Ayda rode shotgun in a yellow SUV. Cooper drove the vehicle since it was his, with Rio in the back seat behind him. They all were done up in civilian garb. They had their costumes at hand, of course, though the only guy in the car had left his weapons in the bunker. He probably wouldn't need them, not unless something went very wrong so as to require attention from the entire team.

Light brown eyes peered out the window, watching the city pass her by. It looked so different from inside a car. She normally rode a motorcycle, both in and out of costume, so this wasn't a sight she got to see very often. Distortion through the window made everything look the slightest bit fuzzy around the edges. The people were slightly harder to make out as they blurred by, not much but noticeable. The high angle was also strange. She couldn't see the road without adjusting in her seat. These were observations she made every time fate found her in a car.

This carpool was impromptu, a splendid alignment of circumstance. The entire team—intel branch included—had been called to a meeting with NAAME. It's placement, after classes but before the next patrol cycle, allowed everyone to attend without shifting around their schedules. Cooper had swung by the bunker to grab his costume. Since he was already there, he offered to drive Ayda and Rio, the only two team members who lived in the bunker full time. It made more sense than all of them taking individual cars, especially since the rest of the team was finding their own way.

Though NAAME hadn't said what the meeting was about, Ayda could guess with absolute certainty.

It had been three days since the incident at the Hanson family farm, three days since the grizzly scene covered in the blood of both humans and creatures, three days since last Ayda took a life. She drew in a deep breath, in and out slowly through the nose. That was about the most effort she could put into reflection on what had happened.

The sadness and anger she felt in the moment passed the day after it happened, replaced by a quiet sort of remorse. That Julia Hanson went undetected was more on NAAME than her own shoulders. What Julia was allowed to do, however, fell fully into Ayda's realm. How was she supposed to protect a whole city, when she couldn't even save one family?

Ayda physically shook these thoughts from her head. They invaded her psyche whenever something like this happened, which wasn't very often. According to NAAME projections, there weren't many undocumented Neos in El Puerto. Those who did crop up usually did so without violence. The last undocumented to cause a stir was Flint, and that was a couple months ago. What's more, he didn't hurt anyone. Ayda blamed herself for that, though, as well. She knew it wasn't healthy, and what's more that it wasn't true, but she couldn't help it. These sorts of failures felt like breaking her promise to protect the people.

She wouldn't have been down this path in the first place if NAAME hadn't scheduled a meeting. Knowing that she'd have to talk about it made her think about it, which forced her thoughts down this destructive rabbit hole. She was eager to get it over with, if only to banish the self-deprecation.

Tired of looking out the window, Ayda sat up straighter in her seat. In the same motion, she fished her phone from its home in her pocket. Maybe a distraction would take her mind off the impending doom. She woke up her device and flipped it over to Reddit. Might as well use her time effectively. Engaging with the community usually put her in a good mood. ...Except when it didn't. The internet wasn't always the nicest of places.

She first checked her notifications. The perpetually full private message box went ignored, as always, in favor of mod mail. There were three. The first told of a thread on the subreddit r/Pulse—the community group dedicated to higher-level discussions about the team—which required her attention. The moderators of r/Pulse often did this sort of thing whenever someone asked her a question directly. That way, it didn't get lost in the sea of new threads submitted every day.

A tap brought her to the thread. It's title was innocent enough: "Question about the bounty system." No one had commented on it yet. Even though the bounty system had been around for two years, people still had a lot of questions about it. Ayda wasn't surprised in the slightest that another one found its way to her own corner of the internet. She read the body of the post, after a short chuckle at the poster's username.

BobblyWobbly: I know the bounty payments for taking down supervilains can reach upwards of five figures. How does this work in practical, everyday terms? Are all heroes just stupidly rich? If so, what's it like to be better off than most of the people you're protecting?

