Page 25 of Silver Elite

I fear I’m walking into a trap. Despite Declan’s assurances, I ruminate about it all day, wondering how this can bite me in the ass. He said there’d be no cameras. No alarms. But I’m supposed to blindly trust him?

Is this truly a risk I’m willing to take?

I consider that question during evening meal, and by the time I’ve finished eating, I decide that, yes, it’s a risk worth taking. Last night, after Ellis healed me, I resigned myself to my fate. I gave in to defeat. But fate has other plans, it seems.

Based on experience, I know I have some leeway with the security men. Cross let me roam the base before. If they catch me on the cameras, I’m hoping he allows it again.

At quarter to midnight, I slip out of the barracks wearing my black op uniform and boots. If any of my fellows are still awake and notice me leaving, they don’t raise an alarm. In the hall, I’m painfully aware of the blinking red lights in the corners of the ceiling. The cameras are operational, damn it.

“Declan,” I gripe when he links. “The cameras.”

“I promise you it’s safe, Darlington. Go. She won’t wait if you’re late.”

She. Adrienne. Whoever this woman is.

Heart racing, I scurry out the back exit of the training facility. Declan warned me not to use the front doors. I round the side of the building and follow the cold facade as I walk. “Stay close to the walls,” he’d warned.

I feel the weight of the mission pressing down on me as I make my way across the base. Avoiding the sentries is easier than I expect. The ones in the towers all seem to be staring toward the south, and I wonder if the network arranged for a distraction that I’m not seeing.

Declan told me to go to the western vehicle pool, but I suddenly feel disoriented. Panic tugs at my belly as I hug the wall behind one of the guard towers.

I send a telepathic SOS. “I don’t know where the entrance to that vehicle pool is.”

A second later, a sharp pain explodes behind my eyes. He’s projecting something.

“You could’ve warned me,” I mutter.

“Who has time for that? Focus.”

He’s projected a simple map of the base. My destination is clearly marked.

“She’ll be in the tunnel. Walk until you see her.”

I continue walking, my pulse stuttering when I reach the massive chain-link gates. The vehicle pool features both an outdoor lot and a covered structure, and I creep toward the latter’s entrance. Inside, I find rows of utility trucks and armored vehicles, illuminated by the greenish glow of the overhead lights. They sit silent and imposing, their sleek exteriors blending seamlessly with the shadows.

I have to pass a row of tanks to get to the transport tunnel. I stare at their gun barrels. They’re pointed skyward, but I half expect someone to pop up, swing them downward, and begin firing at me.

At a shadowy doorway, my heart starts beating double time. The tunnel greets me with a warm breeze, yet somehow it brings a chill rather than heat to my bones.

He said to walk until I see her. I move cautiously, once again fearing a trap. With each step, the darkness swallows me deeper, the only sound the echo of my own footsteps against the paved ground.

Finally, I see her. A figure cloaked in shadows, beckoning me closer.

I swallow my nerves as I catch a dark blur of motion, and then blink at a sudden brightness.

She’s projected a light onto the wall from the slender comm in her hand. Not the Company-issued one. It’s something I’ve never seen before.

I study the woman who’s summoned me. She’s younger than I expected. Early thirties maybe. She’s wearing all-black: leather pants, ribbed tank under a cropped jacket, and a knit cap covering her head. With her free hand, she slides the hat off, and a cascade of red hair tumbles onto her shoulders.

“Darlington.” It’s a statement, not a question.

Yet I still answer, “Yes.”

“I’m Adrienne.”

I’d never heard her name before last night, but I suspect she’s important. And although I can’t see a single weapon on her person—unless she’s sporting some nasty surprises beneath that jacket—I get the sense she can kill me in a heartbeat.

I remain on guard, not taking that awareness of danger lightly. “The network has been ignoring me for weeks,” I say in accusation.

“Because you’re not important.”

I bristle. “And I suppose Jim wasn’t important, either?”

“You mean Julian?” She scoffs. “That man was nothing but a headache.”

“You knew him.”

“Of course. Julian Ash jeopardized the entire network with his actions—”

“What actions? Saving me?”

“—and then had the nerve to make demands. Set me up in an asset ward, he says. Get me travel passes at my command, he says.” Her mocking voice floats through the tunnel.

“You gave it to him,” I point out.

“It wasn’t my call back then.”

“But you call the shots now?”

“Lucky me. Tasked with deciding what to do with yet another headache courtesy of Julian Ash. The one he left behind for me.”

“I thought I wasn’t important.”

“You weren’t. But clearly, they like you. They flew in a healer for you. A recruit.”

