Derek wasn't always a smart man; he was too emotionally driven and too reactive when it was wiser to be proactive. But that didn't mean he was a stupid man, either. He'd been in this place less than a week, but he still already knew that the best way to keep himself below the radar was to keep his head down. In some cases, that meant enduring the stupid and almost painfully boring Citizen Improvement events. In this case, it meant hunting down a "communist traitor" for her treasonous activity against the Computer.
The thing about that, though, was that Derek a) had no idea what this woman looked like — which made it more akin to finding a needle in a stack of needles than the needle in a haystack it already would've been, given the sea of jumpsuits with only solid colors to differentiate them — because all he was given was her name and, b) he had no idea what she'd done to be considered a traitor. For all he knew, she was overheard mumbling to herself about how disgusting the Soylent is. Or maybe she learned the rules, since knowing the rules is, ironically enough, also considered to be treason. He was willing to go on the mission, but he wasn't willing to turn someone in for something that stupid, if that was the case. He'd rather lie and say he couldn't find her than take the hit to his conscience. Derek Hale had more than enough guilt to last a lifetime. He didn't need to add to it.
He tried to think the way she must be; where would he go if he was the one in hiding? Immediately, that narrowed down his search radius to places with less foot traffic, less patrolling, and fewer security cameras. A shuffling sound caught his ear and Derek moved in that direction. "Can we just make this easier for both of us?" he called out. "You come out, we have a chat, I don't have to keep looking and you don't have to keep hiding...sounds like a win-win to me, Elsa…"
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The thing about that, though, was that Derek a) had no idea what this woman looked like — which made it more akin to finding a needle in a stack of needles than the needle in a haystack it already would've been, given the sea of jumpsuits with only solid colors to differentiate them — because all he was given was her name and, b) he had no idea what she'd done to be considered a traitor. For all he knew, she was overheard mumbling to herself about how disgusting the Soylent is. Or maybe she learned the rules, since knowing the rules is, ironically enough, also considered to be treason. He was willing to go on the mission, but he wasn't willing to turn someone in for something that stupid, if that was the case. He'd rather lie and say he couldn't find her than take the hit to his conscience. Derek Hale had more than enough guilt to last a lifetime. He didn't need to add to it.
He tried to think the way she must be; where would he go if he was the one in hiding? Immediately, that narrowed down his search radius to places with less foot traffic, less patrolling, and fewer security cameras. A shuffling sound caught his ear and Derek moved in that direction. "Can we just make this easier for both of us?" he called out. "You come out, we have a chat, I don't have to keep looking and you don't have to keep hiding...sounds like a win-win to me, Elsa…"