Louder than Bombs | KNJ

The General

~One Month ago~

Ava stood in the door to Lara's office and...fidgeted.

It caught Lara's attention because of the slight movement from the corner of her eye, so she looked up from the monitor. However, when your weapons and demolition expert stands in front of you and looks uncomfortable, it's not a great thing.

Lara's first instinct was to stand and brace to empty the building, but Ava shook her head slightly and then held herself still.

"Mr. Powell sent a courier," said Ava and began to rub her thumbs over each other again as she clasped her hands in front of her.

A little nonplussed at what was obviously an involuntary movement, Lara signaled to Ava.

"Can you take a look at something on my screen for a moment, I'll just call Blair down and we'll take this meeting together," she said loudly enough for her voice to carry into the front room. Lara's eyes narrowed when she saw Ava's movement subside and nudged the girl into her own chair as she came closer.

"Watch the monitors please," she said to Ava, and ran off a series of texts from her phone as she strode towards her office door. She could have sworn she heard the girl sigh in relief as she left the room.

Lara had known Ava and her sister Darcy for a little over a year now and already she felt that they were nearly family. Ridiculously competent Ava, who could handle pretty much anything including disarming various explosives, was now unnerved and reduced to sitting in Lara's office. Lara wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but she chose to have Ginny activate all potential cautions.

Blair met Lara at the corner where her own office stood and together, they walked to the front.

Lara's eyes gave nothing away, but as she entered the small lobby area, she could sense that something was wrong with this courier. To Lara's eye, the man was definitely southeast Asian, but to call him Korean was stretching her belief system. He stood just inside the office door, conveniently in the shadow provided by the awning over their door. His charcoal grey suit fit the man like he'd borrowed it from someone who was just a little bit taller and a bit heavier, but even then, Lara's trained eye could see the outline of the weapon carried.

Lara's eyes flicked to her partner and Blair nodded slightly.

Blair smiled warmly and greeted the man, ushering him into their conference room and Lara closed the door behind her as she entered.

He chose not to sit down as couriers from Appa Powell often did. Ava didn't return to offer the man hospitality drinks, and Lara didn't think he would wait around long after he handed off the message.

"Greetings Ladies, my name is Kim Mi-reu. I am here on behalf of Director Powellssi, to deliver a message," he said as he held out an envelope and bowed slightly.

Lara looked at the envelope and waited for it to catch fire or something. Every single sense she had was telling her this wasn't a positive thing, but Blair stepped forward.

"Thank you, Kim Mireunim. We appreciate that you have journeyed so far to bring us this message from Director Powelllnim," said Blair and Lara's shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. Blair knew something was off as well.

"Thank you for accepting the message miss," and with that, the man nearly spun on his foot and swift walked out into the lobby and disappeared into the flow of traffic in front of their office.

Blair put the letter down on the conference table and Lara went to the little cupboard in the back and grabbed the equipment she wanted. Blair turned on her phone and walked through both the conference room and the lobby, then wandered outside. Holding her phone up, looking like she was taking a selfie, Blair was actually using an app that Ginny had helped develop to detect for hidden camera lenses. Soon, Blair casually leaned over the front window of their office and used a napkin to pick off a wad of gum from the windows.