MISSION MOONLARK, kotlc

13

"Fitz, please tell me you took a shower last night..." Biana grumbled, wrinkling her nose.

Sophie attempted to breathe through her mouth- and ended up having a coughing fit instead. Turned out, vents did not smell great- especially when four teenagers were trying to crawl through the narrow metal tunnels.

"Of course I did!" Fitz shout back loudly, elbowing his sister.

"Quiet guys!" Sophie snapped, resisting the urge to kick both of them from behind her. "They're gonna hear us!"

When she finally reached the edge of the vent, the interrogation was already starting. Vespera was sitting chained to a chair in the center of the room, while the Collective was speaking. 

"... sure, Leto. Go throw me to the government, see if I care," Vespera was snarling, right as Sophie came into earshot.

"The only reason I'm not sending you to prison, is because-"

"What, you need information? Your taking mercy on me? Come on."

Agent Leto cut her off with a stern glare. She seemed to realize that she was surrounded by highly trained agents armed with weapons and strapped to a chair as she stopped talking.

"What was the intercom we found in your ear when we took you captive?" Leto demanded, holding up a tiny microphone between his fingers.

Sophie was impressed by the mask of calm the criminal managed to keep- but she could also tell for a fleeting moment the panic in her eyes.

"And you expect me to tell you that?" Vespera snapped.

"Yes, we do," he continued. "Such a skeptical thing it is.. who could you have been communicating with? And why an intercom? Why not some device more undetectable? Trust us, we are well aware of the technological geniuses you have at your disposal, Vespera."

Vespera smiled just a tiny bit at that. "You don't need to know anything- nor do you know anything about me."

Leto raised an eyebrow. "Don't sweet talk me here."

"I know you foolish Black Swan agents never have the heart- or the courage -to kill me, or even hurt me in any way. What's to say I shouldn't keep my mouth shut?"

And that might've been a good excuse- but Sophie was an expert at stalling. And that, was definitely stalling.

"Things change," Agent Leto informed her passively. "But to be honest... didn't we catch you... what was it, Squall?"

"Shoplifting," Agent Squall reported.

"Shoplifting yes..." Agent Leto went on. "I know the Neverseen almost as well as I know the Black Swan. You're in their top tier. They wouldn't waste your imprisonment on trying to steal a pack of diapers, would they?"

Vespera mumbled some colorful words under her breath.

He went back to pacing around her. "Which means... you were trying to get captured here, then, isn't that correct?"

As the last word echoed through Sophie's ears- realization struck.

Vespera hadn't been captured. 

She'd been trying to get herself into the interrogation room.

So that Fintan Pyren... and Alvar...

Their conversation at Atlantis had all been an act then?

They knew they were listening... watching...

They had been set up.

All this time that Sophie had thought they'd been outsmarting the Neverseen, they'd been playing right into their hands.

Every single important Black Swan member was here in the room.

And now it was all going down in flames.