Ayda was actually excited to answer this question until the last sentence. The somewhat confrontational nature of it struck her was unnecessary, yet indicative of a large portion of the internet community. There were so many people out there who engaged with negativity either because of a misplaced sense of humor, or because they thought it garnered them more attention. Pulse wasn't exactly eager to engage with someone like that. Regardless, it was her job. She typed up a response.

PulseOfficial: I've covered this before, but I'm not rich. Heroes don't make as much money as most people seem to think. It's true that taking down a supervillain can pay a high bounty, but it's not every day I do something like that, and speeding tickets aren't worth much. Don't be me wrong, I get by just fine, but I'm not rich and I'm certainly not better off that most people in America.

Besides that, the money isn't even important. If I wanted to make a lot of money, I'd be a lawyer or something. The protection and prosperity of the people is the most important thing to me. Always has been. Money is at the bottom of the list of things I'm worried about.

She took a few minutes to read over what she wrote. This was potentially a sensitive subject for a lot of people. Money always was. A discussion like this would probably make it to the front page of r/Pulse. It required an amount of delicacy she may not have possessed in spades. Thankfully, there was someone in the car who did.

"Hey, Rio," Ayda began, turning in her seat. "Would you mind taking a quick look at this? I want to make sure I didn't say the wrong thing."

"Of course. Let me see." Rhiannon said. She took the phone.

Ayda turned back around in her seat. It would've been rude to stare awkwardly until Rio was done. So, despite intense curiosity, Ayda did her best to ignore what was happening behind her. Besides, it was just a Reddit post. No need to get all up in arms about it.

"Real salt of the earth, this guy," Rio snarked.

"I thought he was being a bit rude," agreed Ayda.

"He's presumptuous, if nothing else," said Rio. She handed back the phone. "There's nothing wrong with what you wrote. It's almost perfect."

"Alright, thank you," Ayda said. With the newfound confidence given by a second opinion, Ayda hit the comment button, all the while hoping this didn't turn into a larger argument.

"Another angry redditor?" Cooper asked, eyes on the road.

"I don't know if he was angry, he just didn't word his question very kindly," Ayda said.

"Ah. Typical internet bro, then."

"We shouldn't assume too much," Rio said. "Maybe he's just not very good a writing."

"Maybe," Cooper shrugged. "You never know."

Conversation died down after that. Ayda used her passenger privileges to turn on the radio in its stead. She and Cooper had pretty much the same taste in early 2000's emo and rock music, and Rio didn't really seem to care either way. Ayda chose her favorite station, KR. 103. It was far too early for her most vocal supporter, Casey Calamity, to be on the air. The music on his show was always the best, though in the meantime the station offered a passable selection. The tunes were a great way to fill the silence.

They arrived eventually at the destination, an unassuming single-story building sandwiched between two larger structures. It was painted a dark grey. Blinds blocked a view of the inside. There were no signs, nor decals on the front. No one would ever guess it to be the local NAAME headquarters, which was exactly the point. By law, every city or town with a hero team required some form of NAAME presence. Superhero team and NAAME HQs were kept separate in order to increase team independence. Fledgling NAAME research suggested teams operated best when left somewhat autonomous.

Pulling into the parking lot revealed they were the last to arrive. Ayda recognized Frank's grey chopper motorcycle, Anna's blue Fiesta, Elliot's shitty old Buick, and the oversized black pickup truck Dominick borrowed from his father. The latter still had some wooden boards in the back. Brian and Valerie—Crypto and Top-Down from the intel team—were also there, though Ayda couldn't remember which vehicle belonged to whom. It was good everyone arrived as civilians, though.

Ayda disliked being last to show up. It didn't feel right for the team leader to lag behind the others. At least they weren't late. After Cooper parked, the three of them exited the vehicle and made for the building. Each had a bag. Ayda's and Rio's were of the duffel variety, while Cooper wore a backpack.

