Level 1 Angelo," Bobbi says with wry amusement. "Time to drop you right in to the middle of it hm. As you're aware a military counter-terrorism and intelligence agency. Some of the people who work in the trisk fall in to the former, others in to the latter. I, you have guessed, am more in the latter." It's a quaint way of saying she's more spy than soldier. "The man we're going to see is more the former. Captain McMannis heads up the Sustainable Options group. I have no idea who put it together, perhaps he did. He's the same security level as my boss, Gonzales. I sometimes also report to Deputy Director Hill or Director Fury, as my direct report. But, I work for whoever needs me as I'm part of S.P.O.T., Special Priority Operations Team. And today, so do you. We're going to worm our way in to McMannis' operation to find out what they've been up to."

As the travel in the elevator she continues to explain, "You see a week ago a covert SHIELD convoy was attacked by four rentagoons. We apprehended all four but an LMD - that's Life Model Decoy.. fancy way of saying Android - escaped the scene. Because McMannis' operations are so hush hush I had to do some serious digging to find out where that android came from and why it was in that truck. They've been secretly shipping things to an Albuquerque site. Well, that LMD is out in the city and just killed a bunch of people at a lab in Brooklyn called Tomorrowland labs. The startup is probably crippled. I want to find this LMD, bring it back in.. and if these idiots are going off the books, rein them in too." She looks over to Angelo, "I know that's a lot to absorb in an elevator ride, but are you good?"

Achilles has posed:
    "Sustainable Operations." repeats Achilles in his barely English accented voice. "I'm not sure I understand that obscure name, which is likely the intent of having such a title." He inclines his head, "I would think that I am also more of the former if that matters at all."
    But then he turns his head and tries to catch Bobbi's eye. He's a weird rookie recruit in that he does not seem intimidated by those of higher rank than him. "SPOT? They certainly do have an unusually obsessive love for acronyms in this day and age." he adds with a shake of his head. Though he does continue to pay attention.
    "Like Daedalus always wanted to build. I wonder if he ever perfected the design." he remarks, "Your decoy idea." he adds, waving a hand before falling silent to listen more. "I presume that you maintain trackers in all of your decoys, but I also presume that whomever hijacked this one disabled the one in there. Is the redundant backup unit working?" he asks before he pauses, "Wait, in such vital tech, you -do- have concealed backup trackers, yes?"

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Heading down the hall through several other offices, will bring you to a door with the words 'Sustainable Operations' stenciled next to it, with a nameplate below it: Cap. J. McMannis.

    As the door slides open, you find yourself in a fairly standard secretary office that guards access ot the inner office, with a young man in a SHIELD uniform monitoring the desk. He looks up as the pair of you enter. "Hello, welcome to Sustainable Operations. Do you have an appointment?" he says, with the air of someone who fully expects the response to be 'no'. He looks to be in his mid-twenties, and suprisingly fit for a secretary. The desk he's behind is fairly solidly built and blocks vision to what's happening underneath it. The office beyond doesn't appear to have a window facing into this office, just the door, making it hard to see what's happening there.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi smiles, "Yes, pretty ominous name isn't it. I know from what Quake dug up that they do a lot of government contract work. Given we're an international organisation, you can imagine it's probably very shady. As for LMDs, they're not meant to exist. They're illegal, which means of course someone in SHIELD has been experimenting with them.. if there is a tracker, McMannis will know. But the LMD wasn't taken from the scene, it reactivated and left on its own two feet. I briefly had a chance to say Hello to the thing."

    Before the door Bobbi stops and looks to him, "The key to these kinds of operations is brevity, let the other person hang themselves, provide enough rope. Don't volunteer anything, just elude to the idea that may be you do know things." She scrunches up her nose and pats him on the shoulder, "You'll do fine."

    Bobbi steps in to the office and smiles kindly to the man behind the desk. "Yes of course. Bobbi Morse here to see McMannis." She's exactly on time.

