Agency

"Hm." The answer fit, but it didn't fit right. Laine didn't really know how to explain it It was... a piece taken from a different puzzle, maybe. Everything lined up and it seemed like it was supposed to go there, but there was something about it that just wasn't correct. It was the sort of answer that Strings wouldn't have been happy with. He would have kept going, she felt, until he had an answer that he was happy with.

She wasn't him, though, and she wasn't a researcher either. Perhaps this was what not my department meant? Laine thought about that for a little while, offering almost no commentary except to correct a couple measurements that were wrong. They were never wrong by very much, but sometimes the instruments were not perfect at measuring, or sometimes they just weren't lined up correctly. Laine thought it would all go much more quickly if they just handed her the paperwork and let her fill it all in, but maybe that wasn't allowed, with interns. Or perhaps it had something to do with anomalies, or just something to do with people. Laine was never quite sure.

"Do you know Strings?"
 
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Smith had frowned the first time Anchor corrected her measurement, but she'd done the courtesy of remeasuring for reassurance. Imagine her surprise when she saw that, while the imprecision had been slight, it was visible on the tape. She'd never encountered an anomaly that knew its own size and shape well enough to correct her about it, but she didn't question before remeasuring when Anchor spoke up again. It did make her wonder what kind of anomaly she was dealing with, though. Maybe she'd review the file. She definitely had access.

"No, I never had the displeasure of getting to know him any better than I had to." The man had been a disaster in every area when he'd worked here, but the sort of efficient disaster that had to be tolerated. Nobody had liked him, but he'd been effective, and that's what had mattered before his transfer to L-7 following his incident in 2010. "Van Helsing was my primary therapist when I first came on, and then when Strings left and Helsing took on his load of anomalous assets, I was transferred over to CK."

She used the closest things Drs. Eisenberg and Kacey had to callsigns without thinking. Being bad at names used to mean figuring out how to address people properly, or not address them at all, but here, everybody had some kind of nickname that they answered to. That made it way easier. Then she remembered the kind of relationships Strings was said to have with anomalous assets, and the question made her worry just a little. She glanced Anchor's face before she turned back to her toolbox to change out items.

"Why'd you ask?"
 
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"The way you answered made me think of him," Laine answered honestly. "He's good at finding better answers. I met him when my measurements were much smaller. It didn't go as well as either of us would have liked, I think."

No, whatever he had wanted from her, she'd known enough to recognize that it hadn't happened. Laine wondered what he would have liked. There were always rumors, but she didn't like rumors. They were frequently inaccurate and always untidy.

"I'd have liked to have asked him more questions. Maybe I'll figure him out some day. Maybe not. I'm not good with people." Laine thought about that statement, then added, judiciously, "Neither is he."
 
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"I'm not sure what you mean, but I'm sorry if I dredged up any bad memories. The guy was an [EXPLETIVE]." The Foundation didn't have any weird authoritarian rules about talking about Councilmen like that, and in Strings's case it was probably for the best, because people would get censured a lot. "Honestly I don't think those questions would get you very far unless you knew who to ask. Maybe he's good at answers but you're understating a bit when you say he's bad with people. Everyone's got about the same [EXPLETIVE] opinion of him around here except maybe Helsing, and I don't think he's capable of having a bad opinion of anyone."

Smith was calm despite the language she used, her eyes focused on the job at hand. She liked conversations like this. It was better than awkward silence. She didn't have any idea that someone might've said the same thing to Anchor a long time ago - about Eisenberg, about Strings. Although perhaps with more questions of her own. She'd been research, after all.

But Smith didn't know that.
 
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"Meeting him isn't a bad memory," Laine stated. This was not a statement that was statistically likely to be accurate in most cases, but it was different with Laine. Strings had pushed a button she hadn't liked, but he hadn't known what it was going to do, and he hadn't liked the result any more than she had. Laine minded that much less than she minded some of the others that asked her questions, the ones who were trying to poke at things because they thought they already knew the answers and just wanted her to say the things that made them feel like they had been correct, even if they hadn't been.

