"No!" screamed the red-faced human. "Keep away from me you treacherous slut. If you think for a second that I am going to trust you with anything, let alone my life..." his voice trailed off but the sentiment was clear to everyone in the room. Brett scanned his teammates, with a slightly manic air. Not seeing anything but confusion he pressed on. "Do you know what she did?" His only reply was the continued stares. "She..." Brett choked off his sentence in a strangeled sob, his face taking on a look of intense concentration as he wrestled with his emotions. When he spoke again the dull, monotonous quality of his voice indicated that, for the moment at least, he had won the inner battle. A slight tremor in his hands as he ran them across is hald pate showed how tenuous that victory was though.
"Last tuesday I found a hotel to sleep off our little binge," there were nods of understanding. Everyone remembered the post-run analysis that had degenerated into a heated argument between the two. "When I came home I found her in a bathrobe kissing some guy goodbye." There was an audible gasp as the rest of the team drew a breath in unison. As one they turned to look askance of Katie.
"It wasn't like that." She protested in a pitiful, little girls voice.
Brett laughed, a short bitter thing.
"So you didn't fuck some guy in our bed?"
"Yes, but-" Her reply was abruptly cut off.
"But nothing!" Bretts' voice started to rise again as the emotions returned "We're done."
The team, who had become very close over the preceding 6 years, had been shocked int silence by the outburst. Now they started to rally. Unable to believe that what they were hearing could really happen, everyone grasped for a way to cope with the new situation. Jenny, a lightning fast thinker and the group's decker, reacted first. Reaching a calming hand out to Brett she said in her most soothing voice, "Calm down and let her speak."
This was probably not the most appropriate of things to say. Touching a volatile physical adept is not conducive to continued good health.
Without thinking he slapped the hand away and turned on her.
"Calm down? CALM DOWN!? Are you mad? Did you even listen to what she's done?"
Brett advanced on Jenny as he raged. She became acutely aware of her own peril and began to back away, trying to keep a safe distance.
By the time he was asking his last question she was standing
next to Katie who reached out and placed her hand on his arm. This gesture that had all too recently been one of affection, stopped
him dead in his tracks. Brett turned to look at her with eyes so cold, so deadly she had to consciously stop from summoning the energies
for a defensive spell. When he spoke it was with a voice suddenly drained of emotion.
"Take your hand off me."
Not wanting to exacerbate the situation any further she quickly complied and he turned to walk away. Showing once again her fast, if not
completely sound, thinking Jenny reacted first. Sure that there was some mistake she rallied to the aid of her best friend.
"Just stop being such a jerk and listen to her."
Brett jerked to a halt, his face registering a look of shocked surprise. Slowly, with an air of malice, he began to turn back. Sam, the team's weapons specialist, intervened. Stepping to Bretts' side, he glared daggers at Jenny. "Jerk? I guess adding silicone really does reduce brainpower." He sneered, openly glancing at the deckers straining t-shirt. "He came first in her loyalties so she goes and plays the tramp. Imagine what she'll do with a naive little tart like you."
Katie snarled with anger. Her expression of pained guilt evaporated as frustration and instinctual protectiveness
swept away her normally calm demeanor.
"Hey! Back off! This is none of your business!"
Brett, who had fully turned around, rejoined the fray. A thrill of vengeful delight rushed through him at the opportunity to add more venom to the argument. With a short bitter laugh he almost spat his rejoinder at her. "Yeah, that's it. Play the protective friend, that way you can avoid your responsibilities again." The comment was actually an oblique reference to something that the team had accidentally found out about her past. Something that had been traumatic enough to make her move countries and begin a life in the shadows.
The room was completely silent for instant. Katies head rocked back slightly as though slapped. Suddenly action started. She began drawing in mana for a spell, any spell. Brett instinctively knew what she was doing. He moved with a terrifying speed and had a blade at her throat before she could complete the spell. Jenny dove away and from a crouched position aimed her newly smart-linked pistol at his head, only to hear the racking of the SMG that she knew Sam would have aimed at her. Everyone froze, each confident of the next's ability. Knowing that a wrong move would result in the deaths of at least two people.
In this tense stillness the last person in the room made his play, hoping to at least have everyone walk away.
"Don't you think this is a little extreme?" A breath of cigar smoke wafted into the center of the group forming
a passable smoke ring then drifting towards the roof. Nobody moved. The smoke was a sign though. Bubba only smoked
when on a run, he said it helped distance the bloodshed and mayhem from eating cereal. Watching the kids' reactions
carefully the dwarven rigger continued.
"What I want you all to do is slowly relax your weapons. No matter what you feel like now, each and everyone of you knows how bad it'll be. You don't want to kill each other. This is a mistake."
He paused, waiting for the realisation of what he was saying to sink in. Slowly it did and the
atmosphere of violence barely held in check faded away. As it did so, weapons were lowered.
People stepped away, putting distance both physical and mental between themselves and what had
almost happened. When they were all once again in non-threatening positions, their bodies started
to come of adrenalin highs and weariness set in.
"Right, that's better," Bubba said, relieved that they had listening to him at all.
"Now I'm going to put a call in and let the boss know that we won't be taking any assignments for a while."
"We won't be taking assignments ever," Brett told him, voice heavy with both the weariness of avoided combat and an intense sadness that emphasised the finality of his words. "It's over."
Without waiting for a reply, for there was nothing left to say, he turned and walked out the door. Sam looked over at Bubba, his expression unreadable and in an equally flat voice said, "Call me," then followed his friend out the door.
The silence that followed took a long time to be broken. Even Katie, with tears streaming down her cheeks, cried without a sound.