“There are four elite active squads at the moment. Warsaw, Riøt, Fury, and Malum.” Nolan sounds like he’s on autopilot and lackadaisical in educating me on the matter. Cameron seems mentally checked out too, staring blankly at the soldiers doing workouts and chatting casually at the far end of the area.
I stare at Nolan expectantly. “Four teams for a reason?”
The general lets out a half laugh and explains, “Yes. Riøt is hands down the worst squad, and you should be grateful you’re not queued up for them. They are the ones we send in to snuff out traitors, runaways, or soldiers that have lost their usefulness. We keep them on the eastern side of the country. Warsaw is the A-team, sent to high-profile and society-set missions in big cities. They’re the most precise and detail-oriented.”
A few soldiers bump into my shoulder as they pass us and shoot glares at me.That’s probably not the last time that will happen.Cameron’s brows are pulled together, and he looks like he’s going to say something, but he only firms his lips before looking away.
Nolan doesn’t acknowledge the rude soldiers either and continues: “Malum is the squad that goes where no one else can or will go. Quite literally the last resort. Then you have Fury, the squad that we send to remote, highly dangerous places. Their missions are at the top of the boards in the Dark Forces. The success rate is one hundred percent and the death rate of the squad is 30 percent. The squad we send on suicide missions.”
My eyes shoot up to Nolan’s. He gives me a wry smirk.
“Let me guess,” I say in a vexed tone. “That’s my assigned squad.”
The way Nolan’s gaze lights up is sickening. “That’s correct, Maves. Most of the deaths aren’t even Mori’s.” He laughs at my stiffened expression. Cameron lets out a deeply irritated sigh.
Thirty percent death rate?I chew on my lower lip. Those odds aren’t good considering I have to worry about Cameron too, who’s already promised to kill me later. I can’t determine if he actually wants to spare me or if he just enjoys dragging things out for his victims.
Nolan leads us to the end of a long hallway where an emergency stairwell is located. We descend several stories, at the bottom of which a black metal door awaits. My legs are basically jelly from the ten flights of stairs.
I wasn’t aware buildings could even be built this deep into the earth. Each level we pass makes the knot in my throat grow.
General Nolan pulls a card from his pocket and scans the back of it. The color on the panel goes from red to green and then a loud locking mechanism shifts. Nolan opens the door and motions for me and Cameron to walk ahead of him.
We step inside the doorway and enter a small middle chamber. About ten feet away is another identical ebony door. Nolan shuts the first one and makes sure it’s locked before heading to the next.
Damn, the security is high. It makes me a little nervous about what’s waiting inside. Cameron has his hands shoved in his sweatpants pockets and doesn’t seem the least bit concerned. He’s already been through boot camp before, so it makes sense that he’s not anxious, but it’s still unsettling that he’s not even a little worried.
As the heavy door opens, I’m instantly overcome by the sheer size of this underground facility. The ceiling is at least forty feet tall with huge steel beams running across for support. Armed soldiers are sprinkled around the room in no particular order, but all of their eyes are locked on the cadets dressed in tactical uniforms in the center of the room. The walls are white, and the arena we’ve just stepped into is lit up like a prison. Since we’re all heinous criminals, it’s fitting that this is like a prison with high security doors and guards standing by.
“Wow. When you said underground forces, you literally meantunderground,” I say in a sarcastic tone. My mood is foul this morning, credit to the psycho I had to share a cell with.
Cameron smirks at my remark, but General Nolan doesn’t find it as funny. He lets out a grunt and crosses his arms as he looks out over the sea of bodies doing warm-up exercises in the center of the arena. “We call this place the Under and if you like that play on words, wait until you see howdarkit gets down here too,” Nolan drawls, winking at me with no smile.Jesus.
I take a deep breath and focus on the cadets dressed in black and dark gray camo. Names are printed on the badges over their chests, but we’re too far away to read them even as we pass by.
“How long will we be spending in boot camp?” I ask. An unsettling feeling of doom sinks into my chest as eyes follow us from across the arena. I really don’t want to attract any unwanted attention from the others, so I keep my head down.
Nolan takes a sharp turn at a door near the center of the arena and leads us down a long hallway, only stopping when we reach a huge room filled with twin-size cots and mattresses.
“You’re arriving near the end of the ninety-day course, so you’ll both be heading to the trials in a few weeks at most. I suggest making a few friends if you want to have your odds of surviving higher than 5 percent. Things get a little…ruthlessdown here.” He must find this amusing because a nasty smile curls his lips.
Cameron groans. “I mean, I’ll have to keep her safe if I want to get back to my squad, so I don’t think we need any friends.” He sounds as enthused about this as I feel.
“This one is yours,” the general mumbles, ignoring Mori.
I try to memorize the twin bed Nolan nods to. It’s near the back of the room, close to the bathrooms. Small name plates are at the foot of each one. Nolan snatches the one currently there and shoves it in his pocket before I can read it.
“What about him?” I hike my thumb back into Cameron’s chest, and he lets out an ungrateful grunt.
Nolan’s eyes darken and he grins. “Sharing is caring, Cadet Maves.”
Sharing? A bed? With Mori of all people…I pinch my thigh to keep the curse words streaming through my head from coming out.
There are more important things to focus on.“Gets ruthless how?” I level Nolan an impatient look.
The general starts walking out the way we came, but mutters as I stare at the back of his head, “The underground soldiers don’t have many rules to abide by, so deaths are common, bullying is prevalent, harassment, you name it. You need to be able to hold your owndown here”—he lifts his arm and points to the cement ceiling—“to make itup there. Best of luck to you two.”
I watch him leave, sit on the edge of the bed, and then take a deep breath. Cameron settles on the opposite side of the bed and doesn’t say a word. The gravity of my situation is finally starting to weave its way into me. I shut my eyes.
