A ROUNDERHOUSE Joint
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REDEYE // Site Command & Security
» Director's Quarters
It was characteristically dark at Site-7 that morning, accompanied by gently falling snow layering all the surfaces of the nine platforms. The sun hardly rose this far north, and the hundreds of personnel that spent their months at the offshore facility had long since come to terms with that. They woke, ate, worked, and slept in the same half-twilight sky.
For her part, Agent Ari Katsaros — Secretary Katsaros, she reminded herself — was doing some combination of the three. The digital clock in the Director’s apartment announced the time was 0823. A glance at her own watch on her right hand confirmed it; O5-2 wouldn’t be awake for another half an hour. The advanced prosthesis attached to the stump of her left forearm quietly hummed, the only noise in the apartment aside from the patter of snow against the windows. It had a small digital clock readout embedded into the wrist, but she preferred to wear her own.
She was sitting on the couch, still sweating from her workout. A swift morning run to and from Bluefin, pausing there to use the main living platform’s dedicated gym. She preferred to work out when the gym was mostly empty — less noise, less bother. Now, sweat still dripping from her brow, she sat in front of the coffee table covered in the components of her disassembled Uzi. She was cleaning off the case when the door to the other bedroom slid open. Ari looked up.
“Morning.”
She nodded. “Morning.”
O5-2 wheeled himself out, dressed immaculately in one of his suits. A briefcase sat in his lap.
“Put some coffee on?”
“Sure.”
Ari stood, leaving her gun piecemeal, and walked into the kitchen, flicking on the small coffee maker before returning to her seat. O5-2 had rolled to the other side of the coffee table, opposite from the sofa. She leaned over, quickly picking up a few of the Uzi’s black-metal parts and making room for his papers. They nodded at each other, and the Overseer pulled a few manila folders from his briefcase, setting them down on the table.
They sat there for a few minutes in comfortable silence, Ari reassembling her submachine gun and O5-2 slowly reading through his papers. The coffee maker dinged just as Ari was tightening the last of the screws. She slipped it into her shoulder holster and got up to get the coffee.
Reaching up, she grabbed two mugs. Her first day of having the prosthetic installed, she had accidentally shattered three glasses while trying to get a cup of water. But a little practice and adjustment later, and she had developed a gentler touch. She poured out the coffee, taking the cups back to the center of the living room.
“Everything alright, boss?” she asked, handing him the mug.
“Dandy. The Teaser should be arriving in just an hour or two.”
Ari nodded. Today was the event she had been reviewing security plans and background checks on for the preceding week: the RAISA Expo. Every year, a selection of relevant Foundation personnel and administrators were invited to the cold hinterlands of RAISA headquarters to review and inform on upcoming technical changes that would be rolled out over the rest of the year.
“Guess you’ll be greeting them?”
“Yep. Then handing them off to Evie and Rita, thankfully. But still. Site-7 is going to be a little busier than we’re used to. Though, I’ll be spending most of my time reviewing incompetent project proposals that don’t utilize our massive data stores, or incorrect SIGINT conclusions, or something else equally trivial.“
Ari snorted in amusement.
“…Which means you’ll be stuck in meetings all day too, right beside me.”
Her face fell.
“Not every day can be action-packed. Most aren’t. This is the daily grind,” he said, quickly signing one of the folders and placing it back in the case.
Ari stood, still sipping her coffee, and walked to the window. It faced out, overlooking the other 8 platforms comprising Site-7. A quadcopter took off from Zhu Deep, heading north, no doubt to Site-7B. She could see dots of people walking on all the platforms, lights of countless offices and labs, countless personnel and computers keeping the Site going through the falling snow.
“Wonder what they’re all up to today?”