Welcome to Gaia! ::

Renovations to the labs had been ticking over nicely. New equipment was arriving on time, maintenance on pieces that had survived the purge was moving forward, and the floors had been resealed. Rather then completely shut the labs down, work was being done in shifts - there was a rota of labs to be upgraded, which translated to a changing group of displaced scientists now at loose ends. By this point staff had adjusted to the heightened security restrictions, and Nadja had enjoyed a few quiet weeks with nothing worse than a lecherous Drifloon to contend with.

And then, an e-mail. 'Plans have changed; I need to come down on Tuesday. That is, if you're ready for me.' Straightforward, self-important and slightly insulting, just like its composer.

Nadja had snorted, tapped her finger on the keyboard for a moment in thought, and sent out a reply. Then she sent another e-mail, this time to give the members of her department fair warning.

That was why, when Seth arrived on floor 6B, the grunt wheeling a dolly loaded with boxes marked 'Kaiba Corp.' didn't startle and lose control of the shipment, only said "Oh, sir, you're here," and nervously adjusted his cap.

Already changes were evident - there was a new door separating the elevator area from the rest of the floor. A keycard reader blinked beside it.

The grunt tugged at the brim of his cap again, wedging it down further over his eyes in an attempt to avoid identification. He cleared his throat and pulled the dolly in front of him like a shield.

"New security measure, sir. Authorized personnel only."

"You can talk to the lab manager for.. special.. clearance. Sir." If Seth did one thing well, it was glaring, and the grunt's words faltered in the face of his ire.

Privately, the lab lackeys had agreed that whoever had to deal with Seth in the new lobby area would get treated to drinks afterward. The prospect of liquid courage later prompted a bit of courage now. The grunt squared his shoulders and wheeled the dolly forward. He fumbled a keycard from the pocket of his pants, aware of the elite right there behind him all the while.

This was the part he'd been dreading.

He slid the card through the lock. It beeped, the light turned green, and the lock mechanism clicked open. Not looking at Seth's face, the grunt opened the door for him.

At this point, the informal plan called for whoever played gatekeeper to say something in a loud enough voice to alert those in the labs nearby to Seth's presence, but the elite took care of that himself.

"Lab 624, sir," the grunt spoke up, wheeling the shipment in behind Seth. The dolly rolled smoothly over the newly refurnished floor, and at the earliest opportunity veered off down a connecting hallway. The grunt had done his part; he wasn't sticking around.

Which left Seth more or less alone.

As far as things could be discerned without actually going into the labs, the renovations were coming along with minimal disturbance to the department. Most of the doors were closed, and readers blinked beside them. The few that were propped open were in a state of organized chaos working its way toward chaotic organization. An agent fitting copper tubing to what looked like a mechanical Camerupt looked up from her work as the elite went by.

Meanwhile:

"He's here, ma'am."

Nadja looked up from a sheet of assembly instructions spread over a lab table. "Yes, he announced himself quite floridly. Thank you, Andrew." As the grunt nodded and disappeared, the elite straightened up and shook out her hair, then looked to the person who had been her shadow all morning.

"Come," she instructed, and left her perusal of a document written in six languages yet intelligible in none to walk for the door. "They've finished in the containment area?" she asked before they moved out into the hallway at her brisk pace.

Left to his own devices, Seth started looking around after his tirade of colorful metaphors had ceased.

His immediate inspection of the area revealed that the renovated labs were very... orderly. Not to mention impeccably clean. He liked that. Although he would not be mentioning that out loud, at least not yet. Besides, this was only one room.

However, his blue gaze immediately snapped towards the red head and her white haired underling as the arrived. Folding his arms across his chest, he frowned at the pair of them, but mostly Nadja.

"I'll have you know that I do not appreciate your sense of humor. ... Or whatever it is."

Nyx would have been glad to be on hand, if it weren't for the tall glass of grump that just folded his arms in front of them. She was curious about what sense of humor Seth thought Nadja had.

The little scientist, who felt even smaller next to this giant, clutched her security clipboard a little tighter. She would reserve herself to speaking when spoken to, for now.

Nadja canted her head slightly, setting her earrings asway. "At the moment this level is restricted to lab personnel and those at executive level or higher," she explained. "Depending on how the discussion goes, you may be down here on a weekly basis, in which case I can grant you special access." Then she turned on her heel and set off, leading the way deeper into the labs. Her narration kept time to the brisk click-click of her bootheels.

"Allen will meet us in the containment area where we'll discuss the various options on how to proceed. The clone was pulled from deep sedation this morning; it may be more docile than usual." The redhead, shifted her path to make space for a deep-freeze unit being rolled down the hall, and again for a scientist with a cart of chemicals. As they progressed, the population of grunts thinned while that of the agents and scientists grew, and the frames of the doors grew heavier. Nadja paused before a particularly reinforced one marked 'CAUTION' and 'RESTRICTED ACCESS' in bold warning print, and glanced briefly back at Seth while she extracted her keycard.

"Time, temperament and other factors permitting, we may be able to begin implementation today."