Second in Command

With Melanie outside with the other UK girls, catching up with Laura, Chantelle was left alone in the Team Queen bedroom with Lexie to start a conversation she needed to have.

While ultimately her role here was to send every other girl in the mansion to NF, which was the job she was being paid crazy money for, it didn't mean that Chantelle hadn't made genuine friendships here and one of those was with Lexie. As abrasive as she could be, since joining the group Lexie had gotten on fine with everyone except Barbie and had been fairly close to Chantelle. Having read her files and studied her background comprehensively, Chantelle was aware the whole tough chick persona was an act.

Everyone had to find their own coping mechanism to deal with being constantly naked. Tina used ****, Abigail always wore her cap as a security blanket, Chantelle herself, in the early days before she needed to hide her profession, found walking around with her gun stopped people staring for too long. In Lexie's case, she had made herself into someone people wouldn't dare to fuck with. Before signing up to NA Alexandra Tate had been nothing like that.

A straight A student at school. Alexandra had gone on to graduate from the University of Washington School of Law with first class honours. She had the made a strong start to her career at a distinguished law firm in Seattle before she joined NA and all her hard work was ruined. It was no wonder she was angry. But Chantelle believed the change in image came more from a sense of self preservation, of dissuading anyone from trying to take advantage of her highly **** situation.

The blue and black hair, the tattoos, the piercings, constant cursing and the switch from Alexandra to Lexie had all happened post NA. She never talked at all to anyone in the mansion about the person she used to be. Chantelle, however, knew her background and that, out of all of the glitches, she had the widest and most impressive skill set. She was also unfailingly loyal and willing to make herself unpopular if it meant doing what she thought was right. In other words, she would be a perfect second in command.

"So, how do you feel about everything that has gone down here today?" Chantelle began to probe.

"Well, the rat cunt has gone, so it's all good I guess," Lexie shrugged.

Though they had no idea, one thing Lexie and Barbie had in common was being the only two glitches to have slipped through the clutches of the notorious NA super agent who worked on the west coast. He had given a different false name to each of them so there was really no way of them realising. Maybe if they had they might have gotten on better with that to bond over.

"So look, you know I love Mel..."

Lexie was already adopting defensive body language in response to the way Chantelle had begun, she needed to explain herself quickly.

"Melanie is in Team Queen because she is super smart, a brilliant strategist and her influence over the other UK girls is immense. But you know how sweet she is, she is not exactly the type to kick butts. I also know how close you are to her and that you wouldn't want to see her lose her popularity here."

"You want me to be your attack dog?" Lexie surmised.

"I want you to be my second in command. And I plan to make it official. None of the ambiguity we had under Barbie where everyone acted like I was her deputy, but I technically never was. There needs to be some sense of hierarchy here. Each of the other teams will have a leader. I'm thinking Sophie, Tina and Leilani."

The team leader manoeuvre added more submissiveness within the system and undermined Cassie, the only glitch Chantelle didn't trust and who was likely to become the de facto leader of Team Badass without her intervention.

"Sounds good to me. What do you need me to do, chief?"

"Well to start, I want you to confiscate everyone's phones, and that includes mine," Chantelle handed her personal phone to Lexie, her work one remaining hidden. "We will keep them locked away safely and only use them for missions. I wanted to do this before but Barbie disagreed, No wonder! I bet she was messaging NA right in front of me. She was always on that thing."

"Consider it done," Lexie jokingly saluted. "Anything else?"

"You can let the teams know who their leaders are. The leaders will meet with me on a daily basis and ad hoc when required. Their team mates must do what their leaders tell them without question. We need order around here. Things were so sloppy under Barbie, though I guess that suited her aims."

"Okay, I'm on it!" Lexie smiled in approval. "Finally, we might actually have a chance of doing something here."