An hour went by as Chloe entered the room with a pen and notepad. This is all by design by Chloe to cause an appropriate response.

Chloe sat down right in front of Natalia as she spoke, “good afternoon, Miss Silvestri.”

“Good afternoon, Ms. Serpentine,” Natalia returned the favor.

Chloe looked over her documents, “reading over your files, you have completed the physical part of the evaluation.”

“Yes, Miss serpentine,” Natalia confirmed.

“I am here today in cooperation with Interpol to conduct this part of the recruitment process,” Chloe explained. “To let you be aware, I am the one who has conducted and created the same test for everyone. Mentally, not everyone is the same. So, there is no right or wrong answer, but you do have to respond to every question I ask of you. You can, at any time, request a break or answer as long or as short if you want to. It will, however, reflect on this evaluation. Do you understand, Miss Silvestri?”

“Yes, I agree,” Natalia said while Chloe was sifting through her notes.

“Any questions that you want to ask me, you can at any time. Do you understand, Miss Silvestri?”

“Yes,” Natalia agreed.

“Which you like me to call you something else other than Miss Silvestri, or is this sufficient?” Chloe suggested.

“Call me, Natalia,” she insisted as Chloe started to ask the first question.

“Natalia, how old are you?”

“25 years old,” Natalia answered as Chloe started taking down notes.

“Birthplace?”

“Madrid, Spain.”

Chloe nodded as she wrote it down, “any relatives?”

“None,” Natalia flatly answered.

Following up with a few softball questions, Chloe started asking about her personal life, “any significant others?”

“None,” Natalia flatly answered again as Chloe was sincerely taken aback by this.

“That’s hard to believe. You are a strong and beautiful woman; you had never once tried to be in a relationship?”

“Never had a chance. I just felt it wasn’t for me,” Natalia blew off as Chloe wrote it down.

“Shame. But there had to be someone that you at least talk to from time to time…” Chloe baited.

“I did, but nothing came of it,” Natalia vaguely stated.

“So, he was mean to you?” Chloe prodded.

“No, he was a good man. A nice man. He lacked a lot of motivation, but he was a good person,” Natalia explained.

“If he was such a good person. Why didn’t you pursue anything with him?” Chloe contradicted as she was taking notes.

“It was my fault…” Natalia confessed.

“He didn’t rape you?” Chloe asked as this made Natalia a bit furious.

“Of course not!”

Chloe nodded as she took the time to write it all down. Afterward, she continued her evaluation, “According to medical journals, your formal medical team submitted years ago to Interpol, you were sexually assaulted at least once. One of the incidents happened in your first year as an infiltrator--?”

“It almost happened…” Natalia confirmed.

“It says here, by your former superiors, you were,” Chloe presses on.

“Well, she loved to make an anthill out of a mountain,” Natalia clarified.

“Then, how did you handle that situation?”

“I fried his dick off with my electric powers. You know, before he had the chance.” Natalia bluntly answered.

Not showing any kind of reaction, Chloe followed up with another question, “So you killed him?”

“Someone else did before I had the chance, as well,” Natalia calmly answered.

Of course, Chloe recorded her answers. Afterward, she pressed toward the situation, “did you talk to anybody about it, by any chance?”

“I did, but no. I didn’t want to get deep into the situation,” Natalia looked away in shame.

“So, in other words, you just buried it,” Chloe assumed.

This made Natalia nod her head in agreement, “yes…”

Taking notes, Chloe asked her another question, “I know many cases with female officers who deal with sexual assault during combat missions. Some incidents are indeed buried and unreported by the victims themselves. If you weren’t dating anyone, is that how you lost your virginity--?”

“No!” Natalia quickly answered, almost in a defending tone.

“Was it the same good man, or was it someone else?” Chloe grasped as Natalia nodded.

“It was him…”

“How many people did you kill, Natalia?” Chloe changing the subject as this threw her question off-guard.

“I killed many, but they weren’t people…” Natalia vaguely answered.

“In my line of work, I study the Nether and its behavior with others who use it. At times, we do have to use lethal force, but we rarely do so. We want to lessen the body counts of who either need help or better off being incarcerated,” Chloe thoroughly explained.

