[THREAD] Thursday, December 19, 2013 WHO: Michael Bordeaux & Nikolai Mason WHEN: Thursday, December 19, 2013; afternoon WHERE: Willowbrook, then the mall WHAT: Searching for a student who didn’t make it back to WB RATING: Medium? STATUS: Incomplete/Closed
This whole mission, even though it had barely started, left Nikolai with a faint sense of impending doom. Simple enough to push out of his mind, but troublesome nonetheless. Moments like these he found himself grateful that precognition wasn’t among his abilities; he imagined “impending doom” meant much more to precogs than the average person. At least this way the feeling didn’t necessarily mean anything and was easily brushed aside.
All in all, it would have been preferable if Madeline’s friend had called campus immediately upon realizing she was nowhere to be found. But even with all the security measures in place, expecting students to make that jump in logic wasn’t reasonable. Nikolai’s well-trained, worst-case scenario brain liked to do that, assume the worst, but the truth of the matter was, this could just be a young girl wanting to experience a prolonged taste of freedom, away from the prying eyes of classmates, teachers, and agents. The possibility provided little comfort when Nikolai couldn’t convince himself to believe it. That uncomfortable feeling of doom pressing against his thoughts returned.
Still, the girl who returned had been helpful, even if she had been wary of him reading her memories. Psychometry, his brand of it anyway, didn’t create any discomfort, mental or physical, but the thought of someone having unfettered access to your memories did tend to unsettle people. Professional and conscientious, Nikolai found what he was looking for, the last time she had seen Maddie, inspected it, and committed it to his own memory.
Rubbing his hand over his face, a weary gesture for so early in the process, he offered her an approximation of a smile and sent her on her way with a heartfelt “Thank you,” bidding her to enjoy the rest of her afternoon.
“Well.” He turned to Michael when she was out of earshot, crossing his arms and looking thoughtful. “I have as much relevant information as possible. We know where they parted ways, so that seems like a reasonable place to start. Thoughts?” Though older by a good five years (thus an agent for that much longer), Niko respected Mike’s experience and skill in the field, more than open to his opinion and read on the situation.