Everything would change…
Chapter Two
Carter
Getting dragged into a meeting the moment we got back to base wasn’t a good sign. Sure, they’d contacted us after dealing with the corrupted and the whole mess left behind, but this was therealhigher-ups, the assholes actually in charge.
These sorts of people didn’t go to the problems, they had the problems brought to them.
A cup of coffee sat on the conference table in front of the spot obviously meant for me, with some fucker in a suit sitting beside the empty place. They hadn’t dragged me into a huge room, making this whole plan was nothing more than an attempt to make me feel comfortable, like we were best buddies.
Too late to play that game.
I knew better than most exactly what the Guild was, what they did, and just how quickly they’d throw me the fuck out if they wanted. If I didn’t do their bidding, if I stepped out of line, they’d toss me to the wolves without a second thought.
Still, no reason to tip my hand and let them in on exactly how much I knew.
“Carter,” the man said, smiling as though happy to meet me. “Sorry to call this meeting so soon after your return.”
And there was another sign that this man wanted something. Normally, leaving a base like this without permission—and stealing a car—would warrant some yelling, if not an attempt at punishment. Not that the Guild could do that much to a squadlike ours. What were they going to threaten us with? Four S-Rank espers could make a decent living all on our own with private contracts, and we could be a far larger thorn in their sides than we’d been so far. So the fact that they were glossing over that whole ordeal and treating it like a sanctioned trip meant they wanted something.
“Not a problem.” I used my best smile in return, playing my part, like the stupid patsy they could manipulate.
A few in the Guild knew the truth about me, what I was really like, but I doubted this asshole was one. If he were, he wouldn’t be trying to play me right now.
“My name is Admiral Postin,” the man said, telling me something important.
He wasn’t Guild. He wasn’t an esper. No, he was military, setting him outside of the Guild and, as an admiral, likely above it.
I rarely took things as good or bad. They were always far more complicated than that, so I judged them all as opportunities. What could I do with this? How did it change the game? How could I use it for my own benefit? That was all that mattered.
In this case, it meant the military was getting involved in Guild business. A new player meant new options, new paths forward, though it was far too early to determine where that might lead.
I didn’t speak up, giving him the chance to speak first. He took the bait. “I read over what happened at the hotel. That had to have been scary.”
Scary?For people like us, it was just another day. Sure, I didn’t usually almost get killed, but still, danger was hardly new. Whether it was corrupted or monsters or other espers, death was never that far away.
“All part of the job,” I said instead of giving in at all. “Did they figure out who he was?” While they’d cleaned up the mess on the spot, no one had given us any real information.
The memory of the corrupted had stuck with me, like a glimpse into the future that I was headed toward—probably faster than any of the others in our squad.
“He was an S-Rank esper who had hidden his status. He worked some manual labor jobs but stayed out of the sights of anyone who could have noticed him. Not many espers, especially of that rank, can stay underground so long, but he’s a good example of why we try not to let it happen. Isolation isn’t good for espers.”
He thought isolation was the problem? The idea had me struggling not to laugh in his face. Sure, that guy was angry because he couldn’t live a normal life, and yeah, he was probably isolated, but the reason was that if he’d outed himself, he’d have ended up in the Guild’s crosshairs. Espers had two options when they presented—hand their lives over to the Guild or hide what they were.
The Guild blaming the esper was like a hunter saying that a deer’s biggest problem was the stress from hiding while entirely ignoring that the hunterforcedthem to hide. They focused on the reaction and not the thing caused the problem in the first place—or their responsibility for it.
Of course, when a deer went, they only took themselves.
When an esper went, they could take a hell of a lot of others with them.
“Don’t worry. We’re looking into who could have helped him hide. We take this sort of thing very seriously.” Postin offered a reassuring smile, as though I were worried about that in the future.
I didn’t give a fuck if an esper stayed off the Guild’s radar. Let them carve out whatever little piece of hell they wanted—the same end was coming for us all no matter what.
“Now, about your guide.”
Andthathad me sitting up a little taller in my seat, unable to hide the reaction. Sure, I’d known this would be about Yun. The Guild—and the military—already knew all about Reject Squad. They’d have no good reason to call me into this little meeting just to talk about history that didn’t matter. Yun, though?