"I think most people don't understand him. I also think he prefers it that way. I want to understand him, but I don't think it would be polite, since he doesn't want to be understood." Laine watched Agent Smith work for a while, curious about how everything here fit together. "I think you're like him, that way." Laine slipped a pen back into her pocket, which had definitely been there the entire time they had been talking.

"I thought about working with him for a while. But that might get untidy."
 
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Smith cocked her head at what Anchor said about her and Strings. It was an odd observation - not necessarily anomalous, but certainly different. A lack of understanding as an act of - good manners? Weird approach. Although admittedly sometimes even normal people stumbled over good manners. Nobody was built for that. It might even be rude to ask the next question, but if Anchor was getting the full Agency tour, there might be other rudeness to follow from elsewhere. Might as well ease the newbie into it as she started to pack up and let her readjust her armor.

"What makes you say I don't want to be understood?" What? She wasn't a researcher, but even an agent could be curious, especially when it came to questions about themselves.
 
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"Because when I asked you if you liked finding the right pieces-" Laine faltered, uncertain. She didn't like not finishing sentences. It wasn't grammatically accurate. In this case, though, she was struggling to find the end of it, the words that would make sense to Agent Smith. Much of what Laine knew or did, she couldn't really explain. It was like trying to explain red to someone who had been colorblind all of their life. There was no analogue, no frame of reference. Laine's understanding of things was mostly intuitive, and while someone had once been patient enough to explain that it wasn't like that for everyone, Laine still had difficulty translating her understanding into something that others could understand.

Sometimes similes worked, but Laine didn't like similes. It wasn't like something, it was something, just something that the words didn't have the right meanings for, exactly. That was one of the reasons Laine liked reading dictionaries - sometimes she felt that if she knew enough words, she would find the right ones, the ones that fit.

Much like Agent Smith, she supposed.

"When I asked you if you liked finding the right pieces, you answered with something that fit the question, and it fit the Foundation, but it didn't fit you, not really," Laine tried, wondering if this would convey the idea well enough. "It was the right answer, but it was orthogonally right. Right at a right angle. Not becoming."
 
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Anchor slowly stopped making sense, though whether that was because of who she was as a person or because of who she was as an anomaly was hard to say. Explaining things could be hard sometimes. And Anchor did, eventually, come around to her point, although not being a mathematician Smith hardly had a reason to know what orthogonal meant. But she did feel a warmth creep across her face as she pretended to be busy with her bag when she realized what exactly Anchor was commenting on.

There was no hint of mockery or call-out in what Anchor said, though. The newbie was in earnest. Helena took a second to peer out into the armory proper again - just to make sure it was still empty. They were under surveillance, but the surveillance team wasn't allowed to participate in the rumor pool, so there wasn't any reason for her to worry about them.

"I... oh, well, it's a little embarrassing." She turned to face Anchor, still blushing, but ready to check and see if the newbie needed any help with her straps, already well aware that she didn't. "This has to stay between us. But it's not just - mechanical perfection, or practical fitting. I like to make sure my agents look good in the armor I provide, not just that it fits well. Integrity of the structure always takes precedent of course. But everyone's body is different, and I like to bring out the best in people when it comes to showing it."

She wasn't very good at explaining it without actually saying what she'd done before or giving an example. She honestly wouldn't have said half of that to any other newbie who might get mixed up with the betting pools. But whether it was because Anchor seemed a little distressed at missing a piece, or because she just seemed too damn naive to really get all the implications and too damn earnest to share if asked not to, this felt... right.

Besides. Somebody would find out eventually. It might as well be on Smith's terms, in her armory, and not through the grapevine or invasion of privacy.
 
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"I am not hiding information that it would be detrimental to the Foundation to render unavailable," Laine stated, maybe pointedly. People were very strange about their secrets. Anomalies were strange about their secrets in a different way. Sometimes anomalous secrecy could result in a breach. Agent Smith was not an anomaly, though, so she was not likely to be detrimentally secretive, merely strangely so. As expected, the information had very little to do with the function of the Foundation. Laine listened, and considered.

