Chapter One #4
A row of sinks ran beneath one long mirror, the edges of which had started to cloud with age. Metal lockers covered the opposite wall. A bench sat in the center of the room with enough scratches in it to suggest several generations of bored soldiers had carved things into the wood.
The showers occupied the back wall, divided into narrow stalls with thin white curtains instead of doors. Under the overhead lights, every single one of them looked almost translucent. Raven had stopped in the doorway with Jackal behind him as I put my hands up in surrender.
“Absolutely not.”
Raven’s mouth twitched. “I knew you were going to say that.”
“Six men use this?”
Jackal leaned around him. “Well, not simultaneously.”
I waited while he considered his answer.
“Usually.”
“Jackal.”
“I’m setting expectations.”
I walked farther inside and inspected the nearest shower. The concrete floor sloped toward drains that I very deliberately did not look at for too long. There was nowhere obvious to put clean clothes, and the curtain stopped several inches above the floor.
“You’ve all been living like this?”
Raven looked around as though seeing it for the first time. “It works.”
“For you.”
“That’s fair.”
I turned toward the toilets. At least those had actual doors.
“Please tell me there are other bathrooms in this building.”
“No.”
“Downstairs?”
Raven shook his head.
“Anywhere else in this entire compound?”
Jackal answered this time. “There may be one in the garage if you’re willing to lower your standards dramatically.”
“I don’t think that’s possible anymore.”
He smiled.
I pointed toward the showers. “And everyone just walks in?”
“Usually,” Raven said.
Jackal leaned against one of the sinks. “You should know Bear is very comfortable with towels.”
The horror must have been obvious. “W-Why would I need to know that?”
“Because eventually you’re going to be brushing your teeth and he’s going to walk out of a shower wearing one.”
Raven sighed. “You’re making this worse.”
“I’m preparing her. If anything, I’m the nudist, but I know to adjust myself with a woman around.”
I looked at Raven with the same horror, pointing my thumb at Jackal. “Is he lying?”
Raven’s hesitation answered for him.
“Oh my God.”
Jackal crossed his arms. “You’ll get used to it.”
“I absolutely will not.”
Footsteps approached from the hallway and I saw Wolf appear at the far end.
He had pushed his sleeves up at some point since I left the operations floor, exposing more of his forearms. Black-and-gray ink covered much of one of them, though from this distance I could only make out the curved body of something scaled disappearing beneath the fabric at his elbow.
He stopped when he saw the three of us clustered around the bathroom.
“What?” he said plainly.
“This.” I waved my arm around dramatically at the situation inside.
Wolf looked past me.
“It’s a bathroom.”
“Not a bathroom. It’s the only bathroom.”
Jackal looked down to hide a smile as I stepped aside so Wolf had a full view of the showers he had presumably been using for months.
“There are six men living here.”
“Yes.”
“One bathroom.”
“Yes.”
“With shower curtains.”
Wolf waited.
I realized he genuinely didn’t understand what part of this required discussion.
I folded my arms. “I want a lock.”
“No.”
That came so quickly I almost laughed.
“Why?”
“Shared room.”
“People can wait ten minutes.”
“No.”
It was like arguing with a wall that smoked. He gave me nothing else in response, then turned away and continued back up the hall toward the room I assumed was his.
“Thanks for nothing,” I called after him.
He kept walking.
Jackal leaned closer. “I think we’re making progress.”
“This is progress?”
“With him? Absolutely.”
By the time I went back to my room, I had been in Germany for a few hours and already missed my own bathroom with an intensity usually reserved for people.
I sat on the edge of the narrow bed because there wasn’t really anywhere else to sit.
The suitcase stuck halfway out from underneath it, leaving just enough room for me to catch my ankle on it later.
From the hallway, Jackal and Raven were arguing about the training mat.
Somewhere downstairs, Bear called for whoever had eaten something of his to admit it.
Hawk answered him, and Viper said something too low for me to understand.
Then Wolf told everyone to shut up. The building stayed quiet for perhaps three seconds before Jackal started talking again.
I smiled despite myself.
My notebook was still inside the carry-on and I opened it to the page from the flight.
Look earlier.
Wolf had dismissed me, restricted my access and decided I wasn’t going anywhere near an operation before he’d seen me do much of anything. He had also taken my Romania report but Raven was already checking the rest.
I added another line:
Start with Romania.
I closed the notebook and leaned back against the wall beside the bed. The room was barely large enough for me and my luggage. The bathroom belonged in a prison, and six men had lived together long enough to decide a shower curtain constituted privacy.
Whatever I’d imagined when Vale told me I was joining an international intelligence unit, it hadn’t looked anything like this.