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Sabine felt comfortable when she was not herself. In her civilian life, being a social mirror. It comforted people in social settings, but SUPER was not the civilian world. Not everyone on staff was trained in psychology, because it was not relevant to some agents and most soldiers. Sabine disagreed; in her eyes, knowing how people worked would ideally be mandatory, but some people brought too much value in other ways.

Wick… he was not one of those people. He was not a social creature, but Sabine knew better than to assume he did not understand people. He was a reader, noting the way she expressed herself. That negated her social advantages, because if he read her reflecting him, there was no lowering of his guard. She would still do it out of habit, because what else was she to do?

The agent was stern, but he was a quick study. With some of her newbies pushing at her patience, it was nice briefing someone who did not need hand-holding or a synopsis of the documents they were handed.

Competence and rationality were helpful in an agent, but uncomfortable when that agent was aware of the situation he was in with the new SUPER. Her brief smile was formal, followed up with a shrug of the shoulder. ”You’re a loyal agent who is good at his job. Why would SUPER choose to not use you?” Much of Wick’s record was written in red, but those were not the only jobs he was equipped for. ”We all find our place in a new world, Agent.”

At the very least, Wick was not going to refuse work. ”It has now been brought to our attention that the cause of the de-aging phenomenon was lab-created, whereas previously we assumed it to be a rogue mutant." It was also an unauthorized experiment from a defunct SUPER lab, but those pieces of intel were not relevant to the task at hand now. "As far as we can tell, the serum created was derived from a mutant, but can still affect humans and adapteds." It was marvelous science and an absolute danger to society. Very much old SUPER.

"The serum was taken from the lab it was created in, so we now believe these events have been malicious. Whoever is causing this, we need them tracked down and brought in. Alive, ideally,” she felt the need to clarify, keeping a dry tone throughout her run-down.

It took time and effort, but Sveta was playing nice by her standards. They were speaking productively by the time Sabine’s confit de canard arrived. She was glad to see it arrive at the table, pausing their conversation for privacy’s sake. The duck and roasted potatoes would help soak up the wine bottle they were working through quickly.

Sabine was not particular about the identity of their potential spy, but she did have requirements. Unfortunately, it sounded like Sveta had no one she could suggest off the top of her head. Maybe Haven was also working on its own recruitment challenges. ”By all means, take your time. I don’t think they’ll be putting heads on pikes in the next ten business days.” At the moment, the more controlled voices were still in power, though they did not want to rest on their laurels.

”If you can find someone competent and not swayed by appeals to power or rhetoric, let me know,” she requested, wanting to know sooner rather than later if they could get another few bodies in the bullpen working on this secret agenda. ”In the meantime, does your organization have the means to do a quiet audit? I don’t want to act like I know everything about Haven, but I’m also not going to insult you by playing dumb; your organization has spent the last few years developing very strong relationships with some important companies.” At least some of that was public record.

Sabine was willing to bet plenty was not. ”I don’t need or want details, particularly with this. But do you feel like you have enough influence over one of those ‘relationships’ to get something like this done without drawing too much attention or raising suspicions?” Just sending confidential monetary records to an unknown accounting firm sounded like a recipe for a whistle-blower, or worse, someone who would report findings back to SUPER.

A de-aged amnesiac embedded agent. How did Sabine keep finding problems like this? What did she do to piss off some cosmic entity? Well, beyond being complicit in a morally questionable government organization.

Actually, that was probably fair.

It would have been great to get a name, but Sabine could understand maintaining plausible deniability if Michael or Noel were caught. Maybe that was how and why they ended up de-aged? A secret worth keeping?

As expected of a potential spy in Haven, Michael was a mutant. It sounded like he had plenty of history working with the government, but in the way where it’s not shocking he might lack records. Nice to see the government was the government, whatever world you were in.

”A super soldier and a human truth test,” Sabine mused aloud, contemplating the assets dropped on her lap. ”Take this as no offense, but she sounds like more of a spy than you. Though maybe you’re sneakier than you let on.” That was hard to see, though. A combat mutation on a guy who was willing to give her actionable information. Why send in a soldier to be a spy?

There were threads to tug on here. ”Well, without you on record, inputting you into the system provides us with a surprising amount of flexibility. I can keep your mutations confidential for the time being; I don’t want to burden you with office politics on day one, but let’s just say you will find more leeway as a potential human than a potential mutant when it comes to figuring out what happened to you.” He clearly had the experience to know how his mutant identity could impact his work. And he would be more useful to her if that was kept a secret to some degree.

”If you’re comfortable with your mutation being need to know, we can still put it to work behind the scenes.” Despite knowing the men posted outside were on her short list of trusted personnel, she still kept her voice low. ”How fast and strong are we talking about? If, hypothetically, I needed some off-site facilities raided, are you a strike crew leader, or are you the strike crew?” Mutant power levels were all over the place, and while that always concerned Sabine, she had to acknowledge when it was useful to have a possible one-man army on her side.

Svetlana had her own experience with the X-Men, so she understood the team was not known for their subtle tact. When Sabine needed a sledgehammer, she’d call the X-Men. It was her hope that Haven could be a scalpel. They were also a pragmatic organization, from what she researched. That was much easier to deal with than a group of idealists in her eyes.

