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[mitotic]

Comments

[penitents]

Did you listen to the announcement?

[mitotic]

The Prime Minister's? Yeah, I did.

[penitents]

It sounded familiar.

[ It sounded like him, when he was younger. ]

[mitotic]

[ I mean. Yeah. But she's tactful enough not to point it out when they both know. ]

Ryder seems young.

[penitents]

I didn't see anyone fight him on it.

[mitotic]

I don't think the Prime Minister had any idea what he was going to say.

[ He seemed pretty surprised, at the very least. But politics is politics. ]

It makes me wonder if he has his own agenda.

[penitents]

He does.

[ Sasuke has no illusions. That kind of passion always had an agenda: it was whether that agenda would benefit the majority, or the minority. ]

We shouldn't let our guard down.

[mitotic]

Do you ever let your guard down?

[ She's only half joking. ]

[penitents]

No.

[ Not really... ]

But even I can be caught by surprise.

[mitotic]

Everyone was caught by surprise on the trains.

[ There's an edge in her voice and the barest emphasis on the plural that would likely go unnoticed by most people. But Sasuke isn't most people. ]

[penitents]

Yeah.

[ He hears it. He knows it. ]

Don't cling to it.

[mitotic]

[ A beat. ]

Easier said than done.

[penitents]

[ Sasuke doesn't trust the security of these carriers, but beyond that, he recognizes that some things can't be communicated over a network. They should see each other in person. ]

I'm going out.

Meet me at the front.

[mitotic]

[ She recognizes the offer for what it is, even if his blunt phrasing makes it sound more like a demand.

Sakura doesn't bother replying. She'll be at the front in the time it takes her to find her jacket and throw it on. ]