"Why is that embarrassing?" The question was not asked the way people usually asked it, which Laine understood to mean you shouldn't be embarrassed by that. She thought that it wasn't [font color="acacac"]hers[/font] to decide what people found embarrassing or not. That was part of them, in its own way. Laine asked because she wanted to understand the reason. "Statistically speaking, most people prefer to look their best and feel more confident when they are aware of a state where they do. Confidence is important to security personnel in order to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities."

To her, this seemed like the sort of information that people would want to know. Of course, she was not Agent Smith, and what Agent Smith thought about the matter was likely to be different. People were difficult to understand, and rarely interested in explaining themselves. Laine considered the current situation and the status of the fitting progress. "Do I look good?" It was a very subjective question, and Laine didn't like it, but she thought that Agent Smith might.
 
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Smith had to think about the question for a moment. Something told her "it just is" wouldn't be a satisfactory answer, so she actually measured out why she'd be so humiliated if word got out. It didn't have anything to do with the work itself - hell, she was good enough that most agents would take it as an added bonus.

But she'd never hear the end of it.

"Well, for one, we in security are expected to take ourselves a little more... practically, than everybody else. Most of us are really pragmatic when it comes to structure, protocol, rules, but because of that there's this... surprise, when it comes out that we're human too." Helena tilted her head, thinking as she spoke. "It's not just security, though. For me there's this stigma around people who deal with style and fitting. Certain people fit that typing, and if you don't, you get told that you do until you either blow a gasket or prove everybody otherwise. It's just easier to not let anyone know you're invested in that kind of thing. Besides, most agents don't need me to tell them I'm making it fit them better than it already does. Might as well give them a harmless ego boost."

And as such, it was uncommon for her to be asked if the agent in question looked good in the armor she provided - they just took it for granted that they looked good by some natural virtue. Smith looked Anchor over, even walked a circle around her to investigate. There wasn't a flaw in the way the armor sat on the newbie's body - of course not. The anomalous aspects were starting to make their vague sense, and there wasn't a world where Anchor's armor wouldn't fit well. But of course, there were still places where human decision overrode anomalous ability.

"I think the Foundation gray was a good choice. It brings out your eyes and offsets the black of the armor. White would've been too much, black would've made it all blend together and made your shape hard to pick out." She smiled wryly. "In the fitted armor? You'll look beyond good. With appropriate mobility and a little molding around the curves I think it'll be very becoming on you."
 
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"Becoming." A little smile touched her expression - Laine was not generally the most expressive person, but there was something of a spark there, at the word. Something anomalous, maybe, but also something just pleased. "I'm becoming a security agent." Agent Smith and Agent Hania would make sure she fit into the role.

"I think the people who tell you that you don't fit the typing don't know very much about how things fit," Laine stated. "Most people don't. They know how they want things to fit, but not how they actually fit. It ends up being very inaccurate. I'm glad I'm an anomaly. I don't have to fit in a type. Just in a box." This could have been a joke, but Laine wasn't inclined towards those. It was much more likely to be nothing more than a statement, something picked up from years in the Foundation about anomalies being kept in their boxes. Laine didn't sound as if she minded, though. It was good to have somewhere she belonged.

"I'm glad I'll look good, though. Presentation is important, especially when establishing relationships. Since I'm not good with people and I'm an anomaly, I will be fortunate to have an extra advantage."
 
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Smith's wry smile fell into something more sincere at Anchor's advice. Hard to say whether it was the anomaly or the young woman behind it. It was always hard to say with anohumans. Not that it really mattered - too often the anomaly and the person were all knotted up in each other, and the line remained unclear. Though the mix of naivete and flattering design might have one significant downside.

"And, Anchor, if anyone makes a comment on your figure, send them my way. I'll give 'em hell for you."

Before she could be asked to explain, the doors on the armory announced that they were being opened. Smith nodded once to Anchor before stepping back into the main body, to find the fully armored and helmeted Jericho waiting for her. Or, more accurately, for his newbie. He'd give her a glance over in the new armor while Smith retrieved a helmet and facemask for Laine from the wall. A shame that her eyes would be covered by the blast visor, but such was security.