Achilles has posed:
    Mental note... she didn't answer the question. It -must- be an important division with a totally obscure name that has nothing to do with what it does.
    Achilles just shrugs and moves in behind Agent Morse.He is a rookie here. Though if she indicates... he'll also be muscle. He's good at muscle. Well mostly good at not dying. But he can't claim credit for that. Mom did that one.
    Either way, he's just waiting to see what sort of support is needed of him, or if his job is to observe and learn.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The agent behind the desk checks his computer. "Yes, I have you on the captain's schedule for today, Agent Morse, though there's nothing about what you needed to discuss with him." He eyes Achilles. "Or that you would be bringing another agent with you. If this will be a more indepth discussion of some sort, you will likely need to postpone it to another day; the captain's schedule today is /very/ tight." He smiles thinly in a way that doesn't quite reach his eyes. "Would you prefer to do that?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi grins a touch more, "Oh he has you trained well. Nice evasion tactics, polite about it, inferring a hint of danger. I like it. Good job." She winks to the guy completely avoiding answering any of his questions while making him feel both accomplished and small. She doesn't wait for permission and enters McMannis' office. "Captain McMannis," she says with a friendly smile and a hand outreached in greeting as she approaches, "Agent Morse, so good to meet you. I don't get to this part of the Trisk too often. I really should. This is Agent Tampambulos. Angelo would you be so kind as to get the door." Not answering questions is a big part of the job. She has a good feeling about Achilles and expects he's going to make an excellent agent... too bad she sets such a bad example most of the time.

Achilles has posed:
    Watching the irreverent way Bobbi handles the /secretary/, Achilles just follows along silently. It's like watching Odysseus confound and confuse people who thought he was there for a straight up fight. He finds that he likes this child. Of course, everyone alive today feels like a child to him.
    When she asks him to get the door, he does so. Turning and reaching to shut it, regardless of anything someone might do to stop that. While he is not supernaturally strong, he -is- extraordinarily fit. He also knows the shoe-toe trick at the bottom of any given door just in case. Not a word spoken. He just closes the door.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The secretary starts to rise out of his chair. "Hey, you can't go in-" but Bobbi and Achilles are through before he can finish, the door shutting firmly behind the latter. Inside is a fairly standard desk, with shelves on the walls and a 'love me' wall of pictures of the man behind it at various events or famous people, including Fury, some senators, a president, and some major military industrial complex contractors.

    The man in question looks to be in his mid to late forties, with dark hair starting to turn grey, and a neat goatee where only the mustache is still black, the bottom of the sides being grey with a triangular tuft pointing down that's still dark. One side of his face is scarred with a burn, with hazel eyes under a brow that has a scar crossing over one side in a way that should have taken out the eye...but somehow hasn't.

    There's a thumping on the door, before the man calls in a gravelly voice. "That'll be all Jeremy, work on your reflexes!" He pushes himself to his feet, offering a hand. "Agent Morse, Agent Tampambulos." he says, repeating the name, his lips quirking up in a faint smile, the burn scar crinkling at his cheek. "I'm not sure exactly what you're here to discuss; I'm not aware of Sustainable Operations having anything to do with a mission you're assigned to."

    There are two chairs in front of the desk, and a small area to the side with a minibar and fridge that he walks over towards. "Can I get you anything?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi takes a seat across from him and glances at the fridge. "Oh no thank you. I've had two coffees today already. It's been a busy week in New York." She smiles over to Angelo and then back to McMannis. "Jeremy has the routine down, but he needs to work on his intrigue."

Bobbi folds her hands in her lap, a motion to indicate she feels safe in his presence, one leg over the other. "Sadly the Sustainable Operations group has been having a bad week too." She places her tablet down on top of his desk with the photo gallery open. Images of Gothic Lolita at the scene of the two trucks, fleeing from the scene. Crime scene photographs of the lab that got destroyed. Bobbi waits a moment for him to take a look at the photos. "It seems you've lost something and it's starting to cause a bit of trouble. I'm part of an initiative by Agent Gonzales called SPOT, Special Priority Operations Team. Well, you have a priority problem and so I have been assigned to sort it out."

