TS6 - Chapter 7

Kat could hear a pin drop.  Even the barista froze, sensing the mood, and she was functionally deaf from the high tier earplugs she was wearing.

Belle sat frozen with a deeply uncomfortable smile on her face.  Honestly?  Kat couldn’t remember a time when she’d seen the woman look more uncomfortable, and that included the conversation where she’d convinced Belle to finally start opening up a little bit.

She coughed, breaking the silence.

“You appear to have me at a disadvantage,” Belle said awkwardly, her eyes glittering as they danced from one security officer to another.  Already both Kat and Jasper’s guard were tensing, confusion on their faces.  Whatever inspired Jasper to make the pronouncement, he obviously hadn’t warned his bodyguards.

“O-our alliance is still firm,” Jasper replied, motioning with a hand for his guards to stand down.  “I’m not trying to cause any p-problems, more the opposite.”

Kat winced as she listened to his stutter.  It was a lot better now, but Jasper had suffered some permanent damage at the hands of Millennium and the stallesp.  Advanced technology and therapy had fixed most of the symptoms, but occasionally a couple slipped through when he was under high stress.

Like right now.

“P-please,” Jasper continued.  “I’m trying to c-clear the air.  I’ve known for a c-couple of months now.  Davis told me when he thought I was c-calm enough to handle the information.  If I wanted to act against you Belle, I would’ve done so already.”

Belle didn’t exactly relax but she looked a little less high strung.  Meanwhile Dorrik seemed fascinated, his crest twitching with excitement while his lower pair of hands rapidly took notes on the tablet he’d brought with him when he first came to Earth.

“I miss my Father,” Jasper said, a hint of frustration tugging tightening his expression as he struggled to make himself understood c-clearly.  “Unlike many, I did not want to inherit my house or p-position so young.  When I first found out that you were responsible for his helicopter exploding, I was beside myself.”

“Davis forced me to stop and think.”  Jasper frowned.  “When you struck our family, it was just business.  You didn’t act out of malice, c-correct?’

“Correct,” Belle replied slowly.  “I had nothing personal against your father.  He seemed like a pleasant and competent individual.  I simply wanted to leave the subsidiary I was tied to, and your father’s death created a job opening for me to slip into while you finished your schooling.  By that point, my position would be secure.”

Jasper closed his eyes, hissing through gritted teeth.

“I knew,” he muttered, “but it hurts so much more to hear it directly.”

“For what it’s worth,” Belle continued awkwardly, I’m sorry.  Two months ago, I probably would’ve left it at that.  An apology and an assurance that my actions were business rather than pleasure.  Now, I’m starting to see that was the wrong approach.  You’re an ally and I want to preserve that alliance, but-”

Once again Jasper winced, but put a hand on his shoulder, speaking on the younger man’s behalf.

“Patience.  She’s showing a lot of personal growth, so it’s your turn to do the same.  I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to fully forget or forgive her for what she did, but I was able to move past it eventually.”

“I know, but-” Jasper cut himself off.  “Belle, I c-could have simply not mentioned anything.  We c-could’ve both p-pretended that nothing happened and gone on with our lives and our alliance.”

“That would’ve been nice,” Belle muttered to herself.

“But it wouldn’t have c-cleared the air between us,” Jasper pressed on.  “You would’ve known that you hurt me, and I would’ve known as well.  The secret would’ve hovered over both of us, tainting our attempts to c-cooperate.  We never c-ould’ve been completely open and free with each other.”

“I’m not really open and free with anyone,” Belle responded.  “I’m working on it, but secrets are like air to me.  They surround me every moment of every day.  I consume them when I breathe in, and I create more of them when I breathe out.  After so many years, they’ve become second nature, and setting them aside is a harder task than I’d like to admit.”

“No one expects you to c-change in a day,” Jasper replied, leaning forward slightly in his chair, “but I’ve seen you trying to c-change.  You aren’t the same p-person today that you were when you killed my father.  It would be unfair for my feud with the old Belle to spill over onto you.”

Kat blinked.  She hadn’t thought of it that way.  Belle certainly had changed.  She was still a terrifying predator to most people, but around their inner circle she was beginning to show a little trust and humanity.  Still, Kat wouldn’t exactly say that she was a new person, but if that was the revelation that let Jasper get past his justified grievance with Belle, Kat had no plans of stepping in the way.

“Unfair or not,” Jasper continued, “moving on is hard.  My head wants to, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t filled with anger every time I think about what happened.”

“That’s… understandable,” Belle replied, clearly a bit off balance.  “I doubt it makes you feel any better, but I regret taking the actions I did.  There were many avenues to gain power within GroCorp, and many were not nearly so bloody.”

She paused, pursing her lips as if she had just bitten into a lemon peel.

“At a minimum, I could’ve aimed for a less competent executive.  The last year has taught me that the hereditary leadership at GroCorp can be a bit… lacking.”

Belle shook her head.

“Sorry,” she said, the word sounding alien as it left her mouth.  “I am rambling, and my rambling doesn’t do justice to the gravity of the moment or the injury I’ve caused you.  I-”

She paused for a second, her tongue darting out to wet her lips, taking a layer of ruby lipstick with it as it returned to her mouth.

“This is new to me,” Belle continued.  “All of it.  I still have allies that I don’t trust, a great many of them, but I grew up considering trust to be a weakness, a vulnerability to be exploited, and it certainly can be that.  Despite that, I think I am beginning to understand.  I don’t entirely trust the emotions and dependencies that I am developing, but I suspect that is a natural if slightly unpleasant outcome of a journey toward self discovery.”

Jasper smiled weakly.  It was clear that he wasn’t completely over the death of his father.  That would be asking far too much.  Still, it seemed like he was genuinely trying to move past the issue, that he was serious about trying to give Belle a clean slate.

