Epilogue: Adder Adjutant is in CEDIT custody

You felt too beat on the Gambit ride home to have the kind of fun that Au Revoir or Vaarvel may have liked to give you; it was pleasant enough just to converse with them, with the two unusually clad in their respective swimwear (and Nora Goldstein in a nice cocktail dress, though her snake-like features were still growing on you). The experience was made all the nicer by the presence of Nora's antidote, which you gratefully drank down to cure yourself of the Bound Blood 1000. "Without Adder's resources, it's going to take a while to reverse engineer the stuff in large batches... But hopefully, it won't be long until we're able to outfit all agents with preventative kits of the stuff. The terrorists under Adder's control may be hard to get the antidote to, but eh, they're just a homogenous group of terrorists instead of a heterogenous one now. With Adder Adjutant under control, I feel like the chain of command is so far disrupted, Bound Blood 1000 may be a curse rather than a blessing... Everybody is probably going to end up wondering who's at the top of the organization now and where the ability to assume control stops." Nora explained all of this to you with a big, toothy grin, seeming just as relieved to say it as you were to hear it.

Still, as nicely as things had wrapped up, with Adder Adjutant bound by wire and strapped into her seat, you couldn't help but think that something felt off. This mission was theoretically the most difficult in CEDIT history, or even Goodbye Girls' history as you knew it: to infiltrate the Palm of Royalty, retrieve an antidote and a scientist (both of which had been captured by a room full of Adder agents), locate the leader of the most powerful terrorist organization in the known world, and extract her without killing her. It sounded impossible, and yet, you'd accomplished it with zero casualties and minimal injuries.

The way you'd achieved victory seemed downright slapstick, in hindsight. Unbelievable. Fabricated. Maybe suspecting everyone had left you too suspicious, but you couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, you'd been had. Even with the leader of the terrorists knocked out next to you, you still couldn't accept it.

"This is not the time for frowning, Ciao! This is the time for celebration! You'll see a big bonus in your paycheck for this one, believe you me!" Au Revoir attempted to improve your mood, grinning across from you and crossing her arms across the broad chest of her blue bikini top.

"Hm hm hm... With that out of the way, maybe we'll have time for more recreation in the future, too. You'll like that... right, Ciao?" Vaarvel added, smirking and re-crossing one thick leg over the other.

"Ooooh?" Nora commented, matching the others' smiles and pushing her glasses up with two fingers. "You're in this kind of relationship with the Goodbye Girls, huh? What's recreation? I'll bet you guys are talking about something freaky, given the people involved." You remembered that she'd given you some pretty deeply buried secrets back during your first encounter with her; that made you wonder if she was the gossipy type. Your illicit affairs with the Goodbye Girls might not remain secret for long, after this.

"Ha ha ha ha! Oui, oui! Very freaky!" Au Revoir guffawed, throwing one arm around Nora's shoulders and knocking her glasses off in the process. The scene was so lively and spirited, it did go a long way to shake your doubts and improve your mood.

This time, Nora rejoined the science team in Washington; the belief was that her presence there, with Adder Adjutant held in custody nearby, may be conducive to the development of the antidote. After saying your goodbyes, you rejoined Goodbye in her office; this was the rare meeting with Goodbye that included two of your other agents. The passage of time had them back in their standard gear, unfortunately. Vaarvel was back in her skinsuit and mask, with her usual dark skin-tone, and Au Revoir had her close-fitting tank-top and shorts, with her hair tied into a tight, thick braid.

Their presence made Goodbye more nervous in the most obvious manner, with her chugging even more coffee than usual. The hand holding her coffee mug was jittering so badly, you thought she'd probably end up splashing it all over her glasses or her tie at some point during the meeting. "Y-Y-Yes! Good work, girls! And you, Ciao! You accomplished such a difficult mission so swimmingly. I don't think there's anyone in the known world who could have pulled that off, no matter their numbers or resources!" she praised your small group, coming off as a bit of a sycophant.

"Hm hm... What resources would you assign to any mission greater than the three of us, Pamela?" Vaarvel chuckled, resting the side of her head on her fist and kicking one of her crossed legs idly.

"... Valid point! At any rate, we have Adder Adjutant in custody now. The time is ripe for an interrogation... finally, a criminal in custody, being interrogated here, at our base, on our home turf, on our terms! A-A-Are you guys as excited as I am?!" your boss asked, doing her best to look invigorated and not nervous as hell.

You assured her that you were, but you did have to ask why she'd called everyone together here.

"Well, as the handler and given your recent mission, I thought it might make the most sense for you, Ciao, to decide how you want to handle the interrogation. If you feel that... one of your girls should accompany you on the interrogation... I wanted to give you the chance to speak your peace."

There was a bit to unpack with this instruction; Goodbye was not exactly the best when it came to giving this sort of discrete, coded dialogue. Basically, she was saying that she wanted to leave it up to you, but recognizing that you might not feel safe in a room alone with Adder Adjutant, she was giving you the opportunity to bring one of the others in with you. At the same time, she recognized that they may not be completely trustworthy and that you had a better bead on which was than she did. That meant you were the best qualified to pick if either of them needed to be present there.

"Let me be the bad cop, Ciao! I'll get all of the answers out of her, even if I have to beat them out of her!" Au Revoir smiled, although you detected something different than her usual desire to beat up everyone and anything. Her stakes with Adder were personal...

"I feel silly telling you this, but this specific situation requires a delicate touch. I believe it should be obvious that I'm the best suited for extracting information," Vaarvel added, keeping her arms crossed and regarded you with a thin smirk, as if daring you to pick Au Revoir instead. "Haven't I proven myself trustworthy yet?"

Did you want either one of them in there with you? This could be the sort of situation where you'd rather they not be aware of the sorts of questions you asked. There was a chance Adder was somehow connected with the deaths of the previous Ciaos and bringing that question up out of the blue may make the others realize how much of your secret mission was tied up in finding those answers.