Tomorrowland: Frank and Athena

Chapter 20 - Athena Gets Surprised

Athena analyzed the pattern of the two security personnel who were watching the forest, guarding a secure area. They would look one way, then another, looking for anything suspicious, but it was clear they weren't too concerned. She waited for them both to look the other direction, then ran very fast from behind her tree into the secure area.

She was currently in Luxembourg, intending to infiltrate a large group of people having a company picnic near Upper-Sûre Lake. The party was for some high-level people in Trans Univex and their families. Her mission was to talk to people and gather information about potential candidates and eventually bleed off more recruits for Plus Ultra.

She waited in the forest, just outside a clearing with the main group of people. She waited patiently for the right moment, then saw a group of people walking through the forest, heading back to the picnic. Athena casually stepped in behind them, following them back in as though she were part of the group. There was a catering table in the center of the clearing where people were getting food. She decided to load up a plate of food herself, as one factor in human trust was "breaking bread," which was a somewhat literal metaphor for eating together.

Athena didn't eat anything, but carried her plate as though she were nibbling as she walked. Around her, she could identify many high-level people in Trans Univex, which were too high risk to try and turn. Her goal was the mid-level people, who were high enough to be useful to Plus Ultra and damaging to Trans Univex, but not so high that there was little chance of recruiting them – and also have the danger of tipping their hand of Plus Ultra's intentions.

She saw one interesting candidate who was on her list. David Ford, one of their intelligence analysts who had an excellent reputation for both competence and morality. There was a good chance he was concerned about the direction the organization was taking, but was in too deep to easily exit.

Moving casually toward him, she saw that he was talking to another colleague. If she was patient, after his conversation, hopefully she could...

Abruptly a man turned around, laughing. "Ah, Petros. We shall see who's right."

Grinning, the man locked eyes with Athena. His grin transformed into a friendly smile at her. He cocked his head slightly, as though he thought of something – a small stray thought. But he simply gave a nod, his smile unchanged, and kept walking.

Athena's outward manner didn't change, but inside she froze. What she just saw was extremely subtle. Normally she wouldn't have worried too much about it; subtle things like this happened all the time, since humans weren't perfectly predictable and her empathy interface occasionally had false positives. But this felt different, because the man she just saw was none other than Eduardo Talamantes, the right hand man to the head of Trans Univex.

She moved away from her original target, feeling like she needed time to consider. She ran back her memory of what she'd just seen. It was still very ambiguous; it could be nothing. But Talamantes had a reputation for being very intelligent and if he was the slightest bit curious about her, she needed to be exceptionally cautious.

Athena casually moved among the picnickers, looking for Talamantes, but he was nowhere in sight. He couldn't have gone far; it was only about five minutes since their encounter. This could also be nothing. He might've just gone to the toilet.

The danger here was considerable. All of this might be excessive worry, but at the very least, she needed to minimize Talamantes's memory of her appearance. Athena disliked when missions failed, but there was no choice. She had to abort. That would ensure their encounter was kept extremely brief and hopefully he would forget about her entirely.