R R I - REHABILITATION & REINTEGRATION INITIATIVE

Characters: Caroline and Wu
Setting: Kitchen, 6 PM

While he’d told Caroline six o’clock, Wu had made other plans for his own benefit. He’d explored the facility more thoroughly, drawing on old instincts to skulk around the place without more contact from the other residents as he studied it and them. The place was impressive, and in many lights Wu could see the mission statement behind it all becoming a reality. Not for him, of course.

No, he’d been reminded how vast that gap was when he’d met Carmel down here hours earlier. As kind as the woman had been, she seemed nearly a different creature than Wu, and that stark distinction between them had been more than enough to shore up the private walls the triad leader had built around himself. More than that, it had fueled his reclusive wanderings and led him back here half an hour early.

Wu had been hard at work trimming and slicing chicken and beef, filling marinade bowls with the beef, bringing soup stock to a low boil and more. One counter was ready for Caroline, set up with fresh knives, a cutting board, and a small stack of peppers, snow peas, and broccoli. Adjoining it, Wu was still busy, albeit now with a mixing bowl of cornstarch and water. Two at a time he plucked up strips of chicken, dragging them through the mixture with one bare hand and piling them on a plate near the stove top, where a large skillet of browned oil sat hot and ready.

Caroline had made a point to be exactly on time. Neither a minute too late, nor a minute too early. One could never tell, after all, what first impressions would say. If this guy was going to have to put her down as anything, it would be punctual - that and having the ability to be practically dressed. After all, they were just cooking, but that meant that, for once, she had decided to forego her usual heels.

She was feeling rather short. Something which she attempted to offset in her head with a nice, soft pair of wide legged grey slacks and a fitted white blouse. God, it was good to have normal clothes back.

As first impressions went, however, she wasn’t expecting the one she got walking into the kitchen. She raised an eyebrow at the organisation. Impressive. “You seem to have everything under control,” she said, pleasantly, walking across to the man. “I’m Caroline, you must be Wu,” she added, offering her hand.

“A well-structured approach is the key to dealing with unexpected complications,” Wu said in response, not looking over immediately. Yeah, he’d planned well, and probably did have it under control, but he could deal with sharing the work if it would foster some bonds in the facility. “Yes, Wu,” he confirmed as he finally looked Caroline’s way. There was only a moment to look her over before Wu took her hand in his unsullied one, keeping the hand that was shy one finger on the counter as he shook. Still, that moment? It was curious. She had poise, carried herself well, hadn’t faltered in greeting him. This woman had confidence, and Wu liked seeing that.

“Thank you for your offer, as well, Caroline,” he said, repeating her name to lock it in his mind. “Not having to run back and forth is welcome indeed. And this should be simple work, more time consuming than anything else.” Nodding to the cutting board and produce, Wu took a few steps away to wash his hands quickly before speaking again. “I will begin steaming rice, if you would start cutting. Peppers in square inch pieces, broccoli destemmed, snow peas washed and trimmed.” Niceties could wait a few moments, he figured. Once they started cooking, it wasn’t as if they could just walk away.

Caroline nodded once and turned to the area clearly set aside for her. “That I can do. If you had asked me to do anything more complicated, you might have been in trouble. But cutting to exact proportions I’m good with,” she said as she started work, tapping the knife blade on the chopping block three times before actually starting.

It was quick work to start the rice, and Wu held his tongue until he’d set it to cooking and moved back to his work with the meats. “Should you ever wish to learn ‘anything more complicated’,” he echoed as he worked, eyes ticking her way fleetingly, “Simply come and observe, help where you can and the rest will form with repetition. There is a woman here, Carmel, who seems more versed than I. I am sure she would also welcome any aid of yours.” Really, it was almost a good deed on Wu’s part, trying to introduce the two women.

“Maybe I’ll look into that once I’ve settled in properly. After all, I’m sure that we’re expected to make use of ourselves.” Caroline was under no illusions - there would be tests to pass to get out of here and she doubted they would all be pinpointed as sure. She was on her best behaviour, playing nice with one and all. She was nothing if not goal oriented and right now, her goal was proper freedom. “You seem to know exactly what you’re doing though,” she observed.

