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Penelope continued to tap the keys on her laptop as the situation progressed. She didn't look down at it as she typed, keeping her eyes firmly glued to the live feed, and her power trained on Matthew. As he turned to address her more directly, she knew exactly what was going on. She figured that John did too--but he was too high strung and too occupied to act on it. [i][color=#cae8dc]A stupid little soldier who only knows how to follow orders indeed.[/color][/i] she allowed herself to think, a small indulgence given that the situation was admittedly high octane.

Matthew's words had something frantic about them--something mirrored in his emotional state. She was a little surprised by that fact, given how he normally acted and reacted. Matthew had a quiet kind of control on many situations, as if he were simply unaffected by what was going on. The state of being of an impartial watcher, something almost inhuman in its asceticism, but that was likely just because of how... enervated he always felt to Penelope. Now he was very much in, well, not outright panic--but something close, in his own little way. She made a mental note of the situation, something to file away and dissect later. A piece of the puzzle to be examined and slotted neatly into place when there was the time and the inclination to do so.

[color=#cae8dc]"Not a distraction. She isn't making enough noise--she couldn't know how we'd react, so the only way to reliably distract us would be to make too much noise for us to deal with, proverbially."[/color] Penelope replied, offhandedly. She shot a glance at John, briefly, that carried all of the intent she needed it to: [i]Your mind has failed you and now you must rely on mine. If you value the First Guard, shut up and let me talk.[/i] Whether or not John let that slide would give Penelope more information for her evaluation of him, but right now she knew that he'd let her have the floor if only for enough time for her to work out what was going on.

[color=#cae8dc]"It..."[/color]

Penelope went silent for a moment before standing up and closing her laptop, moving to stow it away in its case as her eyes went wide and her pupils dilated. Her breath hitched in her throat and her mouth was left slightly agape as the wheels turned in her head.

[color=#cae8dc]"It's a stress test. That's all they're doing--they want to know how we'll respond, with whom, and what our limits are. This is all just a puppet show--the cards that Shaker is holding are all blank. I can't tell you how to react, but we've already given them information--I think that our best course of action is to continue and deliberately mislead them as to just how we operate, what we can do, what our decision making looks like. They know full well that we can't disband the First Guard on the drop of a hat, and that negotiator you sent out... S.W.A.T?"[/color] Penelope paused, as if in thought, to remember his name. [color=#cae8dc]"has done you a great disservice by acquiescing to ostensibly save a life. That said... it works to our advantage in this instance because they are now under the impression that we operate emotionally and not logically. We have to consid--"[/color]

Penelope was cut off by a vibration in the right pocket of her trousers. It buzzed once, and then twice, and Penelope took it out of her pocket and immediately answered it.

[color=#cae8dc]"Make it quick."[/color] she hastily said, turning on her heel and moving to leave as she did. She made the motion of attempting to cover the mouthpiece of the device, though utterly failing, before looking directly at Matthew and saying [color=#cae8dc]"Emergency. Kelly needs me to review something urgently--I'll be back later."[/color]

[color=#cae8dc]"What've you got?"[/color] would faintly echo through the door before it was firmly closed behind her. Penelope made a waving motion to Sandra and mouthed a "thank you" for the coffee before making her way to head out of the building and down to her car. Kelly only used the burner phone for serious matters, and she was already running on the adrenaline of--to her mind--working out the Shaker's plan.