Learn about Vaarvel's role in the murders (Time -1)

The mission you'd been given early on had seemed nearly impossible: investigate the Goodbye Girls and piece together their roles in the murders of your predecessor, those who'd been named Ciao before you. Each of those had died under mysterious circumstances and, due to their involvement with the Goodbye Girls, the suspicion had naturally fallen upon the mysterious team. You, by some miracle, had stayed alive all this time, using a mix of wit, charm, and boldness; carefulness only came into it now and again, which could be what separated you from the previous handlers, for all you knew.

If, early on, you'd asked the girls directly about their knowledge of those dead handlers, you would have earned, at best, more of their deception or derisive behavior, and, at worst, an early admission into that same file of the deceased. By this point, you'd gotten close to the Girls... not only that, you'd certainly tipped your hand, to some extent, to the fact that you were investigating them. None of them were so stupid that they could have failed to realize that. As such, you felt that the time had come: you'd learn directly what they knew about the handlers that had died and what motivations they might have had for killing them. Even if your search with one of the Girls turned up fruitless, they were certain to know something that would point the finger at one of their comrades.

If anyone ought to know about the handlers and their deaths, it ought to be Vaarvel; she was around as a Goodbye Girl as long as Goodbye or Despedida and should have seen the comings and goings of every handler. In fact, judging by how Vaarvel tended to treat you, it only stood to reason that she played around with the other handlers in the same way. Was it really possible that someone had swiped them out from under her thumb? Unfortunately, after all the time you'd spent with her, it was hard to imagine anyone taking away Vaarvel's toys; if she got tired of them, she'd likely be the one to dispose of them.

You met Vaarvel at her usual tea table, where she could often be found on the occasions where she wanted to be found. The initially odd sight of the agent, dressed in her gray wet-suit and wearing a silver mask, had become commonplace and familiar. Comforting, really. If she was here, she wasn't out causing mischief elsewhere. She drank elegantly from her tea-cup, looking just as graceful as Madison Pettigrew of the CEDIT London branch, who was renowned as the world's most photograph-worthy tea-taker. London was very serious about its tea.

You couldn't just ask her if she'd murdered someone, so you started out a bit simpler: you asked if she could tell you everything she knew about your predecessors.

The woman put on a thin smile, then set down her tea-cup. "Nathaniel... I've been thinking for a while how funny it is. For all of your strengths, you're a fairly poor actor in other ways."

That wasn't a good start. You asked her to explain what she meant.

"Wouldn't most handlers start with the subject of their predecessors' deaths, to get a feeling for how they should carry themselves to avoid the same fate? I've waited for a long, long time for you to show any curiosity on the subject and, to my surprise, there were only glimpses. This told me very, very early on what your purpose here is: someone's granted you another mission. The only person who wouldn't begin with that question is someone who can't let me know they're interested. You're investigating those deaths..."

You didn't confirm, but you weren't surprised at all to learn that she knew. Her narrow eyes watched you unblinking, waiting to see if you'd admit to it or not.

Finally, she laughed, leaning her cheek on one fist in a somehow regal pose. "Hm... Stone-faced. Well, I suppose I can't blame you for not coming to question me about the handlers or their deaths sooner. After all, I must have seemed a pretty untrustworthy source of information in the past. What about now? If you're here, asking me... can I take that to mean you trust me?" she questioned, smiling more pleasantly behind her mask.

You weren't going to take the bait. You remained, as she'd put it, "stone-faced."

Her pretty smile broke, turning back into her sinister grin. "Ha ha ha! I suppose we'll never be there, will we? Oh, I've strung you along too long now. I really ought to reward those new acting talents of yours..." Chuckling, the agent picked back up her tea, holding it just at her chest as she began, at long last, to answer your question. "The first Ciao: one I hand-picked. A loyal but ambitious man, seemingly one with a bright future. Now deceased. The second Ciao... one we were assigned. He fancied himself a manipulator and I imagine that's how he got the assignment. Now deceased. The third Ciao... A lunatic, the only kind of person who could come onto the assignment so soon after the second death. Paranoid. Abundantly cautious. Now deceased." She drank from her cup, as though to stop herself from grinning at an especially inopportune moment. "And now... the fourth Ciao. Smooth... inquisitive... friendly, you might say. One might suspect you were trying to endear yourself to everyone, but really, I think you're just the first we've had who's seemed a normal man."

