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She was trying her best not to step on any toes, in her own way. It wasn't as hard as it could have been. She'd been self-isolating for a while by the time they found her anyway, so she had gotten used to it. Company was nice, and she missed it, but...

It wasn't that she wasn't curious about any of it--- much the opposite, in fact. But within the organization itself, there was this air of tension, as if not all the members got along or something...

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And she also got a sense that there were a lot of secrets that they weren't exactly keen on letting her in on. That they didn't trust her as far as they could throw her, or something like that.

It felt kind of dangerous too, actually. Not the kind of place she would have chosen to work for, if she had a choice. But beggars couldn't be choosers, and whatever the organization's problems internally, they were at least a step up from what was happening before.

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They had information, they had experience, they had backing from what she highly suspected was some sort of heiress incognito... And they had each other too, which was more than Lyra had ever had before.

She could feel a presence grumbling about what she was thinking in the back of her mind, and had to stifle the urge to laugh. Yes, I know, she thought. Jericho had been with her the entire time, that much was true. But it wasn't quite the same.

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She would have been a lot worse off without him, and she wasn't about to forget that anytime soon. Not just in the combat sense either. She was grateful to him, she really was. But as far as allies went, the more the merrier, right?

She turned her eyes back to the wall. The building was really... shitty looking, that was the only real way to say it. She hadn't really thought of their Oracle operating out of a place like this.

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She didn't really know what she expected the Oracle's base to look like, but a seedy old apartment in a shady part of town definitely wasn't it. Maybe a cottage out in the wilderness, like a druid, or maybe a fancy underground bunker... She wasn't picky, but shouldn't it have been classier than this?

... Then again. Lyra thought of how Bastien and Luke had found her, huddled up in a sewer, covered in, well, sewage and Mal gunk and, if she was honest, probably at least a little blood.

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Not all of it had been her own either, if her memory served. And they hadn't called the cops or anything, just offered her a jacket and then a towel, and a ride to the nearest place she wanted to be dropped off at. A meal at a cafe first, if she wanted.

She thought about how Bastien knew the stink of corpses from the stink of other things. Maybe none of them were coming from classy situations. There was still Luke, but who knew?

[crow]

She was fast becoming familiar with the kind of full body transformation that a good shower and a good meal could give you.

It wasn't that the windows were all completely identical and nondescript. They had probably been just that once upon a time, but that sure wasn't the case anymore. Some were cracked, others she could see a little into. Some had posters or blankets or something covering them up, and some were covered with tape to fix up the breaks. She wondered if that even worked.

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Probably it didn't, but they just couldn't afford anything better. Lyra had been in some pretty shabby hostels when she was having what she thought was her big break from reality, so none of it surprised her exactly... But what it didn't do was clue her in as to which of these windows might have belonged to the Oracle.

She sighed. "I guess it was a little too much to hope that she would've taped a big eye to her window or something. Psychic readings here."

[crow]

Bastien, who got the joke, snorted. Luke, who didn't, merely looked confused. "She isn't that kind of psychic," he said.

"Right," said Lyra. It wasn't worth the time to explain, so she just smiled at him. 'You guys knew her longer than I do. Any ideas?"

The two of them joined her in scanning along the wall. "She really liked computers," said Luke. "Lots of really encrypted emails. And I mean really encrypted. The Prez tried to get someone to run analysis on them once, when we were first getting in contact with her, but the guy couldn't even crack them. And he was the best in town."

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"That's what his business card said, anyway," Bastien said. "More like he was the best money could buy if you don't have an in on the industry."

"But he knew what he was doing," Luke asserted. Bastien didn't try to contest that one.

"Do you and the President not get along, Bastien?" said Lyra. Okay, so she couldn't completely stop herself from prying after all. It wasn't a becoming habit, and she knew it, but she had been wondering that for some time now.

[crow]

It wasn't like they were both at each other's throats, and to be honest, she didn't see enough of the President to know how she felt about the rest of them. She thought the President was probably close to Luke, but that was more from the informal way he spoke about her than anything else.

But Bastien didn't seem to think much of her or her efforts, despite working with her. It wasn't that unusual to dislike your boss, but you would think this sort of thing would be more optional...

[crow]

... No, never mind on that. Officially speaking, they were all kind of like volunteers, but what could you do when you found out that there was a secret organization for the supernatural nonsense you were experiencing? That allies and assistance was just a signature away, or whatever it was they did to induct you into the organization properly?

Probably they made him a similar offer to the one they'd made her. They could leave any time they wanted, but then where would they go? What would they do?

[crow]

Suddenly she felt sort of bad for him. At least Luke seemed like he was mostly content with his lot, so long as he got to punch a Mal every so often. He liked fighting enough that it wouldn't have surprised Lyra to learn that he was glad that this seemed to be his calling, rather than a normal nine to five.

As for Bastien... it was harder to say. Despite his rough exterior, something told her that this wasn't really what he had wanted out of life.

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And not just because he could be kind of sour grapes about the President either, though she was sure that his distaste for her, whatever it had actually stemmed from in the first place, wasn't helping matters.

Bastien gave a shrug. "She's brass," he said. "She hasn't been on the front lines much herself. Sometimes we don't see eye to eye."

Lyra chanced a glance at Luke, to see if his expression would betray anything, but it was just her luck--- he wasn't even paying attention.

[crow]

He was still scanning the windows, which was frankly what Lyra herself should have been doing. Even Bastien had been scanning as they spoke, so she didn't have any excuse whatsoever. Figures.

She sighed. If there was ever a sign that she should be getting back to work...

"Hey, look there," said Luke, suddenly perking up as he noticed something. "That window there. Are those lights?"

Lyra followed his line of sight to a window on the highest floor of the building.