Quiet Halls

[Anonymous]

Amaata stretched out along a bench in hallway which was usually fairly isolated because it was only a few turns away from the Axis Point. It was quiet here, except for Kuroth's constant presence in her mind, and so the young Pilot could actually take some time to relax her tight mental control without feeling as though everyone was screaming at her.

Her sense of peace was interrupted slowly as she became aware of someone walking towards her, thought and emotion grating against her psyche. Pushing up from the bench, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked around. Her long hair fell around her as she listened for footsteps and waited to see if the owner of that particular mind would simply walk by or stop to bother her.

She closed down almost instinctively, protecting herself both from intrusion and the normal overflow everyone seemed to have and hoping her time to herself was not over.

[Anonymous]

Holding a file open as he walked, Malachi studied the chart. He had been checking on some discrepancies in a weapons list and had taken a shortcut by the lead rooms. He didn't really mind the area, though Axis Point gave him the willies. But the quiet down here could be nice.

Rounding the corner, he found himself in front of a Cardinal. Her odd features made her slightly memorable, though he struggled to place her name, "Ah. Pardon me. I hope I wasn't intruding."

[Anonymous]

"Not really, Pilot Echo" Amaata said, shrugging. There wasn't much point in outright lying when random people could sometimes tell whether or not you were. Amaata herself was capable of telling whether or not someone was lying with minimal effort ... she just chose not to most of the time. "I was just taking a moment to breathe. It gets ... noisy." Understatement of the century.

[Anonymous]

"Ah, yes. I think I can understand that." Malachi didn't really need to come to the lead rooms for that, his shields were very good as he had learned long ago that he wanted to keep his thoughts private. But everyone was gifted in different ways.

Something about her name tickled his brain and he flipped through the file he had been looking over. Yes, she had been one of the people working on the list. He had needed to talk to her anyway, find out what she knew, if anything about where the errors had come from. Someone from the Inquiry department would talk to her eventually to make sure she wasn't the one causing the errors, but he more cared about finding where the guns had went.

"What do you know about shipment 12J217? The military gun shipment that was sent out three days ago."

[Anonymous]

Amaata sat up sharply and straightened her shirt quickly. "Not much, sir," she said, her voice tight. "I was there to screen for any overt threat and I didn't notice anything. Of course, I my listening in was very general and I might have missed something." She knew very well that it had been an exercise. They wanted her to learn to listen for guilt so that when they did promote her and make her an Auditor she could be as useful as possible. "Is there someone specific you needed my impressions of?"

[Anonymous]

"Oh, no. If you didn't pick anything up there, than I doubt there is much you could tell me. Nothing there stood out? Some of them are missing and we need to find out where they went missing and how." Malachi sighed, tapping his pen against the file, "Sorry to have bothered you."

[Anonymous]

Amaata jerked fully upright, her eyes narrowing slightly. Missing? Her mind whirled, going back over every moment that she could remember. Was there something she had missed? Someone who seemed too open, or too closed off? She was supposed to be learning to spot the guilty, and she had likely been in the room with a Gospel without realizing it. She was going to get stuffed into an office somewhere and stay a Cardinal forever.

Not that that sounds that bad, she thought. It was met with sharp disapproval from Kuroth, and she flinched slightly. The last thing she wanted was for Kuroth to be disappointed in her.

"There was one Cardinal," she said slowly, concentrating. "Jamison. Kurt Jamison. He was overly friendly and didn't seem to be taking the job very seriously. I do not know if there was anything criminal about his behavior or if he simply does not take being a Pilot seriously. I saw and heard nothing to implicate anyone directly."

[Anonymous]

"Ah. Thank you." Malachi smiled, jotting the name down. He wasn't an Inquisitor, so he wasn't going to try and pick her story apart. He just wanted to see if he could track down the missing weapons and figure out where his traitor was.

Honestly, he wasn't that worried. Whoever it was was sloppy, leaving tracks wide open. It was just a matter of following them.

He glanced over at Kith again, feeling he should make some conversation, "Do you often spend time here? I find this area uncomfortable personally."