"Darn it's not a robot!"  The Scout said with a sigh.  He frowned at the sight of the unusual gun.  "I guess I owe you 200 bucks." That got Rémi's attention.  He'd made a bet with Jacques?  Suddenly, with the talk of betting, Rémi remembered he hadn't played poker for months.  He could sure go for a game.

"Of course it's not a robot, you dummy." The Engineer said with us usual good charm.  "What would we do with a robot?"

"It'd fight Saxton Hale, and it'd be awesome!" Dale replied, with his beaming face.  This one had read too many comics, that was for sure.  The Engineer just shook his head and continued with work - typing a line of code into the console by his side.

"If you don't mind," Rémi felt bad about bothering the working Engineer, "can I ask you - what is it?"

The Engineer answered that question with another question.  "You all heard of Aperture Science?"

Dale, being the only American in the group had heard of Aperture Science.  Well, that was probably a little too much credit.  He couldn't tell you a thing about the actual work they did, but he knew of the charismatic owner, and of the company's scandals.  "Isn't that the place where all those astronauts died?" He said with a laugh.

"I thought they went bankrupt." Rémi added.

"Not yet," the Engineer said, looking up from his work for just a second.  "You all read Machines 'n' Things?" A beat.  "No, of course not.  Anyway, they reckon Aperture will close shop before year's end.  The company is selling off all their assets cheap.  I'm just fiddlin' around with one of their designs."

"If this thing works," he started putting emphasis on the 'if', "this gun will be able to create quantum space hole.  This means we'd be able to travel large distances with just a single step, and with some sharp shooting, keep our enemy at a comfortable distance."  He adjusted his goggles.  The gun was made up of hundreds of tiny parts - each filed and carefully fitted into place.  In the centre there was a perfect cube of Australium. 

He was a genius, no denying that, but a lot of the procedure was guess-work.  Aperture had two decades and a team of skilled scientists to perfect the device.  This was his very first attempt.  At best, it would be inelegant.  At worst, the quantum particles would overheat and burn at the temperature of the sun, but that was unlikely. 

Rémi felt awkward just standing around watching the Engineer work.  "How about we go play some cards or something?"

"Poker, of course."  Was Glen looking for a friendly game of go-fish?  There was only one card game worth playing, and that was poker.  It was equal parts of probability and clever acting.  Rémi hardly ever played with his team mates.  Part of the fun was the challenge - something he didn't get from the usual drunken idiot.

"Aw yeah I'm in," Dale replied almost instantly.   "I gotta win back that $200 I lost to you," he pointed at the BLU Spy.  Rémi couldn't help but think 'You would be up against two spies, and one ex-spy.  Sorry kid, I don't think you'll be the winner of this game.'  Not one word was said - it'd be interesting to have a wild card in the game.

"Come on," he said to Jacques.  "You're bothering the Engineer."  The Engineer chimed in with a neutral-sounding grunt.  "Just one game," Rémi continued.

"Just one sec," Dale called to Rémi as he left the room.  "I got some cards in my room, I'll catch up okay."  What a set of cards it was!  It was another present from his mother.  The backs were printed with the Red Sox logo, and the face cards each used a different photo of a player.  He went to leave the room from the other door, nudging Jacques as he passed by him.  He was hopefully well out of earshot from the Medic and other Spy.

"Listen," he whispered, devious grin set on his face.  "I may not read books and stuff, but I aint stupid.  I know we can't beat those guys.  So how bout this - we team up against them.  If either of us win we'll split the cash 50-50 whaddaya say?"

Dale sighed.  Jacques was being too straight.  It would've been fun to embarrass Rémi and Glen... and get a bit of extra money.  "Alright," he said as he continued out of the room.  "I'll be there in a bit."  Maybe he could convince Rémi to team up with him.  Piggyback on his talent a little bit.  A second thought and he realised how impossible that was.  Rémi was even more straight-backed than Jacques.

A few minutes later he had tracked down the others, he held up his special deck of cards as he entered the room.  "So," he started as he removed the cards from their casing and gave them an unskilled shuffle.  "Have you already decided how much we're playing for?"

"$200" Rémi said.  They were all paid well enough, they could afford it.  The Scout sat between the two spies and dealt out the first round of cards.

Dale's brain, even at its best, never ran on full thrusters.  But even the slowest ship will reach port eventually.  How had Jacques managed to see his trophy?  That means he must've been inside his house.  Why would he be there?  His confused gaze focused on Jacques for a moment.  Something was not right - and any moment now he would figure it out.  If he wanted to keep it a secret, the Frenchie would need to be very careful from now on.

"Of course I can play baseball!  I have a .344 batting average.  Star hitter of my team," he said matter-of-factly.  Exaggerations aside, he was legitimately a very good player.  He'd played for his school team for years - and would've continued with it if a darling young lady by the name of Miss Pauline hadn't offered him a job with RED.  Dale was never able to say 'no' to a pretty face.

"I'm sure that is all completely honest and not at all overstated," Rémi replied - his poker face in full effect.  Or was that just his normal face?  It was hard to tell the difference.  He slid some chips towards the centre of the table - matching Glen's bet.  "I'll call."

Dale looked at Rémi and then Glen - searching their face for any hints, just like Jacques had said.  He couldn't get a reading off either of them.  He didn't want to do anything stupid yet - he'd already lost $200 dollars today.  "I'm in," he announced after a moment. 

"Star hitter, runner and pitcher, thank you," Dale corrected Jacques as he revealed the next three cards from the deck.  First he placed down a Queen of clubs, then a 10 of diamonds and a seven of diamonds.

Rémi looked over at Dale.  Why on earth did he hang around with the kid and - more importantly - why was he so nice to him?  He was definitely more polite towards Dale than Jacques.  The Scout showed no class, and you couldn't have an interesting conversation with him.  Not to mention there was more than 20 years between their ages.  Yet somehow he was on more friendly terms with Rémi than any other member of RED.  Maybe it was his sheer persistence.

Rémi switched to French.  He wasn't going to be the one to snap the final twig holding Dale's mind together.  "You should probably just tell him yourself.  I imagine the later he finds out, the messier it's going to be."

"Hey hey hey!" Dale retorted.  "No French at the table.  Come on man, that's not fair!" he pouted. 

Rémi's face visibly changed for a moment when Glen's personal life was brought up again.  After the scare when he mentioned his mother, that had become a taboo subject for the RED Spy.  "We're playing a game here," he said towards Jacques.  "We're having fun - that's all.   You can't expect him to talk about something if he doesn't want to."