Jake was leant up against an uncluttered wall in the makeshift Comms room both curious and annoyed.  His latest assignment brief didn't go into any specifics about why this particular operation would be a joint one, nor why he'd been assigned to something that required he be a 'team player'.  He mumbled his distaste for the situation under his breath as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.  As usual he did his utmost to avoid drawing attention to himself, but in a group this size, acting that way was more than likely still going to draw attention towards him.  These Balamb SeeD's, they seemed able enough for the assignment at hand, so why was he needed here?  Word around the campus was he was due for another solo reconnaissance assignment, then everything was dropped to make way for a joint Garden operation.  Truth be told Jake thought he'd dodged the bullet right before he was summoned to the head master office for briefing.  He glanced over to the 'leader' of this operation Duncan. "So... he's the one in charge." Jake commented to himself still mumbling.  "Hope he knows what to expect, if things get out of hand with the army again I could be on the receiving end of another de-ranking."

Upon his last comment Jake pulled a slip of paper from his coat pocket.  Carefully unfolding it he cast his eyes over his mission overview, he wasn't reading it so much as he was looking at it until he reaches the hand written, extra message left for him 'p.s. your ability to use a GF with respect to this mission are restricted.  If you cause problems with the authorities again you will lose a rank.' A short and sweet message to say 'your secret is to remain that way' and that pickpocketing Galbadian Soldiers was not only stupid, but would result in a pay decrease and less interesting future assignments.  'What rank am I these days anyway?'  Jake thought to himself.  He hadn't exactly kept track of these things, he'd moved up almost as much as he had been moved down, in fact it wouldn't surprise him if he was the same rank now as when he started.  The only thing he was sure of was that he wasn't quiet yet scrapping the bottom of the barrel, otherwise they wouldn't be able to leave him that heart warming, yet threatening reminder to behave himself.  As a sigh escaped him as he removed his other hand from his pocket as he reached down to the daggers that were sheathed and hidden by his coat.  Apparently carrying any of his other weapons on a mission in a town like Timber was considered too high profile, even for Galbadia Garden's standards.

Then there was the town of his assignment, Timber, of all the places they could of sent him.  His knowledge of the town and its layout were at least something for him to be proud of.  After all, most of his assignments had him going to Timber an 'Intel Hotspot'  You might have called it.  With this being the main link between the island of Balamb and the mainland of Galbadia you'd see all kinds of passers by.  Most of the information learned here was actually pretty useless, however someone had caught wind of this.  Unfortunately that someone had been replaced by Jake for support.  "I must thank him when I get back to Garden..."