That could’ve been taken a few different ways, and if he knew Caroline’s perspective on this place, Wu would’ve agreed. He was focused on the idea of leaving this place behind, forming a plan of cooperation and effort that would see him through this. So in that sense, as well as the cooking? “I do,” Wu agreed with what might have been a note of humor in his voice, though his expression showed none.

“I have been cooking some of these dishes since I was very small, and practice makes perfect, as they say.” Piling up the last of the chicken, Wu moved to wash his hands once more, watching how Caroline handled the knife as she worked. You could tell a lot from how someone handled a blade. “Have you seen much of the facility yet?”

“I’ve done the tour, I suppose,” Caroline agreed, not looking up from her work. Her cuts were focused, precise. Unhurried - he had included instructions on size and she was clearly going for precision rather than speed. That said, she had used a kitchen knife before, but only for cooking and she did very little of that. “Rooms, more rooms - a few open spaces.” Building’s not too high, but the walls are rendered, which would make climbing a bitch. No clear signs of anything to stop escape should the roof be reached, but I’m not fool enough to think there would be nothing there. No doors or windows to the outside. Everything carefully inward looking. “I noticed there’s a couple of locked doors,” she added, mildly. As if their very existence didn’t make her palms itch.

“I would assume they are for what security is in place,” Wu ventured, nodding at her observations. “Unorthodox as this is, no one would leave us without some safeguards to keep escape from happening. Even the layout reminds me of cellblock designs. Poor feng shui.” Returning to his station, Wu brought the chicken to the skillet and started sliding it into the oil with a wooden spoon, producing an almost immediate smell of rich flavors cooking off; hints of spice, some edge of cashew, full aromas of garlic and ginger that blossomed together. “I still have much to see, but this place is a marked improvement. So far.”

Caroline pushed her neat pile of precisely chopped peppers to one side and started in on the broccoli, working through in the prescribed order. Again, she tapped her blade three times before starting to trim. “They have been far more subtle with their defences than most prisons would go for,” she told him, casually. “Assuming that all the bedrooms are the same size, the locked doors probably lead to rooms, rather than exits. If this place was a cube - though the dimensions from what I can tell are slightly off being properly squared - then the locked doors would lead to rooms which would fit within that. Of course, that may not be the case and they may lead to an exit. If I had to plan it though, I would put the exit on a further floor accessible from the elevator. It would be the simplest way - as long as you could prevent anyone accessing the elevator shaft, of course.”

A thief? Wu wondered, thinking her eye for the design and layout of the place was wholly indicative of someone with that skill set. He’d cased locales before, puzzling out the ingresses and egresses, the gaps in security and such. Though the last time he had, it had been a different game among criminals in the world. But now he wanted confirmation, some hint that his suspicions were correct.

“Of course,” he agreed at length, tossing the chicken around his skillet before starting to add beef to another. Once the veggies were done, they’d join it for a hearty serving of stirfry, and that would only leave the soup. He didn’t miss that little rhythm of Caroline’s knife, the three quick taps before each new bit, noting it as a curiosity to watch for more of. “And this further floor, the elevator would lead to it... below us?” he ventured, not sure where else an exit could possibly be hidden around here. There were only two floors before the sky, after all.

“I would think so, yes,” Caroline agreed. It was, of course, possible that there was another, unseen, floor above - set back enough that it wasn’t visible from the ground, but she didn’t think so. Underground made far more sense to her.

Moving over to where she worked, Wu gathered up the peppers and slid them in with the beef, tossing everything up from the skillet with a bit of flourish and a rich sizzle. “It strikes me as curious, this place. Not just the place, but its’ implications. This must be great expense for an untested method,” he mused, turning to the fridge and fetching a carton of eggs. “I would be interested in their criteria for us, for the common threads if any exist beyond our incarceration.”

It seemed unlikely that there would be people on his level, or on Carmel’s. Caroline’s... was trickier to ascertain, she lacked that earnest openness, but it only made it intriguing. “May I ask where you were housed before coming here?” Wu requested, starting to crack eggs and whip them briskly into the stock pot he’d set to bubbling with broth.

“California,” Caroline replied. “Valley State. And you?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. It was a nice entry to get some information of her own. She wanted to know who she was going to be living with.