"It's a little tight in the joints," Jericho noticed. Maintenance gave him a sharp eye for details like that.

"Shouldn't cause any problems until she's training for heavy weapons and obstacles," Smith replied with a small nod, "and by then she'll have the fitted model."

She passed a helmet of appropriate size based on her more-accurate-than-usual measurements to Anchor, then turned back to Jericho.

"Expect the order to be ready in about two weeks, maybe three. I feel like accuracy is going to be important for this one."

Hania, who had read Cantrille's file, nodded his agreement. "We'll work with what we have in the meantime." He looked at his newbie. "Once you've finished suiting up, we'll head out."
 
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"Transplanar relocation requires permission from the security council, location head, or Class-E personnel," Laine pointed out. "And is not generally recommended as a gift."

Agent Hania had returned, however, and opened the doors to the armory once again. It seemed like her time with Agent Smith was coming to a close for now, which was acceptable. Laine followed her back out into the armory proper, noting Agent Hania's assessment with a nod. She appreciated his accuracy and attention to detail. Agent Smith selected a helmet for her, which would fit appropriately.

"Thank you." Laine meant more for everything else rather than the helmet in particular, but perhaps it wasn't necessary to specify. While Agent Smith was coming back with the helmet, Laine reached up and twisted her hair into a little coil, which would fit under the helmet and stay in place. It was certainly pinned somehow, if anyone cared to look for pins, and definitely always had been. Laine accepted the helmet as it was passed to her without comment.

"I think I'm ready." Laine slipped on the helmet, and became a security personnel.
 
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Once Cantrille confirmed she was ready, Hania offered Smith a formal salute, then led the way out of the armory. His own weapons and armor had been checked for the day. He checked his watch as they stepped through the doors. 0730.

Time to start rounds, and to start explaining them.

"Each member of security personnel follows a different route and pattern within set parameters. My specialization is in biological anomalous containment. Your initial training will be observation of biological anomaly containment and minor object containment measures. For the time being you will only work half-days with me, as after lunch I do rounds in anohuman containment."

Due to the specifics of the sitewide breach initiated by ACF-833’s previous handler, management had determined that for the time being she would not interact with other anohumans in a security position, but there were other reasons why he would not be allowing Cantrille to join him on the second part of his daily routine for a while.

"Anohumans are never classed below Low-Grade Risky, and I’m currently assigned to several High-Grade Risky units which would be unsafe for interaction with Class-B personnel. Following a two-week training period I will observe you as you apply minor object containment measures. Two weeks following that you may begin to observe my interactions with High-Grade Risky anohuman containment with management approval. In five weeks my normal route will be rotated, and yours with me. This is significant to security as many intelligent anomalies, alive and inanimate, have a degree of awareness that would allow them to track their maintenance and security agents’ behavioral patterns. As each of us observes different measures within parameters, this makes Foundation behaviors less predictable."

There were always concerns about telling these things to a contained anomaly, but Hania had a feeling about Anchor. Not an anomalous feeling, but something very natural. Gut feelings were not acceptable within parameters of security measurement except in an emergency. He had been the one selected to train Anchor, however. If site management did not approve of his instincts, they would have selected someone else for this.
 
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Cantrille followed Agent Hania through the corridors as he explained the current set of security rotations and parameters, as well as the schedule for the day. Schedules were very important, as they ensured that proper personnel were on site for the tasks that the Foundation required them for. She would shadow Agent Hania throughout the morning, and then ACF-833's afternoons were unscheduled, with the Foundational understanding that she would almost certainly schedule them herself, even if the schedules themselves were simplistic.

She anticipated paperwork. Paperwork was a good way to add structure to unstructured time.

For now, she was focused on the current task. Biological anomalies were those exhibiting some sort of life form criteria, though what constituted life was often as anomalous as the entities in question. Anohumans were a subset of biological entities, and most of them functioned in a largely human-like manner. Sometimes, the lines between biological anomaly and anohuman were difficult to classify. There were several metrics for classification, and once a certain threshhold had been met an anomaly was classified as anohuman. ACF-833 was listed as anohuman, even though she was not good with people. Being good with people was not actually one of the metrics required to qualify as anohuman, or as human, which explained Strings and several other individuals.

