1 Betrayal

The man staggered backwards as the burly soldier jabbed at the screen attached to his chest.

"Then I guess you'd better take me to the gravel pit and shoot me, lady." He shouted at screen, the dark silhouette presented on it showing no change in attitude or emotion.

"Cause if you ever ask me to kill my friend again, I will put my boot so far up your ass it will be on the news."

The Administrator hesitated for a second, considering her options. Although she had threatened the Soldier with execution, she was not completely sure that was a cost or asset effective option. Blutarch had hand picked that soldier himself (one of the few things he still insisted on doing himself these days, same with Redmond) and would not be best pleased with TF industries if she did have him killed.

No, angering Blutarch would not be beneficial, not at all, especially if she still wanted to milk the cash cow that was the endless war over the gravel pits that the two brothers insisted that they continued to fight over.

"Whoever controls the gravel pits, controls everything" they told her. What they expected to find there, she had no clue, but as long as they kept the money flowing in, then she couldn't care less.

What she did care about however, was the recent blossoming of friendship between the RED demoman, Tavish DeGroot and the BLU soldier, Jane Doe. Redmond Mann and Blutarch Mann had no clue that both their companies were employing the same administrative agency and if these two mercenaries did happen to talk about the 'Angry lady who's always screamin' at us while we fight', there would be hell to pay. Or maybe there wouldn't, the brothers were rather stupid.

Anyway, that wasn't a risk that she was willing to make. Besides, she did always find it rather fun to mess around with the 'little men'.

"That's not the option he took from his employers." She lied.

Mr. Doe jabbed the screen again, causing the man to stumble back another couple of paces. "He agreed to kill me for weapons? Ha! I don't buy it, sister."

"Listen for yourself."

The feed changed from the silhouette of the Administrator to a still image of RED Demoman.

*BZZT* I-WILL-KILL-THE-SOLDIER. *BZZT*

*BZZT HE-IS-A-BAD-FRIEND. *BZZT*

Jane scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to believe. The Administrator had never directly lied to him before. If she told him that the reds were capping the point, they were always capping the point, or if the bomb was nearing the checkpoint, then it always was. Though how she knew these things nobody knew. Engineer had a theory that she was controlling both teams from the sidelines, but Soldier had laughed and dismissed it as ridiculous. I mean, why on earth would she do that?

But there was something fishy about this that Soldier couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Ahhhh, but dammit - It doesn't matter what he said in that weird robot voice I've never heard him talk in before. Once you've taken a man out for whiskey and ribs, then fought him, then fought the police with him, well, you have forged a bond thicker than any soup you can buy.  That's not girl talk either. That is just facts."

Jane waved his hand at the screen dismissively and turned to face the back wall of his apartment. He'd had enough of this.

"No deal, pumpkin. Find yourself another patsy."

The Administrator smirked

"I'd hoped we wouldn't have had to bring it to this, mister Doe." She pressed a large red button on her extensive control panel.

*BZZT* HE-IS-NOT-A-REAL-SOLDIER. *BZZT*

Soldier swung round, his astonished eyes fixed on the screen attached to the mans chest once again.

*BZZT* HE-WAS-NOT-EVEN-IN-THE-ARMY. *BZZT*

"He wouldn't"

*BZZT* HE-IS-A-FRAUD. *BZZT*

"He won't!"

*BZZT* HE-IS-A-CIVILIAN. *BZZT*

"Civ...Civilian? He promised he'd never..."

Jane Doe just stood there, completely lost for words. He didn't know what to say. Tavish had sworn that he'd never tell a soul, and yet there he was, blabbing to the world.

"How dare he!?" Screamed Soldier as his confusion turned to pure anger. He flew forwards and grabbed the man by his collar and threw him out of his apartment door. All logic and reason had flown from his helmeted head.

The Soldier stumbled out of the door, his shotgun clenched in his hands. He pointed it at the leering image of his former best friend on the mans chest, who was currently groaning in agony, not registering the immediate danger he was in from the deranged gunman.

"I earned every one of those medals I made! I did three goddamn tours of duty overseas, and I wasn't even asked! I paid my dues! And my plane ticket over!" I... He..."

He turned his shotgun towards the midnight sky and fired.

"He is a dead man!"

Soldier skulked back into his apartment, not bothering to shut the door behind him. The man picked himself off the floor, having recovered from the pain but not quite from the shock. He began to back away.

"What are you waiting for? Follow him in!" Said the Administrator. The man gulped and walked back into the doorway.

Soldier was sitting in the corner of the room, drinking a cold can of tomato soup. His eyes had glazed over as he allowed the information he had been given to sink in.

"I believe we have a deal, mister Doe." she said. She wasn't expecting an answer.

"The first weapon we'll be sending you is a precision instrument. If you were blasting it around randomly, it would be useless to you. However, I think you'll find it useful for sharp-shooting specific enemies. Pauling, kill the feed, please."