A keypad kept the entrance sealed. Cooper did the honors of entering the long code, copying it from his phone. Upon passing the front double doors, they were greeted not with a foyer, but with changing rooms. Ayda ducked into the one closest to the entrance on her right. She looked over her shoulder just long enough to see Rio and Cooper do the same.

Once inside, Ayda opened up her bag. On top was her staff, with leather jacket and everything else below. She quickly changed into her superhero costume, swapping a black band tee for an orange tank top, blue jeans for black, and grey sneakers for her signature strapped boots. The cropped leather jacket went on, and her collapsed staff found a home in the vertical holster on her right hip. A quick check to make sure everything was set, and she stepped out from behind the curtain.

Rio was waiting for her in the hallway. Ayda almost didn't recognize her. Rio always played a bit loose with her costume. The only set in stone part was the blue hooded mask which covered most of her upper face. This was fine, for a time, but recent NAAME complaints forced her to change. In light of everything that happened, Ayda forgot all of this. She'd never seen the new Alloy outfit.

The only thing that remained unchanged was the mask. A dark blue short-sleeve shirt clung to her upper body. It was made from a tough, stretchy material, not spandex but just as formfitting. A trio of green slashes painted her right hip, the same color as her aura. They carried on down into shorts of the same material and shade of blue. A pair of black boots, folded over at the top, covered her feet. A gold utility belt hung askew upon her hips.

"Oh my God, you look amazing!" Ayda enthused, crossing the distance between them.

"You think so? This is the first time I've worn it," said Alloy.

"Yes, definitely." Ayda felt the material of Rio's sleeve between thumb and forefinger. "I love how you went with a more casual look. It's a lot less intimidating."

"That's what I wanted. People are already afraid enough of superheroes. I didn't want spikes or a neon bodysuit making it worse."

"It's literally perfect," Ayda said, taking a small step back.

"Thanks, I'm glad you like it."

"I love it."

Cooper stepped out of his changing room. He did not have a new costume. His was the same bronze Corinthian helmet, crossed leather bands over a burly bare chest, brown cloth trousers, and bronze schynbalds. He paused at the sight of Alloy. His eyes flashed over her form before returning to her eyes.

"You look great," he said simply.

"Thanks, Cooper," Alloy returned with a smile.

"Are you guys ready?" Ayda said. She received affirmatives from both teammates. "Then let's go. We shouldn't keep them waiting."

Ayda led the way through the door at the far end of the changing room. The space on the other side looked just like a normal office building. Smart-looking men and women dressed in business casual attire milled about cubicles either working at computers or helping each other out. Anyone wandering in from the outside would see average working people.

It was all a front, of course. It looked like a normal office because that's exactly how it was supposed to look. In all fairness, these people probably were doing actual clerical work for NAAME, but that didn't make their jobs any less conspicuous. That none of them batted an eye at the entrance of three superheroes was dead giveaway enough.

Ayda led them around to the left side of the wide room, doing her best to avoid getting in the workers' way. The heroes slipped through a door labeled as a janitor's closet, but was actually an elevator. There were no buttons where they normally would be, replaced instead by a glass pane surrounded by polished metal. Ayda placed her thumb in the center. A red line scanned over the digit. A second later, the elevator descended into the depths at a rather alarming speed.

The thing went down all of two stories in the same time a normal elevator would've covered just one. Its landing was soft, though, barely any sound to accompany its arrival. The metal door slid open with nothing in the way of fanfare.

The scene which greeted them here was much more like one would expect from a powerful government organization. A long corridor stretched on away from them, dotted irregularly by doors and intersections. The concrete walls were painted a dull green. Shrouded wires ran along them, broken strategically by electrical boxes. A man in a suit walked away from them. About halfway down, a similarly dressed woman exited into the hall and walked toward them, but paid no mind.

The heroes stepped out of the elevator, Ayda doing her best to ignore the dichotomy between this and the ground floor.

"I hate that thing," Cooper said as they walked. "Plays hell with my equilibrium."

