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Isaac adjusts his glasses, shaking his head. “She can hack into systems better than anyone in Section A,” he complains. “The girl is gorgeous, so it was a foregone conclusion that’s where she’d end up from the second she walked in. Why did you have me test her? Why waste my time?”

Isaac does his job well, and rarely connects to anyone. This isn’t good.

“I was working under false assumptions and bad information,” I confess to him. “I let it color my perception of her, but I did do everything I could to give her a fair shot.”

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t place people. There’s a panel in the facility that does this. I felt that it wasn’t right for me to have a hand in the sorting of sections. This is something that I’m very much regretting now.

We purposely call each program a section so that no one really knows what people do. It’s important to the morale of the facility for the inmates, because while they talk to each other, they don’t discuss their jobs as much.

People may not be very happy if they knew their friends were experimenting with poisons right now, or were placed into a program to teach them how to make men and women desire them enough to divulge their secrets.

Section B is also told to keep the content they learn secret, though they are encouraged to practice what they learn with the other inmates in the facility. This is why we give birth control implants to every woman in the facility, regardless of what program they’re in.

Sections A and C talk about how they may be the future hackers and intelligence officers of the Queen, but no one talks much about the future of those who serve her on their knees or backs.

When the people of Section B disappear for whatever reason, we explain it away by saying there was an accident. It’s a reform camp, so no one looks too closely. I find myself oddly wanting to protect Silla as much as I can.

And I never get too close to those in Section B because of their transiency.

“Have you seen her?” Isaac asks, his eyes sad as he looks at me. “Silla has so much fucking potential. While she’s beautiful, she’s also brilliant. I think there’s a lot of things she keeps to herself, and she kept pissing me off because she would give me just a small nugget of information without an explanation behind it.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” I murmur. “The girl makes me insane, actually. But I also fucked up, and I don’t know how to make it up to her. Can you pull up her medical files?”

His eyes narrow due to how quickly I’m changing subjects. “Why is this girl getting under your skin? You treat everyone the same way here, and I’ve known you a long time, Grayson,” Isaac reminds me.

Blowing out a breath, I nod. Isaac and I are friends, something few people know. We butt heads behind closed doors often, and he’s one of the only people who calls me by my first name. To everyone else, I’m Warden Ayers.

“I’m finally starting to figure out why she annoys the fuck out of me,” I admit. “There’s this air of vulnerability and innocence about her that I thought was an act. Turns out, I’m a complete asshole. Can you pull up her files, or not, Isaac?”

I’m annoyed because I know he’s going to pick at me until I say more than I’m willing to.

Pursing his lips, he turns to his computer. “The medical files are placed behind another firewall so that even the hackers can’t get through. But, I’m not just anyone. Why do you want this? Can’t you just ask her?”

“No,” I grunt, leaning back against the chair. “I just got into a big argument with her, and she ran away from me.”

“You didn’t chase her?” he asks with a smirk. Dammit, why did I have to get drunk with him one night and end up spilling my secrets. Fuck.

“I didn’t trust myself,” I admit. As his eyes darken, I shake my head. “It’s not like that, I would never hurt her, and she was already crying and angry with me.”

Isaac taps angrily at his computer as he works. “Silla is infuriating because she holds her secrets so closely, but something tells me she needs to,” he murmurs as he works.

“Her secrets are big, and it’s taking everything in my power not to pull her out of her class right now. They’re already working with poisons tonight,” I tell him. “She skipped lunch to study, and because my eyes were already scanning the crowds for her, I noticed.”

“You always complain when I don’t eat too, but you’re not going to spank me for it,” he teases me, causing me to snort.

While I do nag him about eating, he’s not usually this much of a brat to me either. “Clearly, I may need to reevaluate this,” I growl, causing him to smirk.

Isaac and I have never gone farther than the friendzone, but it’s more because I never thought he was ready. Usually, I’m really good at reading boundaries and cues, but I epically fucked all of that up with a certain curly haired vixen.

“Alright, what do you want from her file? I’m in,” he says, scanning the medical document.

“Do you see anything that stands out to you?” I ask, wondering if Silla told Patricia that she was a virgin. If she felt comfortable with her, she may have, but did the nurse write this in her medical file?

“Can I buy a clue?” Isaac snarks, frowning at something. “Silla is allergic to penicillin and strawberries. How often does the dining hall serve something with strawberries?”

“After today, Dining Hall Four will no longer serve them,” I tell him, uncaring of how that might impact the inmates who go there. “Please send a note to the kitchens, as well as the distributor who orders produce.”

Nodding, Isaac does as I ask. “The last thing I want is for her to have an allergic reaction. Do you think this is a bit heavy handed?”