Under our Enemies' Eyes (Closed)

[Rhodevus]

Nina Cologne had been receiving text messages from an unknown address. It had been going on back and forth for a few messages now, but after extensive checks with her team, she discovered the messages were not a prank, or written by an enemy of Rhodevus. these messages had most likely come from the Doppio Giudici embassy. Nina was the ambassador to Thermodolia,so she did not expect it to come from a different nation's emabssy altogether. She did not expect them to be so secretive about what they wanted.

The text messages sounded like their friends were in trouble. They were not only hungry, no doubt from a drought of some sort, but scared that their enemies might discover this weakness. From where Nina was standing, she did not know that the situation in Doppio Giudici was so severe. It was time for the two to meet. Nina told her texter to meet her in a coffee shop on Breiburn Street. It was a small place, but did have some recognition, meaning it was busy all day. A perfect place for this type of undercover discussion, yet public enough in the case that this texter was laying some sort of trap for her.

Nina Cologne sat down in a small booth, far from the window, yet still along the wall, giving them at least a minute sense of privacy. Nina arrived 10 minutes early to the meeting, just as she had originally planned. With her was a small purse and a pad of paper, making her look more like a reporter than an ambassador to her country. She took a small sip of her coffee, before adding sugar and a touch of milk.

It was nearly time to meet the person in need...

[Doppio Giudici]

Coffee Shop
Thermodolia

There was just enough people there that she was able to order something and blend into the masses, before spotting the person that she knew was the ambassador. She sat down with her coffee and looked over at the other person, before leaning back as if she knew her well. Her scarf covered her neck and her gloves matched her attire, which said she had just gotten out of a workout. She was wearing what looked like mens work-out clothing, but adjusted and tailored for her body. It was uncharacteristic of female workout attire to look like this, it just wasn't that revealing or sexual at all. On her face were a pair of slightly-oversized shades and the way she drank her coffee made her seem like a moneyed snob, someone who would call her dad to complain about people. She was in her late twenties and she had quite a few wristbands on her arms, as if she went clubbing a lot.

"It's not my fault I have popular attire, my friends keep telling me I should have this look made into a line so I can finally get the recognition I deserve." She started "However, dad says that Che-Dio is no longer getting the shipments it needs to get started, something about them having crop failure lately and Kradansk making a fuss across the border. I don't know what to tell you, at this rate they might close their clothing factories and then where would I be?"

She lowered her shades a little and a somewhat large cut was seen across her eye, which seemed to have been made recently. She raised the shades back up to cover her wound and looked over to the side, drinking her overpriced coffee.

[Rhodevus]

Nina looked at this young girl. Well, young to her at least. Nina had a child that was her age! (judging only by appearance of course.) Nina sat quietly in front of her, not speaking, but taking in her surroundings and looking at her mysterious texter for the first time. It made sense now why she was texted instead of called or telegramed.

Sitting forward in her chair, looking relaxed, Nina said softly, "First off, who are you? You do not seem like someone very interested in international politics."

Nina leaned back taking a slow taste of her coffee, before placing it down on her coffee plate with a small clink.

[Doppio Giudici]

The person who was in her late twenties, looked over at the person sitting across from her and put her hand to her temple. Her three fingers stroked her eyebrow in frustration as she prepared her mouth for words.

"I have to be, I'm always moving from place to place to avoid being noticed." The stranger started "It doesn't help that I have a problem spending to much time out at night and that's all the world media cares about."

She showed her phone over to the other person, displaying the image of herself with an arrest warrant for "stealing living humanoid property" and "failing to understand her place as an object". She lowered her phone and then turned it over to look at it.

"I was so drunk when I took that picture, you have no idea; like was I thinking that night?" She said without skipping a beat.

[Rhodevus]

Nina crossed her arms, not happy with the answers she was getting from this person. No doubt she was well known, but Nina was up to date only on Thermodolian news, not anything international. She stared at this woman in front of her. From those two news articles it did not seem like she was a very good person... yet treated like property. That was something else entirely. Something Nina did not want to deal with.

"So. You want Rhodevus's help to supply shipments of food to your friends." Nina was going to get right down to business, hoping that she would be able to figure out more about the mystery woman through conversation. "Rhodevus does not handle small cases. Your dad must have pretty important reason for needing food shipments sent under the table."

Nina Cologne glanced down at her notepad, before looking the girl directly in the eyes, even if they were behind sunglasses. "And we rarely deal well with nations that still keep humans and humanoids as property."

[Doppio Giudici]

She looked over to the side and muttered to herself, resting her head on her hand softly as she sighed.

"You are really terrible at keeping secrets, might as well tell the whole cafe if you are going to talk like that." She whispered, her expression trying to mask her words as seductive. "Why even have that pad if you aren't going to read between the lines."

She got up and grabbed her drink, before looking over to her.

"I have something for you in my car, you want to see it in person?" She asked "Might make things a little more clear for you hun. Oh and you left this at my place last time."

