That morning up until this point hadn’t been quite as disappointing as she expected the coffee that was now sat before her to be. This was all new to her and she had little idea what to expect from either her employer or other members of the team. Despite the fact she had regularly dealt with hardened criminals and other less desirables of society (hell she [i]was[/i] one of them) she felt her pulse quicken as an unfamiliar feeling of nerves assailed her and she felt like she was holding her breath for an extended period. Pushing the feeling away she wearily eyed each of those in the room before she took a glance down at the documents on the table in front of her. 

Initially she’d ignored them but as each of the other members of ‘Squad Ajax’ had entered the room her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she began to idly skim through the documents picking absently at the edges. That was until the briefing began and her eyes fixed back upon the man she assumed was Bakker - or rather ‘Brick’, their field manager according to the file.

The briefing proved to be concise and to the point – though she couldn’t quite place his accent as slight as it was. They were to ‘Algerian’ themselves up and act like locals, before finding and rescuing this rich boy Max and ‘simply’ head to Spain - getting him the fuck out of sandy-land and back to the arms of his loving and fortunately for him wealthy parents. Tess listened throughout and took a few sips of the coffee before her, slightly shocked that it was actually half decent. As she quickly finished the mug she decided to resist the slight urge to get up and grab a refill in the middle of things. The whole operation really didn’t sound all that bad to her – with the only exception of having to find these ‘New Bedouins’ in whatever shit-hole they occupied first, or rather find their travelling caravan as it made its way to god knows where. Once they’d done that though things should get a lot more straightforward providing they weren’t too unlucky or incompetent. She wasn’t looking forwards to travelling in such a sandy hell-hole though, she’d hoped that working for Ares would have meant that it was more likely she’d end up as some bored and pampered bodyguard, or at the very least something slightly more comfortable than what she was being assigned. A small smirk spread across her face as she realised she was glad she was wrong. 

"Any questions?" asked Brick once he’d finished spooling through slides and explaining things to them. 

The only other woman on the team itself, ‘Gorgon’ according to the dossier spoke up. She had a [i]slight[/i] Russian accent as she queried a few points around their ammunition and toolkit. Valid questions for sure, Tess thought to herself – but neither point overly worried her. She was used to being given objectives to complete with practically no support or pre-planning and in this particular area of the world it certainly shouldn’t be too difficult to pick up what they would need -one way or another. 

Tess continued to sit silently as things seemed to wrap up. She shrugged non-committaly as again Brick asked if there was anything else to discuss.  It actually hadn’t been as difficult as she’d thought to keep her tongue in her mouth and avoid antagonising anyone before they’d even begun – though she had resisted the urge to make a few sarcastic and what’d likely have been called smart-mouthed comments as the briefing had run. Hell she’d even been polite enough to resist the urge to light up a cigarette as Brick had been leafing through his slides – all in all she sarcastically and silently praised her own good behaviour. 

[i]‘I deserve a fucking medal already…’[/i] she mumbled to herself under her breath as she stood and made her way towards the exit. She veered slightly and made a beeline to the table that held the food and drink before she snatched up a sweet looking pastry and took a bite. She’d never had much of a sweet-tooth before, but since she’d spent a significant period locked up without any luxuries she’d developed one. As she ate she spotted the tall woman who’d spoken first shooting her a glance, their eyes met and Tess couldn’t resist giving her a wink as she received nothing more than a slight scowl in return - or was that just the woman’s usual expression, Tess wondered as she took another bite.