Prologue: Ciao approaches the tech wing and receives a warning

As bad as the situation with Vaarvel and Au Revoir sounded, you knew that London had their own resources to handle their own problems. They were probably the most sophisticated CEDIT branch in the world, apart from their lack of a division like the Goodbye Girls. On the other hand, everyone in Washington lived in perpetual fear of the legendary team; for them, the only way to fight fire would be with fire, and you were the closest thing to a Goodbye Girl they had right now.

As you ran through your base with your smart, black tie flapping like that of a character from a major movie franchise, you took stock off the items you'd been given. The Discrete EMP was easy to pocket and carry, but the Hack-Gun was the type of thing that ended up occupying a full hand; you ended up with the thing swinging from your fist in plain sight. Still, having the two ought to give you some degree of comfort, in the face of an enemy with enhanced cybernetic prosthesis and full access to CEDIT's security system. These types of tools would be more reliable than your gun if it came down to a one-on-one confrontation with the ninja. You'd seen her in action and had no illusions that you stood a chance of facing her in either a long-ranged gunfight or a close-up exchange of fists.

That final thought was a bit sobering. It wasn't only a matter of your own lack of enhancements and training compared to the girl's; you couldn't actually imagine yourself attacking your close partner, the small, snappy, quirky girl that you'd come to know after so many missions. You had some ideas as to why she may have ended up going rogue and a distinct hope that you would find a way to turn her back to the CEDIT side. What remained to be seen, however, was her own temperament and the kind of damage that she'd caused already. The blaring alarm and flashing red lights inside the familiar corridors of the subterranean base were reminders that she must have already caused some significant havoc, if they'd labeled her as an enemy combatant.

For the world at large, knowing there was an anti-terrorism force outfitted with state-of-the-art weapons and combat gear under the control of the world's government authorities might provide some degree of peace. Instead of embracing that confidence, when you spotted the team camped in the hallway, nearly motionless as they all awaited your arrival, you felt their hopelessness radiating off of them. In order to be assigned here, they'd all watched video footage of what the ninja could do. Up against that and their own base's security, they all knew that they didn't stand a chance of leading the infiltration. "Sir," the one in charge greeted you, snapping a salute that immediately relinquished control of the situation to you.

You returned his salute, but didn't hold it; there was no time for such pleasantries. You immediately asked for a situation report.

"Wish we had more to go on. All we've got so far is a whole wing of locked doors with camera-mounted turrets live and two missing super agents," the unlucky officer admitted, raising both hands in a helpless shrug.

It didn't sound like they had much to go on. Why had they decided Tschau must be behind this?

"We haven't been able to send men inside, but drone reports indicate that Tschau's got a group of scientists held hostage deep inside there. Not only that... surprised you haven't heard, but Promethia, the Deliverer terrorist, is also patrolling the hallways. There's not a thing our team can do to get through a defense like this. At this point, even drone reconnaissance is ineffective; they're all being shut down early out the gate."

You were amazed to hear that the situation was even worse than you thought; Promethia may have been bested twice by this point, but she was always a dangerous opponent. And what of Despedida?

"No idea. We know she approached this area shortly before the attack began, since we've got camera footage from before the hack, but everything else is a blur. For all we know, she's already--" the man explained, then held his tongue, remembering who he was talking to. "Sorry, Sir. This must be harder for you than anyone."

You shook your head and told the man that while you didn't relish the idea of facing an old friend in Tschau, you also had a bit of an advantage over the others here; you'd seen something like this building up for a long time and, to some degree, steeled yourself for it.

"We're standing by for any support we can give. Just say the word."

Here, you echoed what Goodbye had told you: you were the only man for the job. In fact, you had to suspect you were at the root of this whole situation. The way just enough information had been delivered to Goodbye to get you here and the way that all of these men had been locked out with threats that only you had accumulated knowledge and experience to face made it clear that someone was engineering a situation only you had a prayer to overcome. As such, you weren't going to throw men at it. You told the team to stay put while you infiltrated alone.

"Sir, no offense, but you're not some drone. You're not expendable! Give us orders and we can have a fireteam--"

You instructed him clearly: no fireteam. No accompaniment. You'd handle this alone.

Leaving the team on standby at the tech wing's main entrance, you kept one hand on your hack-gun as you infiltrated slowly into the red-lit rooms. Whoever the mastermind behind this was, they could have closed off every door. Instead, some were left open, making your progression through the wing like a maze crawl. Oddly, every room you moved through seemed to be free of scientists. There was no way she'd taken every egg-head in the tech department hostage... Maybe some of them were closed off in the deeper parts you'd been restricted access to?

You speculated that whoever was controlling the security doors could even be trying to keep the scientists safe from Promethia. An optimistic part of you dared to hope that this was somehow Promethia's doing and Tschau was actually innocent in it.

As if in answer to your thoughts, a nearby black video screen at a work-station suddenly popped on, drawing your attention. The orange-toned image on its previously unlit surface displayed a pair of hands clapping together in prayer or greeting, with a campy BGM that didn't at all fit the gravity of the situation you now found yourself in. The situation escalated as one-by-one, every monitor in view slowly adopted the same image, with those capable of sound projecting that music as well. It appeared that whoever Namaste was, they weren't going to let you ignore their message this time around.

"Namaste, Nathaniel," a warbling voice of unidentifiable gender sent greeting from all around you. "You're in a pickle this time, huh? I did warn you that the clock was ticking on this whole Goodbye Girls situation. Your inability to quickly suss out a traitor is all you have to blame."

You told them they didn't have to have full control over the base's technology and cameras to know that things were bad. Just looking at this blasted procession of locked security doors and hearing the light whir of cameras would clue an observer into the hopelessness of this predicament. You started to say a bit more, before they spoke over you once again.

"I told you, buddy-- I'm on your side. The two of us can work together to solve this." The hands displayed on the screen suddenly parted, then waved left to a diagram that quickly bounced in from the other side. "For a brief window of opportunity, I can raise the security shutters that stand in your way, deactivate the cameras, and even light you a way to where you need to be to reach Tschau."

Before you could point out that Promethia would still be an issue either way and that you may actually have an easier time getting a jump on that enemy with the maze active, Namaste intercepted your train of thought. "This path will send you straight past that big terrorist lug so you can focus on Tschau.; she'll be confined to a secured block by herself, without anyone else she can harm in a rampage. The doors are nice and fire resistant."

You paused for a moment to see if the mystery helper would give you any more free offers, while still considering how you felt about it. The voice spoke up once again, sounding impatient. "Don't bother declining my offer or trying to be macho about it. I'm doing it now, whether you want me to or not."

... This seemed to good to be true. You ran your fingers over the sleek surface of the CEDIT hack-gun thoughtfully and considered your next move. Namaste's existence and access to CEDIT technology had always been suspicious, but you'd never directly linked them to any dangerous behavior in the past. In fact, they'd clued you in on the approaching storm of the Goodbye Girls' betrayal, and it seemed that forewarning had been accurate. Would you trust them this time, or would they join an ever-increasing list of people you'd decided needed to be met with an ample degree of suspicion?