Ivy watched the show of events before her unfold in silence, appraising them with a trained eye. She had arrived in Los Angeles close to a week ago and true to her career as a sniper, had been observing the hotel for the past four days, watching its comings and goings. Lying flat on her belly for endless hours at a time was no new experience to Ivy. Though this rather swanky part of the American metropolis did have its advantages over a cave in the Iraqi desert with the scorching sun beating down on her, that was for sure. 

At present however, the young woman was sitting in a conference room with a handful of strangers - all of them dangerous. Though she wasn't perched on some rooftop, lining these individuals up with her rifle, ready to put a bullet through their heads, Ivy was still preforming exactly the same strategic observations she would have been doing were she in that position. Snipers were taught to read a crowd of people. Their actions, their voices, their facial expressions, everything they did had significance. Ivy's job wasn't always to just pull a trigger. Indeed, there was a lot to be said for how much reconnaissance information came from a single sniper camped out for weeks in some godforsaken crevice observing the behaviour of potential targets.

The clearest observation was that the three other individual in the conference room were also trained killers. Ivy was unsure of their identities, which meant they had never graced the scope or sight of her rifle. She listened as the Asian woman offered up their identities. She had heard snippets of the man named Hock from his dealing with the Italian mob, but Ivy knew far more on the other woman in the room. In the intelligence industry, of which Ivy had been MI6, Lee-Jameson was a legend. Ivy had felt a trickle of dread when she had revealed herself to be ex-CIA, but that faded immediately when she informed them of who she was.

That only left the young man to reveal who he was - which he preceded to do with quite the dramatic flair. Ivy raised an eyebrow slightly, mildly amused by the theatrics of the youngster. He couldn't have been in this game too long, she realised, not with that level of cockiness. Lee-Jameson could ooze confidence all she wanted, she had the credentials and resources to back it up - and not to mention the fearsome reputation. And like her, Hock had opted to keep silent during the proceedings.

The clogs inside Ivy's mind were turning. The job was simple enough. Simple enough that it in fact certainly didn't merit all four of them. So why bring them altogether on this job? Sure, this was their audition, Ivy knew that much, but what else? Was this their audition as individuals or was the infamous Red organisation testing their ability to work as a team? Putting a crack-team of agents together was no easy feat. A team had to be together in unison in everything single thing it did, or it would all fall apart at the seams. More importantly though, there had to be a strong chain of command. While this was mostly a non-issue in the military and intelligence services, criminal syndicates and their ilk had terrible problems with it. Looking around the room, Ivy would say the obvious leader was Lee-Jameson, though she hadn't ruled out Hock. The kid was too green and she doubted the others would tolerate taking orders from him. Herself, well she was used to taking orders, so why upset the apple cart? Yes, Ivy mused, best see how things play out...