Silk arrived at her date's apartment after picking up two large portions of Indian take-out, tossing the contents of one of the boxes in the trash and replacing its original contents with the food she'd bought in a very doubtful 'restaurant' a day before and which had spent the past day on her kitchenette's counter without refrigeration. She'd used plastic gloves to handle the stuff.
The trid was even worse than she'd feared; it seemed that the more of them that got made, the lower their average quality became... and they made a LOT of trids.
For a moment, lying in Evangeline's arms, Silk thought about the old days and the movies she'd watched back then. She remembered enjoying them much more than the trids that came out now. Was she just getting old and was nostalgia blinding her or had concepts like a powerful story and originality really disappeared to make room for the endless amount of technological advances that had been and still were being made? She honestly didn't know.
After that moment of distraction, the realization that she'd thought this way about her increasing age and the prospect of what was to follow the rest of the night made her feel like crap again.
Luckily, the post-movie part of the evening passed quicker than Silk had planned. She complained a bit about feeling a bit weak and her stomach, so they went to bed early and just cuddled a bit before Evangeline started having the same complaints and they both went to sleep... Until the vomiting started.
Silk comforted the sick Ork to the best of her ability, brought water and wet towels, helped her get up and stumble to the bathroom, back to bed and not much later back to the bedroom for a second and a third time. She made sure to make vomiting noises of her own at a moment she knew Evangeline would be too weak to come to her help and spot her girlfriend just sitting there pretending the whole thing. After decades with her abilities, it was probably the most disgusting thing she'd had to do with her supernatural voice control. A useful trick, but not one she hoped to do be doing again quickly. The sensation the mimicry made in her throat seemed almost as bad as actually vomiting.
Almost morning, they lay in bed next to each other, both with stained clothes and the smell of vomit filling the small room. The things I do for work., Silk thought to herself as she quietly slipped out of bed and started working on what she actually came here to do.
The sharp smell of ammonia woke the sick woman with a shock. In a reflex she tried getting upright while opening her eyes but felt that she couldn't, her wrists being held against the bed and something heavy resting on her chest. SomeONE heavy. Silk, watching her with a curious look on her face and a vial of smelling salts in her hands.
"Hey there, relax. I'm glad you're awake, sweetie. I would have hated having to break out the more expensive stuff for this part."
Silk leaned forward and placed her hand on her victim's mouth when she tried to struggle and say -or shout- something. "Shhhh. Don't waste your energy, sweetie. Can't be much left in you after a whole night of being violently ill."
She sighed sadly and looked at her own dirty nightwear. "I'm afraid things got real messy... But I suppose I already knew that when I mixed the poison into your food."
She paused to reconsider her words. Well... Poison is a wrong word, I suppose. It's more of a virus, from what I understand. 'Weaponized Ebola', the guy called it."
The ork's eyes widened and she started struggling again, but she was bound and exhausted.
"I know, sweetie, I know. I was thinking the same thing. 'Ebola? That doesn't sound like the kind of thing that needs to be weaponized!', right? And then, of course, I thought 'Damn, this will get real messy.'. I really prefer working with poisons or drugs that are quick and effective and don't cause so much.. Ick.
But I needed something quick enough to take you out before you could create problems, but slow enough to avoid suspicion and give me the time to ask you some questions; and this is what I could get my hands on. "
The female guard struggled a bit more, Silk leaned harder and spoke with a casual tone.
"You know, I don't really think it's REALLY related to Ebola, that would be way too slow, right? It would take like a week or something before you'd notice. Maybe it's called that because of the symptoms."
It was obvious her victim's body was spent and her will starting to give in to despair. "Hush now, sweetie. Calm down. It'll end, I promise. Shhh.
You see, first it feels like food poisoning. Fatigue, fever, nausea , diarrhea... I mean, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. But then after a couple of hours, it really starts doing damage.
The fever gets much worse and the vomiting and diarrhea continues only it'll start to become very bloody as your smaller blood vessels start to rupture and you start bleeding out internally.
Now, I looked it up and there IS a difference with Ebola. According to what I found, with Ebola it's not the fever or the bleeding that'll get you. Supposedly, it's low blood pressure, organ failure and tissue necrosis that eventually kill you.
But that's not the case with this weaponized stuff. The tissue damage and internal bleeding was made much more aggressive. It'll hurt more but you won't suffer for days. You bleed to death in a couple of hours.
And also, unlike Ebola, there's a fast-acting antidote that stops the whole 'bleeding to death internally' thing and will make it feel like little more than simple food poisoning, if administered on time."
Silks other hand shot up, proudly holding a little vial between her thumb and index finger.
"And this is what it looks like!", she finished with a smile. "Educational, isn't it? And there you were, thinking you were the only one of us with things to teach to the other."
After a short pause, the slender elf, attractive even in her vomit-stained clothing, leaned in closely, her mouth right next to the sick and weakened woman's ear. "Now, are you going to be a nice girl and calmly answer a few very simple questions for your pretty little girlfriend? Or should I just gag you and let you bleed to death?", Silk asked, her whispering voice sounding more venomous than any imaginational drug.
Evangeline was at first clearly panicked and unable to even form together sentences as she tried to struggle. But Silk's sale of the antidote and slow lead in have her finally open her mouth to say "O-Okay..." She seemed too shocked to ask what was going on, or why it was. She answered what questions she could, desperate to save her life.
After less than an hour of talking, Silk was certain she'd gotten all she could out of Evangeline and slowly set the antidote vial to the woman's lips. " Don't worry, Evangeline. You did really good.", Silk whispered while helping her drink the dose of Leäl. "When you wake up, things will seem a lot better."
An hour later, something cold and wet on her face woke the sick woman with a shock. In a reflex she tried getting upright while opening her eyes but felt that she couldn't, she was being pushed down against the bed. She opened her eyes and saw her girlfriend leaning over her, with a tired, worried but also relieved look on her face while pressing a cold, soaked washcloth against her face.
" Hey there, relax. I'm glad you're awake, sweetie. You had me really worried there for a while. It almost looked as if you had passed out because of the fever. How are you feeling?"
After a few moments, even despite her fever, nausea and everything else that came with the food poisoning, Evangeline mostly felt lucky. Lucky to have such a sweet and caring girlfriend. Someone who sat next to her, watched over her and took care of her all night, even while covered in vomit and feeling nauseated from the bad food herself. She happily kissed her poisoner goodbye an hour later, ordering her to go home and get some rest herself and promising to make up for the lost night another time.
Damn it, I'll fucking have to burn these clothes and need to spend an hour in the shower to get this drekking smell out of my hair!", she thought while getting on her scooter. The things I do for my job.
"Okay, so the guard wasn't a complete waste of time. I got her locker code. Her card's in it, it should definitely get us in the security room. She's going to be too sick to come to work. Got some more info, too.
The security office harbors a gun locker and a hard wired nexus for the voice system, the stock system, the delivery scheduling system, the cameras internal shutters and the external door's maglocks. A Hacker could do a lot with a jack into it, such as close off sections of the museum to easy access.
Apparently there's no wagemage on duty, the spirits are hired out from a summoner. Any aura traces are just from him coming to check on them some days.
Evangeline didn't know how the gas system works or anything about it herself, they've never had to use it after it was donated by a corporation years ago. Its activation is controlled by the VR node that we found in our earlier stake outs.
Also, the external garden area on the right side of the building has no working cameras, that could be useful.
Oh, and what she could tell about the guard patrols confirm what our observations have shown. Making a path around them while inside should be easy for Gibbon."
[spoiler]That last part give +2 to Gibbon's sneaking inside the building.[/spoiler]