There is so much left unsaid in between her words, the significant breaches in the secrecy of their operations.. how much does she know? she is Bobbi Morse after all. Gonzales does like to stick his beak in places it doesn't belong. Bobbi's gaze becomes steely-eyed. She learnt that from May. There's no "taking no" for an answer from her in these situations and she can play word gymnastics with the best of them.

Achilles has posed:
    The thing that Achilles learned LONG ago is that a -dead eye- gaze only works to a point. A Shit-eating grin has its use but it only works in certain situations too. Far more effective for his purposes is... the look of calm indifference. Not angry, not steely. Just... if someone met his gaze, they'd find someone there who just couldn't care less about them. Calmly and patiently waiting for things to get to the point.
    It has an added benefit that he learned in his studies of body language. Showing confidence in his superior. He is so calm because he has unshakeable faith in Agent Morse. I mean he does, but it's the message that he is sending in his body language and facial expression. But he himself doesn't sit down. He stands to the left and just a hair behind Bobbi's chair. He's relaxed and ready to move should he need to. This is a situation where he is looking about and waiting to be needed to be a human shield.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    McMannis is good. There's a slight pause at the accusation, before he finishes calmly pouring his coffee in a black mug that reads 'Waste Not, Want Not' on it, before mixing in some creamer and carrying it back over to his desk to set it down on a cork circle, before he picks up the photograph. "I don't recognize her, is she an enhanced?" he say calmly, sipping from his coffee. "My understanding was this convoy was unreported, I'm unsure how you would conclude it's one of ours."

    Only then does he look up at Bobbi to return her gaze steadily, the scar pulling at his right eye as he slits it for a moment.

    Siiiiiip.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi nods her head, "They can change their appearance more easily than we can. This is an LMD, from a project code named LW-X-Dark, presumably constructed by one Dr. David Jenkins. This creation was previously labelled UIA-Queens-2020-1. Dr. Jenkins was one of yours." She tilts her head, not wanting him to make the mistake of claiming he doesn't know the scientist or the project. Always give them some wiggle room. "The convoy itself was authorised by you, a series of convoys being sent to a facility in Albuquerque."

    She touches on her tablet showing the four villains who attacked the convoy. "These four claim to have been paid anonymously to hit the convoy. They are in our custody still. I'd love to believe that it was just a coincidence that a super secret SHIELD convoy was ambushed by them, but.. ya know, as Fury says there's no such thing as a coincidence." Whatever semblance of secrecy he thought he had, perhaps has been shattered. She watches his fingertips for involuntarily muscle contractions, for his lips tightening, for his shoulders tensing or relaxing. She watches his body to see how ready he is to accept the unwanted help from colleagues.

Achilles has posed:
    More calm assurance. That's it. Just watching like the guy didn't matter to him. Silent observation and looming presence is the name of the game. Okay the names of the games. Along with psych-out and reading. Okay lots of games, but he's an old hack at these games for sure.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    Mcmannis' fingers curl a bit more agains this mug, his shoulders tensing slightly at the list of accusations. "Interesting." he say finally, leaning back in his chair, regarding the pair as his eyes narrow. "You believe in putting your cards on the table, it seems." He smiles, very slightly, his eyes going more steely. "I've always been a fan of hole cards, myself. So let me show a few. For example, that I know you were reassigned from the convoy investigation, and therefore you do not have authority to continue to follow it officially." He leans forward, arms on the table. "I also know you're an experienced enough agent to know when things are classified, they are classified for a reason. You've obviously found a really good shovel and dug up a few skeletons...but you're going to get in over your head pretty damn quickly at this rate." He glances to Achilles. "You and your fellow agent, who is definitley not cleared for that level of classified information."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
obbi leans forward too, "Really sucks when a wild card comes in and messes things up doesn't it McMannis." She sneers at him, but not in a personal way. It's a performance. He needs to know they're still on the same side here. "And thank you so much for reclassifying _my_ report and trying to get me removed from the case. You don't think I'd have gotten this far in SHIELD if I stopped doing my job every time someone sitting behind a desk," she looks down at his desk, "told me to."

