scientists' POV - Holden and Grendel

[coniurati]

"A virus."

The voice is calm. Almost...amused. He watches her with eyes that seem to analyze everything, even the look on her face, the beating of her heart. As if every word is timed specifically to put the thought in her mind: he knows.

"Inconsequential. The system was repaired." Her face doesn't change, immovable as always, the calm mask. Beneath it, the sound of her heart, beating more rapidly with every second that he looks at her like that.

More like a beast than a man.

Silence stretches long and thin between them for a while. Then, a chuckle. She looks at him but doesn't speak.

"The beast is underhanded." He takes a step closer, and then another. "Cowardly. 'Stop, or I'll make you stop.' Is this what you meant? Was that all you could come up with?"

She's backed against a wall, and now he's close enough to touch her hand, her arm, her neck.

"You were already a traitor to them." His voice is nothing more than a faint hiss of noise. "Now you're a traitor to me, too. Why don't we show them who you really are?"

He's quiet, precise, and very, very patient. He never rushes, never second guesses. The game master must be in control, after all.