Prologue: A status update ahead of the meeting

As usual, a Gambit was provided to carry you on your way to meet the assembly of CEDIT bigwigs in London. This homecoming would be an interesting one. You'd left London as a decorated agent with no regrets in his career leading to that point. You were highly respected among your division. The only feasible move up was one to handler position; you'd just always thought it would come within your own division and in London. Had you made the right choice taking that opportunity and joining the Goodbye Girls? When you saw the head of operations in London-- so high above your pay grade that you'd formerly only shared a few words with her-- would she meet you with a smile for your representation of CEDIT London in Washington, or with cold jealousy for your legendary assignment, conducted alongside the Americans?

Thoughts like these, related to office politics and professional relationships, seemed like such strange worries for you. These were the concerns of regular agents. The handler for the Goodbye Girls typically had much more pressing matters on his mind: moment-to-moment survival, maneuvering against a possible mole within his own team, and that sort of thing. Lately, you'd had that on your mind a lot less, thanks to the results of your recent missions; in a short period of time, you'd beheaded Adder, wiped out what had to be the majority of the Deliverers, and dealt with Doctor Bortnik. That had meant cutting world terrorism off at the knees. Adder was the weapon provider for the vast majority of the world's underworld and Doctor Bortnik's cybernetics had been making Deliverers and others a real nuisance. With them out of the picture, things were downright quiet. The only loose ends seemed to be Promethia and the mysterious Namaste who'd contacted you in earlier missions, but even those two had gone missing as of late.

Goodbye awoke you from your reminiscence by clearing her throat noisily. The two of you were sharing the Gambit together with none of your other agents in sight for once, giving you an easier feeling, so much to the point that you'd nearly dosed off. The noise insulation was so impressive, you could hear her perfectly from across the plane's passenger hold. Today wasn't a day for mission gear; instead, you two were both dressed for the meeting. For you, that meant a smart black suit and tie, the sort of thing you wore often and wore well. You would probably meet a person or two in London who would recognize you by this strict dress code of yours. Goodbye, for her part, had eschewed her usual sweater-vest for a powder-blue blazer jacket and skirt, but it showed about as much leg as normal and seemed just about as ready to pop as her usual. She sat with her legs very closely closed, all business.

{if LARP with Goodbye = 1}At first, you found yourself hoping she had another "LARP" session on her mind. There was still plenty of time left on the trip for one, though you'd have to make sure the two of you cleaned up nicely afterwards. Unfortunately, it seemed you'd have no such luck for now. {endif}Once she'd gotten your attention, she pushed her glasses up with the bottom of her palm, then smiled slightly. "We have a few things we ought to go over before we hit our destination. After that, I'll let you get some shut-eye, so long as you don't drool on your tie..." She chuckled at her own joke, although you thought you could picture her doing that a lot more easily than yourself.{if@ Goodbye Affinity = 0}

Once again, Goodbye asked you for your take on who among the girls was most suspicious. This time, she was clearly planning for you to have a more thoroughly formed opinion.{endif}

{if Goodbye Affinity > 1}You let her lead the conversation. She clearly had something important on her mind, considering she'd been having such a difficult time bringing it up that she'd hesitated until now.

"You remember during Operation Heat Sink, we discussed your original mission: determining the mole among the Goodbye Girls. At the time, I asked you to make a judgment call. I'm not entirely sure if you were ready then... Our opinions may have been a little less than fully formed. With how close you've gotten to them now-- and it seems pretty darn close-- you must have made some new observations. We can forget what we said then; I want your new, revised thoughts. After these dangerous missions, with Adder Adjutant and Doctor Bortnik, I imagine you've seen whole new sides to the girls. Who is it that you think we need to have our eyes on?"

You'd expected this to come up some time during the meeting, but you didn't think it would be so early. You were pleased, at least, that you weren't being asked to call one of them out in front of a room full of your superiors from across the world's nations. But were you ready to make that determination?

"Once again, we have the full support of Telegram, waiting to take action based on whoever you name. After this call, I'm extracting them. Digging for info has gotten too dangerous; they don't have the same cover of being a trusted ally than you do, and I worry every day over what could happen to our agents in that assignment. In the worst case, they could even blow your cover. No, they're close to something big, but I want you to decide how we use this last hurrah. Who's the most worthy of further investigation? I'd like to dial it in right away, so they can have a report ready by the time we return to Washington." Your boss leaned forward in her seat slightly, eagerly awaiting your answer as the red light above reflected off of her thick-rimmed glasses. After all this time, she didn't seem to be any closer to making the determination herself...

But you were. Of course, all of the Girls still had their suspicious points; there could even be more than one of them behind all of this. That said, which was the most suspicious of them all? It could also be worth considering who was the hardest to approach, from your perspective; you could leave that one to Telegram while you focused on the ones you had better relationships with.{endif}