Frank Stearns of the NIA stepped out of room 423 and a big grin formed on
his face when he saw Mandi. Mandi, on the other hand, sighed and thought, 'Oh,
damn.'
Stearns wasn't as bad as some men. He genuinely didn't seem have any
reservations about working with women, for instance. He did, however, have an
overbearing personality and seemed to view himself as every woman's dream come
true.
He also seemed to have an unyielding curiosity about Mandi, which was
actually quite understandable. When Gary had added her to the operation roster,
he'd waited until the last possible minute to do so, dropping her in as a
standalone with little or no explanation to anyone.
Mandi didn't 'liaison' with the teams or team leaders. She hadn't attended
even one of the briefings and her introduction had been so brief and
uninformative that some of the team honchos -- leery of working with unknowns --
had been more than a little pissed at the time.
While she was pleasant enough when someone happened to encounter her, she
didn't work or socialize with people from any of the teams. For the most part --
even if they weren't exactly accepting of the terms -- everybody seemed to get
used to the arrangement, but not Frank Stearns.
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