“So, you love doing this?” Natalia asked in a curious tone. Almost intrigued by Chloe’s infatuation.

This puts a faint smile on Chloe’s face as she tries to bring out a professional demeanor, “Well, I do have some Nephalem heritage in me, so I guess you could say I am intrigued by them and the Nether.”

Sensing that she is proud of her heritage, Natalia casually pushed on, “For real? Do you have any friends that are daemonic?”

Chloe nodded, “For real, yes. I even work a lot with them from time to time. I am also friends with some diaras, as well. I guess you can say a couple of them are like family to me. One is running a company while the other is an engineer. They are very talented.”

Seeing her love for demonology made Natalia a little bit happy. And made her a bit happier seeing that her efforts were not all in vain, “That’s good to hear. Those two are making her proud right now. She should be happy.”

“Oh, you’ve met their mother?”

“Sort of…” Natalia said with a hint of embarrassment.

Afterward, Chloe shift gears and her evaluation, “Getting on the subject about friendship, are you friends with any of your coworkers?”

“Yes.”

“Male or female?”

“Only female,” Natalia emphasized.

“Who are they?” Chloe probed.

“Ayeka is like my best friend, and so was Gideon, she was way smarter than me,” Natalia happily answered.

Chloe nodded as she started taking notes, “Anyone else?”

“Emilia and I were tight…”

“What about the other two, Ryoko and Kayla?”

In an instant, Natalia’s faint smile turned into a visible scowl, “I cannot stand Ryoko…”

“Why?”

“I just do…” Natalia avoiding the issue.

“You and Kayla were team captains of your own respectable groups, what was that like and how are you now personally?” Chloe questioned.

“We don’t speak. There is no reason for me to talk to her either,” Natalia disregarded.

“It’s that bad?” Chloe pressed.

“Yes…” Natalia feeling fatigued.

“There are many people who you don’t like working with, who are they, and why?” Chloe asked.

Natalia felt uneasy about the subject. Not because it was unbearable for her to talk about, but how only managed to pry more information about it, “Why are you so obsessed with him and me?! Can we talk about something else other than my sex life?!”

Successfully, Chloe struck a nerve. This is what she wanted out of Natalia. Unbeknownst by some, she struck psychological gold. For Chloe, this was a good opening for a breakthrough, “My apologies, Natalia. But this is the part of the psych evaluation. Dealing with interpersonal relationships are a huge part of what we do here in Interpol. We want to maintain a healthy work environment and try to eliminate such petty issues and arguments, along with ancient history. Anything that can hinder one’s performance because of one’s personal problems can be detrimental not only to oneself but to the entire group. In that can cost so much more than just a failed mission. That is why we want to know if you can cope with others both personally and professionally. Many people try to departmentalize but usually a positive and the negative blends and together causing chaos.”

“I see…” Natalia looked away in embarrassment. She was thinking about it. She was thinking about how this could help her become better.

Immediately, Chloe seizes this opportunity, “But I do feel your frustration, Natalia. That is why we could talk about what happened when you disappeared after the Holy Fire Bombing…”

The psychological gambit worked wonders as Natalia decided to talk about her personal life more than her professional life, “I have worked with many people I didn’t care for…”

“Any particular reason?”

“Shit happened…” Natalia vaguely answered.

Unfortunately for her, Chloe came prepared while reading over her notes, “in Ayeka’s report, you had a couple of altercations with a male jackal kemonomimi which you have worked with by the name of… Alastair Copeland. Is that correct?”

“Yes…” Natalia admitted.

“He left about the same time you went AWOL for five days, but he never went back to the syndicate. What was the altercation about that was so severely negative that he wouldn’t help you?”

“Ancient history…” Natalia vaguely answered again.

Chloe wasn’t having it, “ancient history or not, it had to be something extremely personal between the two of you. It may not mean much to you, but usually, history has an uncanny way to reveal and repeat itself.”

“It was nothing…” Natalia urged as it made her more uncomfortable.

“Explain,” Chloe shrugged.

Natalia knew that Chloe had all the time in the world. One way or another, she will get the truth out of her, and she would have to confront it. She may have talked to her best friend about it but not to the extent that she was going to speak of the situation to a stranger.