Bobbi does have a reputation in SHIELD. She's young for a level 7 but has remarkable success. She's the kind of agent every level 8 wants on their team but can never seem to pin down. "That's why I brought him," she says looking partly over her shoulder to Achilles. "He's been around the block enough to not give a damn about our levels. Just try and keep him away from this case, I dare you." Is she talking about herself or him now. She rises up leaning over the desk and planting a finger in to the tablet. "Now you either accept that I'm going to find this LMD and help me do it, or expect allll of your operations to get keen new interest from internal auditors."

Achilles has posed:
    And that is when Achilles makes the choice to change things. No longer the calm uncaring man. His eyes become like frozen jade. He lets the man he used to be show through. The death and blood he has seen on thousands of battlefields... the death he has meted out at the tip of a spear, sword, bayonet or whatever he had at hand... table leg, boot-heel, chariot-wheel. The man who has seen so much war that he had to walk away from it is now there staring back at the Captain.
    His hands unclasp from behind his back and just hang loose at his sides. His posture is longer one of readiness so much as... one of willingness to begin the action, not to react to it. He has gone from 'I don't give a shit' right into 'oh please let me.' and it would take an insane man not to see that.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    McMannis reacts to Achilles' suddenly imposing aura by slowly resting his hands on the arm of his chair, studying him, before his lips twitch slightly as he glances back to Bobbi. "..." He inhales, then slides forward in his chair pressing a thumb to a reader by his computer as he unlocks it, then types for a moment, before the holoscreen on his desc turns on into display mode. "It's not a LMD." he says in a faint growl. "That's like calling an M-1 Abrams a Sherman tank." A moment later, an image pops up...not the blurred images from the convoy attack or the recent lab attack in Brooklyn, but more what you'd get for a bio picture...a familiar picture, of a young Japanese woman, late teens or early to mid twenties, long black hair, brown eyes, an expressionless face. In the corner are the letters 'LW-05'.

    "LMDs were underused when in service; not all divisions of SHIELD believed they were without use. They were essential as doubles for critical personnel. Sustainable Operations is responsible for finding ways ot preserve SHIELD assets, most especially our irreplaceable assets - our agents. Operation Livewire was an attempt to minimize agent losses on especially hazardous, even suicidal missions, particularly ones SHIELD could not officially sanction."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi sits back in the chair and takes her tablet back. She slides it in to her extra large suit leg pocket. "LW-05," Bobbi says as she looks at the Japanese woman. "Why would she attack a laboratory? is she actively friend or foe. Is her brain still on-mission? There were casualties at that lab." She's starting to think of this more as an agent who has been out in the field too long, been undercover too long, away from family. "Was she modelled after somebody, ...if she's the M-1, how does she differ from regular LMDs. Does she have a tracker, code phrases to shut her down, .. etc etc. You know where I'm going with this. If she's as good as you say, was she mothballed because of the LMDs?"

Achilles has posed:
    Job done. Achilles thinks that in the Warcraft voice. It makes him smile a bit which could be interpreted as a smug grin. It's a grin alright but he's already past the intimidation. He just leans against the chair Bobbi is in and waits for more orders. Still hasn't said a word in here.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    McMannis shakes his head. "Project Livewire was an off the books collaboration with the U.S. Government. Quasi-legal but with the goverment keeping it under wraps." He sighs a bit, rubbing his face. "LMDs are only part of the tech that went into her...the other half was research on nanowoven artificial lifeforms, using semi-random germination for randomized meta-power - the Mannite program. It failed because the results were too obviously inhuman to be used as covert agents. The Livewire project was designed to combine the two technologies to create a new superagent design. Relentless. Unstoppable. Capable of self-repair, and able to select for specific mission parameters...sniping, social manipulation, combat engineering, or heavy dusty combat. Like how a stem cell can become a variety of cell types. They combined LMD outer shells with advanced nanoform systems with grown technology. There were ten prototypes, and they were the brainchild of Dr. Jenkins. He was the one who found the way to fuse the tech."

    He types again. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you a lot of details. I know that to prevent them from being subverted, their prime directive was complete and total loyalty to Project Livewire. However...

