"Cole? W-what are you doing?" Casper asked as she stared at the barrel of my Blitzer. She was a little unnerved and the soft voice that came out of her face sounded completely alien.
"Cole, it's me. L-lower the gun."
Instead of lowering the weapon, I flicked the lasersight on and the red beam became as solid as thread in the moist air. She recoiled and slowly crouched to place her flintlock on the deck beside her feet.
"Cole, listen to me, okay? I'm unarmed," she said, forcing a smile. "Lower the weapon, okay? We're on the same side."
"You stopped being on the same side a long time ago," I answered. A few days ago she had been in the same position in front of my Blitzer and only my friends kept me from firing. Now that two of them were dead, I didn't see many reasons not to pull the trigger.
"Please put the weapon down, okay?" she tried again, the trembling in her hands carrying through into her voice. "We can talk this over."
I felt McNeil try to move beneath my boot, so I shifted and pinned his neck and jaw to the deck. Pressing down harder, he groaned and I heard something pop. There wasn't anyway he was getting up unless he wanted to leave his skull behind and he stopped trying.
"Alex, please just let us go," Casper pleaded. Her face was wet and although I couldn't see it, I think she may have been crying. "Please, just let us go."
"You two left Angus and Gael to die," I answered. "You're going to pay for that."
The Waster swallowed and started to step closer, but halted when I aimed the weapon at McNeil. The amount of venom in my voice surprised me a little, but this had been a long time coming.
"The only reason I haven't fired is because I don't know which one of you I want to shoot first."
"Operative Cole!" a voice said and it took me a moment to realize that the Ebon had started speaking. "Operative! Please listen to me!"
"Go ahead," I answered, still keeping the Blitzer on McNeil and my eyes on Casper.
"If you fire that weapon, won't you also have to kill both me and your Karma friend here?" he stammered. His voice was muted a bit and I looked around for him, finding he was hiding behind Obie. "Otherwise the reports will show exactly what happened and Cloak Division reacts badly to operatives committing murder."
"Sorry Theo, but I'm a little beyond caring about what might upset Cloak right now."
Obie looked between Casper and myself, down at the Ebon, and then back again to me. It didn't take him long to decide what to do and he walked over, leaving the Ebon to scramble for cover. I had an idea what he was going to do and it pissed me off that I couldn't stop him.
"Stay out of this, Obie," I warned, but he didn't listen. When he's made up his mind, he seldom does.
"Can't letchu do dis," he said as he looked down at me. "You shoot dem and Cloak will kill uz boat. Put da gun away, okay? We got bad guys tuh kill. Okay?"
The Chagrin's tone of voice along with the look he was giving me was so innocent that I knew I couldn't scold him. He was right, but for more reasons than he knew because if I gunned down both McNeil and Casper, Cloak would kill him for not stopping me. That would make me just as bad as they were. Also, I didn't stand a chance of preventing him from disarming me if he decided he wanted to.
"Putduh gun away, okay?"
"Okay," I said as I turned off the lasersight and lowered the hammer. Obie patted me on the shoulder and I swallowed bile as I gave in. It wasn't like I was disgusted with what I had been about to do - after all, I'm a trained killer. I'm just not willing to kill someone who deserves it at the cost the life of another friend. It just isn't a worthy cost.
When he stepped aside, I blinked when I saw that Casper had decided to turn the tables. Now, I was the one looking down the barrel of a weapon and the charred-eyed freak was glaring from the other end.
"Step away from him Cole, NOW!" she said, but I didn't move. I wasn't afraid of anything she could do to me and didn't really care if she fired or not. Obie stepped to the side and looked at me for directions but I ignored him. I didn't want his help.
"You're going to shoot me now?" I asked. "You're not going to be satisfied until you murder an entire squad in one night then are you?"
"I-I," she started and shook her head. Maybe she didn't have the resolve I did or just wasn't as pissed. "It's not my fault. What happened isn't my fault!" she blurted.
The words of the last part were run together and it made me angry again. Nothing is ever her fault, even when all the evidence says it is. I ground my heel and heard McNeil groan from beneath it.
"Bullshit!" I snapped and started forward to let him up. "You LEFT THEM TO DIE!"
"I didn't!" she screamed and met me half way across the floor, her voice rising. "THEY WERE MY FRIENDS TOO!"
What I had to say, I said it loud enough for only her to hear.
"Then why did you get them killed? You still think anyone actually cares about you?"
Casper wouldn't meet my eyes and her face twisted as she started to cry. I wanted to hit her or pull and fire - anything to cause pain but didn't. Instead I just spat and stormed past. For some reason I ran into her arm, but I pushed past and I headed for the intersection and towards Bayer's Dark Night team.
"Obie grab the Ebon and let's go," I said over my shoulder and heard the 714 shuffling after me. "This mess ends now."
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