goddamngrenades | Voicemail

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It could very well lead to that eventually. [The 'is that it' has him highly annoyed, and he spares a momentary glance to York.] Sorry, I thought the security of this household was pretty priority. My mistake.

Easy, Mal. [ He holds his hands up eyes flicking from Mal to the camera in the corner and back again. Well. One of them. ] Look just- can we talk in the other room?

[Easy? Easy? He sees that look, and turns himself to look at where an apparent camera is. He can't quite see it from here--wait, is that it? Malcolm's face is stone when he looks back to York.]

You knew.

Other room. Please.

[ There are only so many dead spots in the house. He's managed to make a few by subtly moving the cameras bit by bit, millimeter by millimeter on 'accident' every day he's lived here. ]

Trust me?

[He's never considered that some of York's contacts might be the same people that Malcolm's been in contact with, for better or for worse. There's a sick feeling at the thought that maybe this has always been, that York's been working for or with someone Mal doesn't trust.

He follows wordlessly, jaw tight, features pinched. How long has this been going on?]

[ Around the corner, down the hall and- there. Dead spot. He leans back against the wall and motions for Malcolm to do the same. ]

I disabled the audio on all of them forever ago. They can't hear shit but I don't put lipreading past them. I used to take them down but then there'd just be new ones put up in a day or two and honestly? I'd rather be watched on my own terms than have someone getting in and out of the house.

Someone I know and trust works with whoever keeps putting them up, and apparently we're in the clear. Us. This house. They'll peek now and then but I've been moving them a little every day since I first gave up on disabling them. We've got three dead spots upstairs, and a whole room that's uninterested downstairs. It's the closet under the stairs.

There has to be a way of making this place more secure. We know someone with the flexibility and smaller frame of Natalia can get in and out however she pleases; that's always something that's needed fixed. We have to make it so it takes some massive undertaking to get in here if we don't open the front bloody door for them, make it not worth their while. Someone I don't trust is watching us. In our bedrooms, York. Watching you and Delta cuddling up.

You weren't going to tell me.

Because you'd react like this, right off. I wasn't going to say anything until I had a better handle on them. And I fixed the fucking tripwires what do you want from me?

Of course I'd react like this. If this place is so difficult to keep safe, we should try to move somewhere else. I recognize that we can't avoid cameras out there. That's just how it is. But in our home? How is that okay? Who told you this was okay?

Because my entire LIFE was like this during the project, okay? I'm used to this. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, I'm working on a more permanent fix, but this is all I got.

I'm taking out the cameras in my room. [Maybe he'll see if he can't let insomnia take over and maybe catch whoever keeps putting them back up. But if York hasn't caught them, what chance does he have.] Or are you saying I should let them stay put since you've made all your adjustments?

The more fuss you make about it the more they'll know you're a problem. If they don't THINK you're a problem you can fuck with the cameras enough to give yourself some privacy without them noticing.

[ Still. It's up to Malcolm. ]

Lemme know when you do. I'll sit up with you. And have D stay with Carolina or something for the next few nights.

[ Because that kind of conflict? Won't go down without a fight. And he wants, needs, Delta as far from violence as possible right now. ]

It's a little late to keep from being at least a potential problem.

[Hell, he could always get some electrical tape or something to put over the lenses. That's not even property damage in that case.]

I'm not going to actively attempt to put you both in danger. You know that.

How'd you find out anyway?

[ Someone that does not know of Malcolm's anon love affair: York. ]

I apparently annoyed who I assume to be the person in charge of these cameras, and they decided to prove a point.

When did you get involved with big brother?

[ Because that's not disconcerting at all. They're supposed to be in the clear, thanks Natalia, and now they might not be because- what? ]

What happened?

I thought I was having a very private conversation with a Callsign. Turns out someone up above is a very skilled hacker, which comes as no real surprise.

This particular big brother contacted me after the XXX debacle. Wanted to recruit me. Promised me goodies even if I refused, which I did. Nothing's come of it, so I don't know what they think they're so upset about.

Okay, doubling back here- why did they want to recruit you after the XXX debacle? Near as I could tell you spent almost all your time here watching Jim and the rest of us.

Probably because XXX tried to recruit me. More or less day one, in fact.

...Why?

[ It's not subtle, how flat and hard his voice goes, how still and tense he's become. Not subtle at all. ]

Because he had access to my information and thought I would be a suitable candidate given my background.

[He'll say it if he needs to. If York needs to hear it. It's just never come up before, and it's a part of his life he's always tried (and sometimes failed) to leave behind. But if he can't trust York with it at this point, who can he trust?]

...Mal you're going to have to give me a little more than that. XXX had a particularly vicious skillset.

And I had a particularly sneaky one. I wouldn't go so far as to label myself spy--that would be giving myself far too much credit. But before I served on Enterprise, I was part of an organization that did not officially exist, doing whatever was necessary to protect Earth and her interests. You understand. [Probably better than most.] It was not the proudest time in my life.

And he knew that and thought he could use you. Okay. [ Tension, gone. Alright. It's fine. Just- scary for a moment there. ] And this new guy wanted you to do the same?

I made...mistakes with XXX. [He's never admitted to that on anything but a secure channel before, either. But if he's going to be honest...] I participated in a few early activities. Nothing violent. It was blackmail, of sorts. Emotional blackmail. The kind that goes 'do this thing or people will get hurt'. We were in communication many times. They took a liking to me.

He called me kitten.

I was as much trying to understand what he was doing as I was trying to stop him; I was still new and didn't fully understand the situation. I suppose that was much to his advantage. Both pawn and accomplice. Things escalated. You know how that all ended. [It certainly ended up with him barging his way into the frat house worried half to death that XXX was targeting Jim.]

I think XXX and this new replacement--this Y--treats my reluctance as a game. It's not appreciated. Y suggested they might at least keep me in a bit of the loop, even after I declined joining properly. This is the first I've heard from them since.

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