Kat wasn’t sure she could do the same.  She managed to put Belle’s actions at Schaum Towers out of mind, but Belle hadn’t really acted directly against her there.  Rather, it was mostly her daughter with some support from Belle.  When push came to shove, Belle hadn’t backed her daughter.  That had mostly been a punishment for the girl’s idiocy, but the older woman had gone a step further, sponsoring her at GroCorp’s corporate college.

As antagonistic as their relationship started, Belle had been quick to turn it into something that wasn’t quite an alliance but was some brand of transactional cooperative relationship.  Maybe it was that quick shift that defused any resentment Kat might’ve had toward the older woman, but she barely felt any animosity toward her.

“I accept the spirit of your apology” Jasper said, offering a hand to Belle across the table.  “After all, you were a member of the expedition that saved my life.  C-clearly you’ve moved p-past your p-previous actions.  It’s time that I do so too.”

“Accepted,” Belle replied, taking hold of his hand and shaking it.  “I will try to do my best to earn your trust, but having a chance to do so is a favor in and of itself.  I am not in the habit of thanking people, I’m more of an extorter than a negotiator after all, but I think this is as good a time as any to thank you for clearing the air like this.”

The barista walked up to them holding a tray with about a dozen drinks on it.  Kat nodded pleasantly to the girl, but she was shaking, still clearly terrified by the importance of her small cafe’s guests.

“Fascinating,” Dorrik interjected excitedly.  “So the two of you intentionally hid a potential rivalry from each other for months, all the while working together.  Now you’re trying to bridge the gap created by hiding it.  How does that make both of you feel?  I’ve seen revelations like this while watching Chrome Cowboys, but I must say that I am a bit disappointed in the real life equivalent.  There was a decided lack of jilted lovers, secret children, and dramatic slapping of faces.”

“Dorrik,” Kat said gently.  “I don’t think that actually happens in real life.usually a revelation like this wouldn’t be made public.  Someone would just hire a samurai to kill the other person and be done with it without any theatrics.”

“My sister had a relationship end in that fashion at a family gathering,” Belle replied.  “She found out that one of her husbands was cheating on her with a rival and plotting to poison her slowly over the course of a month.  They truly put on a show when she found out.  Screaming, accusations of infidelity, drinks thrown in faces.  The whole production.”

“She had him killed a week later,” the shareholder continued.  “A shame really.  He was a skilled lover, and he almost managed to execute our plot flawlessly.  It took a full year before I was able to kill her and take over the position of heir.  One of my greatest setbacks  even if it all ended up working out in the end.”

Kat laughed.  After all the tension it was hard not to.  Belle was her usual sociopathic self, delivering shocking information in the same dry tone that an ordinary person would talk about purchasing the new model of smartglass.

“Huh,” Jasper responded, blinking rapidly.  “You… your own sister?”

“I told you it was just business,” Belle replied with an easy shrug.  “Everyone here should be aware that I am more than capable of extreme actions in pursuit of power.  She was standing in the way of me inheriting our family executive post.  If she had survived, I wouldn’t have been the vice president of anything, rather I likely would’ve been sent to some far flung corner of the company to serve as a middle manager for a half dozen years unless she took the initiative to eliminate me first.  It was her or me really.  Self defense.”

“I don’t know if that actually makes me feel better,” Jasper said slowly.  “I think it actually terrifies me a little bit.”

“That was just a phase,” Belle responded, waving a hand dismissively.  “A bit of a girlish emotion and indulgence.  If the same thing were to happen today, I would never bother with sparking up an affair with a target’s partner before having them killed.  That was an unnecessary failure point.  Her husband confessed to everything after she caught him, and it almost was the end of me.  I was lucky that I could manufacture a business trip to keep myself away long enough to recover.  The entire matter taught me an important lesson about not mixing business and pleasure.  For truly important matters, it is essential to hire a professional.”

Kat shook her head, a half smile on her face.  It wasn’t so much that she thought that Belle was joking.  Rather the opposite really, every instinct in her body told her that the other shareholder was telling the complete truth.  That didn’t mean that Belle couldn’t dramatize the story for effect.

It had taken months for her to notice when Belle was tweaking her stories or demeanor, but once she’d picked up on it, everything about the older woman made a lot more sense.  Belle was a master of manipulating every conversation, and weaving storytelling into those discussions was part of that process.

Right now, her story defused the tension in the room better than any bomb expert.  One minute, they were buried in a discussion that felt like it could turn into something between factional infighting and a literal shootout at the drop of a hat, the next everyone was chuckling awkwardly in between throwing disbelieving glances at the shareholder.

Kat reached for her coffee.  It was a little colder through the mug than she expected, but that was probably from the barista preparing the drinks in advance and letting them sit out so that they would be ready to go as soon as their party wanted their drinks.

The mug was halfway to her mouth when she froze. There was no way that the barista would’ve known what they were going to order.  The drinks shouldn’t have been prepared and waiting for them unless there was someone that predicted exactly what cafe they were going to attend.  Someone that knew their habits intimately.

Her gaze darted up to the barista.  The woman was staring at her with wide eyes practically shaking.  The employee's lips moved silently as she mouthed a word.  Kat was hardly an expert at lip reading, but her enhanced vision made up for her lack of skill.

Don’t Drink He’s Watching

That was all it took.  Her hand flashed out, slapping Belle’s drink out of her hand before the other woman could take a sip.  Jasper’s mug was still sitting on the table in front of him, so there was no danger there, but-

There was only the faintest rustle of shifting fabric, but it was more than enough to draw Kat’s focus.  One of the security officers behind Jasper, a middle aged man with the first hints of gray dappling his temples, was reaching slowly toward his holster, a grim look on his face as he glared at the back of Jasper’s head.

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