With how silence had wrapped around them like a gravity blanket, heavily burdened, tensed shoulders remained stiff. A single drop of a pin would've been heard in Brimstone's office if Cypher didn't clear his throat, bringing the two back into reality.
"Sage. Brim."
The two remained silent in their seat, going back and forth from one clip to another, closely watching the familiar figure of their fellow that appeared on camera ㅡ Chamber. Eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, eyes glued onto the screen, trying the owners' best to figure out what was really going on.
Seconds after, their second in-command pursed her lips before bitting her bottom lip in anxiousness. "There's no way that's him... right?" Sage's voice faltered, the feeling of unsureness filled her whole body as if replacing the warmth inside, the beating pattern of her heart quickened at the thought of one of their agents were to betray them if they ever planned to.
The young lady's fingertips felt cold, fiddling with them while waiting for a response from the two.
Brimstone started to slouch in his seat, crossing both arms in front of his chest while a sigh left his lips, stealing glances at Sage.
Physically relaxed, yet mentally stressed.
The younger lady couldn't help but crack her knuckles out of nervousness, hands automatically hovering over the mouse to click the video once again, playing again and again for almost another five minutes.
Chamber was one of the agents she trusted; maybe more than others but less than Sova.
"If he really were to ever betray us, I want you to keep an eye on him. You might as well ask Sova and Fade for help." The leader of their protocol tried his best to subtly reassure Sage, giving her a half-upturned smile. Brimstone turned to Cypher, seeing a few stars as pain started to seep in his eyes from staring at the monitor screen for way too long. For a bit, he shook his head to relieve the strained feeling in his system and proceeded to conduct a plan; in which Cypher had an idea of.
The watcher of the protocol gave him an understanding nod, his index finger lightly resting on his chin with his thumb right under, thinking of a way to watch his friend. "Should I keep my cameras where they are, or do you want me to watch him closely?"
"No, keep them where they are. I don't want to suffocate him, knowing that that man is a very private person. He's still one of our best agents and has control over everything he does." The monitor screen had been tilted to the right before being turned off by Brimstone to stop Sage watching the exact same recordings, not wanting to make her more anxious than she already way.
Maybe way too much control.
A somewhat defeated escaped Sage's lips, turning around in her seat to face the two, listening in their conversation while she thought of what she could do for everyone.
"Once we leave this room, I want the both of you to act natural. I'll try to conduct a mission at Kingdom to see what's going on in there. In-person." Sage and Cypher glanced at each other, their healer pursing her lips.
What Brimstone thought of as a plan was dangerous and had too many risks. But they couldn't think of anything else at the moment and accepted it, nodding their heads up and down, trying their best to have a determined look in their faces.
"Let me know if you have any more input for the plan. Be honest." Without saying anything, the two started got up from their seats and left their leader alone to walk towards the door while listening to his words, keeping everything in mind.
Sage placed her hand on the cold doorknob, turned it to open the door and walked out of Brimstone's office, eyebrows knotted together; still deep in thought of what they had discussed minutes ago.
Brimstone started to clean up his office desk, taking out unnecessary papers and placing them to the side. He had fixed up his set up on his table, laptop in front of him with information about the agents.
Cypher followed right after their second in-command but stopped on his tracks, turning his heel around to go back to Brimstone's office in which the door was left open after having second thoughts about the plan; curious.
"Brimstone,"
"Hm?" Brimstone let out a quiet hum as a response, not bothering to look at the owner of the voice, his gaze focusing on the list of agents he could pick from to complete the mission. The old man continued to scroll down the screen, writing down the names of the possible agents on a sheet of paper with a black pen. A box was drawn on the left of each names, either placing a cross or a check mark sign.
"Is Chamber going?"
Brimstone glanced over at the other from his shoulder, only seeing a blurry figure from his peripheral vision before avertimg it back to the monitor screen. They were both silent for a few seconds before the older nodded his head, pursing his lips to surpress a sigh. "Yes, Cypher. He has to."
"Why?"
"To see if it really was Chamber on the recorded video or someone posing as him. Or maybe..." Brimstone's voice faltered on a thought before continuing. "Or a parallel version made by Kingdom. I want to see what he does."
Cypher's gaze averted from the trip wires he found in his pocket in which his fingers automatically played with to the monitor screen that presented the whole list of Valorant protocol agents. "I see."
Two names were already registered, placed below the previous recruit. Both Sabine and her lover already had their information typed in the system with no pictures.
"Either way, we need to keep an eye on him."
Cypher couldn't get a word in his mind to say to Brimstone and so, he closed the door to Brimstone's office; silenced by the thoughts in his head.
What has this protocol come to?
Laughter emerged from Chamber's place, Sabine held onto her stomach while her other hand held a can of iced coffee. Tears formed from her tear ducts as Chamber's lame jokes came non-stop, poking her in the right spots.
Well, it had been awhile since she had laughed genuinely with someone.
"That was so lame, Chamber." The latter chuckled to himself, getting up from the couch and making his way over to the kitchen counter where a pack of iced coffee was placed; grabbing two cans, for the lady and for himself.
"Oh, lame. Yeah, sure, but you loved it, mademoiselle." Chamber smiled to himself. His eyes glued onto her, seeing how her eyes turned into a pair of crescent-like moons while wiping the small tears off of them. Her pearly-white, straight teeth coming to view the more she laughed at his jokes, slightly throwing her head back. The movement of her head made her short, straight, black hair softly follow it.
She's beautiful.
Almost an hour later of sharing jokes and a bit of stories about their jobs before joining the protocol, Chamber noticed the time and had offered to pay for their dinner.
"Dinner, mademoiselle? And of course, not the food from the cafetorium but from a fancy restaurant. I know a place."
"Chamber, really. I can pay for myself." Sabine placed the can of iced coffee on the mini coffee table that he had.
"I know you can, but I insist." A smirk was plastered on his face, eyes still on her while walking away from the kitchen counter to sit back down on the couch beside her handing her the can of iced coffee.
Sabine couldn't help but accept another can of iced coffee. She didn't want to completely rest and have another night of nightmares about the incident. She's had enough of seeing images about John screaming in pain while getting healed.
Though, as she started to think about it, the doctor almost fell into a deep rabbit hole until Chamber noticed and spoke.
"So? Dinner, mademoiselle?" Only a sigh left her lips, completely coming back to reality and followed with a small nod, giving up on trying to argue with the Frenchman, which caused him to smile widely.
"Yes, Chamber."