Dum de dum dum dum, I love Berto, dum dum dum, Berto rocks, dum de de dum.

Chapter 12

Berto was not happy about the current situation, which involved having to turn his back on Abigail, who was close behind him. A lot closer than Max and Kat, who were about ten feet to the left. The youngest member of Team Steel could not concentrate on the simplest task of gathering spare parts form Abigail's wrecked hovercraft without picturing the redhead stabbing a knife in between his shoulder blades while he had his back turned.

"Really, Berto, you have to calm down. You're practically hyperventilating, isn't it hot enough for you in this stupid rainforest already?"

"I'm not hyperventilating...it's humid, so I can't breathe as easily."

Abigail rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure."

Berto didn't answer her, and kept on with his current project. He had to pick through the wreckage of the totaled aircraft and gather enough parts to make some sort of transmitter to relay their current position back to N'Tek.

"Anyway," said Abigail, "I don't know what you're so worried about. I wouldn't do anything to you...yet. Remember? I need you to build the transmitter thing? And, you three can't get on my bad side because then I can deny you access to my ship, and we're all screwed. For now we all need each other, so for now, you're safe."

"For now?"

Abigail picked up an enormous shard of glass from the windshield and twirled it between her fingers. "Well, after our location is transmitted...I can't make any promises." With that, she tossed the shard of glass through the air. It tumbled four times during it's flight, and then stuck itself in a tree trunk. This drew the attention of Kat and Max, and Abigail smiled sweetly and waved.

"Well," Berto said, trying to sound like he wasn't terrified, "if we found a way to incapacitate you until this is all over, we could have access to the craft without your permission."

"True," said Abigail, now examining her perfectly manicured fingernails, which had thankfully not been damaged in the crash, "but if you tried to put me out of action and failed...let's just say you'd probably be the easiest target. But then again Max has been very...malleable lately."

At this, Berto stood up and glared at her. "What's that supposed to mean? What do you know?"

"Ah, so he's told you about the voices, has he? Interesting, Grandfather and I thought that he'd probably pull some macho crap and not tell anyone that anything was wrong."

"Believe me, he tried, I had to...Wait a second, who's your grandfather? You said he lives here, so what could he know about dealings back in the US?"

Abigail gave Berto an incredulous look. "You mean even you haven't put two and two together yet? I have to admit, Berto, I thought at least you would figure it out."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on. Besides that freak Dragonelle, how many high-ranking women does DREDD employ? One, and that's me. And why would that be?"

"No way."

"Because Grandfather runs the whole show. That's right, I am Abigail Veronica Dread."

Berto stood staring at her, his mouth open.

"Oh, come now, it must have crossed your mind."

"Maybe, but I-I never really thought about it as a possibility."

"Well, now you know. Are you going to finish your little science project before it gets dark out? I don't know how reliable firelight is to work by."

"It won't be done tonight. It'll probably take a few days."

"Great." Abigail glanced at Kat and Max, and saw they were busy arguing over the best way to get the fire re-lit. "So...speaking of science projects, do you ever get a little tired of working?"

"Not really, why would you ask?" Berto asked suspiciously, but didn't look up from his work.

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but basically all you're involved in at N'Tek has to do with Max, right?"

"No."

"What?"

"Wherever you're going with this, no."

"Oh, come on, Berto, that's not thinking like a scientist. At least hear me out."

Berto didn't respond, so Abigail took that as a 'go ahead'. She gave herself a mental high-five. She didn't think Berto would let someone suggest that he wasn't a true 'man of science'. "Ok, if Max wasn't...around anymore, you wouldn't really have anything else to do at N'Tek, would you?"

Berto looked as though he wanted to hit her, but he controlled himself and instead said "Not really, no."

"Well, say if someone offered you three million dollars in exchange for Max..."

Berto had heard enough. He stood up and looked her in the eye. "No," he said, quietly.

"Think about it," Abigail's voice was soft, dangerous, "you could retire to Columbia, be with your family..."

"No," Berto said, louder this time.

"Buy any little technology gadget you wanted..."

"NO!"

"Any supercomputer right there in your home..."

"I SAID NO!" with a strength Berto never knew he had, he drew his arm back and punched Abigail in the face as hard as he could, all the anger he head been holding back from when he had first learned she had betrayed him forced into that single motion.

Abigail stood perfectly still with a shocked look on her face, and, stiff as a board, fell backwards onto a backdrop of rotted leaves. Berto stood down at the now-unconscious Abigail, and heard cheering from the other two members of Team Steel on the other end of the clearing.