Triple Point

Chapter 122: Camilla Mitaka Tanoue-Wyatt

Camilla

11 JAN 35AE, 0615

Los Angeles, California

As Camilla began her descent towards the street in front of the Barracks, a small part of her was surprised to see that the dark sidewalk appeared empty. Suspicious, she extended her energy ahead of her and throughout the street below. A second later, her suspicions were confirmed: the street was swarming with reporters, all of them hidden out of sight.

They jumped out of the woodwork as soon as she landed, and Camilla was suddenly peppered with an avalanche of questions.

"Camilla, have you heard from the Exodos members that are still at large?"

"Is it true that Bridgette Hester wants to have a private meeting with you?"

"Some people still say that the Farallon Files are fake. How does that make you feel?"

"What's your relationship with Elsie Bates?"

After weeks of practice, Camilla easily ignored the questions as she casually made her way to the Barracks entrance. As tempted as she was to simply block their sound waves, she had been previously warned that such actions could be considered using her abilities against "non-threatening" civilians, which was slightly illegal. And while she didn't really care about the legal nightmare that would follow, Camilla had promised Elsie she would at least try to restrain herself, and she cared about sticking to her word.

Inside was thankfully much quieter, but she still headed towards the meeting room as quickly as possible. While she would've preferred waiting in the lobby until at least one familiar face joined her, her desire to get away from the cameras that watched her through the lobby windows was much stronger. So as soon as she was out of sight from the cameras, Camilla slowed her pace and braced her mind.

It wasn't that she was against being assigned one of the probationary guardians to monitor. In fact, she was more than fine with the assignment, especially since she had lost her vice captain to a promotion. What she wasn't looking forward to were the inevitable stares of pity and concerned whispers from every single person that saw the Farallon Files. And that seemed to be just about everyone.

Unfortunately, the dozens of captains that were already in the meeting room all turned to look at her as soon as she entered. Thankfully, some of them ignored her almost immediately; the former Alliance metas were already tired of Camilla, and they all knew the Files well. As an added bonus, a couple of the captains that were still staring at her were Mack and Abby, and Mack waved at her enthusiastically from across the large room.

Camilla returned the wave more subtly before heading over to join them, holding herself back from fidgeting self-consciously with her sleeves as she passed by dozens of watchful eyes. She was fully aware that her uniform covered the plethora of unsightly scars that were scattered across her skin, but she still felt the need to be absolutely sure.

Instead, she settled on imagining that all eyes were on the jagged scar at the back of her head. Camilla had come to terms with that mark long ago, and she even made a point to tie her hair up in a ponytail so people would focus on that scar instead of anything else about her. And usually, it worked.

"Good to see you, Captain Wyatt," Mack greeted her with his now-trademark lopsided grin.

"And you, Captain Olomana," Camilla returned, then nodded at Abby. "Captain Lee."

"Morning," Abby said. "You caught your little greeting party outside?"

"I did, and it was just as thrilling as I expected." Then, Camilla turned back to Mack. "You're unusually early, aren't you?"