[i]”If there’s anything there, I can’t sense it…”[/i] Ether confirmed to Tristan as they listened to Forrest interrogate the Master General. [i]”It feels like he’s not trying to hide, either.”[/i]

This intrigued Tristan as he listened to Forrest’s somewhat impressive interrogation skills. Well, they impressed Tristan at least. And it was an admittedly low bar.

A whole separate file for the Rangers. Curious. It made sense, sure, but after experiencing the power of a single of these Zodiac members, he wondered why they would need any sort of elaborate plan requiring its own filing and plans. He fully believed that, if they wanted to, they could all blitz on the Headquarters and just obliterate it in a moment, killing everyone inside. This would have been especially effective if all the Grands were still here. Everything would have fallen into chaos with, he believed, minimal effort on their part.

However, overhearing that the Grands were returning to their bases, hope threatened to flutter in Tristan’s chest. The Zodiacs either weren’t powerful enough to do this, or they believed they were. The former would be ideal. However, as he had mentioned before, they had to overestimate these terrorists in all things.

Still, the Grands had scattered, and the Headquarters was still standing. The Master General seemed to not be in league with them and Grand Kline seemed to have been looking into them with this “Project Shadow” - intriguing. He was absolutely going to have that meeting with Regina as soon as he could. 

However, he was going to follow through with his previous requests. He wasn’t about to rule out that Agent Hawly had nothing new to report. If nothing else, it might help add context if not new information altogether. Both of which could be helpful to someone who knew what to do with such intelligence.

At this point, Tristan only had two data drives; one for the intelligence gathered about the attack on Mauville and everything related to Jonton’s work. The other had all of the intelligence gathered about the Zodiacs specifically along with the locations they were to target.

“I’ll still speak with Hawley.” Tristan spoke with a rather flat and expressionless tone as he approached the desk again. He’d pick up the drive that he had left on the desk at Forrest’s first motion. He then gestured for the Rich to move out from behind his desk. His other hand lifted the drive and he asked, “May I?” referring to uploading the information.

After verifying that his system was secure and uncompromised he would start with the Mauville attack and Jonton intel first. As he did so he would give a brief summary of what it was he was uploading. Once complete, the drive was placed back into his pant pocket and the other drive was revealed and input into Rich’s computer.

As this information was uploaded, Tristan similarly provided an overview of the information - The Zodiac’s aliases, their targets, the physical descriptions of the three that they knew, and the Mythical Pokemon they were listed to acquire if they hadn’t already.

There wasn’t really much to discuss at this point. For now, Tristan wanted to relay his thoughts to Rich as he had with Forrest. He wanted to impress upon the Master General that, if the Zodiacs are all as powerful, or more so, than Taurus, then the Headquarters could easily be leveled in a moment if they wanted to. Clearly they had something else in mind, but he made sure to suggest that they not have another in-person meeting of the Grands if they could help it.

He would express that this would pose its own challenges and consequences. In keeping their authoritative structure spread out it would make a single sweeping blow less straightforward. However, with as many of these Zodiacs as there were, they could just split up and attack everyone all at once and likely overpower them regardless. Perhaps that was their plan. 

So, they needed to decide if they were going to gather everyone in one location so it was potentially more defensible, or remain spread out to make their likely attack on the Rangers more inconvenient.

More importantly, though, they needed to quickly come up with a plan on how to evacuate or defend the remaining locations and individuals. And do so without creating panic among the general populace.

Most importantly, he needed to ensure that this information didn’t get out and that it was only disseminated to entirely necessary personnel. Even better was to compartmentalize the information, only letting individuals know the parts that were pertinent to their position and capabilities. 

A difficult needle to thread, all said.

This was something he would leave up to Rich to make the decision based on his best judgement. An awful lot of trust to place into someone he found himself at odds with more often than not. It was ultimately his job and responsibility, after all. [i]”Veritas, HQ is clear… for now. Bring my parents and Percival here when you get them.”[/i]

On the way back to his office, Tristan suggested that Forrest should think about what to do about his parents. While Tristan debriefed Hawley, he instructed Veritas to acquire rooms and get his own parents settled in. He would visit with them soon enough, but had quite a bit of work to do before the day was done.

It was entirely disconcerting that there was no warning of someone entering his office. Both he and Ether hated it. While he tried to remember that this was how most everyone else experienced things, Ether’s tail flicked back and forth in annoyance. Tristan’s brows crinkled at the abrupt entrance, but he did his best not to outright jump as she approached. 

Asuna was absolutely not someone he expected to see. Not here. Not now. While he was surprised and somewhat confused, his interest and curiosity was overpowering in this moment. 

“Yes, Asuna. It’s good to see you. Please,” he said even after she already took Forrest’s seat. It was his way of confirming to Forrest that he, indeed, knew this young lady and this was acceptable. Acceptable only in that he didn’t want to act the reality that he was caught completely on the back foot here.

“I’m glad. To be honest, I was a little worried which side Ms. Shade was on.” It reminded him that he was curious what Lady Fairfax was up to and how she felt about all of this. How she would feel once she learned what he decided to tell her.

But, he needed to focus on the here and now. [i]”Ether, don’t let me forget that we need to talk to Kline and Frederick, Lois, and Bingham. Ugh, this is going to take forever. Veritas, let them know it’s going to be a late night, but I’ll get to them as soon as I can.”[/i] Ether impressed upon his training an affirmative while Veritas replied, [i]”Of course…[/i]

“So, as for what I found.” He had allowed just enough time for her to offer her opinion and thoughts on his previous spoken statement, half-listening and hoping that Ether would remind him of any important details that he missed. He would, again, pause while he brought up the summaries he had shown Forrest and Rich already. 

He’d start with the information around the Mauville attack and Jonton, allowing Ether to focus on her reaction to this information. Even no apparent reaction might be something. However, he reminded Ether to keep out of her mind - not that he could infiltrate her defenses anyway. He was only to observe her non-verbal communication while he went through each set of intelligence.

After everything was relayed, Tristan - showing an uncharacteristically generous amount of trust and confidence in this woman he’d only met once - turned to her to ask, “And that’s all we gathered.” He’d wait a beat before asking, “How much of this did you already know?” He wanted to see her reaction and see if she was, indeed, who he thought - part of this Project Shadow.