Also at https://archiveofourown.org/works/47065192/chapters/118697182
“It pains me that you don’t see yourself a part of Talon.”
The safehouse, as it stood, was on land that once would have been identified as the Nile floodplain a century previous. That was as distinctly as any Talon documents identified it – it had taken Sombra less time to identify it from the other end, with the stack of shell companies. Nobody had to be this safe.
“If you gave me a credit card, perhaps I’d sing your praises a bit louder.” It was a sitting room of sorts, an ancient study, books two hundred years old – and a pair of chairs either side of a table. Sombra sat askew in one of them.
It wasn’t a huge compound. It had a wall covered in unkempt shrubbery, space for few vehicles in the yard. Enough people coming and going that one or two more would no look out of place. Good access to the airport. A surprisingly redundant connection to a nearby power plant.
“To the point; You do have the materials you promised?”
“Of course.” Sombra laid out a set of tiny drives on the table. “Research notes – Institutional and private – scan data, browsing history, security footage. A full scan of all current Nanite runtimes, with 37 detected permutations, two of which were previous versions that failed to update, so long as your people know how to handle version control. Some bonus stuff on cheese. Her talents may not be so practical, but they are impressive. Caduceus specs, linking keys – nanite assembly plans – you could rebuild the whole system off of this. Not the only copies, of course, but everything is here,” Sombra paused, “But of course, you will hardly pay attention to most of it.”
“You have further conclusions?”
“You don’t publish much. There’s more about your biotic tech from your Overwatch days than the last decade. You objected to nanites then, and your whole sheme is incompatible. At best, complementary. You implement this, and you’re admitting you’ve been wrong for the last 25 years. At best, you want to ferret out answers to questions you haven’t been able to solve. At worst, this is just for your collection. Really,” Sombra drew her hair back, “It’s be one of the least Talon things you ever did.”
Moira had a rather unpleasant laugh in response, but finally sat down across from the hacker. “Is this you ‘game theory’ skills at work? It’s close enough, it is close enough. At least you recognize your employer well enough to recognize that. I don’t want a thing to do with Omnic technology, once removed or not. It’s the shortcomings of their process I want to learn from. But I’ll still pay you for the trouble.”
“I’m feeling more of a bartering move today, actually.”
“Ah? Name what you want from Talon, then.”
“What do I want? Hmm,” Sombra mock-contemplated the question, “I want official access to Talon’s network, and no threat of retribution over what I access. I want to see what everyone’s doing.”
“That’s something all of Talon Council would have to give. Indeed, that would make you more powerful than most members of the council. I can mention it, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Next.”
“I want what you’ve been working on. Your treatment, your injection. Surely you’ve got some biotic mimic of whatever the Caduceus swarm is doing by now. “
“Ah, that. You’ve been watching them so long you’re jealous,” Moira stared at her steepled fingers, “Yes, I am about to the point of human testing. Something a bit more consistent than a five second cooldown… And you want to be my guinea pig. Marvelous.”
“Call it what you want. I see it as improving my physical infiltration game.”
“I suppose it’s par for someone willing to disassemble herself to get away. You would need to stay for treatment and observation – a month or so – of course. You could ooze your way home, or never have the chance to leave at all. This is the risk.” Moira tried not to show any emotion, but her fingers curled. She was ecstatic.
“When?”
“Everything is back at my laboratory.”, She emphasized the ‘bore’ oddly, “But that’s why you wanted to meet in Egypt, isn’t it. We can get you settled today and start the preliminaries tomorrow – despite my reputation, I do what to give you every chance to survive. But first – you carry a personal teleporter, don’t you?” Moira held out her hand.
Sombra sighed, and detached a metal object from her waist. Moira examined if for a moment, then handed it to a guard. “No offense, this is not a treatment you want to skip out on after the first shot. Now then, lunch, or to the airport?”
“What, are you afraid I’ll spill hot sauce on your seats?”
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