She shakes her head sadly. “Because the Fury Squad has been around for too long and it’s time to cycle it out for a new one. They are replacing Fury with a new team: Hades. They’ll end up selecting a handful from the pool in the Under, and the cycle will continue over and over. Always using the idea that ‘your team can be the first to earn an out’ as a motivator.”
My teeth grit together. Rage pushes aside the hurt.
Thishasto end.
I have no words. Only the raw and ruinous emotions that course through my veins. They treat us like test animals. We’re less than rats to them.
Mikah seems to understand. She pulls me in for a quick hug. As we part she places the phone in the center of my palm, clasping her other hand beneath it to hold my hand steady. “Take this. It’s untraceable. You can see every Dark Forces squad member with a tracker on here. There are a few select soldiers that don’t have them, but you see this?” She points at the one purple flashing dot on the screen. I nod. “That’s mine. Purple for the hackers, red for soldiers, and blue are for the sleeper agents.”
I still. “Sleeper agents?”
“Yes, they are officers who’ve been placed in society and are living normally. They live their lives and drop everything on a dot if need be. They are lone soldiers, most serving as cops or bodyguards so they can keep weapons on them at all times.”
I zoom out on the map and feel my heart race faster when I see how many sleepers there are spread out across Europe alone. That’s where they’re sending soldiers who have talent like mine and work best in solitude. It begs the question, Would I have been assigned to a sleeper role if not for Cameron and my father? Then again, I never would’ve become an executioner in the first place. I’d be eating croissants and making art in my gallery.
Mikah shuts it off and slides it into my pocket. “If you seemy dot go out tomorrow on my way to Coronado, it means they terminated me. If that happens you have to send a message to Jayce. He’s my direct contact and you need to inform him immediately. Got it?”
My hands are trembling so I tighten them into fists. “Jayce… What will he do? Mikah, if you’re already worried, then why don’t you leave tonight? We can help?—”
She cuts me off sharply. “No. I have to go. If I try anything, then you guys will be deemed corrupted and they’ll suspect the squad has been compromised with information I shouldn’t have access to. Nolan will send Riøt right away and you won’t even have a chance to escape. I have to do this. Just let Jayce know and prepare to try to escape the world’s most elite forces. Fury Squad is crazy enough, you guys might pull it off.” She laughs sadly.
I suppress the urge to argue with her, and to ask again what part this Jayce person has to play in this. The fierceness in her gaze tells me that there’s no changing her mind on the matter.
“I’ll be watching,” I settle on muttering. Mikah grabs my hands and squeezes them.
“Thank you.” She smiles and blinks away tears before clearing her throat and shutting off the shower. “Now then, your hair.”
I try to enjoy what little time I’ve spent getting to know Mikah. She braids a crown that wraps around the center of my head and does the same on the other side, tucking the ends into the braid so it looks like it doesn’t have a tail.
“It looks beautiful.” I’m surprised she was able to make me look somewhat like me again. I was sad to lose the braids, but it was a small price to pay. I straighten as I stare at my reflection. She really made it look like I’m wearing a crown.
“You are our lethal dose of pink morphine. Take them all out, okay? Promise, for all of us.” She presses her hands down on my shoulders and gives me a firm nod in the mirror. Hope and trustbrim in her stare. There’s no fear in her eyes anymore, and I suppose that alone should give me solace.
But I think of her as I stare at the ceiling in bed, and long into the night.
I think of her as she boards the transport plane the next morning. I wave back, forcing a smile that doesn’t show my fear for what might happen.
I watch as the purple dot gets as far as the tip where Alaska nearly meets Russia.
And then I watch that light go out.
Cameron holds me, wrapped up in bed beneath the sheets, and whispers to me soothingly as I shed tears for her.
I force myself to pull the phone back up and go to the contact listed as Jayce and message him just as I promised I would.
Me: Mikah’s light has gone out.
28
EMERY
Mikah’s phoneis heavy in my breast pocket for the two days following her death. Jayce never responded to the message, but there was an icon that indicated that he’d read it. Not knowing what any of it means makes me unsettled.
“Fuck, you look really tired, Emery,” Gage says as he slows to keep pace with Cam and me as our squad jogs around the perimeter of the hangar’s fenced area. It’s about a mile around the entire lot, so Erik has us do four laps. Keeping in peak physical fitness is essential, especially if I want to be ready for whatever plans Erik’s already made to overthrow my father.
“Thanks, asshole.” I shoot him a sarcastic smile. Gage laughs and gets a glare from Cameron too.
“Fuck off.” Cam shoves his shoulder and Gage speeds up to run alongside Damian. Wraith and Thomas are farther ahead, talking casually. “You all right?” Cameron glances down at me. My cheeks warm at his close attention.
