Hello all ^.^ All of your reviews are greatly appreciated!! You give me warm fuzzy butterflies in my belly. Hehehe.
I figure you've all waited long enough to learn about Engineer's past. So here it is! Well, almost all of it ;) Spy is sneaky-sneaky.
It was seventeen hundred on a Friday night and Pyro wandered out of Demo's warehouse too giddy to just do nothing with the rest of her night. When she found herself in front of Spy's door, she couldn't help but to consider asking him about Engineer.
She hadn't yet engaged in a proper thought before Spy opened his door releasing a cloud of pungent, grey smoke that billowed into the hall, sending her into a small coughing fit.
"Mi amor, join me?"
Pyro wanted to ask if he always stalked the hallway or if he had been waiting for her. She entered the room and Spy removed some boxes from a chair and pulled it beside his desk. "I knew you wouldn't last long," he grinned, his cigarette bounced along his lips as he spoke.
"Yeah well, its important right?" she looked around. The room was much more cluttered than it had been the last time she'd visited.
"Incredibly," he smiled and eyed his guest, his hands in a steeple.
"Well, what do you have?" Pyro said flatly, trying to sound uninterested and annoyed rather than let loose her excitement to know more about Engineer and his flowers, and what they had to do with her.
Spy opened his desk drawer and removed a stack of unlabeled manila folders. He opened one and took a moment to study it in silence. "Right," he set the files on his lap. "Before our Engineer joined ze BLU field team, 'e worked for--"
"Can you just get to the part that concerns me? About the flowers?"
He smiled and set a hand on Pyro's forearm, "Patience, my love. You must know 'is past to understand ze present." He removed his cigarette, licked his lips and puffed at it again. "Now, let me back up just a bit. Do you know 'ow many arms BLU company 'as? Just 'ow far zheir tendrils reach?"
Pyro shook her head.
"Automotive, subterranean tunneling projects, government technology research, and oil to name just a few. Ze arms of BLU reach around ze world, in nearly every country and every government. 'Ow do you zhink zhey recruit zuch a wide variety of personnel? Now; our Engineer came from ze civilian portion of BLU, ze oil branch, to be precise. 'E designed, built, maintained and protected ze Texan oil wells owned by BLU for seven years, ze records show." He paused to smother his cigarette and light a fresh one.
"'E knew nozzing of ze field team. None of ze civilian branches do. In fact, very few know about exactly what we do and 'ow we do eet, and oo our enemies are, which iz why when Engineer mistakenly stumbled upon our RED counterparts, 'e took eet into 'is own hands to deal wiz zhem."
"Wait, what? Our counterparts, you mean the RED field team? They went after Engineer? How did they know about him if he just a civilian? It doesn't make sense that they'd go after him when he was just an oil guy—"
"Ze wells were zheir target," Spy interrupted as he puffed at his cigarette. "RED attacked ze oil wells zhat BLU owned, 'oping zhey'd be destroyed and set back revenue, give zhem zomesing to be distracted by. What zhey didn't count on was meeting up wiz someone as intelligent and motivated as Engineer."
"So what happened?"
"Well," Spy sat up straight, "Ze REDs damaged one oil well ze first week, and Engineer 'ad eet repaired wizzin two days. Next, zhey bombed trois—three wells, one waz out of comizzion and ze ozzers 'e repaired fairly quickly. So, ze REDs come back to see zhat most of zheir work 'as been undone, ze wells repaired, and zhey do ze most idiotic zhing zhey could'ave done. Zhey showed zhemselves to 'im."
"Zhey wanted a look at 'im, so to know oo' to kill. Zhey shoud'ave kept secret zheir RED uniforms, 'as by ze next time zhey came around ze oil field, Engineer 'ad constructed a sentry to shoot only at a target wiz a specific shade crimson. Smart, no? Ze REDs thought so, zhat 'e was smart enough for zhem to kill."
Spy paused to remove the folders from his lap and stood to stretch his legs, purposefully leaving Pyro to her thoughts.
"They obviously failed. What happened then? What did he do?"
With a genial smile and swift fingers he retrieved the silver cigarette case from his pocket and chose one at random, placing it between his lips and offering one to Pyro. Pyro waved the case away and asked again, "What did they do to him?"
"Patience, my love. Eet iz a virtue." Spy took his seat and continued. "Before zhey were successful in killing 'im, Engineer 'ad researched zis – Reliable Excavation Demolition, and found nozzing but a harmless demolition company based in California. 'Owever, our Engineer iz much smarter, and zheir uniforms did not lie—Zhey were employees of RED and zhey were after ze Texan oil fields zhat BLU owned."
"Engineer, wiz 'is boundless craft and abil-a-tees," Spy mocked, "managed to track down ze wives of ze REDs zhat 'ad attacked his field, and—"
"But how did he know who to track down? How many were there and how would he find them by just barely seeing their faces?"
"Mi amour," he began patiently, his hands folded on his lap, "You do know zhat ze base iz covered by camera, no? Eet iz like zhat everywhere. All property owned by BLU iz under strict surveillance. Eet iz not a secret, and Engineer took advantage of zhis by reviewing ze footage to make sure 'e 'ad ze right men. Also ze one RED he managed to kill before zhey noticed ze sentry 'ad papers on 'im, but I digress—"
"That's a pretty big part to leave out don't you think?"
"Oui, since Ms. Blu 'eard about it she 'ad ze field teams sign a contract disallowing ze sharing of our civilian names."
Pyro squinted. "Are we talking about the same thing?"
"You're wondering about ze papers, oui?"
"No I mean you didn't tell me about the RED Engie killed with the sentry. It doesn't matter, just keep going. So he killed the RED, and found what kind of papers?"
"Ze paper 'ad been a letter to 'is wife. Wiz address, 'is name and children's names. Zhat was 'ow Engineer tracked ze rest down. 'E followed ze records of ze dead RED and discovered 'ow he got to be employed. From zhere, eet was not 'ard for 'im to find ze rest. Zhey all went to penitentiaries, and recruited by ze same man. I do not know 'oo zhat iz, so don't ask."
Pyro wanted to ask him to explain how Engineer managed to find all of this information by himself. It seemed farfetched. She knew Engineer wasn't stupid, but that didn't mean he had access to the specific records that told him where the REDs' lived, as they were probably kept very secret. Pyro suspected that Spy was leaving something out.
"Engineer found ze dead RED's wife, treated 'er to a fancy dinner, gave her a beautiful crimson, metal rose and sent 'er on 'er way, zhrough ze path of one of 'is sentries 'idden away. She never saw 'er death, I do 'ope it was quick," he bowed his head solemnly.
A sharp pain split through Pyro's tongue and she realized she'd been biting it. Was that true? Engineer purposefully tracked down and killed one of the REDs wives with a synthetic flower and carefully hidden sentry gun? It didn't seem like something their well spoken, gentleman Engineer would do.
"Seven ozzers were found in ze same way, 'olding a crimson artificial rose."
