It seems more appropriate to be appalled than indifferent, furthering my suspicion of this officer. Calmness and intelligence linger in his movements. Like he’s done this a million times before.
He uses the tip of his pen to open my file off to the side, a manila folder with only a few pages inside and a surplus of photos of my victims. “Emery Cecilia Mavestelli. That’s your formal name, correct?” His eyes dart up at me only long enough to watch me nod. There is a slight lift of his brow before he moves along with his spiel. “We’re going to shorten that last name to Maves, as most of your fake IDs have listed. Just in case there are problems with the other cadets, being who you are and all.”
I let out a small breath.
Maves is safe. After the public fiasco of my crimes, if anyone knows my last name is Mavestelli, I’m dead. There’s no telling how many hit men are looking for me.
This guy makes me nervous. I look at the soldiers and try to get a sense of the situation, but they don’t so much as blink in my direction. I twist strands of my pastel pink hair anxiously between my fingers. My parents always hated that I dyed it this color, but it’s my favorite and it complements the olive hue of my skin. Not to mention that it’s the least they could let me do for being their little executioner.
“Well, today’s your lucky day, Emery.” He shuts the folder and weaves his fingers together as he presses his lips to them, hiding his maniacal smile. “You’re being pulled from the civilian world and placed into the Dark Forces. It’s a military branch that you have never heard of and never will because it doesn’t exist.”
My eyes widen.A secret branch?At least they aren’t connected to one of the families my father screwed over. A smallrush of relief settles my nerves momentarily, because anything would be better than a rival family getting a hold of me.
“It’s an underground operation. One of the world’s best-kept secrets. Essentially, you’re getting a ticket out of a death sentence. I’ll be your transport guide to the Alaskan base, and you will address me as General Nolan.”
My brows knit together, and a frown spreads across my lips.A general is escorting me? Why not just send some low-end corporal or something?
“Wait,what?” I pinch my thigh to make sure I’m fully sane at the moment. He’s making it sound like I’m being placed into the armed forces, a nonexistent branch at that. Why me? I’m not being put to death like the prison guards were taunting me about?
Nolan looks up at me again and those hard eyes remain impassive. “Emery, you’ll need to be much sharper than this if you expect to survive through the Under Trials.”
I slam my cuffed hands on the table. The general’s cup of coffee spills, and the four soldiers standing guard point their rifles at me in the next breath.
“What trials? WhatDark Forces?You aren’t making any sense. This is why you kidnapped me from my cell? Take me back. I’m not interested in joining any more circuses,” I retort.
Nolan raises his hand passively to his side for the soldiers to lower their weapons. “It’s not a choice. Starting today, any life you had before is over. As far as society knows, you are deceased. Hung yourself in your cell in the late hours of the evening and were carted away under the supervision of the warden. I signed your death certificate this morning myself, so you better shape up if you want to survive in the Dark Forces, Cadet Maves. You can think of the Under Trials as a sort of boot camp, a deadly boot camp. I’m not sure you’ll even make it to the first trial given what you need to go through first.”
Okay. He’s serious. My heart rate increases.
I take in the gravity of my situation. Process what I can, then take a deep, centering breath. I don’t know exactly what all of this entails, but it sounds like I get tonotrot in a jail cell for the rest of my life. I want to laugh; just when I had finally accepted my fate, of course something like this would happen.
My eyes open slowly, and I stare at Nolan. “Will I have to kill people?” It’s odd saying those words out loud, but surely he knows as well as I do that all I’ve ever known is how to terminate targets. The Mavestelli bloodline is cursed—wicked.
Whoever the Dark Forces are, they’ve done their homework on me.
Nolan’s smile is sinister. “Of course, and if you perform how I expect you will in boot camp, you will be placed on a preassigned squad. Well, there is one little stop before you enter the Under, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” There’s something in the way his eyes glimmer as he says that last part that puts me on edge.
He’s trying to scare me, waiting for a reaction. I’ve been training to kill since I could read, but I’ve also been trained to keep my emotions locked down.
My family wasn’t normal or warm by any standards. The Mavestelli name is presented as an old money, high-profile family to the public, when in reality we are at the head of the illegal black-market technology and information dealings typically known as the “underworld.” It’s disturbing how much weight a few pieces of paper or an unsuspecting product can hold, what secrets they bear.
And it was my job to make sure that the men in suits were properly disposed of if they tried double-crossing us. Of course, I’d rather have been reading one of the old books in my study or picking up the brushes I hadn’t used in years to paint the dark,somber thoughts in my mind, but whatever I wanted to do in my life always came second to being the executioner.
Gregory Mavestelli, my father, had me prepare not only to exterminate his targets quietly with silenced guns and knives, but also to operate boats, airplanes, and helicopters. I think he was planning for me to become his getaway driver or pilot if shit hit the fan. Well, that could have been the plan if he hadn’t handed me over to the feds for a plea deal after an informant notified him of their sting operation.
What was I expecting? For Greg to take the fall while his family lives a nice peaceful life? The Mavestellis have never known peace.
And he’ll die to make it stay that way.
Under the bus I went as a scapegoat.
As expected, I was the only one the authorities really wanted. They only needed one person to satisfy the public demand for justice. They don’t care to bring down the entire operation. The people with literal blood on their hands are the satisfying catch.
I level my gaze on the general sitting across from me. “So what exactly is the point of being on this squad and doing the government’s dirty work? What’s in it for me? I could just refuse and have you kill me right now. It would save all of us a lot of trouble, don’t you think?” I say with bored eyes, glancing at one of the guard’s rifles and thinking how swift it could be.
Nolan narrows his eyes thoughtfully before he pulls a note from his pocket and flicks it at me.
I unfold the paper and see the wordrebirthtyped in small-point font in the center. There’s also a barcode at the bottom.
