A thing a week - 45
“So, this is where baby ended up.” Barnes stepped into the lab while blowing across the open top of his coffee cup.
Paul sat with his back to the door. “Yeah, that’s awesome, you come up with that one yourself, or you have some algorithm spit that out for you five minutes ago?” Paul didn’t turn as he spoke.
“I don’t need to calculate how much of a pussy you are. Daddy gets hurt and you’re crying all over your desk so they jam you down here with all the other junk.”
“Well, it’s good seeing you, Barnes, but if you don’t mind I actually work here.”
Barnes stepped lightly through the lab toward Paul. “You’re implying I don’t? You see, due to your breakdown Searle announced an opening in the maglev project. You know, the one you stole from me?”
Paul sighed as he fiddled with some keys at his terminal. “Didn’t steal shit, they just wanted more code and less pure math.”
“That’s bullshit and you fucking know it! You got in because your fucking goon squad got me booted out of the running.”
Paul finally turned. He looked at Barnes through a pair of orange goggles strapped to his eyes. “No, my goon squad didn’t do shit for this job. Diego’s got more pull with the projects team and with Searle than that prick Burke. Sorry you got in with the wrong crowd, but hey, you got your fucking job. Now, let’s be professionals. I’ll let you return to yours and you let me return to mine.” He spun around on the stool and began typing again.
An arc of coffee slung through the air behind Paul. He lunged to his right, grabbed the stool from under him and flung it at Barnes. Coffee splattered all over the desk, missing Paul’s shoulder by inches while Barnes was knocked back into a rack of prototype goggles. Paul flinched as a bright light flashed from the screens inside his pair and he dropped them to the floor as he rubbed his eyes. A voice from the internal earpieces whispered, “Signal lost.”
“Barnes!” a woman belted from the door. “What are you doing in here?”
Barnes shoved the chair away from him and stumbled to his feet. “He attacked me, Melinda! He got angry and threw his chair at me, and all I had to defend myself with was a cup of coffee!”
She looked toward Paul. “Well then, is that how it happened?”
“Well, Dr. Searle…pretty much just like that. Only in reverse.” Paul tapped a few keys on the tips of his fingers. He picked up his goggles and plugged them into the monitor on the desk. Through the streaks of coffee on the screen the feed showed the perspective of a prototype on the shelf next to Barnes. The three of them watched as he chucked his cup at Paul and the feed cut out as he fell back onto the rack.
Searle shoved Barnes out of the way and began counting. “…five, six, seven. Seven prototypes are broken because you were wandering around where you shouldn’t be.”
Barnes’ jaw dropped. “No! He threw his fucking chair at me, that’s why they’re broken!”
“You fought first you arrogant ass! Can’t you read?!” Searle stepped out of the lab and ripped a sign off the door. “No food or drink in the labs! Go clean out your desk and get out of my building!”
Barnes huffed. “Melinda, you’re making a mistake-“
“Tell me about it! I bought into Burke’s bullshit about you. I want you out of my sight, I want you out of my project, I want you out of my building.”
“But-“
“No buts. Except yours, far, far away from here. You’ve got three minutes to clean out.”
Barnes shot a look at Paul and stomped off.
Searle picked up the chair and brought it to Paul. “Are you hurt?”
Paul shook his head and smiled. “No, in fact I feel pretty accomplished right now.”
Searle smirked a bit. “Because you finally showed up Barnes?”
Paul smiled back. “Oh, no, not even that. I’ve improved the sightjacking transfer rate by almost half a second.”
She gave him a strange glance. He pointed at the desk. “Coffee.” He then turned to show her his left lab coat sleeve. “No coffee.”