“There’s a—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Manny walked away, then turned around and came back. His face was turning red, his anger unlike I’d seen in a long time. “If this becomes a diplomatic incident between Iran and France, it will all fall on you.”
Not giving anyone the opportunity to respond, Manny turned around and left the café. I glanced at the others to see that I was not the only one shocked by Manny’s uncharacteristic behaviour.
Vinnie shrugged, then smiled. “That asswipe is going to eat crow.” His smile widened. “And then I’m going to kill him.”
I knew he didn’t mean this literally, but it was still disturbing to hear these words leave his mouth. Vinnie winked at me, then announced that he’d see us in the team room. He fist-bumped all the GIPN team members on the way out.
Colin pulled his chair closer to mine and sat down, but looked at Daniel. “Where’s Caelan? Is he okay?”
“He’s not okay, no. I got one of my guys to take him to Phillip.”
Colin took both my hands in his and studied my face. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I got up, but didn’t pull my hands from his. “I want to go to my viewing room.”
I needed the safety of that space and the familiarity of my work. I also needed to lose myself in work for a while. This had been a very disconcerting experience. I wanted to find out what that connection was that kept evading me.
Chapter SIXTEEN
Back at our team room, Daniel took the elevator ahead of us. I seldom entered the small space with more than one person if there was no rush. I appreciated that Vinnie and Daniel had chosen the size of the elevator for security reasons, but being in too close physical proximity to other people caused most distressing anxiety.
Colin was lost in his own thoughts and we didn’t speak. The elevator returned and I was prioritising the list of things I wanted to research as we entered. I wanted to get back to the photos of the wine labels. And Adèle’s chart.
The elevator doors opened to the team room and I gasped at the scene that greeted us.
Vinnie and Manny were standing toe to toe, their bodies nearly touching. Manny was shouting at Vinnie about Hassan, Iran, Amin and terrorists. None of it made sense. Daniel was standing to the side, his muscle tension indicating he was ready to intervene at any moment. Francine was next to her desk, both her hands over her mouth, her orbicularis oculi muscles contracted in sadness.
“Good God.” Colin let go of my hand and walked to Vinnie and Manny. “Less than ten minutes and we walk into this? What the hell, Millard?”
“Stay out of this, Frey!” Manny pushed his index finger into Vinnie’s chest. “This is between me and this criminal.”
It felt like the darkness that always came before a shutdown was pushing against the back of my eyes. I blinked a few times, but the pressure was still there. Manny’s nonverbal cues were such as I’d never seen before. He was aggressive and seemed to wish for a physical altercation with Vinnie.
My large friend was angry. The long scar running down the side of his face was white against the colour flushing his cheeks. He looked down at Manny and I wondered if the latter even saw the sadness that juxtaposed Vinnie’s anger.
I knew the feeling was not real, but it felt like someone was sucking the air out of my lungs. My chest felt hollow with despondency and it felt like my heart was bruised. “Pain never heals pain.”
“Huh?” Vinnie glanced at me when my words came out hoarse.
I cleared my throat and looked at Manny and Vinnie. I couldn’t speak again. The sadness of what they were doing overwhelmed me. Neurotypicals caused each other so much unnecessary hurt. Intentionally.
I shook my head and was jarred to feel the warmth of a tear running down my cheek. With a final look at them, I walked into my room and closed the door. It was the first time in very long that I’d done this to exclude them—not because I needed to focus, but because I didn’t want them near me. I sat on my chair and glanced back into the room.
Vinnie was at the kitchen, his back towards me. Tension caused his movements to be stilted, his shoulders slightly raised. Manny hadn’t moved. He was looking at me, his aggression replaced with regret. And shame. And he was letting me see it.
My head hurt. As did my heart. I didn’t want to see those micro-expressions on his face. I didn’t want the very people who had been my security, my stability for years causing me to feel so lost.
So I turned away from them, opened the folder with the photos of Adèle’s chart and blocked everything outside my viewing room from my mind.
“Genevieve?” Phillip’s deep voice pulled me out of the hyper-focused state I was in. I glanced at the clock on my computer and was disappointed that only an hour had passed. Irrationally, I’d hoped to hide longer so Vinnie and Manny had more time to sort things out.
I rolled my shoulders, then moved my head from side to side to relieve the stiffness that resulted from sitting in one position for too long. Finally, I turned to look at Phillip. He was sitting next to me, his body language relaxed, but his facial expression revealing his concern. “Are you well?”
I looked past him into the team room. My door was open.
Vinnie was nowhere to be seen; Manny was sitting at his desk, glaring at his computer, and Francine was at her desk looking at me. The moment my attention turned to her, she smiled at me. It was a small and sad smile, her usual boisterousness not evident.
I turned back to Phillip. “Physically, I’m fine. But the antagonism between them is distracting.”
“And it’s hurting you.” Phillip sighed. “Caelan was in a bad state when the officers brought him here. We both decided he would be best off at home. Now I think it was a very good decision. The atmosphere here will trigger yet another shutdown. At least it seems like things have calmed down for now. I don’t know where Daniel is, but Colin’s taken Vinnie to go buy pastries or something. They should be back soon.”
“Pastries won’t solve the problem.”
Phillip smiled. “No, but it might smooth things over a bit.”
I doubted that. Manny’s reaction to his own pain had changed the dynamics in our team. I didn’t know what it would take to restore things to how it had been.
I blinked and leaned back in my chair. Maybe things would never return to how they had been. That was one of the many things in life I found extremely difficult to come to terms with. Events changed us. Whether for good or bad, it caused a change that aided in our development if we allowed it to.
I wondered how the event that was causing Manny such distress would change him. If it would be permanent. And whether the effect of his behaviour would be the cause for any permanent change in our team. That thought brought the tension back to my muscles. I didn’t like change.
“Genevieve.” Phillip’s tone indicated that he’d called me a few times. I looked at him and leaned a bit back in surprise. He had lost colour in his face. “Who is that?”
He was pointing at one of the photos that had surrounded Adèle’s chart. It was one of the three photos of the man with the birthmark on his hand. In this photo, it was clearly visible as he held his phone to his ear. “I don’t know who he is. All three photos we have of him obscure his face, so Francine wasn’t able to run it through the facial recognition software.”
“Don’t bother.” He pulled at his collar. “His name is Fran?ois Dumaux.”
It was the fact that he knew this man that disconcerted me as much as the emotions revealed when he spoke the name. “Who is he?”
“A ghost from the past.” He closed his eyes, shook his head, then looked at me. “He’s not literally a ghost. This is someone I knew a very long time ago.”