UNTOUCHABLE - TIAOM

MEETING

"Kim."

Kim felt Conan tap her shoulder, bringing her senses back into the Control Room.

"Captain Kim, are you okay?" asked Commander In.

"Yes, Commander."

"Good. I'll leave this now to you. Assemble your team and you'll depart in thirty minutes."

"Thank you, Commander." All of Troop C gave a salute as Commander In leaves the room.

"So, what's the plan, Cap?" asked Zee.

"The four of us will go there," said Kim, looking at everyone. "Zee, Conan, you'll be the Chainers. I'll be the Finisher. Yam, you do love kids, right?"

"I do, Captain! What should I do then?" asked Yam.

"Babysit. You handle the kid while we handle the Evens."

"Truly heroic, Yam," said Zee, teasing. Yam just rolled her eyes in annoyance.

There was a knock on the door and an AEF personnel stepped in. "Uh... Captain Kim...?"

"Yes?"

"Pie Denman is here in headquarters. Commander In asked me to tell you to talk to her."

Kim, who's unsure of what to react, looked at Conan for help. "Please take her to the Interview Room. We'll meet her there," said Conan.

"Roger that. Thank you."

After the AEF personnel left, Kim animatedly asked Conan what should she do. Conan just shrugged. "We have to talk to her, Cap."

"Hey, what's up?" asked Zee, sensing something's wrong. "Why are you two acting weird about this?"

Conan turned to Zee. "Well, the thing is --"

"We have plenty of time to talk about that later," said Kim, sighing. "Zee and Yam, prepare for our departure now. Make sure to bring extra bullets and boosters. We don't know what's waiting for us there. Conan, check the weather report, we want to know if we're expecting another rain in the next two hours. Let's rendezvous in Gate A in 15 minutes. Copy that?"

"Roger, Captain!" Everyone said.

"Now let's get started so we can go over with this as soon as we can."

---

The Interview Room is a plain room with few furnitures bolted on the floor: one rectangle table and 4 chairs. There's a curtained window on one side of the wall and a large two-way mirror opposite of it. The mirror's treated side is facing the Interview Room, while the untreated side gives view to another room next to it. The Interview Room has bright lights, this is to make sure that the interviewee won't be able to see that someone from the other room is looking and listening to the conversation.

Kim is currently in that dark room, looking at the two-way mirror, waiting for that someone to come in. She knows it, any minute now, someone will come through that door and will sit on one of the chairs. Kim's job is to talk to that person and assure her that everything will be alright. Kim has done this many times now. She knows exactly what she needs to do and what she needs to say.

It's really that simple.

The problem is, for whatever reason, she's freaking nervous right now. The idea of being with Pie face to face after so many years is driving her nuts. She's already tried rehearsing the scene on her mind, memorizing the order of her dialogue, imagining how Pie would react and planning a solution to it.

But in the end, she came up with nothing. She knows she's gonna lose it.

"C'mon, Kim. It's just her. You've got to pull yourself together," she told herself.