Characters: Micah and Hannah Setting: Diner, Thursday March 15th, evening Summary: Micah needs to talk to Hannah about something fishy Rating: Low
Micah had been sitting on it way too long but the hard part was deciding who was safe. Obviously if he brought it up to someone who was actually involved it would just get him into trouble, and that was not his plan. After going through in his head who around he could trust both with not blabbing to the powers that be and actually giving a shit it came down to one person, Hannah. They weren’t exactly friends. More like passing coworkers who sometimes held a short conversation over coffee. But he had looked her up. As he did everyone. And she seemed like his kind of person. And the fact that she didn’t seem to be buddy buddy with anyone else at work looked good to him. So he had sent her a message that he was damn sure would only get to her and asked her to meet him at a specific booth at the diner.
Before heading over to the meeting Micah had made sure to verify that his blind spots were still in place and that surveillance wouldn’t be able to watch them. He went in the front just like everyone else and found the booth in question. He ordered a coffee and slice of pie and tried to relax as he waited for Hannah to show, or not.
Hannah was a little surprised, and a lot suspicious, when she got the message from Micah. She really didn’t know him well, and didn’t have any of her own opinions about him, so she’d decided she’d show almost immediately. But she did hear a few rumors around ‘the office’ that he could be kind of a jerk, so she immediately wondered what he wanted from her. Because everyone wanted something, and she was finally just coming to accept that about life now.
Arriving at the diner at the end of her shift, Hannah was exhausted. But still curious enough to not blow him off. Dropping into the assigned booth across from him, she offered an upnod in greeting. “Hey.”
Micah smiled seeing that she actually showed. “Hey. I wasn’t sure if you’d show up or not so .. thanks. No matter what happened with this conversation the fact that she showed felt good to him. He waited for her to order what she wanted from the waitress before he turned his attention to her. “I know we don’t really know each other but I think we might have a lot in common. At least where it matters here, anyway.” He said softly. “And just so you know this booth is a complete blindspot. So we’re not being monitored.” He watched her for a reaction.
Ordering just coffee, Hannah settled back and listened to what he had to say. She arched a brow slowly at his last words, and glanced around briefly before looking back to him. “Blindspot how? I didn’t notice any blindspots when I left shift.” Even if she had, she probably would have just let them go and played dumb if someone mentioned it to her. BUt it was almost as if he was taking credit for it. And if he was fucking with her job, she wanted to know.
Now was the point of no return. If Hannah was going to turn him in then so be it. But he couldn’t hold onto this alone so he was hoping that she was the person he thought she might be. “You probably didn’t notice because I didn’t create it until you had left.” He admitted. “I don’t normally mess with your stuff but I wanted to be able to talk to you. So I’m really hoping you’re not going to turn me in.”
Rolling her eyes, Hannah sat back in the booth and folded her arms beneath her chest. She took another quick look around before finally responding. “I’m not gonna narc on you, that’s not me. So what do you want to talk about?” Without even asking, she decided she would put up a little filter of her own, keeping the sound of their conversation inaudible to others around them. To passersby, it would just look like they were talking, and people would assume they couldn’t be heard over the din of conversation in the room.
Micha relaxed a tiny bit. She could still turn on him but he didn’t think he would get much more than that. Giving her a nod he set down his coffee and he focused on her. “Have you looked very closely at your new ID? Noticed it getting hot at all? I actually had to get mine replaced because it melted slightly so I began doing some digging.” Pulling a laptop out of his bag he opened it up and logged in through multiple layers of security. Once logged in he pulled up a page and then turned it to her. The screen showed the island and various colored dots all over.
Hannah hadn’t paid too much attention to her ID, other than turning it in like she was supposed to. She was pretty sure she would have noticed if it melted or heated up. Looking to his screen, she leaned forward to study it before looking to him with an arched brow. “What the fuck is that?”
Micah watched her as she looked at the screen. “That’s the location of every mutant on the island. I can’t completely figured out the colors but I think they’re related to danger levels or possibly those who are being investigated.” He used the mouse to zoom in on the diner where they were. “Here’s us.” Their dots were a different color than most of the others.
Hannah looked from the screen to Micah and back, narrowing her eyes a bit. She was silent for a moment before sitting back again. “So they’re tracking us. All of us. Why? It’s not like we can leave or anything.”
Micah nodded and closed the laptop, tucking it back into his bag. “There’s a list, a watchlist I guess you could call it. I’m pretty sure it’s mutants that they have under more surveillance than others. And they’re using this information to track those on the list and whomever they meet with. If you ask me they’re trying to find and identify a rebellious group so they can … stop them before they do any more damage.”
Hannah nodded a little, that sounded like something the government would do. And she knew they’d already taken a few people in on that very subject. “But why everyone? Why track all of us if they’ve already got a list of who they suspect?” Hannah felt like she was slowly being strangled. They already kept her on a tight leash and now knowing she was being tracked, she could feel it tightening. And for what? She hadn’t done anything wrong, well, not anything serious.
“Because they don’t know who all is involved. They only know the loud ones. And I’m pretty sure the reason they’re tracking us is they want to know who, working for the government, might be helping as well.” Micah picked up his coffee again and sipped at it. “What better way to undermine a rebellion than to systematically undo it before it can do any damage?” He shrugged. “That’s what I’d do if I wanted to stop them. Fortunately I don’t.”
Sighing, Hannah focused on her cup of coffee that the waitress dropped off. Adding a ton of sugar to it, she just frowned. She had a lot of comments pop into her mind, but she decided not to share any of them. What was the point? “So, that’s what you wanted to talk to me about? But why? Why stick your neck out to share that with me, of all people?”
