Phase 2: The after-meeting proposals

Goodbye was the first to approach you as the room began to clear out. "Well said, Nathaniel! Couldn't have said it better myself, really. You're not the handler for nothing," she chuckled, adjusting her tie with a nervous fidget. She'd been fidgeting throughout the whole hearing.

Well, Goodbye had been presented an opportunity to speak to the matter and didn't, so... you had to agree with her. She couldn't have said it better herself, evidently. You kept that thought to yourself.

"Whenever you finish up here and on the town, once you get to the hotel, please, come and find me. It'll be a little lonely here in London by myself and I'm sure I can rustle up some champagne for the two of us... My treat!" Your boss gave a wink behind her heavy-rimmed glasses, along with a hopeful smile. {if LARP with Goodbye > 999}It wasn't hard to reason out that she had more on her mind than just the chance to enjoy some champagne... You could imagine she was pondering how exciting it would if she ended up being chosen as the one woman in a room full of world leaders-- a suspiciously large number of whom were exotic, unmarried women-- that you wanted to spend the night with.{endif} "Of course, I get it if you have something else you need to do tonight. You don't get many chances back in London. If you don't show up, I'll just catch a movie on TV." That sounded a bit sad{if Goodbye's Hobbies > 999}, until you remembered that Goodbye was actually a sci-fi buff who loved movies{endif}. You watched her leave, her plump and stout figure standing out among the rest of the room.

The next to approach was Milaslava Bortnik, removing her brimmed military cap and running her non-metallic hand through her wild black hair. "Once again, Mister Speck, you have thwarted my efforts. I'm beginning to think you are still holding a grudge for how we treated the Goodbye Girls in Russia. That's very unprofessional, isn't it?" she sneered, smirking around her lit cigar. You could smell the smoke just as strongly from her tobacco and from her own breath, as she stood in awkwardly close distance and crossed her arms beneath her heavy bosom.

You asked: could she really blame you for holding a grudge, after all that?

"Ha ha! Point taken. Again... I'd love the chance to smooth things over," the older woman purred, removing the cigar from her mouth to grin down at you like a cougar. "There is one more matter that Miss Pettigrew did not discuss during the meeting. We're all wondering if it is possible to arrange a... transfer of Mister Speck, from Washington to another outpost. Washington has plenty of resources already; it's simply unfair that they're allowed to hoard the Goodbye Girls as well. Nobody's allowed to officially influence your opinion on the matter, but, well..." she boldly grabbed hold of your tie with her metal hand, then smoothly ran her fingers down its length. "I'd be happy to make an unofficial offer. Why not come see me tonight? I'll make a very... persuasive argument. I believe you'll see the merits of your cooperation going forward."

Somehow, interactions with Milaslava always made you feel as though you'd met a fifth Goodbye Girl-- a terrifying prospect. Still, it was your call. You could certainly reject her tonight if you wanted to; there wasn't much she could pull with every nation's CEDIT brass assembled in one city. When she left, she did so with a very intentional catwalk strut, drawing your eyes to her shapely bottom. She may be older than the rest, but she hadn't lost a step...

Finally, as the room was nearly cleared, another approached: Madison Pettigrew. She'd somehow avoided speaking with you at all, instead addressing the concerns of the others, as the room thinned out. "Mister Speck, there is one more matter I was loathe to bring up during the meeting, because I admit, it is a bit personal. Perhaps even unprofessional."

You had a feeling you knew what she was going to say, but you played dumb anyways. You asked her what was on her mind.

"You must understand that CEDIT London... regrets our short-sightedness. The expertise you've brought to the Goodbye Girls, to handle them overseas, could have been just as easily applied here, on your home turf. We have many bright agents chomping at the bit for their chance to make the evolution into own crack team of super agents, ones that could have benefitted from your handling and my guidance as administration. I suppose I'm saying that I regret that I never took the time to build a bridge between the two of us; I would have certainly seen these qualities within you and would have rejected the proposal to send you overseas. I don't want to make CEDIT nation-against-nation, of course, but... as administration, I have a duty to the prestige of our division, and it's clear to me now that I made a gross error when I chose not to hold onto you."

That was a pretty long-winded way of saying that she wanted you back, but you thought you understood. It was pretty flattering and stirred not altogether wholesome feelings within you, to see your former boss crawling back to you, metaphorically hat in hand.

"If you'd like to discuss the matter and hear my terms, please, visit my room at the Hotel Rowntree tonight. For appearance's sake, please make certain you aren't seen. We will have a chat over coffee... I want you to know everything we're prepared to offer you if you're willing to make the switch back to London. To be clear: you would be presenting this all as your own idea. It cannot be known that I requested it," she finished, smoothing her tie with one fist and blushing just a bit. You'd never expected to see such a vulnerable expression on the dignified leader of CEDIT London... When she left, she was the only one who didn't seem to be sashaying her hips a bit to draw your eyes. She was, at the very least, too proud for that.

You waited a bit longer, to see if any of the other world leaders were going to approach you and request that you visit their rooms at night for salacious activities. When they didn't, you actually gave a sigh of relief. The decision before you was tricky enough without more options.

In a sense, it felt very much as though you were being openly bribed. None of the women had done much to hide what might end up happening, whether it be over champagne, over vodka, or over coffee. Was it okay to go along with this, as a CEDIT agent? Was this still within the grounds of what you were allowed, based on your Rabbit Badge and your mission pertaining to the Goodbye Girls?