#shark!soap

“Where is he!?” 

Milena Romanova, who sat at the desk outside of the Director’s office, jumped out of her seat as soon as Tommie Vercetti walked through the automatic glass doors that led into the small reception area. 

The head researcher for the K-001 project strode across the space, only stopping with Milena getting in her way.

“He’s in a meeting right now,” Milena told her firmly, trying to pragmatically halt Tango’s invasion of the administration block with as much professionalism as possible— because, of course, it wasn’t personal. Even if they didn’t like each other. “You’ll have to come back later. I can schedule you a meeting for this afternoon, if-”

“I don’t give half a shit if he’s busy,” Tommie snapped. “I’m going in there and I am talking to the asshole directly!”

Milena opened her mouth to argue, but the sound of the door clicking open behind her made both women turn their attention to the office.

At the door, Director Makarov stood with the door in his hand, an unamused, dry expression on his face as he assessed the situation outside of his office. “Let her in, Milena,” he calmly instructed, then looked directly at Tommie. “You have two minutes. If you don’t leave before then, I’ll have your resignation drafted by the end of the day.”

With that, he withdrew into the office, and Milena stepped out of Tango’s way with a disapproving look.

It was no secret that the team at the ashore facility didn’t like Tango very much.

She was hot-headed and difficult to work with because she closely guarded her work. Closely guarded König with a lack of transparency that Director Makarov didn’t like.

Sierra Golf merging with another research group, Kilo Tango, for the sake of funding had been an administrative nightmare. And in the midst of it, Tango had staunchly refused assistance from K.T. in the main lab, which seemed to be in prioritization of her own title- from an outside perspective.

She figured he was right not to like her from a financial standpoint.

As Vladimir Makarov sat in the stiff leather chair behind his heavy desk again, Tango remained standing. 

His phone was sitting on his desk, in the middle of a phone call with the ‘mute’ button activated on the screen. She could make out “P. Graves” and “K. Laswell”  at the top of the screen as the contact info before his screen timed out. 

“I assume this… outburst means you’ve heard about the new specimen,” Makarov stated, leaning back in his chair, his head tilted back so that he was looking down at her. “We thought you’d be happy to be the one in custody of it.”

“Why would I be happy?” She retorted, the previous anger having morphed into grief. “It’s too personal. I can’t-”

Makarov held up a finger to stop her, and she quieted. Her shoulders sunk, and she felt herself deflate knowing she couldn’t win this argument- if it was even an argument anymore. 

Because, unfortunately, she was probably the only person who should manage this new specimen. 

Who else would protect him like she would?

“Dr. Barrera said it’d be unfair to the specimen to keep it in the afloat facility. Even Laswell and Shepherd agreed.”

“Because it was where he died,” Tango guessed.

“It,” Makarov corrected coldly. “I know you care very much about these things- but calling them like they’re men will only make you grow too attached to them. We don’t even know how long they live or where they come from. But, yes… Because it would be inappropriate to keep it so close to where it died.”

“He wasn’t an ‘it’ three months ago,” she corrected with a venomous glare.

Makarov had nothing to say to that, only raised his left arm to check his watch. “Forty-five seconds left,” he reminded her of his threat. “You should consider going.”

Tango gritted her teeth. “Fine. I'll take him.”

Makarov nodded in condescension. As if her decision was even a decision at all. “You'll have Kim to help with K-001.”

Tango opened her mouth to disagree- but he held up a finger again. The final word.

So she clenched her jaw shut again and nodded. There were worse people to work with than Kin Hong-jin– ‘Horangi’, as he was nicknamed. He was more than capable of helping with König. Hell, König seemed to like him anyway.

“When does he arrive at the lab?” She asked- and made a point to refer to the specimen as ‘he’, even if Makarov refused to humanize him.

Makarov checked his watch again, no doubt ticking closer to the time limit. “Scheduled for the next hour. You should go meet them.”

“Guess I should,” she muttered, turning indignantly away and striding out of his office, past Milena- who was still watching her with disdain. 

The B Lab in the SG/KT facility also had a saltwater pool set into the floor. Glass walls lined the pool, creating an observation deck below the surface level that was accessible with a ladderwell in the corner of the room. This one was smaller, though not significantly.

It would house the new specimen just fine- though Tango’s stomach was still in knots at the thought of the whole situation.

And what it implied.

She felt sick to her stomach as she watched the netted, tranquilized shape of the specimen be introduced to the tank, lowered in carefully with a wheeled, hand-operated crane.

As KT field researchers Andrei Nolan and Darnell Hutchinson lowered the creature labeled on paper as ‘M-001’ into the water, Tango receded from the upper room.

She went down the ladderwell in the corner, standing at the beginning of the catwalk on the observation deck as she saw him sinking in the water. She wondered if he was alive– until she saw his chest rising and falling with deep breaths as his eyes settled on her through the glass.

He wasn’t fully unconscious- just sluggish and immobilized- but Tango felt awful for the treatment regardless.

He’d been a friend, after all.

“What happened to you, Johnny…?” She wondered aloud, stepping up to the glass and examining him while he was still- not yet hidden among the vegetation of the tank, as he’d likely do as soon as he was able. If he was anything like König or Ghost.