[Somewhere in Ministry of Knowledge's territory.] Action takes place in a room without windows. It's not luxurious, blank tan walls and a set of tables along with benches. Three people are there, two at one table and one alone, completely oblivious to the pair. It's a an Apex woman, casually doing sudoku in the corner. The two are Apex men, one of white fur and red skin, much older and bigger in size. Second has grey fur and skin, his height may be close to the older one but in weight, he is surely the smaller one. They sit on opposite sides, a pile of cards in between them. "King of hearts." Says the grey one, putting an upside-down card on the pile from his hand. His face doesn't reveal anything. There is a moment of silence as the white one stares at the younger. "Bullshit, check." He reaches to reveal the card and to grey's irritation, it's a two of pikes. Grey dramatically drops all his cards on the table and curses loudly, making the sudoku lady look up and frown at the two. White one chuckles and waves at her with a smile before glaring back at the grey. "How much was it, Aqu? Remind me. You wanted to double the stake.." White says with an innocent tone, leaning back on the bench with a smug smile. Aqu murmurs under his breath and reaches into his pants to take out a handful of pixels, counting them carefully. After a moment he put the money on the table. "Here, not a pixel more. Hope you have fun with money of a lower rank, with lower salary." "You bet! Ripping confident kids like you is my favorite hobby." White took the money in two hands and put it into his jacket, the smile not fading for even a second. They sit like that for a moment, not feeling an urge to talk. Sound of lady's pencil tapping against the table fills the room as she finds a tricky part in one of the puzzles. "So.." Starts Aqu, looking around in boredom. "It's been pretty stale lately. No missions, only patrols." Yarkart lifts right hand up and scratches the side of his head idly, shifting his gaze at the other table. "You surprised? We lost fifty people in the last month, just at minor caravan takeovers. The higher ranks don't want to risk our lives for additional food and ammo. Actually..." He leans forward to the younger Apex. "...They debate whether to not start a new movement, outside of the Ministry. Begin to establish settlements, take civilians out of the borders, you know? Give them a new life instead of fighting to destroy the current one. Don't get your hopes up though, there are as much supporters in the council as there are critics of this plan." "Damn!" Aqu says outloud, drawing attention of the lady once more. She looked up from sudoku and glanced at them with a huff. He noticed that and leaned forward along with his friend. "..Damn.. to be fair that makes more sense than just wasting bullets at the Ministry. You could use a good retirement place before you hit your sixties." "Shut up." Yarkart raises index finger at Aqu with a grimace of pretended annoyance. "Age does not play a role in life, being fifty does not stop me from having more luck with girls than you. But who knows, maybe it's time to start thinking of retirement. Fringe has enough place for our people, Yarkartville doesn't sound to bad too, right?" He says with a uplifted tone, looking at the younger friend. "It sounds so bad I would start a coup in the first week. But yeah, maybe in the future.." "Maybe." [The End]
