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Arc of Paradise chapter 2.

I laid there, head on my girlfriends lap, waiting for the others to arrive. Punctuality means something. The fact that I was the first one here, meant something.
"Alexei~ When are the others gonna be here?" She asked, fiddling with her hair. She always had a childish charm about her. I guess it's why I fell in love.
"I dunno Sal. Hopefully soon-" a middle aged, gruff looking man, and a tall, tan woman with a bleach blonde hair tied back in a pony tail came up the catwalk.
"Ahh, someone else ve can talk to." The man said. I looked at his cold, gray eyes, and his graying buzzcut. Obviously, this was Ivan. I could tell he had been in military service. I stood up and held out my hand for him to shake.
"Hello there. I'm Alexander, but you can call me Alexei. You must be Ivan." He looked at my hand, and then turned away. The woman took it.
"Well shucks, Ivan, ya don't gotta be rude. Hi, i'm Sarah." She spoke with a slight southern twang.
"You don't sound so Australian. You sound western." Sally said.
"Sally! You cant just...say that!" I was a little embarrassed.
"Oh nah, it's fine. I was raised in Tennessee. I just live in Australia, because it's a great place."
"Oh. This is my girlfriend, Sally Pircip by the way."
"Pleased tah meet ya, Sally." Instead of shaking her hand, Sally hugged her. She was always more of a physical person.
"I think we'll be the best of friends~" Sally told her.
"I think yer right."
"Bah. Do any of you know where the rest of our so called "team" are?" Ivan said, putting finger quotes around the word team.
"No idea." I replied.
"Bah. Vhere is the vodka? Surely you must have some here." He muttered, disgruntled.
"I don't know, but drinking is bad for you. Stay away from that stuff, Ivan." Sarah told him.
"I do vhat I damn well please." Wonderful start. Whoo.

"Alright, now that we are all here, we can begin." Bekham said. He told us to call him by his last name. So, we have Alexei, Ivan, Sarah, Saif, Bekham, and Kojima. We had all met, and talked. All where nice, except the grumpy Ivan.
"So, what we have is that the power went out, and the back up gennies didn't start up. Very odd. Now, we have confirmed that it was a hacking attempt upon the Arc. Why cyber terrorism, we have no idea." Bekham listed off what was going on. We were circled around, sitting or standing, with Bekham at front with his whiteboard. Sal was somewhere playing with her phone. I was at the back of the circle, silently calculating.
"So, we need to figure out why, and stop them." Saif said.
"Right. And then what? We get our pay and go? I stopped working for the government a long time ago. Why I am here, I do not know." Ivan asked.
"You severely need vodka, you angry Russian." Kojima answered. He was a slightly older man, and well worth his salt. As far as I could tell, I was youngest, at a mere twenty three years old. Bekham was twenty eighty, Sarah was twenty four, Saif was thirty, Ivan was an aged 45, and Kojima was sixty. We couldn't tell what our strength's and weaknesses were, and why they applied. I grew up a poor, lower class boy who struggled to make ends meet. But once I got through college, it was fine. Even though most people make fun of me because I date Sally. Who cares if she's a little slow, and act's a lot younger? It makes her cuter. Hell, there are times when she can find answers to problems I cant figure out, and she just says it so simple. It's like she knew the answer from memory. And she cant be labelled as mentally deficient, or even stupid, because she isn't. All she has is a slight learning problem, and a personality disorder that makes her act a few years younger. She makes me slow down and enjoy life.
"Vhatever. I'm leaving." And with that, he left. No questions asked.
"Hmph. Tha nerve a some people." Sarah said aloud.
"Patience, Sarah. We all need it." Kojima told her.
"The man speaks words of wisdom." Saif concluded.
"Ah well, we don't need him I guess." Bekham said. We got back to work.

"After hours of intense brainstorming, it's safe to conclude, we don't know s**t." Bekham told us.
"Too true, sugarplum." Sarah retorted.
"Sorry guys, I gotta take Sal back to my apartment. She cant be out past ten, or else her meds will ******** up. See you guys later." I said.
"Alright. Meet here tomorrow. We need all the help we can get. And take any notes about things you might fin interesting." Saif told me.
"Got it. Hey, Sal, we gotta go home!" I said. She cam up to me, and I picked her up.
"No, not too high off the ground~" She whispered.
"I got ya, you wont fall." I replied.
"Aw. Ain't they just the sweetest couple." Sarah said a little mockingly.
"Ya know man, that really brings a tear to my eye!" Bekham grinning and laughing, couldn't stay under control.
"Hush. Let the love birds go on their way." Kojima replied, grinning. I walked out to the parking lot, carrying her in my arms.
"Alexei, those are some nice people. Will we see them again?" She told me.
"Yup. I work with them, now."
"Really?!" She was excited.
"Yes. Which means, you will get to come with me unless you have work."
"Yay!~" We got into my car, and I began the drive home.