A normal man?

"One without such lofty, almost villainous ambitions. The third Ciao wanted nothing more than to become the downfall of the Goodbye Girls, exposing all of the crimes he imagined we'd created. The second wanted to get his hands on Tschau for Russia and was dumbly transparent in those intentions. The first... well..."

You sat forward in your seat slightly, feeling as though this one was more personal to her, based on her pause. Internally, you thought to yourself that you were plenty ambitious... after all, you were here, asking one of the legendary Goodbye Girls, directly, what she knew about men you suspected she may have killed.

"He loved me. He loved me so much that he wanted to take me away from this work. He wanted to abandon his mission; that's a very lofty goal as well... not only to desire me, but to see all of this and think you can escape the life. Not only that, but to think he could take me out of the life! Ha ha ha... Remembering him brings a fond smile to my face. It's always the good ones that die young, Ciao." She raised her eyebrows, then pressed her fingers delicately against her breast. "Did that make you think of my age, Nathaniel? I still consider myself young, I'll have you know. I am one of the good ones..."

You asked, pointedly, if she had to murder him to stop his fanciful idea of running away with her.

Once again, she paused to take a long sip of tea, then set down her saucer. Her face was frighteningly unreadable, in its usual grin. "Come now. You can't expect me to give you all the answers. Besides that, I'm hurt... have I not implied that I respected this man? The love was not one-sided. His was an admirable goal; mine was simply more admirable. But would I kill him to put an end to that dream of his?"

This time, it was your turn to watch her face. The scary, white crescent of a grin beneath her mask told you that her hypothetical was not outside the realm of possibility.

"I hope you won't repeat his mistake. I cherish you, Mister Speck... Part of the reason for that is that you always have CEDIT's best interests at heart. So do I. All the time." She slid another saucer across the table to offer you tea, but you politely refused... as politely as you could manage, while pondering what now seemed the likely scenario that Vaarvel had murdered a fellow agent and potential lover just because he'd tried to get her to retire from the most dangerous assignment in human history. "His death was a tragedy, but now we have you... I'd say it turned out alright."

You could hardly nod along with such a statement.

"You're still so tense! Please, allow me to pour you some tea-"

Instead of doing that, you rose from your seat and slapped one hand onto the couch's armrest next to her. She didn't so much as flinch, instead, staring challengingly up at you. You told her that she'd all but admitted to killing the man just now.

"I told you I loved him and he loved me. I never said I killed him, although I did say that it's probably for the best that he's out of the picture now. Acting out of vengeance for that man, whose death was an unavoidable tragedy, will do no good for anyone."

You asked: she means it's not good for you, specifically, right? She's warning you that if you dig too deep, you'll end up the same as him.

"Not just you, Nathaniel. Me. It will end poorly for me as well..." She closed her eyes, swapping her grin for a gentle smile for a moment as she raised her hand and began to stroke the knuckles and fingers of the one you'd placed upon the couch. "I don't want to lose another agent I love..."

You jerked your hand back, appalled that she'd try to trick you with another joke like that while the two of you were discussing the matter of your life and death. By this point, it was clear in your head: Vaarvel had clearly murdered the man. All you had to do now was find the right time to break it to Goodbye. However, when you looked back, she still wore that expression, smiling sadly.

"Don't let this change things between us," she requested again in a quiet voice.

Something about that expression, beautiful and vulnerable, made you feel more manipulated than you'd ever felt in her presence. Struggling to hide the stormy emotions behind the stony face she'd complimented you on earlier, you moved quickly out of the room.

The time would come for a reckoning with Vaarvel; that much was clear. She'd asked you to think of what's best for CEDIT... even as she all but admitted she'd killed one of their handlers. What's best for CEDIT must mean putting Vaarvel behind bars, right? It had to be...