    He taps a button, and a new image pops up. A crater. About a mile across and quite deep. "This...is where the facility that created them used to be."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi looks perplexed and horrified at the same time. "Jesus why is it our government always feels the need to do these sorts of things." She folds one leg over the other again and frowns. "What about Jenkins. Is he still out there somewhere?" She wonders just how pissed off Fitz would be if he found out about this. She's still on the fence as to whether this is a positive or a negative though. If there's any hope of pretending to be part of Project Livewire, Dr. Jenkins might be it. Potential options for dealing with the escaped LW-05 are narrowing.

Achilles has posed:
    Okay, if it is one thing that has never changed, it is the fact that people try to reach beyond their means and then act all surprised when it bites them in the ass. He shakes his head and bends down to speak to Bobbi. His voice heard for the first time in this room. A voice laced with just the smallest hint of an English accent, "Like Icarus. They are flying too close to the sun. We should seek this individual out and discern whether they are on the side of your angels or not."

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    "You don't grasps the issue, agents." McMannis grits out. "This base contained EVERYONE who knew directly about the project. Researchers. Security. Executives. All the records. All the plans. Jenkins. All gone when the base power system was rigged to overload and exploded. By these...things." He throws up another series of pictures. They vary wildly in look. A Jennifer Aniston blonde. A dreadlocked African American. A Midwest farm boy. A petite teenager. "These...things went insane. They killed everyone. And then they went on a rampage, targeting other research facilities and their employees."

    More pictures of lab complexes on fire, dead eyed people stumblign around outside it. The remains what looks suspiciously like a ripped apart Sentinel. A picture of a McMansion neighborhood. Two in the back are fully engulfed in fire. The one in the foreground has writing (via high powered laser) around a circled window on the third floor:

    'Isn't this your daughter Kaleigh's room? Hi Kaleigh! Would your daughter be quite so adorable without a head, Doctor Nakanishi? Want to find out, doctor? one of these two things will be terminated within three days: 1) Your research career, B) Your family and 6-36 (d6x6) friends and acquaintances.

    McMannis mms. "They destroyed at least fifteen major covert research facilities over the course of six MONTHS of operation. The only good thing is that at least four of the units were destroyed in the process."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi nods her head. Now she knows what she's dealing with. A machine going on a rampage destroying laboratories.. and this one has begun the rampage all over again in New York. She gets a thoughtful look on her face and hmms. LMDs were bad, this thing is far worse. "But this fifth one. It was captured somehow? When I met it, it had just breached out of a stasis unit. How was it captured."

She circles the conversation back around, "And who would want to set it free. Who besides you and the tech at the New Jersey facility knew about this shipment. Why were those goons sent to intercept it?" She places her thumb print on her tablet to unlock the secure notes section and begins to write down some of the details she's been given. Infiltration of McMannis's group has been successful but that just makes her more responsible for finding a happy outcome to the mission."

Achilles has posed:
    Studying the video footage, Achilles lifts his brows. "Interesting. Were these units programmed to be this way? Or did they evolve some rudimentary sentience and object to being used as slaves?" he asks. You see, he is up to date on most things, but this sort of tech and insanity is outside his wheel house.
    But he steps back, "If one of these -is- on the loose, do you have any of those weapons that disable people, but geared with micro EMP loads?" he asks.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    McMannis shakes his head. "We don't know. The reports from the facility indicated that their loyalty was to Project Livewire and its controllers....but obviously that is not the case. We don't know if someone deliberately altered that programming, or the units overwrote their own loyalties before going berserk. We don't even know how news of the transfer leaked" McMannis growls a bit, slamming a hand on the desk, then lets out a breath.

