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[color=#3374ff][center]Location: Reclaim Zone, South City Sprawl.
Interacting with: No one in particular, but looking at the riot in front of APEX Industries R&D.[/center][/color]

[center][hider=If you understand yourself, work to understand your enemy...][youtube]https://youtu.be/75jTgQp-R6I[/youtube][/hider][/center]

Glory tapped her foot against the dusty floor of the abandoned building she had been stationed in. It smelled bad, there was no air conditioning, and the gigantic amount of dust and decay was making her nose run. As a final bit of annoyance, the binoculars that she wore were digging into her neck from the weight. Unfortunately, she was here on a job. This building, along with several of the other buildings that other members of Knight Enterprise were occupying, were good vantage points on the crowd that was gathering in front of the APEX Industries R&D building. Knight Enterprise internal intelligence believed that some of the gangs that had sprung up in the reclaim zone were going to attempt to use the riot to try and incite violence to provoke a response from the present security.

Unfortunately, Glory had heard of this kind of move before. It was a devious tactic that took advantage of the lack of time to deliberate on an action: Make both sides believe that the other side just took an aggressive move and the tension might just boil over. It made Glory sick to her stomach that she couldn’t actively work to disperse the crowd, but there was nothing to be done against direct orders. Grabbing the binoculars from around her neck, Glory took a moment to sweep them across the swelling crowd of people before pressing two fingers to her ear and speaking into the microphone of her transceiver. [color=#3374ff]”This is Glory. I’m not seeing any personnel of interest. Continuing to monitor. Over.”[/color]

Glory gave another sweep of the crowd and this time she saw something that looked like more than just another disgruntled person. Glory had to stop and rub her eyes for a moment to be sure that she was seeing who she was seeing. Against all implausibility, there she was: Stella. The Ultrabartender. But why? Wouldn’t she be at home after her shift at The Duat? Or at least at The Duat itself either cleaning or sorting things? Glory had never figured Stella for much of a protestor, and so the presence of The Ultrabartender was truly mystifying.

Unfortunately Glory couldn’t go ask. She had to stay here, because APEX’s internal security had only been informed that they were going to use some of the abandoned buildings as scouting spots. If Glory entered into that crowd, she would not only be directly violating orders but would potentially also be counted as a threat for simply being in the crowd. As such, Glory was essentially trapped. Lowering her binoculars, Glory stepped out of the harsh sunlight that beamed through the half-broken window and into the shadows surrounding it in order to take a break from staring at the crowd. Leaning against the wall, Glory gave a sigh followed by a prompt sneeze. A bath was going to be needed after this.

Reaching into one of her pouches, Glory produced her phone. Flipping it open, she synced her contacts to the AR projectors and opened her email. Pressing a few buttons to scroll along, Glory winced as she saw an email from the company director regarding the death of Joe Blair. It was a painful reminder of yesterday.

Glory’s mind began to churn as she remembered her failures. Her angry thoughts were like the sound of nails upon metal as they began to filter into her head. Gritting her teeth, Glory forced herself to take a breath and calm down. The explosion was currently dominating news feeds, both internal and external. Everyone seemed to have completely missed the fact that Glory had passed out. Hopefully it stayed that way. Hopefully. Glory couldn’t lose this job. If she did… She’d probably be out in the crowd. Where else would she go?

Closing her emails, Glory turned off the AR sync in her contacts and stepped back into the blazing sun. Lifting her binoculars, Glory scanned the crowd once more in the hope that she would catch sight of someone trying to cause trouble. Thinking back a bit further than yesterday, Glory remembered the colors that her old gangmates used to wear: Green and black. Scanning the crowd, Glory was half relieved and half disappointed that she didn’t see anyone wearing the particular pattern she remembered.

If she could get some of The Reavers down on file… That would be a major boon to cleaning some of the dirt from her past. She just had to find them first.