Aethel

The bodyguards let go of the man, who stumbles forward awkwardly. He opens his mouth and begins to speak.

"Thank you. As you may or may not know, The Federation Of Notefica is dealing with a national security crisis. I am a representative of the Embassy of Ersialist Utopia and am speaking on their behalf."

He glances at the assortment of pens in front of you, shudders, and continues.

"On November 2nd, Notefican Minister of Information Joseph Kranz disapeared on crossover in an international airport located in S'ang'amûnian territory. He was carrying blueprints for our latest UPCOS system. UPCOS stands for Ultra Plasmic COncentrator Superweapon, a device capable of puverizing through 10 meters of steel through pure generated heat in less than a second. Recovered CCTV footage gained when the Ersialist Estonian Department Of Investigation successfully hacked into the airport's security servers reveals the prescence of operatives formerly under the command of General Dhabir in the airport. They are fairly sure they are responsible for his disapearance. Whether or not these men are still connected to him is still being discussed by high ranking officials on both sides. We also have probable cause that a recent string of terrorist attacks this year in Notefica is being committed and headed by General Dhabir. The UPCOS system is cheap and easy to build, and they think it may be used as a grand finale by Dhabir. If you choose to go after General Dhabir you must understand that the element of suprise is absolutely essential. The lives of your men is in danger if you choose to conduct a full ground offensive. They(by 'they' I've been meaning the Notefican administration) believe Dhabir's general sense of paranoia has asserted him to build multiple UPCOS systems already. In fact, any offensive without a suitable counter to UPCOS is most likely doomed to fail."

The man swallows hard and chokes, coughing for almost half a minute. Face shining with beads of sweat, he stares at the ground.

We truly apologize for keeping this information secret for such an extensive period of time. With Joseph Kranz's body found in a river on Friday, the Ministry of Information is in shambles. I am acting under order of the 3rd Notefican High Commission, a board that includes the President of Notefica. He offers his sincerest apologies. The national defense of Notefica itself relies on UPCOS and if rivals gains access to this technology as well, Notefica may as well just be annexed right here and now. They are pleading for your cooperation in developing or sharing technology that may be able to counter UPCOS used by General Dhabir in any offensive you may conduct. In return, they pledge gracious financial compensation and men to do the job. However, providing our own UPCOS systems for the fight is simply not possible. There are drastic, errr.... consequences, if the beam emitted by an UPCOS system collides with another beam emitted by a different UPCOS system. General Dhabir is highly unlikely to know about it's dangers if such a situation, even accidental, ends up occuring. By fighting fire with fire in this way we very much doom ourselves in the process. In fact, it's crucial we neutralize General Dhabir as soon as possible so that he doesn't accidently end up colliding beams. Otherwise, we face unspeakable catastrophe at our doorstep."

One of the operatives in the room speaks up. He offers,
"Surely these UPCOSs give off some form of signal that we could detect with a satelite? And if General Dhabir has these weapons, he may be plotting a coup. The last thing we need is a power vacuum. I say we infiltrate the compoud, plant charges on the devices, eliminate the good General, and exfil before the sunrise

I nod in understanding, appreciating the man's candor and the gravity of the situation.

"Thank you for your efforts and for conveying the urgency of this matter. We await the commission's decision and will be ready to act swiftly once we have their approval. In the meantime, we will begin preliminary preparations for the infiltration mission, ensuring we are ready to move at a moment's notice.

Safe travels, and may we find a swift resolution to this crisis. Greatness indeed awaits."

I watch as the man exits, already planning the next steps in my mind. The stakes are high, but with careful strategy and cooperation, success is within reach.

The man freezes and looks at the special agent nervously.

"I'm afraid you must be mistaken..."

BZZZZ BZZZZZ

A ringing buzz is heard. It seems to be coming from the man's left pocket. With the left arm of the man holding a stack of folders and documents and the right arm siezed by the extraordinary grip of Xi, he was unable to retreave his phone, or whatever was making the sound.

He looks at the man and shakily says:

"Must be my supervisor, I better answer this."

He begins slowly shifting his arm from the tremendous grip of the special agent...

The man nods respectfully and continues his way down the corridor, entranced by the conversation on the phone. You wonder if you will ever see him again.