"That has to do with your powers, right?" Asked Rio.

"Yeah," Cooper nodded. "It's mostly with my sense of touch. I can feel the air inside it shift around and it throws me off, like I can't figure out where I am in relation to the ground. All elevators are bad, but that one is the worst."

"Maybe you should ask for a set of stairs. I'm sure they'd put on in, maybe even an escalator," Ayda teased.

"Oh, ha-ha," mocked Cooper. They both smiled right after.

The trip through the facility was a short one. Thanfkully, their destination was just around the first right-hand corner and a few doors down. Otherwise, Ayda would've absolutely gotten lost in the nonsensical labyrinth that was the El Puerto NAAME HQ. How anyone navigated it effectively was far beyond her. Cooper could probably do it, though, following his ears and nose.

The three of them found the appropriate door. Ayda entered with the others behind. Inside she found the rest of her team, arrayed at various points. This was a meeting room, dominated by a long table in the middle, and a whiteboard on the far wall. Dominick had the seat closest to the door on the left, followed by Valerie, Frank, and Brian in the following chairs. The seat across from Dominick was empty. Next to it sat Elliott, then Anna.

"There they are," Frank said the moment the three new arrivals entered.

"We were afraid you got lost," Brian said.

"The bunker isn't exactly close to here," Ayda said. She took the seat next to Elliot, which she assumed had been saved for her. The team leader should sit at the head of the table.

"Besides, if we got lost anywhere it would be in here." Rio said, sitting next to Anna.

"Don't get me started." Elliot rolled his eyes. "This place is a nightmare."

"I'd be fine with it if not for the elevator." Cooper sat next to Rio.

"I love the outfit, by the way," Anna said to Rio.

"Thanks. I'm really happy with how it came out," returned Rio.

"You should be. You look great."

"Thanks," Rio said again. Ayda noticed Valerie nodding along with the conversation.

"What's in the belt?" Frank chimed in.

"Just spare rings right now. Oh, and the big one here has my stasis cuffs," answered Rio. She stood partway, long enough to point out the taller and wider pouch on her left hip. "I'm thinking I might get a stun gun and some pepper spray," she added while returning to her seat.

"You should look into getting some tear gas. A little crowd dispersal would be nice," suggested Frank.

"That's not a bad idea." Rio shrugged.

There probably would've been more conversation, but the door opened. Ayda's immediate thought was that her party arrived just on time. This was immediately squashed when she saw the old man who entered.

"Colonel Hammond?" She breathed.

Ayda rose from her seat and wrapped him up in a big hug, an embrace they both fell easily into.

"It's Director now," Hammond said.

"You'll always be Colonel to me," argued Ayda.

She let him go and took a step back. Benjamin Hammond was the same grizzled, lanky military man she'd met eight years ago. He'd traded in his camo fatigues for a black business suit. His gaunt face had a collection of new wrinkles. Despite this, he hadn't changed a bit.

With a smile on her face, Ayda returned to her seat. She took off her sunglasses and placed them on the table to her right. She had nothing to hide from anyone in the room.

"I didn't expect to meet with you," she said.

"I don't think any of us expected the Director of NAAME himself," echoed Brian.

"Yes, well, I thought it best if I attended to this matter personally, which should tell you something about how serious it is."

He slapped a trio of manila folders onto the table. Ayda hadn't noticed them in his hand. The one on top slid in her direction. She grabbed and opened it. The first paper was an article she'd seen multiple times in various forms, a coroner's report. Regardless, she still asked.

"What are these, Ben?"

"Two MedEvals and an autopsy. ," Hammond answered simply. "I'm assuming you've guessed I want to talk to you about Mrs. Julia Hanson. The top folder is hers."

Ayda gave the report a quick scan through. It was pretty standard stuff; name, age, height, weight, cause of death, the things you'd normally find with this sort of thing. The only oddity was the section about superpowers had been left blank. Not unheard of if the deceased's powers couldn't be identified, yet the report didn't even denote that she had powers in the first place. Ayda was about to ask about it, when Anna spoke up.

