19673/Perfect paranoia

Perfect paranoia
Date of Scene:	19 December 2024
Location:	Director's Office: Triskelion
Synopsis:	Director Fury has a chat with Agent Romanova regarding New Jersey. They'll be headed to the Shore with a few others 'this weekend'.
Cast of Characters:	Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff

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Nick Fury has posed:
As it gets closer to the Holidays, with a capital 'H', the incoming news holds an unequal measure of bad to good. Countries are rising, falling; skirmishes, revolutions are heating up, and despots are seeking sanctuary in enemy states.

All this with a helping of 'impending global disaster' does nothing to give the Director of SHIELD that 'happy, peace on Earth, good will towards man' feeling.

Nick Fury isn't sitting behind his desk; he's up on his feet, looking at monitor screens, shifting his head so his one good eye can catch the readouts. Some of information there would seem arcane to the uninitiated, but he reads them with ease, even if without pleasure.

"God damned Jersey," he mutters, "Always a pain in my a-"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova is entering in, going to glance about over and then knock on the door to announce herself, "Sir, judging by the agitators going over in the news media, whatever distraction campaign you're working on is oing extremely well. I take it that you're looking to have things locked down over in the airspace for other operations?"

Otherwise, why did they really care about Jersey and complaining people?

Nick Fury has posed:
Exactly. No one cares about Jersey.

Seriously. No one.

The smell of cigar is rich in the room, even if The Man doesn't have one lit at this particular moment. The room carries the rich scent (which some would describe in less flowery terms), mixed with Hoppes 9 and some leather.

"Come."

Nick knows exactly who it is, and while at this point the 'knock' is a courtesy, it's still present. "Picatinny is doing a good job. Homeland Security is showing everyone what sort of idiots are at the helm." Doesn't matter who it is, Fury has zero regard for politicos.

Turning slowly with something of a smirk on his face, he nods. "One is screaming enemy operators. Another says military. Hell, some have even declared aliens." Of course, probably not too far afield, given current events.

"Like shooting fish in a barrel."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would nod over at Fury, "It's a good way to test the competence of bureaucratic officials." Give them a minor enough incident to get the public's attention and to make noise but nto be threatening, and see how they handle it. Whether they dedicate sufficient resources to it, handle relations wiht the press adequately, and if necessary investigate it. A simple enough 'show people you can do your job' routine.

Most often the Feds simply staged their own incidents to 'restore faith' in their actions.

"So have you determined then who is useful to be flipped within the system?"

Nick Fury has posed:
Jersey is an absolute mess. The only reasonable voice in the tumult seems to be a county Sheriff that has sent resources to actually go and LOOK at the drones; to utilize extra resources to surveil and make note of movement and such.

"Yes. On the shore. I'm going down this weekend and have a talk with him." A single dark eye turns to Natasha again and he nods. "Got any plans?" As if he has to ask?

"I'd take Barton too, but.." he's busy.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would shake her head, "No, Sir. I was on dispatch duty in the event of an.. Incident." By which she meant on the plus five scramble when an alert goes out. "If you wish for me to be available for other operations, that of course takes precedence." Other agents needed some time to breathe around the holidays, and she had no particular like of them, so it was a rather simple decision for her to be on duty for them.

"I believe that it's somewhat probable we'll see an increase in theatres of operation and threats come the next two weeks." Between Chrsitmas and New Years. Evil villains liked getting presents. Or stealing them.

Nick Fury has posed:
"Great." The word is spoken quickly and easily; acknowledging the fact that Natasha is more than willing and able to shift focus. That's why she's one of his trusted. "Get together a tech team. We're going ahead with scheduled events."

Nick exhales in a sigh and crosses the short distance to his desk. Walking behind it, he sits down heavily in his leather chair and opens a drawer to withdraw an uncut cigar. A cutter appears from nowhere, as well as a proper lighter, reminiscent of car lighters. "I know. I watched Cairo burn, but the mutants have that in hand. I'm expecting a power vacuum there. We have problems in Europe with governments. I just want to be sure we still have the capabilities, and this damned drone thing is eye-opening."

Leaning back in his seat, he glances at the screens once again.

"Just one more thing to add to the list. Merry f*ing Christmas."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would fold her hands behind her back, "Yes, Sir. Will you have an asasult team on standby for the normal attempts at sacking that seem to be targeted in that general region? Or is the delegation to fast response forces being given to other groups to handle?" The first time someone had tried to talk about Christmas 'seriously' with Natasha she had inquired with them why they had no issues with the mass use of slave labor and serfs. It had gotten worse since then.

"Readiness is as.. Steady as it can be given the circumstances." Spread thin, having to handle damage control, having to be ready to be nearly anywhere within their jurisdiction and on tripwires outside of it to be able to lend backup.

Nick Fury has posed:
"Where do you think Barton is?" Probably in the air already on their way via Helicarrier to the region. "I like good eyes. We're not going in unless we absolutely have to." The first pull of the cigar is given the proper amount of respect, and Nick takes the moment to enjoy it. Then, on to business.

"I'd love to send you there too but right now, you're too valuable here. Promise you'll be out there soon enough." After all, the Russians are involved. (They're always involved.) "Depending on what is going on, there might be an extraction." For Nick, that might be a euphemism.

"From where I'm sitting, we're the most God-damned ready agency on this planet." And, depending on where one is sitting, that might be a good statement, or a very sad one. Of course, he has his biases...

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would nod over at Fury, "Yes, becasue we have to be ready to deploy sixty or seventy squad based strike teams at any given moment to cover roughly twenty million square kilometers we have to be ready to cover." Just the United States and Europe that was their mandate. Much less teams they had on standy for places they technically -didn't- have permission to operate within but did anyways.

"The Russians, the Chinese, and the North Koreans seem to be under lockdown of their own meta-teams, at least."

Nick Fury has posed:
Operational readiness. Director Fury demands it. Training, education and movement. R&D, as far as he is concerned, the best and brightest in the world. This trip to the Jersey Shore is another step in that readiness; a meeting of the minds with the one Sherriff that has a mind of his own AND can use it, both within the confines of his job's scope and beyond.

The making of an ally.

"You don't see that as a problem, do you?" The amount of responsibility that hangs on the collective shoulders of SHIELD, and ultimately, on his own. "I think it's perfectly doable."

As far as the Russians, the Chinese and Koreans? Nothing in his world are beyond him. They're keeping an eye there as well.

Just in case.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Because everyone's just too paranoid, has too many weapons, and is on edge. They're not about to start the Third World War, but everyone is staring over the shoulder of everyone else with the expectation that they're going to start something. "We can only keep watch and be ready. An dmake sure that by being ready we don't grind down our own deployment tempos."

Because being too on edge wore down personnel and hit efficiency hard as troops got emotionally and mentally exhausted, and thus more prone to make mistakes.

"We need groups outside of the.. established metahuman community with contacts and a willingness to coordinate with, official or otherwise."

Nick Fury has posed:
Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness. Are you paranoid if they're //really// out to get you?

Nick lives by those mantras. It's kept him alive for this long and has kept him ahead of the game. Sure, there have been times when he's had to come out from being set back on his heels, but those times have been few and far between.

He actually knows how the sausage gets made.

"Operations is fine," he assures. "We've got this." There's that moment of consideration as he truly looks at his left-hand man, studies her. "If you need a break, Romanoff, take it. You can't stay on the knife edge forever either. I don't care what they say." Or her.

"If you don't, report to the bay at 04:00 on Saturday." A tacit dismissal.