[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/Df1jDS9G/Eleven.png[/img] [color=white]Miya[/color] [sup][color=Silver]Morning - The Rookery, New York City - [Everyone][/color][/sup] [/center] [hr] [color=Silver] The moment Lieutenant Hawthorne mentioned the Orthodoxy's recent interest in human testing, Dimitri couldn't help but find it a bit strange, raising an eyebrow as he listened. Human experimentation was honestly not something new or unheard in the last years. Hell... He knew the church itself was guilty of the very same thing... The only difference between the Orthodoxy and the Catholic church in that specific matter was that one was quicker to start human experimentation and had more success on it than the other... Regardless of how guilty both sides were, the fact the catholic church had suddenly became interested in those experiments meant that the Orthodoxy likely had started to get close to a real result. The surprising part about all that was that the information Dimitri himself had about those tests didn't seem to be that significant. Definitely not enough for the church to dispatch a number and it's handler to investigate it... The possibility that the church had more information than Dimitri had about the Orthodoxy's experiments was very high. [color=a2d39c]"Not much, to be honest. Most of the information I've came to know point to the entire research to be quite early in development, with no significant progress being made so far."[/color] Dimitri replied, closely studying the reactions from Lieutenant Hawthorne and the Archbishop, before the latter returned to the war room. But Dimitri's interest on the Lieutenant's reaction soon disappeared when she handed him a few documents. Written in them were the names and information of a few of the agents that had recently disappeared while doing field work in the Orthodoxy. Among them, one name drew his attention... Rhea Harkov. Rhea was one of Dimitri's contacts, occasionally exchanging information with him. Knowing that even the cloaking tech she was so proud of wasn't able to save her did ring an alarm on Dimitri's mind... If the Orthodoxy was getting rid of agents deeply infiltrated into their ranks like Rhea... Then it was highly possible that most information that he came to know about the experiments were baits either part of a disinformation operation and bait... Dimitri's expression went from surprised to serious as he read the papers, looking up after a few minutes of silence with a serious expression. [color=a2d39c]"There is a high probability that the information we know about their experiments are either very outdated, calculated leaks to mask the real progress of their experiments, part of a disinformation operation to root out spies or both... It seems the Orthodoxy has played us for fools..."[/color] Dimitri said, finally putting the sheets of paper in the table again with a sigh. [color=a2d39c]"Understood. Our progress in investigating this matter will likely not be as quick as usual, given the Orthodoxy's control over any [i]real[/i] information about their experiments and how effective they have been at rooting out spies recently but we will send periodic reports about this matter by the same means as usual."[/color] Dimitri said with a serious tone as Lieutenant Hawthorne informed of their next assignment once the crisis with the horsemen was resolved. While Miya didn't show any external reaction, her eyes seemed to focus quite intensely on Lieutenant Hawthorne the moment she heard her words. During all the conversation, Miya stood silent, studying Dimitri and the Lieutenant's expressions and reactions. Unlike both of them, Miya had known about the Orthodoxy leaking false and outdated information about their experiments for a while now, but decided against reporting her findings so far. Even though she completely and fully trusted Dimitri, she knew that he would most definitely report their findings to his superiors due to how professional and disciplined he was regarding his job... Despite being far from being religious or fervently loyal to the Catholic church. During quite some time while they were doing fieldwork in Russia, Miya delicately and discreetly suggested and manipulated Dimitri to believe that the experiments the Orthodoxy was performing were far from being a real threat. Sure, Miya did feel a bit guilty about using Dimitri's soft spot for her to manipulate him, but she saw what she did as akin to telling a few, harmless white lies instead of 'betraying his trust'. Initially, Miya's goal was to let the Orthodoxy experiments to advance as long as they didn't become a threat to her or Dimitri, as they would be highly likely to give her an insight of what exactly she was and how she became a 'number'. In the end, due to how tightly and strictly the Orthodoxy was controlling any 'real' information about those experiments, Miya herself knew precious little about the [i]true[/i] progress of the Orthodoxy's research... As such, while it wasn't in her plans having the Church turn their eyes to the Orthodoxy's human research so quickly, perhaps it wasn't all bad, as it would give her the perfect excuse to investigate the fruits of her small 'misdirection' personally. As Lieutenant Hawthorne finished her briefing, notifying them of their next assignment once they had all dealt with the horsemen and recovered the Church's artifacts, Miya felt a bit relieved. While she had clearly noticed the exchange of stares between the Lieutenant and the Archbishop, indicating that they might be a bit suspicious of how much both of them knew, it didn't seem to be anything more than the usual paranoia and necessity to know and control everything the Church was so famous for. The very fact that Dimitri himself didn't seem to know what Miya was doing meant that it would be quite unlikely the military or the Church would figure out her plans as well... [/color]