Chapter Text
It’s taken an irritating amount of time, but finally, it’s done. Pauling has managed to find eighteen mercenaries that are smart enough to fight but stupid enough not to question the nature of the battles they fight in. It sounds easy, given the nearly endless amount of mercenaries in the world, but the Administrator is infinite in her pickiness, so Pauling had to keep going back to the drawing board.
For the most part, things should go over smoothly. Pauling made sure that none of the mercs on opposite teams knew each other and made sure that she covered her tracks perfectly. Even if someone wants to figure out how or even if someone else got hired, they’d hit a dead end no matter what they tried. There’s just one small thing that, despite her concern, was brushed aside; the RED Spy and RED Scout are related.
From everything she’s gathered, the spy hasn’t been present in the scout’s life since the latter was an infant, and the scout has no clue who the spy is. Something about his mother wanting nothing to do with the man. Assuming the spy doesn’t re-engage with the scout – something that seems unlikely since he’s been no-contact for nearly 23 years – and assuming nobody else tells the scout, which she can enforce if need be, this shouldn’t come up as a problem. Honestly, at this point, the idea of having to find new mercenaries after everything has been set up is so exhausting by itself that Pauling is willing to overlook this.
She had gone to them herself in person to deliver the specifics, and the difference between them had been stark. The scout was still living with his mother – something about helping make ends meet. He would hardly stop talking the entire time, seeming like the usual over-confident guy. The spy, meanwhile, was harder to find in the first place and hardly said anything at all. He seemed respectable enough, if one looks past abandoning an entire family. There had been hardly any resemblance between the two from what she could see.
It doesn’t really matter now, she guesses. All she can do is wait and see.