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Eva watched Azora and the Librarian for a few moments before replying to Tech's question. "Well, I've never been much of smoker. I like my luings fresh and clean, thanks. I did smoke when I was imprisoned, through no fault of my own, I can assure you, by a very formidable enemy. When you're alone, smoking's kind of like having a friend with you. I also eventually used a cigar to aid in my thrilling escape." She smiled slightly, a look of fond rememberance in her eye. "That poor guard will never have children. Probably good for the gene pool on the whole..."

She glanced off to the side again as the librarian did what he evidently thought was a sexy hair-flip, failing extravagently to impress the blind girl sitting across from him. She was forced to wonder how such a very ditzy girl got so very good at killing. A question for another time, she decided as she resumed conversation. "As far as changes I'd like to see, I'd start with the portals. On Phalanx' first mission, my hothead shot our client in the shoulder. I noticed that the wound changed during the return trip though the portal. It expanded, almost two millimeters. I don't really know if that's normal. As you know, I'm no great shakes with technology. But I can tell that a mysteriously growing gunshot wound is trouble."

She paused to eat some of her spaghetti. She didn't slurp any of her noodles. Instead, she spun the long strainds of pasta on the end of her fork, wrapping up the loose ends with precise movements of her wrist. "There is one thing I've always wished I had in the field." There was a tone of wistfulness in her voice, like a kid talking about a trip to Disneyworld. "Aside from a pause button, I've always wanted a better smoke bomb. Suddendly robbing the enemy of visibility has been more useful to me over the years than I can possibly express. But every time it's been dangerous, because you can't see through your own smoke. Infared goggles provade a pretty OK fix, but they're not good for depth perception or close combat situations. If there were a way to see through your own smoke bombs..." She paused. "I suppose that I'd also like a better laser pointer. One that does blue and green as well as red. It's so hard to come by a good one these days."

Baltazaar finished the sandwich, and grinned, as his fingers flew over the laptop....
"I am absolutely positive...."
He recalled some new adverts, and compiled the list of Laser-pointers. The smokebombs were a kind of problem, though...
"Well, what exactly do you want to improve about smokebombs? More smoke, more infrared particles, or what? I mean, I do not know about such things, though.... what kind of improvements would you be looking for in a smokebomb?"
He grinned, and switched through the pages.... he knew what he was searching for.... ultrasound technology..... he grinned, and compared the pages....

She set her now empty plate down on the table. "Maybe some sort of filter would do it. Allow the thrower to see through his own smoke, I mean. I once knew a guy who had a pair of glasses that could only see the color red. He could spot anyone hiding in the bushes because he could only see the red of their skin or clothing, and wasn't distracted by the leaves. Hmm..." She looked back towards Azora and the librarian as she pondered the smokebomb dilemma. Her eye had a somewhat detached look, as though she were staring into the space behind where Azora sat. It was similar to the look she'd had when she spoke of her use of a cigar as a weapon, though much less nostalgic. "It'd never work though. It'll just end up as a cloud of carcinogenic dust motes. Maybe just smoke that clings to a certain area, doesn't diffuse so quickly..."

Azora shrugged. "It's really honestly better then no one. besides, he has compassion that most people don't have...." Azora finished up her salad and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

Brian grinned, and hung himself over the laptop. he ran a few simulative datasets, and continued speaking.
"I have heard of a guy who had been implanted some Kind of device in the head, which enabled him to see certain grey values.... The good hacker originated the term pulling a vilson, as he hacked himself an AV converter, missed the pulseline, and landed up with a buffer overflow...."
He missed the sound of people saying things like aah, and ooh..... He looked up, and saw into totally clueless faces. Only the Librarian wiggled his fingers in front of the eyes of the girl. He sighed.
"The brain... very delicate. This guy.... plugged his brain into the power supply of the computer.... buzzz...."
he looked at his simulations again, and let his mind race.
basically, the question would be what would she need the system for.... I cannot prehack something as complicated as a second pair of eyes, without any support from at least a full staff of surgeons, and some hardware speciallists.
Now, if you would, for example, use a pair of said cameras to detect movement... combined with a heat sensor.... well, then we would be able to give her some sense of a target... roughly, the tech is something alike what these blind dudes use on the track... you know, you have a designated area of target, and a 3d sensor on the gun in question. Now, if we combine these with the selected dual cameras, she could point her gun at the general direction of the next moving target. The only difficulty would be that she would perhaps be unable to hear anything in her surroundings during the time, because we would have to use some kind of melody enhanced targetting system.... "
he looked up again, nodded to himself, and looked on the screen, and then down.
"well, I though that you would not know that so let me clarify.... we have got a basic sound, which is computed via the cameras on her back towards an area. the computer then compares where she is pointing her gun, and created a sound. kind of like a geiger counter... you know, long distanced ticks if she is far away from were she sould point, short ones if she points the gun directly at him. same tech as in the wii... heck, I could order one of these.
So, to combine that with not shooting us, we add a friend foe id in the system as well. So, if you wear your ring, the gun identifies you as a friend, and she gets a second kind of signal if she points the gun at a friend. maybe a second sort of clicks..... The uttermost ridiculeness would be if we combine a threeway scope with a laser assisted measuring device.... mainly, we could tell her on what to shoot. So, for example, you see a guy running down the street. you select the guy with a laserpointer or similar weapons, and the computer on your bags loggs the guy as active target. a number is displayed next to him, in case we have multiple targets. now, your computer in your vest tells her computer in her vest where the target is.... basically, we play tag.....
Using this method would enable her to be something along the lines of a very longrange sniper, if that is anything of help... She would have to be at a secure location, and could not flinch away if somebody would be shooting at her. Plus, we have to guide her.... that could be accomplished though. "
Brian pondered for a minute, and then smiled.
"Well, captain, I am lucky to tell ya, there are other methods available, but I would have to see if I could do that. I can only offer you this much, but as far as I know, it would make a difference. "
He looked into the commanders eyes, and smiled.
"See? Sometimes it is usefull to have a geek on the team who gets hit in the face by the gun he fires...."
He stretched, as he noted that noone was eating anymore, and grabbed a pack of lucky strikes.
"Would anyone mind? OOh, and by the way, captain, why do you need her to be able to see?"