"With all do respect, Director, why exactly are we here?" She began. "I know this is only our second Code 5, but you didn't call a team meeting last time."

"I normally wouldn't, but the circumstances are different this time. Julia Hanson wasn't a normal person."

"We know that," said Frank. "She was a Neo."

"No, she wasn't," Hammond said. He was met with several confused stares. "Go to the next page, Ayda."

She did as instructed, turning the coroner's report facedown to her left. The people next to and across from her leaned in for a better look. The next page was a picture of the autopsy itself. It would've been graphic, if there were any flesh other than skin involved. Ayda wasn't really sure how to describe it. The corpse was clearly Julia, but all resemblance to an actual person died from the neck down. Her chest cavity had been opened. Inside were metal struts where should have been bones. Wires replaced blood vessels. Her spine was a finely articulated column. She had no lungs nor heart. There was nothing human inside her.

"What the fuck?" Dominick breathed.

"That my reaction too, Dominick," Director Hammond said. "There's a copy of that picture for everyone. If you wouldn't mind passing them around..."

Ayda passed the top one to Dominick, took the next for herself, then gave the rest of the pile to Elliot, who repeated the process.

Reactions were varied. Elliot was stuck somewhere between fascination and trying not to look. Valerie audibly gasped. Brian recoiled from it in his chair, then leaned in for a closer look. Anna drew in a short breath, while Rio took a much longer one, touching where the metal ribs were. Cooper picked his up and moved it around in the light. Frank, predictably, had no reaction at all other than a little grunt.

"Ben..." Ayda all but whispered. She continued in a normal tone. "What is this? What is she?"

"Do you want the helpful answer, or the honest one?"

"Helpful, please."

"A robot. I believe the eggheads called her a..." Hammond paused to dig a post-it note from his pocket. "...Fully functional, artificially intelligent, human-like construct. In English, that means robot."

"What's the honest answer," Frank asked.

"I have no fucking idea what she is," Hammond said. "None of us do, not really."

"But, this technology is far beyond modern robotics," marveled Brian. "Even Japan doesn't have anything close to this."

"It's obviously Genius designed," Cooper said. "Only a Neo could come up with this." That conclusion got murmurs of agreement from several people, including Ayda.

"It gets worse," Hammond said. "If you open the other two folders, you'll see information for the woman who attacked Cooper, and the dock worker who attacked Dominick. They were also robots."

Ayda tore into the remaining manila folders. The data presented was a bit different, since the subjects weren't dead, but the results were the same. X-rays revealed Bones that weren't bone, nerves replaced by wires, the only human things left about them were their skin and brains. Everything else had been gutted and replaced. Even the eyes were synthetic.

"They all have similar stories. You know Shannon Cooley was on vacation in New Orleans, but had no memory of it when she came back," began Hammond.

"She also seemed surprised at her own strength. I remember that from the interrogation," Alloy added.

"She did," confirmed Hammond. "Jonathan Bayer, our dock worker, had been on a month-long sabbatical from work. He'd never been the most talkative sort, but coworkers say he was even quieter when he came back. One foreman also reports a time when Mr. Bayer lifted a crate of machine parts weighing over three-hundred pounds, with one hand.

"Finally, Julia Hanson won a spa trip from a radio show. She killed her family on the same day she came back, as far as NAAME can tell, and you know the rest."

Silence reigned as the information sunk in. Most of the team avoided eye contact with anyone. Rio gave Cooper a look and he shrugged. Ayda poured over Julia's file. There were other pictures of the autopsy. Most of her organs were gone completely. She only had a human brain, though it had wires and machinery poking out. The rest weren't there at all. What use did a robot have for breathing? The lack of organs actually connected a few threads. She didn't show any pain because she had no nerves. She sustained no injuries because there was nothing to injure. She never tired out because her body ran on some unknown power source. Whoever made her essentially manufactured a Neo with the strength of a Brute class, and the defense of a Defender class. Dubious, but brilliant. Definitely the work of a Genius class Neo, just like Cooper said.