"I understand. Introduction of an anomaly to another anomaly is always a risky procedure, as it is uncertain what reactions to each other or synergies with each other they may have." Security agents did not have trouble with difficult words or phrases. It was much easier when she was a security agent. "Thank you for the explanation. I know that is not required. I appreciate having a schedule of unpredictable events."

It could be argued that having a schedule of unpredictable events made them predictable, but they were not supposed to be unpredictable to security agents, only from those anomalies who were being secured.

Of course, ACF-833 was also being secured. "There will be changes to the schedule which are unpredictable and are requested by management during this initiation phase in order to measure my reactions to unpredictable events." This could have been a question, but it seemed to be a statement. Of course, again, if changes were expected, would that mean that the original predictable schedule was now unpredictable?

"...Or perhaps there will not. This is a recursive loop. Very frustrating."
 
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"Frustration is often the point," Hania pointed out. "It is good for security in an equal and opposite direction from the rumor pools. Psychological security measures are often equally effective to physical ones."

Her agitation did not seem to bother him, although he did note her use of the word synergy. That was closely associated with her previous handler, and its use should be closely monitored. However, in the context it was secure. She used it to express her way of understanding the measures in place, which were equally valid to his own and those of location management.

Her frustrating recursive loop made sense to him in its own way. He himself would likely not be informed of alterations to the schedule until they were due to happen. "Aside from testing ACF-833, there are numerous reasons why our schedule may change. Even minor breaches of containment will result in closer monitoring, and such breaches are not uncommon with biological anomalies. Breaches in other departments may result in transfer of specialized personnel, which would require someone else to pick up their route."
 
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[div style="border-top: 4px #CCCCCC solid; border-bottom: 4px #cccccc solid; border-left: 2px #A0522D solid; border-right: 2px #A0522D solid;"][div style="border-right: 4px #cccccc solid; border-left: 4px #cccccc solid; border-bottom: 2px #A0522D solid; border-top: 2px #A0522D solid;padding:8px; background-color:white;color:black;font-family:'courier new';"]"Psychological security measures are very effective," Laine agreed, quite pleased. She was, for the most part, talking about herself, but that was no reason not to be pleased that the security measures were effective. Laine did not want to be unsecured. She was, in fact, quite appreciative of the measures that the Foundation had taken to keep her contained. She belonged in the Foundation, and if that statement itself was merely another security measure, Laine did not have any problems with it.

"The schedule is a variable." Not variable, but a variable: a concept put into place in order to assist in processing an equation while not knowing the precise value. Laine understood variables. Often, she understood them a bit too well, which had been discovered when she was smaller and learning about mathematics and equations with variables had been presented, and Laine had not understood why they could not just write 5 or 8.73 or 3π/5 instead of x, since that was what x was, but apparently most people could not do that. It had gone better once she had gotten to equations where x was permitted to be a multitude of things, like +/-7 or was itself an equation. Laine didn't understand why they didn't just start with that.

The schedule was a variable, though, and it would change based on the events around it. Occasionally other personnel would be shifted around, or occasionally there would be breaches. Laine did not like breaches, even if they were minor. "Will we be called on to assist other personnel in the matter of a breach?"
 
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Hania understood. Perhaps not in a mathematical sense, although he did have an engineering background, but the mathematics rarely mattered to him anymore outside of studying the blueprints to containment measures. More relevant was the idea of a variable in security - something that would alter and change and be adapted to. Protocol was of vital importance, but adaptation was of equal value. Both meant life or death, security or breach.

"It is likely I will. For now, you will not." He touched his sidearm, mostly to make a point of why he'd be involved, and she would not. "In the case of a minor breach of containment you will be given downtime until the anomaly is returned to appropriate containment measures, at which point you will observe the adjustments to those measures. In the case of a full breach of containment, you will either be required to evacuate as a Class-B intern or return to your containment measures as ACF-833. That will depend on the breach, your proximity, and its severity. In the case of a sitewide breach, you will be evacuated as per your usual protocols."