She walked off in her tennis shoes and went over to her car, before getting in the drivers seat. The top was up and the windows seemed tinted just enough to mask what was going on. On the table was a little purse, which had a combat knife in it that seemed unused and concealable. She didn't know the blade was ceramic, made to get past security and allow people to defend themselves if need be.

[Rhodevus]

Nina looked after this woman is she walked away toward her car. Nina decided to follow her, just like this woman wanted. She grabbed the purse which was left on the table and followed after her.

Nina did not like being lead on by a person half her age. She was there to talk business. If not business, to at least get some answers to who this person was and why she was so interested in talking to her, a Rhodeve ambassador.

[Doppio Giudici]

The younger woman gestured to her senior to close the door, before pulling off her shades. She sighed unhappily and rubbed her eye, muttering something in another language.

"My eye really hurts, fucking slavers almost got me with a matchet." She stated "For an older woman you clearly are a civilian, I think maybe you could get a lot better at this if you had some training. I hope to God there was no one listening that well, or I would utterly be fucked."

She leaned back in her seat and looked out the front windshield sighing softly again, as she crossed her arms.

"I hope the knife made you feel more comfortable when you walked over here, I'm a lot more hospitable than I have had to be lately." She muttered "By the way, I am Natasha. I'm the highest ranking operative for the Neo-Terran Alliance and in a few years I am a shoe-in for president. I have everything that got my father elected, blood on my hands, regrets over crimes against humanity I couldn't prevent, and a really big chip on my shoulder about all this bullshit going on."

She looked over at the civilian and then glared out the window, baring her teeth a little.

"Che-Dio is a short-hand for an expression that was uttered by locals in the area." Natasha admitted "The old expression roughly meant 'God help us', which isn't surprising that the area suffers from violent and drought going back centuries. The slave trade is very popular in the area around or at least it was the last time my people were there. To my knowledge I have some....distant cousins who really want to make an impact, they just need...to be reminded of their heritage. My people are soldiers, we fight and that is for the most part what we are best at. We are a very...protective people and we have trouble sleeping when others; commit crimes against humanity."

Natasha made eye-contact and rubbed her eyes again, cursing to herself.

"What can I do to get you to trust me, I'm already blabbering about because I'm so tired." She confessed

[Rhodevus]

"Well." Nina Cologne began slowly, "Not many people can figure out that I have not been into the military, which is usually mandatory in Rhodevus. I cannot tell you what I did instead of service, but I can say that it may be beneficial to the task at hand."

"Natasha. It seems like you are in a very troubling state, being a high ranking member in your country. I cannot say that I have ever had the same pressure as you have now, but what I can say is that in your situation, I would be handling it a lot worse than you are now." Nina smiled coolly. "You seem to be needing an ally in this. And I would like to say that Rhodevus as a whole can be this ally. I can be this ally."

Nina opened her purse and pulled out a small metallic box. "Rhodevus can supply food and other necessary supplies you and your...cousins may need. We however cannot be dragged into a war in your country, nor will we be played the fool on an international stage."

She rubbed the side of her mouth with the back of her hand. "Bel'ta. I have no problem trusting what you are saying now. It is in my nature to be trusting. I need you to answer these two questions for me. Why this embassy here, and why Rhodevus." Nina asked the questions more as a statement then an actual question. She looked at the tired girl, finally noticing certain dark patches around her eyes. She her aged eyes that were mature and tired; far more than normal from those her age.

If Nina was satisfied with the answers this Natasha gave with her questions, she would finally be able to talk business with this person. This shoe-in for president of the Neo-Terran Alliance.

[Doppio Giudici]

"You might notice that the other embassies are filled with people who you can't bargain or haggle with, your embassy was the second to last on the list." Natasha answered "You were here and I was crashing at the Embassy in this nation, you could say it was utterly a matter of luck. You could say it was something that needed to happen, or some power played a part if you want. I did some research while I was minding my own in the cafe before I sat down. I got some records that lead me to think your people have culture and diplomatic skill; but are too harmless to actually be able to cross me. There isn't enough of you to even be a drop in the bucket to my people, and your military might be impressive for your enemies but would be laughable to mine even if there was three billion of you."

Natasha pulled a rag out of her pocket and poured some water into it, before dabbing at her wounds. She had a blue gladius tattooed on her neck, which explained the scarf she had worn earlier.

"Lately your people have been lacking in combat experience and I just fail to see any of them ever being able to lay a finger on me." She went on "My people are the very opposite of what you are, it's in our nature to not trust anyone who isn't willing to bleed for us. Until you are willing to cut your arm and bind yourself to us by blood, you are just a friend. There are many nations that never were willing to cut themselves for us and less that were but didn't have what it takes to survive. I have very low expectations of outsiders, they only keep their promises when they are under our banners and held to the same standards we hold our own."

She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat, before closing her eyes to rest them as he head tilted back.

"I don't need to trust you to hand you my money and l know your reserves can't even face my peoples civilians." Natasha finished