Martin was thankful that Cross didn't interrupt. He was aware of her standing there waiting. The little whelp had killed Giordano Pirozzi. One of the few marks that had gotten away. And with her stupid little pointy stick. He was fuming but he wasn't about to let it show. He didn't bother opening the second folder. He would make her speak it so he could catch her in a lie. Ascendancy!
Martin closed Pirozzi's file and lifted it off the desk and pushed it towards Cross. Let the American see what lies hidden amongst the Vatican floor for all these years. "It seems you are more than capable of the impossible lately. The blight that was your father is gone from this earth, as you should be. But I still have a use for your ability. Tell me, Little Song, is Ascendancy next on your list?"
He could feel the hatred dripping from his words even the use of Father Dimitri's pet name for her spurned her very existence.
Barovsky did NOT like this girl. It seemed almost irrational....then again, if she was the daughter of a reborn god, it only stood to reason that she was very close to being put down as well, Atharim or no. His eyes touched hers, as if deciding something, and he slid the file over in her direction.
Giving a nod and a slight smile at the courtesy, she stood straight from her lean against the wall and went over to pick up the file. Idly, she wondered what the girl was thinking as her secret was now about to be shared with someone else. She readied herself for any reaction. Perhaps this was a test of the girl by Barovsky. She didn't have any doubt that she'd put the girl down, however she responded.
The girl was impassive however, and so she stepped back by the door and opened the file for a quick look. Her eyebrow quirked. Not a godling then. A sentient. Now that was interesting. She'd known a few in her time. One of the few creatures out there that were grudgingly tolerated in the Atharim, though watched closely. Like Furia, their loyalty was always suspect.
Seth Marx's niece had been one of those and so far had been almost flawless in her work. Well, almost. Once she'd gotten to Moscow and reconnected with Seth, she'd gone and looked both of them up. Under their watch, a godling, Jaxen Marveet, had gotten away. This god had infiltrated the Baccarrat mansion, at least to a point and had gotten away. And then their failure. She trusted Seth- as much as she trusted anyone, really- and the girl had taken one to the gut in the process. She supposed blood earned trust .Though, come to think of it, a traitor could do that too. Not that she suspected Rune, not really. Furia and a god? But it was just a reminder that no one was above suspicion.
But anyway, the file told an interesting story. And she knew why Barovsky disliked her. The girl had been part of a family of creatures he'd stalked for years and had succeeded in only putting one down. That had to piss him off. She wasn't sure if he was more upset that the girl herself was alive and walking around, apparently unharmed, or that she had killed her father, the one who was source of all of this. It was only natural to be territorial when it came to prey, she knew all too well. And Sentients....well, they were worse than Furia. Their power was offensive, rather than passive. Why had she been allowed to live? Surely not just to take out her father.
In the midst of reading, she heard the Barovsky mention Brandon. She looked up at him, face a frown. This girl was to kill the man who called himself Ascendancy? "The first and oldest god"? It almost seemed laughable. She felt a twinge of irritation too. She wanted to hunt the man. It belonged to the Order to hunt him, not a girl whose very nature made her suspect. No. No, it had to be something else. Another test of Barovsky's.
She looked at him for a moment and then at the back of the girl's head and then him again, letting him see the question on her face.
Aria smirked. She wished she could feel the tension in the room, feel the hunger and the need that these to very powerful hunters were displaying right now. She would have laughed if Borovsky didn't hold her life in his fingers at any given moment.
"It's in the report. At least part of it is."
Aria glanced back at Jacinda Cross with a smile. "The research I've done has paid off. I have a plan, but it is the Regus who gave me the order, so it will be to him I share it with."
Aria looked back to Martin and caressed the broken chain and pendant in her pocket. "When I went to Siberia I stumbled upon the most interesting thing - our very own Ascendancy was looking for something in the most interesting places."
Aria grinned. "I have what he found. I took it from his very own living quarters. But that is all I will say without the Regus present. I don't like repeating myself."
Martin hid his surprise by the anger on his face. It wasn't a facade - not really. This little whelp was pissing him off by showing him up. And now she had successfully infiltrated Ascendancy's life. Bullshit!