Whether those were human or anohuman would be in her file, but at that point he would be involved in recontainment measures and would not be able to advise her. She knew the file for ACF-833, however, and so it would be in her best interest to leave that decision in her hands. Even if she was not good with initiative, she would be required to learn, one way or another.

They passed through matching halls with alternating CU doors on each wall. Anomalies were to be kept relatively separately, especially biological ones. It was early enough that most diurnal animal anomalies would not yet be awake, and so Hania's rounds began with the botanical sector. While there was lower risk of containment breach for diurnal anomalies at this hour, there was also higher risk of interrupting research study. Security came first, but study was important for its continuation, and was one of the two ultimate reasons for containment, so it had to be respected.
 
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Cantrille nodded once more. This was a sensible division. In the event of a breach requiring Agent Hania to be called away, he would be responsible for securing the breached anomaly, and she would be responsible for securing ACF-833. The most effective way of doing this would be to return to her containment unit, though the specific path taken would depend on their location at the time and the location of the breached anomaly and pathways that various Foundation personnel might require. She would use some of her downtime later to construct flowcharts for potential situations. Flowcharts were a very good way of conveying information to Foundation personnel, and perhaps it would be good for them to know what to expect from her while they dealt with whatever had been unexpected from other anomalies.

"I understand, but I hope evacuation is not necessary, or is only temporary. I don't think I would like not having a place to belong." She liked L-14. Being somewhere else was very difficult to consider. It was possible that had things gone differently, she would have been somewhere else with someone else, but it hadn't worked out that way. Laine thought that perhaps by then they both knew that it would not have gone well. She belonged at L-14, regardless of the presence - or absence - of others.

Agent Hania bypassed several of the containment units, leading them instead to the anomalies that were listed as botanical, or at least mostly botanical. Like many things in the Foundation, botanical was on a scale, and anomalies beyond a certain threshold on the relevant factors were categorized that way. They were not strictly plants, in the way that anohumans were not strictly humans, and any anomaly was not strictly something else. The classification system made it easier for the Foundation to do its job, and offered researchers an avenue of study, but Cantrille was perfectly aware that too much categorization could be just as detrimental as too little.

"Will we be scheduled for night shifts at all?" Agent Hania had mentioned half days, but Laine was aware that this was sometimes a statement of measure rather than a statement of any particular time frame. Some anomalies were markedly different at different times of the day and night cycle, and an experienced security agent would need to be prepared for variations in behavior.
 
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Hania briefly considered informing Cantrille of the evacuation procedure, then decided that she would learn more about it at a different time, when it was more relevant. Individual anomalies would cause alternate evacuation routes, but most were plotted out. It was just as likely that she would review those on her own time, so Hania could focus on the more pressing question.

"No. Routine maintenance occurs during the day, local time. 0730 to 1930, in shifts of six hours with a half-hour lunch. Some agents work longer hours if they are cleared for strenuous work. However, we may be asked to perform maintenance duties in the case of a breach at night. Many zoological anomalies are nocturnal, like their non-anomalous counterparts, and thus may actively make a breach attempt after our scheduled hours. In such cases maintenance agents rotate between who is on call. We will be on call next week, and whether we will be on call again soon after that depends on whether there is a minor breach during that period. In the case that there is a night breach, your sleep schedule will be interrupted when I retrieve you to observe. This is part of training."

Schedules were important to Cantrille. She had already made that clear, so to be informed now that her personal schedule might be interrupted for security would give her time to prepare herself for that possibility. Now that they were on their set route, Hania moved as much with memory as with his trained vigilance. They passed several other agents, apparently initiating their rounds, and a number of researchers who looked like they needed a lethal amount of caffeine to begin functioning for the day. Most of them had already gotten started with either canned energy drinks or hot thermoses of coffee or tea.

Hania did not really understand how research did not have a set schedule the way security did. In theory, at least in his mind, study should be easier if conducted regularly at certain times of day. But then again, he was not the one observing the anomalous, just ensuring they remained in containment for study to continue. Researchers’ sleeping patterns were not his department.
 
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