    "As to why it was there, The details aren't entirely clear. Ten years ago, the remains of what appears to have been a heavily modified SHIELD helicarrier was recovered in the middle of Nevada. There were signs that its main engine systems had overloaded, deliberately most likely. Its hull number indicated it was a carrier reported to have been broken up after going down over Australia during a mission. There were signs that it fired at least one kinetic impact weapon at Mach 5 into the ground nearby; there are signs that it fired Unit 5 into the ground. There were pieces found that corresponded to Livewire designs among the wreckage, along with signs of highly illegal nanotech hive technology. After that, the Livewires disappeared. WE believed they'd been destroyed, apparently taking out the rogue carrier, but then this one, LW-05 resurfaced five years ago and began independent operation." He brings up the picture of the Japanese woman again....save this time she's clinging to the underside of a plane wing as she literally punches through the side of a large jet engines as it disintegrates around her arm...which looks pretty unharmed. "It's the heavy duty combat design, intended for combating Hulk-scale threats. Hyperdense construction giving it superhuman strength in the 50 ton range and similar invulnerability to all but the most powerful weapons."

    McMannis leans back in his chair. "We got lucky...managed to work out what was next on its list of targets and deployed a special unit to ambush it, managed to shut it down. It was being transferred to a facility capable of dismantling and destroying it." He wrinkles his nose. "EMP has limited effects on its design. It'll stun it, maybe force it to reboot for ten second or so...this one is hardened."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi nods her head. She stands up. "Right. I understand." Her eyes narrow a moment as she absorbs the tactics and history of these machines. "This time though we have a Fitz and a modus operandi." She looks to Angelo and then back to McMannis. "Don't worry you'll be getting the reports as I go. S.P.O.T. isn't about taking over an operation, just expanding its operating parameters. I'd say this LW-05 is worthy of it." There's a determined look on her face. "The past always comes back to haunt us. Captain," she says and offers him her hand, "You keep a tight ship." But of course she doesn't elaborate on how she dug up so much on this. She starts to leave the room, then pauses, "Oh, by the way. Gonzales says you still owe him a bottle of Japanese Whisky." She shrugs her shoulders and smirks, "He has the memory of an elephant."

Achilles has posed:
    Inclining his head, "The only question that I have at this time is.... was this a fallback plan on the Captain's part to give us something to focus on other than him?" he asks Bobbi, "The question is... is he smart or stupid enough to do that?" he asks as he turns his cold eyes on the Captain. "I suppose however that he must understand that if any of this does not pan out, it is... as you Americans like to say... his ass. Correct?" he asks as he turns for the door, reaching for it to open to allow Bobbi through.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    McMannis rises from his chand, eyeing Achilles, then taking Bobbi's hand. "Don't be a bigger pain in my ass than I'm willing to put up with, agent." he says steadily, meeting his eyes. If there's a few beads of sweat involved on his temple, it doesn't show in his expression. "I'm willing to let SPOT go fetch for me...or better yet, kill the damn thing before it kills anyone else. But this is classified beyond what either of you should know. If telling you this shit comes back on me, you will /not/ enjoy it. Is that understood...agent?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi is, ultimately, a professional. She is a spy but this is an organisation with ranks and even though they tend to ignore them a lot in some of their more adhoc teams, when it comes to showing respect there is a time and a place. Bobbi shakes his hand and then gives him a salute, "Yes sir." It's not a stiff one, nor a sarcastic one, but a respectful one. She glances to Achilles at his questions, curious that he wants to rattle the man further. A slight smirk not meant for McMannis and she's left the room.

Achilles has posed:
    Once Bobbi leaves, Achilles gives the guy one last look. Just a glance before he pulls the door shut. He keeps his calm until past Jenkins. But once out in the corridor, he deflates a bit, "Think I poured it on a bit too thick?" he asks, "And seriously, this -is- well above my pay grade. But... it's not like I don't have an alternate career to fall back on if need be."

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    McMannis collapses back in his chair, letting out a breath once the two are out of his office, before he opens a lower drawer, tugging out a flask and opening it to pour some into his coffee, before returning it and taking a deep drink, then setting it to the side and opening a com channel. "Jeremy...connect me with the MK unit." He waits for a moment, until a voice on the other end says. "Yes sir."

    "Captain. I have two agents going off the books over our target; they might get lucky. But I want the damned thing dead this time, and any lead on the remainder if they're still active."

    "MK units sir, or third part contractors?"

    "...third party. MK unit to standby. If they run it down we can deploy; if it's third party...well. If it gets the job done, collateral damage is less of a concern to me."

    "Understood sir." *click*