Micah nodded when she asked if this was what he wanted to talk to her about. When she asked why .. well that was a more difficult question to answer. “I looked you up. Your history I mean. And I admit I kind of presumed that you might feel similar to me. You didn’t exactly choose to be here any more than I did. And I thought you might agree that this is bullshit.”
Hannah shrugged a little. “Yeah, there is a whole lot of bullshit around here, but what can we do about it?”
Micah shrugged at her comment. “I guess it depends on what you’re willing to risk to change things.” He wasn’t exactly one to talk about fighting back. He had been very quietly and very selectively providing information to The Faction. This, however, he would be sharing with them. And he was thinking about getting more involved. But he wasn’t exactly about to start spouting off rebellion to her. “Someone around here is trying to fight back.” He motioned to the laptop he had put away but left it at that. If she wanted to get involved that was up to her.
Hannah just smirked a little and nodded. “Yeah, I kind of caught on to that recently. I get it, it’s legit and all that, fight the power, take down the man. I just gotta say, the last few times I tried to get into it, it kind of just felt like I was getting used for my connections and no one really gave a shit about what happens to me when I go down for trying to help out. Not sure if that’s the kind of selective protection rebellion I can get on board with.”
Micah was a bit surprised by her comment. He blinked at her for a moment then leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you expect? I mean it’s not like rebellions can hand out 401k’s or something.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what you’ve been through so I’m not trying to judge but I guess I don’t know what you would expect.”
“Oh, I don’t know. People want me to help them, but no one is offering to help me. Or even considering it. I don’t think it’s so wrong to want a little reciprocity. But from what little I know, it seems like they only want to protect their own, and I don’t seem to fall into that category. I helped out one guy, because he seemed pretty innocent enough. So it’s not like I am defending the shit that goes on around here.” Hannah shrugged it off, it was just the way things were around here. “So, are you one of the ones fighting back?”
“Okay that I get. But have you asked? Have you talked to … whomever about what you want? I mean I would think if they’re fighting back and asking for your help they would consider you one of them. Maybe they already plan to reciprocate?” Micah shrugged. He didn’t know, he was just guessing. “I’ve … helped a little. Just with sharing some information. Anonymously. And I plan to share this badge information with them. But I don’t think I would be considered fighting back.”
Hannah just shrugged, she didn’t really want to think about her own situation. Besides she was still trying to figure Micah out. “That sounds like pretty close to fighting back. Leaking info gives them leverage, right? So the real question is, why do you want to help them? What shit has The Man done to you for you to want to go rogue?”
Micah wasn’t going to push. It was up to her if she wanted to help out and fight back or not so he let it drop. At her question he raised an eyebrow. “Wow. Are you always this much of a ray of sunshine? Do you really think someone needs to be personally affected in order to want to fight back against something that’s wrong?”
Smirking again, Hannah shook her head. “No, not always. But things around here are a totally different situation. And it seems like a lot of people get fucked over for a lot of reasons, so I figured more likely than not, you’re part of the fucked-over-crew too.” Sitting back, she held her hands up. “You don’t have to tell me. But you did say you went looking through my file so…” Again, reciprocity didn’t seem to exist around here.
It took a lot of effort not to roll his eyes. “You’re the head of security. Like you couldn’t have gotten access to my file if you wanted it. If you’re that worried about it I can give you a copy. But you really want to know why I’m fighting back? Because I really would like to see my wife and daughter again some day before I die. Is that good enough of an excuse for you? I mean since the fact that this whole place is wrong isn’t good enough.”
Hannah shook her head with yet another smirk. “Just because I have access doesn’t mean I go digging through it. Besides, they track everything I do on the job and I don’t want to get other people in trouble by being nosey. Besides, I spend the majority of all day every day looking at screens. Sometimes it’s just nice to hear people talk to me, remind me that I’m a person, that they can trust me with things. Sorry if that gets your panties in a knot.” She listened to what he said but was already withdrawing. “I wasn’t looking for excuses. I was looking for humanity. Since I can barely remember mine anymore. Those asshole guards weren’t kidding when they said you can be a jerk. I know just as well as anyone that this place is shit and what they do to us is fucked up. I don’t see anything wrong with anyone wanting to fight back. But I guess wanting to feel like a person, like a part of something instead of just a tool for someone else’s goal, that makes me the ass in this situation.”
“What makes you an ass is that you assume the worst and you automatically assume everyone is trying to use you. Maybe if you gave people a chance. Gave them the benefit of the doubt you might be surprised. But you’d have to be a little bit more friendly than a fucking wall. So excuse me for being a jerk. I was trying to share something with you because I thought you would care and you’d like to know. That you might feel the same way I did about it because you were stuck in a similar situation. But apparently I’m just making you feel used like everyone else because I’m not psychic or however else I’m supposed to know how you feel or what you think. My bad. I’ll stop wasting your time.” He stuffed all of his stuff in his bag.
Hannah just sat there, staring at Micah as he ripped her apart. Saying nothing, she just looked down at her hands twisting in her lap and didn’t say a word. What was she supposed to say in response anyway. Letting down the sound barrier that protected their conversation, she didn’t make any attempt to stop him from going.
Micah finished packing his stuff up and stood. Before he stepped away he looked at her. “If you decide you want to talk. Maybe just have a conversation or a cup of coffee, no strings attached, just hollar. I won’t exactly be far away.” He hefted his bag over his head to rest on his shoulder. “I’m sorry for whoever hurt you.”