Chapter 2, Operations Director: "We don't deal in Salvation down here."

Correct: Convincing Saitō to show you an excerpt from her personal project notes would definitely qualify as a more-difficult-then-average challenge. And no, it wouldn't be Charm. As a person who deals with sensitive information all the time, she is a little too good at mentally separating business from... whatever.

Megumi composed herself and shook her head, while also casually tilting her datapad screen out of Johann's vision.

"No, I'm afraid it's all things I have to take care of."

The rest of the elevator ride descends into a mildly-awkward silence as she busies herself with out-of-sight note taking.

Finally the elevator doors slide open, admitting you all back out into the main office blocks of Nerv far above the restricted areas below. As you both enter the command center one of the bridge operators looks up from their displays and jumps to her feet.

"Ma'am, Sir... we have a problem!

Nerv Frankfurt reports that several of their personnel are being held captive along with various UN employees in the government district by an unknown terrorist faction. The first reports have just hit international news. Still no word on motives or demands, but we have some very sensitive intelligence from on-location.

....Ummm.... Ma'am."

You realize that something unspoken is passing between Megumi and the Operator. Saitō simply nods and the Operator gives a slightly-relieved sigh and presses a button, bringing up a blurry security feed image of... some sort of insurgent fighter.


Megumi blinked at the screen and shook her head.

"How long ago was this?"

"Within the past hour and a half, Ma'am, it's late night in their time zone... They still don't have a full personnel account, and we only managed to pull this image from off of INTERPOL shortly before they locked down their network. It seems the UN is worried about either viral attacks or data leaks now that the terrorists have hard access to a secured intranet mainframe.

Information has been traveling very slowly ever since."

"Do we have any reason to think they are after our people? Why were our personnel in the UN district?"

"N-None at at this time Ma'am... Reports from Nerv Frankfurt are coming in very slowly, most of the facility is closed for the night there, but they were in their last week of stand-down from the special project..."

"Well, doesn't seem like much we can do in this situation besides wait and see how it plays out while playing a proactive approach." He pauses staring at the monitor; I mean really what could they really do? It's not like they could send the fleet to a land locked country and they didn't have the manpower to deal with a paramilitary terrorist group unless they were just going to send in an eva to crush everything and blow their cover.

"...Or is this special project something I should be worrying more about?" He asks curiously unfamiliar with the particular project they were referring to. "What kind of assets does Frankfurt possess?" He asks unsure if every nerve facility had a secret basement like this one full of skeletons that they'd rather keep in the closet. Hell, he was more worried if Frankfurt had their own Eva or Eva's that could be stolen or destroyed.

The bridge officer shrugged.

"NERV Frankfurt's operations are classified beyond my clearance, Sir."

"And mine as well," Megumi quickly added. "They do not possess any active Evangelions, and to my knowledge they are primarily engaged in parts fabrication and bioengineering tests. Special Project B-14 might be something else besides those activities, but because of NERV's heavily compartmentalized clearance structure probably only the Commander knows."

Saitō frowned and shook her head again at the screen.

"I... something about this I don't like.

When the city of Frankfurt was rebuilt after Second Impact it used the same basic design structure most of the UN-controlled Rebuild-era cities at the time did... the same basic layout that eventually inspired Ark. You say they targeted the central civic district?

...Where are the pilots right now?"

Both of the two women turned their gaze to Johann.

"They should be with the rest of their class on the field trip... At the, Ugh~" He Groans slightly. "I see where you're going... Alright, lets try to reach the commander to get a heads up on what's going on to see if affairs abroad should be any of our concern in the long run." He adds turning to the next person.

"While that's happening lets get in contact with security and police to raise the state of alert as a precaution on the local front and have the Fleet on standby in case this turns into a worst case situation and this ends up being a simultaneous strike on multiple targets and we need more boots on the ground here."

"Alright, lets send some drivers for the pilots just in case - in the meantime, lets see if we can cancel this field trip and get everyone sent home so it wont look suspicious that we're withdrawing a handful of kids right before everyone else might get taken hostage." He adds this with an odd tone as if you were uncertain if it was a joke or not as he begins thumbing through his phone for one of the pilot's numbers and dials the first one he comes across.

Probably alphabetical, so Amanda most likely."

"Damn..." Johann adds mildly moving onto the next number until he's exhausted all four pilot's phone number options.

Megumi flatly interrupted Johann's remark at this point. "No, we won't do that. Except for the slight chance that this is more simply a coincidence and we are right, the political damage would be incalculable for us. The UN government building has likely already shut its doors but if they haven't decided it's a great enough threat to warn the city then we would be drastically overstepping our bounds to directly do so."

Saito allowed a brief smile at Johann's smooth reorientation of the plan. "...You are right though, it is credible enough to move immediately to protect our most vital assets: the Pilots."

Unfortunately, every number Johann tries comes up with nothing but a flat ring and voicemail. It seems that a lot of the Pilots haven't even bothered to change their voicemail account beyond the pre-recorded default yet.

Meanwhile, one of the operators looks up from his display.

"Section 2 is on alert, and they are moving to intercept the Pilots."

After a few tense moments the Operators receive a flood of radio chatter and begin to condense it for you both.

"We just received notice from Ark's UN Liaison building. They've closed their doors for the day and are on an internal alert, nothing further has arisen however and they are still not ready to offer a formal statement regarding the hostage crisis, either to the public or us."

"International news reports have fallen mostly silent with new information. It looks like the terrorists have somehow blockaded at least four blocks of the Frankfurt United Nations district. If reporters on the scene are to be believed, INTERPOL still has yet to establish negotiations."

"Section 2 reports that the Pilots are in their custody and now moving towards HQ. The Sixth Child, O'Rourke, at first appeared to be in danger at the scene but there was determined to be no threat. Apparently... she had a fainting spell?"

All three of the control operators fall silent and glance at each other somewhat uneasily.

"Perhaps you should meet them when they come in Captain. It might do well to... give them somewhere comfortable to wait this out."

Something about this seemed - off, he couldn't quite put his finger on it yet, but he knew the scenario would likely make itself more recognizable in time.

He nods slightly in response to Megumi's statement. "Very well, i'll leave things here in your capable hands. Just call or page me if im needed and text or email me on any changes as the situation develops. I'll head down to meet them now, just have Section two bring them inside past the first checkpoint if im not there to meet them." He adds with a casual nod knowing the approximate distance from here to there and having trouble judging the escort speed as he walks to the doorway and pauses on the other side.

"And here I thought i'd get to unwind tonight." He adds stretching before walking to the elevators and continuing downstairs to hopefully relieve the agents of their duty soon if everything went well.

Just as Johann reaches the elevator, his phone goes off. The caller ID shows the caller as none other than Amanda.

Prompted by a series of buzzes and muffled rings, Johann begins Digging in his jacket pocket and withdraws his Nerv phone and casually examines it. "Hmm, ah yes..." He adds remembering that he had just tried to call everyone only a few minutes ago.

"This is Johann," He adds casually as if answering it without any knowledge of whom the caller was.

=Amanda Loup-Archambault=

"This is Amanda. You rang a minute ago.. and we were just herded into section 2 vehicles. I saw the news report, sir. This has something to do with Germany, doesn't it? What's going on?"