And just as he had with Carmel, Wu was planning on giving the truth, albeit the same sparse kind that Caroline had. “Southport, in New York state,” he replied, looking from his work to her for any spark of recognition. He didn’t recognize the name of her old prison, but Wu was going to make a point to remember it. Until they all just came clean about their crimes, he wanted to know as much as he could about these people.

“Opposite sides of the country then,” Caroline observed, turning and leaning back against the worktop. Now that she had nothing to do, she was missing her heels. Being in this place rather than ‘normal’ prison was certainly bringing her old habits and wants back at a rate, and she found herself standing more on the balls of her feet, absently raising herself up a little more. “Clearly geography is not one of the criteria of choice.”

“No, but whatever criteria are in play, I would like to know,” Wu noted as he moved back to where she’d been working. Loading up the cut vegetables, he worked quickly to combine them each into a skillet, tossing the broccoli and chicken together one last time before dropping the heat on both. “I assumed prisoners had rights of some measure, but we were... volunteered. I enjoy the new scenery, and what it represents, but only a fool lets enjoyment overtake prudence entirely.” Plus? No way would law enforcement have signed off on his transfer, not in Wu’s view of himself.

“You think there’s some kind of ulterior agenda here?” she asked. She hadn’t considered that. From what she could see, this whole thing was just some touchy-feely, new age bullshit. Either that or a PR wrapper for shortening prison times so they could cut some budget or other. Prisoners were expensive. Long term prisoners even more so.

“I do not know,” Wu answered honestly, moving to start fetching serving bowls he could load everything into. “But I find the situation odd. Welcome, but odd. This can be no small expense to whoever oversees it, and I have learned over the years that the place you find yourself in is matched in importance by why you are there.” He wanted it to be a fair deal, a free chance for a new life, but Wu wouldn’t believe it so quickly. Not knowing what he’d done and wondering about the others. “It is why I volunteered for this,” he went on, waving a hand at the meal in progress. “I would know as much as I can of our peers, so that I may see a bit more of the perspective that created this place.”

Caroline raised an eyebrow. “You volunteered? I hadn’t thought that any of us had been given a choice about whether we were put here or not.” Even she hadn’t had a choice. She had been given a little more information than most, or at least that was what she had been told - just enough so they could wheel her out to talk nicely and charm journalists - but there had been no choice involved. Then again, if she got treated differently to others, who was to say that others hadn’t also been treated differently. Maybe there were some people here who actually wanted to be here.

Amazingly, Wu laughed. Just a short, sharp bark of amusement, but it was still a rarity for him. “I meant dinner,” he clarified, glancing her way with a spark of something more than the standard composure. “For this experiment, I was put forward as you were. More quietly, perhaps.” He wondered about that too, just who it was that had them all now. There’d been some fighting among the local law enforcement over his arrest, he’d even heard Interpol wanted in for his ties to mainland Asian syndicates.

“In any case, it could not be worse here, no matter what they do. Southport is where you are not killed, just forgotten.” A miserable hole in a wall with bars to see through, surrounded by animals. Wu didn’t seem dour over the words, though; even and intent as he served from the skillets to the bowls and moved to start fluffing the rice.

Caroline laughed a little at her mistake. “Ahh, right. Yes. I did think it was a little odd - I hadn’t heard of them allowing volunteers for this thing. I would imagine that, whether we are connected in any way or not, we have been carefully chosen for some reason or other. Clearly ensuring that some people here can cook has been one good thing. I dread to think what would have happened if I had been left to feed myself alone.”

“You strike me as a survivor,” Wu noted neutrally, transferring rice to another serving bowl. She was reserved, guarded with poise. “But yes, I am sure we all have criteria that were met. I look forward to discovering what they are.” He imagined himself as the hard case, the lifelong criminal. If they could redeem Wu Lo with this experiment? Wu gave another smileless laugh, head shaking as he gathered a bowl onto each palm and nodded at the door out of the kitchen. “Come. Hungry people make for poor living companions.”

She laughed a little at the assessment of herself. It was true. Picking up a couple of bowls herself, she nodded. “Follow and I’ll lead,” she told him.