Peppermint

Interlude 13 - The Big Empty

Ahmad couldn't say anything, but he heard everything. Unbeknownst to anyone else on the team, he'd given Josh an earwig before they came here. It'd taken all of his willpower to not talk to Josh while the two Graziadeis were approaching Kristoff Scoville's office. Knowing Josh, he would've attempted to carry on a conversation with Ahmad instead, and Ahmad didn't blame him. Not when he heard some bits and pieces of the conversation Scoville and Mr. Graziadei were having, with Josh contributing next to nothing. Except perhaps snarky silence.

Maybe if he paid closer attention, he'd know exactly how it all built up to Scoville killing Josh. To his mind, it came out of nowhere surely as much as it must have for everyone else involved. Alex and AK, for sure, being the ones who burst into Scoville's office at the exact moment of impact. Hell, even Mr. Graziadei sounded so floored, he couldn't have seen it coming. Omniscient? Ahmad thought not.

And now, Ahmad still couldn't say anything. Not while he and Michael were busy taking refuge from the armored shits shelling the break room door. If only Scoville had sprung for a solid wood or metal door. Even bone would do - as a child, Ahmad's school gave him a daily homework planner each year, with a different academic fact each week. One of which, he remembered, was that bone was supposed to be five times stronger than steel. Now was that human bone or some other flavor of ivory? Of course Scoville would probably be horrible enough to pay top dollar - American, Australian, whatever money greased his gears - for elephant or rhino ivory. Or perhaps he'd even raid some dinosaur dig Down Under to misappropriate Kakuru fossils - which might explain why so few had been found, at least intact. For all of Michael's jokes about koala-eating, Ahmad would put nothing remotely unethical past Scoville. If Scoville were a dinosaur, he'd be a Velociraptor. Too fast and smart to be allowed. Though in truth, Scoville was nothing if not actually rather slow. It'd taken him a long time to build up to this endgame, hadn't it? Years and years of planning.

And still, nobody could say what that endgame was, nobody but Scoville and Graziadei.

Allies, sure.

But not friends. Not after what Scoville had just done. There would be no forgiveness for him, ever.

Not from anyone, and certainly not from any of Josh's friends.

Or his brother.

Michael, whom Ahmad had expected to lay out full Heavenly...sorry, Paradisian fire on anyone who dared kill his babiest of baby brothers.

Michael, who also heard everything.

Michael, who also couldn't say anything.

Michael, frozen with utter despair. Frozen but for the single tear falling from his eye. And then came a tear from the other eye. Maybe because of his being a demigod archangel, Michael's tears smelled very strongly salty to Ahmad.

But they were nothing on the tears they could both hear Alex crying.