"So, someone is kidnapping people and turning them into robots?" Valerie asked eventually.

"It would appear that way." Hammond gave a good non-committal answer. "They go after people who are either isolated or away from home."

"I picked up on that, but why?" Rio asked.

"No one will question their absence if they're already gone," Elliot said.

"We think that's the reasoning, yes," confirmed Hammond.

"How did we not know about any of this?" Valerie continued to question.

"We did," Ayda said. All eyes turned to her. "Or, NAAME did. Look at the date on Mrs. Cooley's report. It's a day after Cooper was attacked."

"You've known for almost two months?" Frank wore an accusatory tone. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"We were waiting until we had a bit more information, and for our analysts to give a proper threat assessment," Hammond said. "We wanted everyone to know what we're dealing with, staff and heroes included. We still don't know much. However, Mrs. Hanson was much stronger than we expected from one of these things. I decided to let you all in on the situation. It was my decision. You need to know what you're dealing with for when you fight another one."

"That's great," Frank began, "except that I don't have the first idea what I'm dealing with. I mean, they're robots for fuck's sake."

"Cyborgs," Brian said. Frank fixed him with a glare. "They're technically cyborgs."

"How about we compromise and call them freaky fucking abominations?"

"Easy, Frank," Hammond said. Frank crossed his arms and sat back. "I know this must be alarming, almost like that time I found a whole military installation full of super-soldier kids. You think everything is normal, then you find something like this. I get it."

Hammond let his words sink in for a moment. Almost everyone turned away from him, seemingly in contemplation of his point. The only two who kept their eyes trained on the old man were Frank and Ayda. Hammond continued.

"The way I see it, finding these robots is just like discovering a new supervillain in your territory. They're a threat, and they have to be dealt with. Cope on your own time, but don't let it get in the way of the mission. The important question is, how will you deal with them?"

"I agree," Ayda said. "That's why I think we should find a way to seek these things out and kill them right now."

"No," Hammond said.

"Bad idea," said Frank at the same time.

"What?" Ayda looked from one to the other. "Why? What else would we do, nothing?"

"That's exactly what I want you to do," Hammond said.

"I'm with Pulse," Anna chimed in. "We should deal with these... whatever they are before they become a bigger problem." At her words, both Cooper and Brian nodded along.

"Look, these things didn't build themselves. Someone made them, and you don't make something like this without a reason. Whoever's responsible, they're clearly up to something. If we let them know we're on to them, they may accelerate their plans or take drastic measures. Either could be disastrous. The best thing we can do is focus on protecting the people no matter what threats crop up."

"And," Frank added, "if we keep it up long enough, we may draw an advantage. They will fuck up eventually, and we can use that to our favor."

"You're both making a lot of assumptions," Cooper said. "What if they don't have a plan? What if this is their plan? We need to take action."

"We're all making assumptions," Valerie said. "We don't know anything at all about these things. For what it's worth, I agree with the Director. We need information, and we'll never get it if the enemy is on their back foot."

"I don't like using the city as bait for a trap," Ayda said.

"The city is already bait for a trap," countered Hammond. "Whatever's going on, it obviously involves El Puerto. These things don't happen over night, which means we missed it, and that's on us. That doesn't mean we can be the ones to escalate. Our focus should be on diffusing, not turning the city into another war zone."

Ayda sighed, a sound which came out more as a frustrated growl than she would've liked. She looked across the table at Dominick, who was sitting with his eyes cast down and shoulders hunched.

"Dom, you've been pretty quiet. What do you think?" Ayda asked him.

He looked up at her with wide eyes. His entire visage froze for a moment, before he directed his gaze down again. By the way his shoulders moved, he was playing with something in his hands under the table.