Brian grinned. He turned the simulation around, and hit enter.
"I think I am just going to get myself the main course, ok? You guys have fun, kay?"
He went of to the food court, and grabbed random things that looked tasty and unhelathy alike.

The simulation on the screen started with a crudely drawn figure of himself, which was dressed in combat gear. A figure of the girl was on the upper floors of the building next to him, with a really big comic gun. The comic brian put on the laserpointer, and the sight changed to first person, only to reveal on the one eye a mix of red and grey colours, and on the other eye his normal view. A figure looking a lot like bill gates came in the view,and walked away from the building. the comic brian centered his look on the Figure, and said "Foe"
A crosshair appeared, and the scene froze. complex lines indicated mathematical equasions, and resulted in a hovering ball of green data, which flew upwards to the roof, where the girl was. Now, the camera changed to her view. First, a badly pixelerated view of the scene on the left, with the subtitle "computer view", showed the view of the normal perspective. on the right, a network of wirelines appeared, and one of the figures filled up with red ink, which on the other picture was visible as Bill gates. The girl took up her rifle, and pointed. a series of knacks, similar to a geiger counter, appeared, while the crosshair of the weapon first moved around widely, and then circled on the gates figure. Something flew towards the figure, as the tone was steady, and layed the whole area in thick black smoke.
through the computer view, you could see the wire-bill gates looking scared, before the bullet hit him between the eyes.
Then, the simulation went black, and an ending screen came on, showing Brian dancing to some discofox, The librarian doing backflips, a crudely drawn captain smiling just a bit, and bill gates with a hole in his head, looking in the camera, and said:
"Though I love to jiggle satans balls, and seek world domination, I was not harmed in this simulation. Please accept my apologies for turning apple into a subenterprise of Microsoft, and releasing crappy OS..... Open Source for teh win!"
Brian returned to the table, his tablet ladden with goodies.
"Ok, six expressos for now, a large can of coffee for later, 18 chicken Nuggest, a wiener Schnitzel, two pretzels for now, a little bowl of ramen, an other cup of mountain dew, and 2 excellent butterfingers. Oh, Librarian, here you go, a big bag of Doritos and a can of mountain dew for you too, and a few doughnuts for the general public....So, anything else i can help you with?"
He sat down and began munching up the nuggest with his normal speed of fast. Slurping down his first expresso, he looked up, and met the Captains gaze.
"well, captain, though I know it is perfectly polite to share, it is not very wise to do so too often with elder ladies. You know, never take candies of a stranger. Now, can I do anything more to help you? by the way, it will at least be a week before the system is battle-ready. I mean, seriously, I am talking about quality work here. So, what can I do for you and I must suggest you smile more. makes you ten times younger. at least!"
He had finished his chicken nuggets, and began to slurp down his ramen.

The librarian took the bag of doritoes, highfived tech, and carefully opened them with his teeth. He looked down at the dog, then up at the girl, and had an Idea.
"Ugh, " he said, and put a doritoe in her hand. Then, he rubbed her belly, and made his most contempt sounds of ages.
"Ugh?"
he took her hand, and put it down on the head of the dog.
"Ug?"
He looked at her expectingly...

"That's the ticket. And you know I have no sympathy, you heard me well enough. Oh, don't look like that. If it makes you feel any better, you're not dead weight. You're not exactly ideal either, but you know that also. Anyway. No sympathy, that's true enough. But I don't want to see you wasted, and you'll likely be wasted in Phalanx now seeing as I've offended you. At this point, you really have three options. You can quit the agency. You can complain to Ryanna and get transferred into a squad with some compassion. Or you could stay, and deal with the fact that having to work around a disabled person annoys me."