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Collateral Damage [Arden]

Posted: 18 Jul 2019, 08:14
by Winter
If you wouldn’t mind, I think I would prefer that you showed me yourself exactly what you think it is that I should do with this wall here, Loni, and I will, again, show you exactly why that simply will not work.” The tall Bavarian woman’s raspy voice sounded like steel against gravel, a harsh scrape against the ear, unpleasant if it weren’t carried just the right way, the way that Winter had managed, with years of work, to make herself more audibly pleasing than a blender full of nails. She turned her painted lips into a frown as she lifted a hand to tug gingerly at the lace choke collar around her throat, hiding one of the many scars she bore, and the only one that drew her own attention, that made her self conscious.

This room, she had been through a hundred times in the last few months, working through plans with the short, mousy woman in front of her with the mean little frown and the bitchy, upturned nose that made her almost happy to be removing her. If it weren’t for the sharp way that she handled her, herself, then it would be for her cruelty to her staff. She was unreasonably sharp, and needlessly loud when doling out her admonishments, being sure that not only did the recipient hear quite clearly, but that so did half of the office, and the office two floors below them. Quietly, the tall German lifted her chin as she took a therapeutic, albeit unnecessary breath, to clear her head and ready herself.

The short project manager drew those harsh lips into a thin line and pointed at the wall in question. “Are you dense? I’m asking you for extra floor space, I need an alcove here, extended from this section of the lab, for almost five meters by three. How hard is this to understand? It’s like I’m talking to a slow four year old. Are you four, Miss Falke? Or do you just lack the brains to do your job” The woman lifted a hand, one nail jabbing the taller woman’s breastbone. It was that tiny spark of pain that had set her off. It had set her in motion, and there was no stopping it. She had hoped to lure her closer to the wall, to get her away from the office space, as it would have required far less work for the cleaner, but this was beyond her, now.

She lifted her hand, snatching the woman’s wrist with a sharp snap of the bones in her wrist that made her cry out, honey-brown eyes going wide as she looked at the unnatural angle at which her wrist hung from her forearm. “Oh god what the **** did you do, you idiot?!” She looked from her broken arm up to the woman as she cradled her broken bones to her chest. She opened her mouth to speak again, an open palm snapping forward to slam into her throat, paralyzing her vocal chords with a sharp choke that sent her crashing into the wall of the cubicle they had stood against, nearly sending the freestanding wall crashing over as she crumpled to the floor with a whine.

Without hesitation, Winter’s hand pulled her sidearm from her bag as Loni pushed herself to her knees and coughed. Just as she made to look up at her, the pistol in her hand whispered twice, slamming two rounds into the back of the woman’s skull. She collapsed onto her face, twitched once, and never moved again.

Blood had splashed against the wall she was slumped against, exactly what she had hoped to avoid, for the sake of the staff. Winter sighed, returning the gun to her bag as the silent alarm sounded, steel shutters closing down over the doors that lead to either exit, though that hardly put a stop to her plans. She turned, and collected her things from the desk of the cubicle, stepping over the dead woman to do so.

Idiot, indeed.” the only word she muttered at the dead woman as she turned to make her way to the window she’d selected after several weeks of planning and inspecting the building and its security.