Lee’s eyes narrowed as he glanced past their sloppy forms and showy poses, re-focusing his attention on an empty spot in the mirror as he reached for another set of dumbbells.
Zane, on the other hand, seemed to be done with his workout. He made a show of rolling his shoulders and his neck, before dragging his eyes down over a couple of the cadets, staking his claim, the clouded ambivalence having been replaced entirely with another face.
“Have a good night,” Zane called behind him as he scooped up his water, skirting back around to pick up a date.
Lee took his time after his set, once everyone had left, taking advantage of having the gym all to himself as he wound down. He let the fans overhead blow down on his face while he guzzled back water.
Welcome to the AMG, indeed.
Lee opened his placement application again that night when he got back to his room. Not to prove a point; he didn’t owe anything to Zane, or the Commander, or anyone for that matter.
But for him. And for the one he voluntarily pledged himself to with every breath he took.
He got as far as filling out his basic personal information before he found himself sidetracked once again.
Ranking:Second to my best friend
Station Preference:Anywhere Kat went…
Lee ran his hand through his hair. He was off to a great start.
He’d visualized this moment in time on so many occasions over the past seven years that he’d lost count. He stood on the threshold, right on the cusp of achieving what he’d always wanted.
So why was it so difficult to picture that path now? Why was it so hard to imagine serving the very individuals to whom he’d long-since sworn allegiance?
But Lee knew the answers. They weren’t nameless individuals anymore. Now they had faces and agendas and their own pictures drawn up for who and what he was supposed to be. Commander Blanche had had their names down for years. As of two days ago, she eagerly awaited their applications. All they had left to do was hit send, and pieces of that dream would start moving into place. That dream would become a reality.
It was like he’d been watching his future approach from the bay window of a skimmer. He was all suited up and ready to deploy, only to find that the entire planet-scape ahead of him had shifted. Not physically—the terrain still matched the coordinates—but something at its heart had changed. Something inhisheart had changed.
He wasn’t sure where his agenda now aligned. Maybe his obsession with the security clearances actually had nothing to do with what awaited him there, but with distracting himself from his graduation and making a decision on his future and what came next.
Having met the General, Lee would happily take anything that didn’t involve having to work too closely with those cold, dark eyes, that twisted scar that curled around his face. No, he and Kat’s plans revolved around the two of them and their adventures, only occasionally reporting in from the far reaches of their universe.
Providing that option still existed for them to explore when they got there…
Let’s terminate this operation.
Not for the first time, nor what he was guessing would be the last, Lee closed out his placement application, drawing up a fresh hologram. It would have to do with Segura, right? Whatever game everyone was playing. That was the only logical connection the four of them had with any of the players that would warrant them keeping their clearances. Except its people were long gone and the General had destroyed their ship…
Lee banged his head back against the wall. He wished Kat were free right now to help him talk through this.
He tried to think back on what had been decided in that post-raid debriefing all those months ago. Lee’s head had been a little fuzzy at the time… They’d had access to the mainframe. General Narron had made it pretty clear that he deemed the mission botched and that the squadron had ruined his plans and doomed them all. They were nothing in his eyes.
Commander Blanche had listened to their side, ultimately dismissing them.She’dmade it clear afterward that they weren’t held accountable for what had happened on their raid. It was only after their mission reports had resurfaced that they’d learned General Narron had taken responsibility for the mission with his recourse…
“But why them, why Segura?” Lee breathed.
During their debriefing, General Narron had provided some very specific insights with his counterclaims. Like he’d already known what they might say…
It was common knowledge that the General wanted nothing to do with harnessing the dark rays or its experimentation.
But it had never been disclosed how he’d known to show up outside those shields with attack ships and firepower blazing. How he’d known exactly what he’d find out there with Segura.
Lee blew out a breath as a loose thread unwound, trailing back into the far corner of his mind. This wasn’t the first time he had heard of operations of this nature taking place. A mention behind closed doors. An archive, mostly forgotten. A history, carefully covered up, like the aftermath of their raid…
They’d looked it up in the past—but never in the context of their Commanding General.
Sitting up again, Lee navigated his holoblock beyond the pipeline, the latest AMG news glaring up at him with each article. He’d seen all of the General’s recent appointments and agreements coming through his feed. They were getting him nowhere.