It was a pipe dream to expect she would find genuine allies within Haven, particularly with Svetlana, who clearly associated Sabine as a willing accomplice to her own kidnapping. It was not an unfair assessment. Still, she could see Sveta understanding the practical need Sabine had for some third-party involvement.

And really, who did not want to install a spy in a government organization they did not trust? In Sabine’s eyes, this was the easiest part of the sell. ”Trust me, I’m still learning the ropes of openly traitorous acts. We can learn this new experience together.”

It was not difficult picturing what Sabine needed out of a potential spy. She thought through her mental list, since she would not dare write this plan down. ”I was looking for an agent. If new administrators came in and started buddying up with high-risk groups, that might set off red flags. An agent is a more natural target for recruitment. Investigative instincts, combat training would be a plus, but we have trained new recruits up, so it’s not necessary.”

Of course, those were just basics for an agent, and Sabine could train up anything else they needed. They key qualifications came with someone not getting themselves busted. ”More importantly, I need someone who can be unassuming and approachable, and who is not going to flinch at things that make them uncomfortable. Trying to suss out extremists gets harder when you can’t conceal your disgust.” And there may be disgusting viewpoints shared if this spy infiltrated the right groups. ”If your spy is a mutant, we’ll need them to have a non-physical mutation, of course, because I doubt human supremacists are going to welcome a winged-woman into the fold.”

Ever since SUPER made a push to integrate themselves into this universe, recruitment was up. With that, Sabine found herself constantly dealing with unfamiliar faces, generally quite young for agents. For someone who was good at committing faces to memory, this was a new and annoying experience.

Documentation on Hunter and Gage was limited, which meant they were potential opportunities for Sabine. She had to be cautious though; she had enemies inside and outside of SUPER. Without research, she had to use her judgment and watch the young man carefully.

Michael, to his credit, was quick with his answers. Too quick, earning a raised eyebrow from Sabine. He was not expecting to get away with a cheeky non-answer, right?

Thankfully, no. Claiming her own seat, she studied him carefully as he offered up an explanation. Sabine tried not to tip off her surprise when she found out about the de-aging of Michael and Noel. It explained why she was coming up with dead ends in her search through personnel files.

They were being asked to go to a different safehouse location before dropping off the grid. He assumed she was the one to arrange the meeting, and she wished that were true. Who exactly was handling these agents? It dawned on her how lucky she was; they were discovered by one of her personal colleagues who transferred out to the Texas branch office. Had he not been the one to find them, who would have? She had not seen any reports of missing agents.

”Not a fan of being caught with your pants down, I take it.” Whether they were trying to run off or just figure out where they stood, it was hard to stay off SUPER's radar forever. ”Senior Agent Sabine Sang. And no, I wasn’t the one who was going to meet you. That said, until we piece things together here, you’re dealing with me now.”

Looking over her shoulder to the personnel that accompanied her, she waved them off to stand outside the door of the room, leaving her alone with the mystery man. ”We’re aware of the de-aging phenomenon. It’s a problem we’re looking into. It explains a lot, but still… your files, SUPER or otherwise, are limited. I also don’t like playing at a disadvantage, but I guess that’s where we’re at, Agent.”

Sighing, Sabine propped her elbow on a nearby table and rested her chin against her knuckles as she inspected Michael. ”I’m glad to help you two fill in gaps where possible, but I have to ask: are you planning on working with me or running off to goddamn Moscow?” Admittedly, more dramatic than hopping an Amtrak, but she had no reason to underestimate him yet.

It was clear Sveta had strong opinions about SUPER being tied into the government of the country. To an extent, Sabine could not blame her. Her lack of a quippy remark did suggest she recognized that her problems were not just going to go away because Sabine was convinced to pick up an idealist mindset at forty. Dismantling a government organization was not easy, not even for a group like Haven that seemed to have their hands in more than they let on.

The agent did not care if Sveta believed in her sincerity if she could at least believe in her motives. They were not two women on the same side, but they had a chance to be on the same page with parallel goals.

The downing of a wine glass suggested Sveta was resigning herself to being part of this conversation. Progress.

Sveta had questions, and Sabine smirked and latched onto the last one first. ”Well, I’m sure there will be things we ask for the X-Men’s help with if the time comes to it, assuming they can stomach getting in bed with monsters.” Sabine knew cracking that nut might require a different approach or opportunity. ”When we have facilities to raid, that sounds like a job for them, but their team seems more equipped for those big flashy problems.” Hence the silly costumes.

Instead, Sabine’s present concern was far more subtle. ”Weeding out the bad ones. You hit the nail on the head there. I have some new blood coming in that I hand-picked, but anyone who was brought in on the other side, or by agents of the other side are variables. Everyone knows me, so it would be obvious if I start probing around our agency taking polls on mutant-approval.” She was a good actress, but no amount of acting was going to make covert rogue groups trust the intentions of an established senior agent who never aligned with their beliefs before.

”Haven has resources. Resources not tied up in SUPER systems,” she clarified, sipping her own wine glass and finding it empty already. It really was going to be a long dinner, wasn’t it? ”Tracking allocated funds and facilities, seeing where money is going missing and where it’s running off to; that’ll suss out rogue operations and their bases. Beyond that… well, um.” Okay, how did she actually phrase this part without making it sound like both a terrible idea and (debatably) treason.

”Any chance Haven would be interested in getting a spy into SUPER?”