Martin stood up and glared at Aria. "Stay here. Do not move. I will call you when the Regus is ready to see you."
Martin took both reports with him as he rounded his desk. "Cross with me."
Martin stalked out of the room and rounded the corner into the hall and nearly trampled some poor sod. Martin just shoved the poor soul from under his feet without a word.
When he was well enough away from the girl in that room he took a deep breath. "What did you need Cross?"
He hoped she didn't think his anger was at her. "You have until the Regus will see me."
And he will see me sooner rather than later.
Jacinda Cross it seemed didn't have the monopoly on rudeness it seemed. Martin was just as good at it, running over a poor underling. The girl was left in the office, whereas Cross went with Martin.
Perhaps now wasn't the best time to discuss plans with Martin. Most likely it wasn't. The man needed to learn patience. It was something he clearly lacked and honestly, he would be so stressed out if he was.
But it wasn't Yoshimura's place to question Borovsky's habits. Instead, he headed back to the training room to begin his exercises again. The Archangels would meet in time and he had a wallet. He would be contacted when the time was right.
Jacinda couldn't help but raise an eyebrow a the back of the girl's head. She seemed to be needling Barovsky. She smirked and shrugged. No wonder Barovsky seemed perpetually pissed. In hindsight, the assignment to kill Ascendancy was pretty obviously one of those time-honored things where a superior got rid of an annoying underling. Sometimes it worked...and sometimes it backfired, if the underling was particularly resourceful. Be interesting to see how that worked here.
What peaked her attention was the claim to have sneaked into Ascendancy's living quarters. And she had a plan? For Regus? Jacinda smiled at that thought. She wanted in. It was why she'd come down in the first place.
But she had learned enough to not ask straight out for it, at least not yet. She'd gotten into the Archangels that way, but the Regus had made it clear that only barely tolerated that kind of....ambition. She'd have to think of another way. Barovsky didn't trust this girl in the slightest...perhaps she could use that.
He rose and drew her into the hallway. His irritation was still there but Jacinda knew it was not for her- at least mostly. She smiled. "I can see why she annoys you."
Not really, but she didn't want a fight, at least not right now. Too much was going on. "So anyway...the announcement of his Royal Douchiness, outing himself. I had come down to see if you were planning a mission to take him out. It seems like what the Archangels are for. I wanted you to know that I was up for it. If you are going to take him out, I'm sure you can use all the backup you can handle."
She paused, though not enough to allowi him to jump in. "But something came to me as you were talking to the girl."
She looked around and lowered her voice to a near whisper. "I know the girl is sentient, but it got me thinking. If there are Atharim who are sentient, then there is a high probability that there are Atharim who might be reborn gods. Not just related to one, like the guy who was executed by the Regus at the convocation. Actual reborn gods. Probably not many, but still. We should do something about that. Keep an eye out for anyone acting suspiciously or doing things they shouldn't."
A thought occurred to her. "People who are too lucky in their job."
She saw why Aria annoyed him? How could Cross possibly do that from that one exchange. The attitude hardly bothered him, he dealt with Cross just as gruffly. No Aria was a plauge upon the earth yet she was one of the better hunters. It irked him to no end that she'd dispatched her father. Maybe it was because he was her father she was able to get close enough. That had to be the case.
But Jacinda continued on as if the girl was inconsequential and she was right to think so. The girl would be dead before the week was out - if he had any say in the matter.
"We will hunt Ascendancy as soon as the little whelp has her shot. The Regus' commands are not for me to change. We are going to him now."
But the secondary concern hit the nose on the head. The Atharim had been searching for gods internally. There had been a few of note - one still at large to his knowledge. His hunter hadn't returned and Martin wondered if Luciano had failed them or had he joined with his own cousin to thrawt their attempts on his life. Martin didn't think so. Hunters failed all the time when fighting gods who were not sick in bed. And any Atharim god was going to be careful and definitely not show any signs.
"We have a division of the Atharim working on those very things. If you have concerns. You can send them to me and I will insure they make it to the appropriate ears. Atharim gods are more dangerous than the monsters in the ranks like Aria Piccolo."