"I, um... I like what Valerie said," he replied, tone barely above a whisper.

"Do you remember what happened last time you took on a threat of this scale?" Hammond asked Ayda. She gave him a look of disbelief. "I know how frustrating it is to sit on your hands—trust me, I was in the Marines—but the results could be catastrophic if you just rush in. We can't allow aggression to create another Tahoe."

Ayda took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. It was the only thing that kept her from lashing out, the one centering force in a room full of people who disagreed with her. She stayed like that for what felt like a minute, maybe more, because she didn't trust herself to speak. When she finally did, it was with words slow and measured.

"Is this an order?" She said, staring at her balled up fists on the table.

"It can be," said Hammond. "You're team is far and away the most capable we have right now. I trust you'll be able to defend against anything thrown at you. In the meantime, let NAAME investigate in secret like we've been doing. We'll send daily updates on what we know. You have my word, even if I have to do it myself."

"Ayda," Elliot began. She turned to him. His gentle expression almost broke her heart. "I've been on your side for three years now, but I'm sorry. I think Frank and the Director are right. Right now the last thing we need to do is provoke the person responsible for all this. We can always change the plan if something happens."

Ayda stared at the table. She flexed the cramped fingers on her right hand before laying it flat. What bothered her wasn't that some of the team disagreed with one another. There were nine of them, so arguments were inevitable. No, what got under her skin was that she agreed with both sides. She stood by her original stance of taking the thread head-on. At the same time, the more cautious approach also had merit.

It put her in a difficult position as leader. Agreeing with one party would make the other feel slighted, especially if she made the wrong call. The team would go along with her, of course, but there'd be disappointment on the loosing side. Morale made a huge difference in combat. If half the team didn't have their heart in it, cohesion could suffer.

It fell on her, as team leader, to make the final decision. The opinions of her teammates were invaluable, of course, but the call was hers. Did she choose aggression, or caution? The ultimate goal of any hero team was to save lives, so which plan led to the least destruction? Director Hammond was absolutely right to say forcing the enemy's hand may lead to disaster. At the same time, eliminating them outright could fix the problem right then and there. However, if they failed, there would be retaliation.

Each plan had pros and cons. It would be easier if she could see the future, to figure out which one actually worked. But there were no clairvoyant Neos. Futursight was only a theory. The team needed a course of action, and they needed it now. Ayda balled up her hands again. She hadn't even realized a few minutes passed before she spoke.

"We'll use the Director's plan," she said. The atmosphere in the room shifted. "Our priority right now is keeping the people safe, just like always. We can make a move when NAAME has more information. Until then, we avoid kicking the hornet's nest."

"Pulse, come on. You can't be serious," Cooper complained.

"I disagree," echoed Anna.

"My decision is final." Ayda shot them a deadly glare. "We avoid causing violence until it's a sure thing. If you don't like it, then leave."

Cooper huffed and crossed his arms, but sat back in his seat. He hit the back rest with a bit more force than necessary. His chair squeaked back about an inch. Anna relaxed a bit slower. She was a model of composure despite being outranked, which was a bit nerve-wracking.

"I think you made the right choice," Hammond said. "Thank you all for coming. I'll get out of your hair. You can stay here to think and talk if you want, but you're all free to go." He gave a smile to Ayda. "It was good to see you again."

"Good to see you, Ben," she returned.

With that, Director Hammond left. The sound of the door closing behind him was fitting punctuation to everything that just happened.

Tension in the room was palpable in his absence, so thick Ayda could probably use a blast on it. She knew at least some of it was pointed her way. If people were mad at her, then her presence only heightened their anger. The best thing she could do was leave and let heads cool without the object of their ire sharing a table with them.

"You guys take whatever time you need. Talk, read the files, leave, whatever. I'll give you some space," she said.

Ayda put her sunglasses on, got up, and left.