"And the cigarettes."
Those creases appeared around her eyes again, and he knew she wasn't saying something. "What else? You're laughing at your own thoughts, and I can see it."
She shrugged. "There's not a word in the English language for it."
"Ok, what about another language? I'm pretty good with Latin."
"You smell like a man." She tilted her head slightly, a gesture he was starting to think of as embarrassment.
"Trying to say I'm sweating like a pig in this armor, huh?"
"No. It simply does not smell like perfumes or electronics. I find it refreshing."
He took another drag on the smoke to give himself a reason not to respond right away. It shouldn't make him quite so happy that she thought he smelled nice. "You realize this is the most you've talked to me since we've been assigned together?"
"Yes," she said softly. "Do you realize this is the first time you haven't acted like you hate me?"
"I don't hate you," he said a little too quickly.
"Ok, then you dislike me an awful lot. I think it amuses my employers, though."
That was an odd thing to say. "Want to explain that?"
She shook her head. "No. Our inside knowledge of the Ingénue Project is restricted."
"Yeah." He sighed. "I can see that. Let's make a deal then. You tell me when I'm out of line, and I'll do the same, before we get offended?"
"I'll try, but I only received minimal training in proper verbal socializing. We're not supposed to talk to anyone."
"Except your handlers?" He tilted his head down to see her face better.
"Even that is expected to be minimal. OutLink wouldn't be pleased to know how often you initiate a conversation."
"Their secrets, I guess, huh?"
She let her gaze shift to the distance. "I am carrying a lot of sensitive information. It is my job."
Sinclair chuckled. "You know, I just have this vision of someone plugging a drive into your skull to ask what color the sky is."
The genius sitting before him made a sound he thought could've been a laugh. "It's usually schematics that aren't matching equations and they need to find the human error, or theoretical problems. You know the recent atomic research that's been on the news?"
"Some dark matter particle?" Sin asked.
Her eyes lit up and turned on him again. "That was mine."
"Holy fuck," he breathed. "That's supposed to change physics, but not everyone agrees with the solution."
"Doesn't matter; it's still right. I proved it nine different ways. It exists."
He dropped the smoke on the ground and crushed it under his foot, then bent to retrieve the filter. "You aren't supposed to tell me that, are you?"
"Not really, but they already released it publicly, so the contract is terminated. I liked that one."
He caught movement at the edge of his vision. "Ok. Well, let's see if you like this one. Time to go."
"How many?" she asked, understanding right away.
"One for sure, possibly a second, and far enough away I'm not worried. Close enough I'd rather not stick around."