It had been his job to do just that. But not any longer. "Our job is to hunt external gods, or ones they send us after"
Martin turned to Cross. "Was there anything else?"
He was standing outside of the Regus' office. His assistant was on the phone he would wait - he only hoped the Regus would see him now.
((in a holding pattern until the Regus is free))
Jacinda was irritated. Sometimes she didn't know why she bothered. Barovsky was a wall, as usual. She was committed to the team. He had no idea how it grated her to submit, to work with others in a submissive role. Part of her wanted to punch the guy in his face just to see an unexpected reaction. The stick was so far up his ass...
Actually, that gave her an idea. Not the stick part. Heh. While that might be fun to tweak, that wasn't what she was thinking. She looked at the door. The Regus was behind it doing whatever it was Reguses do. Probably Tai chi or some such. Tae Bo? Was that it?
She smiled at him. Smirked really. She felt like provoking a reaction. "Regus is regusing at the moment. And you look like you want to hit something. So how about we head down to the gym downstairs and you try to hit me."
The world was going to hell in a hand basket. But if you couldn't take the time to do something fun, what was the point?
Martin smirked at her words. She was baiting him away from the task at hand to something a little more energetic. And he couldn't say it didn't sound appealing - very appealing as a matter of fact. He could think of only one other thing better and that was beating the little whelp in his office to a pulp. But that was for later. Martin nodded. "Very well. But we've a stop to make on the way."
The girl was still sitting in his office. He had expected her to remove herself from the chair but it looked as though she were mediating. And she probably was - the girl was nothing more than a trained fighter and a bookworm. But she had proven herself yet again which is what pissed Martin off the most. "With me now."
He knew the girl would follow she was nothing if not obedient. Martin glanced at Cross with a wide smile. "Don't let her hands touch you."
It would be good to see how well Jacinda fared against a real monster that was highly intelligent and knew the ways of the Atharim. If she truly wanted to hunt down gods inside the organization - this could be a test. He could have her transferred - a more solo gig something Cross would prefer more than likely. Martin actually missed that part of his old job. Finding traitors!
Once they were down in the gym the familiar form of their Japenese team mate took up residence with the sword in his hand practicing forms. Another perfectionist. It seemed Martin was plagued with perfection. First in Vincent Auclaire when both men had teamed up together, the little whelp and he had a grand match once upon a time. It could be interesting to see a samurai against the little whelp and her pointy stick.
Martin looked to the two women with him and included Yoshimura in his conversation. "Shall we test the mettle of everyone here?"
Martin looked to Jacinda and frowned he didn't expect the American to have picked up the sword it was an archaic tradition yet Martin had insisted all his recruits learn. "Hand to hand?"
Aria watched as Borovsky left her in his office. She could easily snoop around find things that she could use against the man but she decided that it was best to just do as she was told. She sat in the chair staring off across the wall - thinking and waiting.
Her thoughts traveled from the problem at hand to Lucas. The bitter pain welled up inside and Aria fought to push it away. She'd taken revenge upon his killer and yet the pain was still bitter it was still hard. There was nothing to fix the broken part of her heart.
The thought of revenge had spurred a darkness inside. She could feel it boiling underneath all her other feelings. Without the world pressing in upon her Aria felt her own emotions tenfold. It was odd and annoying and Aria hated seeing so deeply inside.
Sound echoed in the halls again as footsteps fell. Borovsky yelled at her to come with him and Aria stood without a hesitation. She followed him and Jacinda Cross through the halls of the Atharim to the gym of the headquarters. A Japanese man practiced his sword work in the center. Aria watched the man preform his movements - she could see the years of training and practice. And she saw the difference between what she learned and what he had. It didn't matter if she learned the same techniques each teacher was different.
Martin wanted them to spar. Aria nodded her assent. It wasn't everyday she actually got to hit a superior. Aria had never fought Borvosky when she was younger, she'd sparred with many of his recruits, but not Borovsky himself. This was going to be fun - even if it was hand to hand and not her favorite form of combat.