“How did you know that?”

“We have eyes all over this base.”

Wariness creeps up my spine. “Should we be talking out loud?”

“We’ve got jammers up. Nothing’s being recorded, and the cameras are on a loop within a two-mile radius. I’ll link with you if I decide you’re worth my time.”

I try not to let my irritation show. “What can I do to convince you?”

“Make it into Silver Elite.”

That startles me. “Why?”

“Because we have a hole to fill. We just lost one of our best operatives.”

For a moment I’m confused. Then a gasp gets stuck in my throat as it dawns on me, the pieces clicking together.

“Betima.”

Adrienne’s lips curl. “I told them not to send in an empath, but I was outvoted.” She makes a disparaging noise under her breath. “They’re too much of a liability. Extreme emotions can spontaneously trigger their abilities.”

I guess I shouldn’t tell her about my ability to incite, then, seeing as how it only ever happens spontaneously. But I’m not about to blow my chances of getting out of here.

Although from the sound of it, she doesn’t want me to leave.

She wants me to stay.

“If I make it into Elite,” I say slowly, “then what?”

“Then you work for the network. You do what we tell you.”

“And what will you tell me to do?”

“Anything. Everything.”

“I don’t take blind orders.”

“Then you don’t belong in the Uprising.” She starts to turn away.

“Wait.”

She turns back, eyes flashing with irritation. It’s too dark to tell what color they are. “I risked my ass to come here tonight, and I don’t need some twenty-year-old novice questioning our protocol. You don’t have any say here. None at all. Fucking zero. You don’t get to make a single decision. You don’t get to use your brain to do what you think is right. Unless it’s to improvise on an op so your cover isn’t exposed. But the missions, the objectives—those are handed down to you by the adults, and, like a good little girl, you implement them. Your only job is to do whatever the hell you’re asked.”

I stare at her, jaw tightening.

“Do you support the General, Darlington?”

I recoil at the unexpected question. “Of course not.”

“Well, his reign will come to an end—but only so long as operatives like you do as you’re told. Do whatever it takes to save our people.” She pauses, some of the bite leaving her tone. “Ash spoke about you over the years.”

“Really?”

“He said he’d never seen anybody shoot the way you do. Told us to come find you if we ever needed a sniper.”

I blink in surprise. I had no idea. Jim spent so much time trying to keep me away from the network, grumbling that he didn’t want me running missions for them, and yet he was keeping them apprised of my sniper prowess? Emotion tightens my throat. I guess he always knew that one day I would work for them.

If I choose to work for them.

I study Adrienne’s face. She’s not the most beautiful woman, but her features are interesting. She’s certainly not forgettable, and I wonder if that’s why I’ve never seen her before. Unforgettable faces aren’t exactly conducive to undercover work.

“You want me to make it into Silver Elite?”

She nods.

“There’s no guarantee I even can. We won’t find out who gets shortlisted until the last section, and my instructors said scores don’t necessarily contribute to the selection process. And if the scores do matter, then…” I bite my lip. “That might be a problem.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I’m failing the Program.”

She falls silent several moments. I get the feeling she’s talking to somebody else.

“If you’re trying to talk to Tana or one of my contacts, they didn’t know,” I say. I don’t want Tana to get in shit for this. “I didn’t tell her that I was purposely sabotaging.”

Adrienne looks annoyed. “There’s five more weeks left. Turn it around.”

I nod. But I have no idea how I’ll convince Cross that now, out of the wild blue, I’ve developed a sincere interest in excelling.

Her eyes meet mine, and then I feel a tickle in the back of my skull. An invitation to link.

I accept it.

“Declan will be your handler. Orders will come from him.”

Her voice fills my head. I’m startled, because it’s one of those rare instances when her head voice sounds almost identical to her speaking voice.

“But just know he’s not calling the shots. Everything comes from the top and gets filtered down to you. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Have a good night, Darlington.”

She turns and disappears into the tunnel.

I stand motionless for a moment. Then I rub my forehead, wondering what I’ve gotten myself into. I could stay the course, try to fail out. Hope that Cross decides not to send me to the stockade or to face the Tribunal and lets me go back to my ward.

But what is there to go back to?

The ranch is gone. My village is being watched. People like Betima are being executed by an eighteen-year-old prick who’s scared of her. Because that’s what it comes down to. They can spew all the horseshit they want about our blood being toxic and how we’re abominations who shouldn’t exist, but the truth is, they fear us. That’s why they’re trying to get rid of us.

I won’t let that happen.

I won’t watch anyone else I care about get executed.

So. Silver Elite, it is.