Prologue: Ciao arrives at CEDIT's London base

It felt paradoxical to your nature to leave the unfolding threat of a rogue agent back in Washington, but the situation at London was sure to be no less dire; with any luck, Despedida and the others would get that one under control. If the smooth and reliable Vaarvel was acting erratically, along with the extremely dangerous former Adder member, Au Revoir, you had a duty to help contain that situation. You might not have learned everything there was to know about these two mysterious women, but you knew more than perhaps anyone else on the planet about them. That meant you also knew better than to assume that they had benign reasons for stealing a plane to London without telling you or Goodbye.

When you arrived at the CEDIT base, you witnessed a heart-stopping sight. Your own Gambit was being allowed through-- a testament to the preparation of the London branch-- but the other Gambit hadn't been so fortunate. Someone or something had shot it out of the sky, leaving it a smoking wreckage in the courtyard just outside the entrance to the subterranean base. There was a chance that the just or unjust intentions of your teammates wouldn't matter at all; they could have simply died in that wreckage.

Your gut told you otherwise. There was no way that Vaarvel or Au Revoir would go down like that... More likely, they'd abandoned the plane before impact. It could even be that this wreckage was a distraction; you saw teams of London officers pouring over that wreckage, looking for survivors with guns drawn. You wondered if the branch had even tried to hail the Goodbye Girls before shooting down that Gambit... Madison seemed level-headed enough that you imagined she'd make the right call, but she did seem to have a public distaste for the way the Goodbye Girls operated. She might not have hesitated to issue a kill order, facing the possibility of an attack and with the opportunity to strike back directly within her sights. Then again, you thought she valued the Goodbye Girls agents as assets too much to make that kind of reckless call.

All of these were questions that could be answered if you found Madison. Frankly, her safety was the biggest concern here; there was nothing else in London worth targeting, as far as you knew.

You pushed your way through teams of heavily geared London personnel; their equipment was not intended to help them against the flames and smoke of the Gambit crash site, but also, to protect them in the case that rogue agents were still hidden out near the impact zone. Thankfully, your time at the international summit had helped people learn your face and your typical manner of dress, so clearing your way through the gates was not an especially difficult task. You had no time to lose, knowing that Vaarvel probably could have made her way and Au Revoir's through any checkpoint she pleased given her unparalleled skills of deception.

The base felt a bit like a ghost town, especially with the memory of the international gathering fresh in your mind. The only sign of life as you entered was the warning alarm and flashing red lights, the same sort of system that had informed you of an attack at the Washington base. Had Madison really been so foolish, to leave herself completely unguarded while she scrambled all forces to investigate the plane crash? If the Goodbye Girls hadn't already come with the intention of attacking her, they certainly weren't going to let her off the hook now that she shot them out of the sky.

You found your mind eased slightly as you approached the woman's office and found it guarded by two heavily armed individuals, each carrying the latest in CEDIT weaponry, from assault rifles to side-arms. Not for the first time, you felt a bit ridiculous approaching them, armed with nothing but a standard service pistol and a handful of questionably useful gadgets. You asked them if there'd been any sightings of the Goodbye Girl so far, although you were certain you knew the answer.

"Sir, yes sir. Au Revoir was spotted heading towards the tech division," one of the men spoke through his heavy, full-head helmet. The black face visor made it so that you couldn't even see his eyes or expression as he spoke to you in that composed voice. "A Vaarvel team and an Au Revoir team have been dispatched; Vaarvel team is searching the wreckage, Au Revoir team is in tech. We'd sure appreciate it if you'd go give the Au Revoir team a hand; our men are carrying the best equipment available to humanity, but we all know she's something else."

You nodded, then moved one hand to your hip, where your weapon and gadgets were waiting. You asked each of them to briefly remove their helmets. It was unlikely you'd see Vaarvel smiling underneath either helmet, but you had to be sure...

Both seemed very male with their helmets off. You were just happy they'd obliged... you didn't need to test your combat prowess here. Now that the two of them have complied, they clearly expected you to comply and help contain the rogue agent on the loose.