Chapter 11 Emery
EMERY
I blow out a frustrated breath.
“Keep sharp, Morphine!” he jokes as he lowers a box filled with ammo next.
I grunt as the weight is passed to me and march down into the thicket where we’re setting up a temporary camp. Lieutenant Erik has his tent up already and is reviewing the plans with Mikah.
There’s still an air of mystery about her.
She’s sharp and tight-lipped, both traits leading me to be overly suspicious of her.
Maybe if she said two words to literally anyone on the plane ride from Alaska or the five-hour drive across the Great Basin desert, I’d feel different.
But she definitely knows more about what’s on the flash drive than she’s letting on.
Mikah must feel my eyes because she spares a quick glance at me as I approach the other supply crates.
I offer her a curt nod and she returns it.
Her bronze hair is slicked back into a ponytail as tightly as it always is.
She’s no longer wearing her business attire though, now she’s dressed in beige-brown camo clothing.
Not quite tactical gear, but not civilian wear either.
A bulletproof vest is strapped over her chest, but other than that, she’s vulnerable.
I huff. Well, besides us being her designated meat shields.
Kayden and Thomas are getting their tent pitched near a circle of boulders that cover the back side, while Mori is setting ours up adjacently across the camp.
Ugh. I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep tonight with him so close to me.
That’s if I can sleep at all. I have a sinking feeling that has lived in the pit of my stomach since we arrived.
After I set down the ammo crate, I make my way over to him. “Need any help?” I say as I hold down one of the corners of the tarp so it doesn’t move on him while he stakes down the other side.
He spares me a disinterested glance before resuming fixing his corner to the ground. “Why ask if you’re already doing it?” he mutters sarcastically.
I purse my lips, choosing not to respond because he’ll just deflect it with some other kind of comment like he’s been doing all day.
He’s pulled back significantly since last night. The plane ride here was awful. I’m pretty sure everyone could sense that there was something wrong between us because of the awkward looks and silence.
Mori can try to keep his distance, but we’re going to have to sort this out tonight before the mission tomorrow.
Don’t focus on it. There’s a lot more important things going on, I chide myself, recentering my attention to the mission at hand.
Mori makes quick work of finishing the tent. We set our small backpacks of supplies inside and help the others with the beige camouflage netting that blends our camp from an aerial view. Then, a quiet meal as we listen to our lieutenant go over the final plans for tomorrow.
We are to sleep in our tactical gear in case of an invasion. It’s unlikely with our drones keeping tabs on the hideout and sharing intel with Erik, but it’s better to be prepared. At least we’ll know ahead of time if it comes down to it.
Mikah leans against a wooden crate as she pokes at her MRE with a plastic fork.
I decide to chat with her and see what things are like on the IT side of the Dark Forces.
I doubt they had to go through anything remotely close to the Under Trials, but somehow the more I think about it the more likely it actually sounds.
What, do they have to hack faster than the other IT recruits before a timer goes off? I muse.
She gives me a quizzical look as I settle beside her.
“I hear you’re the newest recruit on the Fury Squad,” she mumbles. Her remark is a dry attempt at small talk, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
I lift my shoulder and drop it. “Yeah, too bad I don’t remember much from my time in the trials.”
Mikah raises a brow. “At all?”
“I retained the things I learned physically…but I don’t remember anything about the Dark Forces, the Under, my life before this, or even who I was.
Only some of the gory details of the deaths that took place.
” I stab my cornbread and stare at it, thinking about the girl I saw in the simulation yesterday.
I can’t get her out of my mind. I even dreamed of her lying in the snow, her throat slit and eyes dull.
A heaviness grows in my bloodstream at the thought of not remembering who she is, but vividly recalling her face in death.
“Have you remembered anything since then?” Mikah asks as she sits forward more. I blink and I’m back in the present.
I shake my head. I don’t want anyone to know that I’ve been getting small pieces back yet. With the small snippets I’ve been getting, I’m not sure who I can even trust anymore. The man with the ominous message in my dream made that evident.
She grunts as she mixes her protein powder with water. “That might be a good thing though, don’t you think? I mean, we’re all criminals down here after all.” Her blue eyes watch me carefully as I consider her words.
“The idea of that might sound good, but I’m left with this hole inside me.
I feel this immense nothingness that I know shouldn’t be there.
People I once loved and cared for should be there.
Fear. Hope. Something.” I let my eyes find Mori as he chats with Kayden, Thomas, and Gage.
The four of them have a history and past that made them who they are. I feel incomplete.
Maybe it’s having connections like theirs that I’m missing. Something that feels like home, no matter how grim it may be.
Mikah lets out a snort. “Trust me, I’ve seen your file. You aren’t missing anything good, and have you stopped to think about your current predicament? Look who you’re teamed up with. Mori is a heartless killer. He can’t be trusted…honestly none of them can.” She sounds so sure.
Of course, someone from an analytical background would think of everything based on the odds, but looking at my squad as they laugh together and share stories between one another, I know there is trust there.
“What is it like in the technology sector anyway? I actually didn’t even know there was one in the Dark Forces,” I admit sheepishly.
Her eyes light up with the chance to tell me about her side of the operations.
“It’s more complicated than you could ever comprehend.
Secrets you couldn’t even fathom. We deal with the most vile dark web groups and black market organizations.
Finding them and hacking into their systems to get coordinates and details on their buildings and routes.
Did you think that you meatheads just randomly stumble upon them? ” She grunts cockily.
“Holy shit, that’s actually so fucking badass,” I blurt out. Mikah straightens with pride.
“It is. We’re the backbone, you guys are the weapons.” She offers me a genuine smile and I find myself reflecting one back.
There’s so much more to all this than meets the eye, I guess. I wonder what other teams they have. What other horrid operations they run.
“Would you say what we do could be considered as good?” I mumble, staring hazily at Mori.
He’s living proof that General Nolan’s dream of an unbeatable army is obtainable.
An omen to a dark future. How is it that something as lethal as him can hold so much humanity deep in his bones?
I absentmindedly brush my fingertips over my bottom lip, remembering the taste of his mouth on mine.
Mikah hums in thought. “I think so. I wouldn’t say we’re good, but overall, I think bad guys like us are doing our part in the world. We take care of the really awful things the government doesn’t want a label attached to. So yeah, I think we are good-ish.”
I nod, deep in thought. But what happens to us after? Does anyone actually know?
“Have any Dark Forces soldiers actually gotten out, you know, earn their cards?”
My question gives her pause and her eyes fill with something I’ve yet to see on her. It’s a knowing look. One that says, Shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you. Chills break out across my arms.
That’s what I thought. Why would they let us go? They can’t trust us not to talk.
“No,” she says quieter.
I remember being skeptical of the whole earn your cards out idea.
If anyone knows all the details, it’s going to be Mikah and people like her who have access to that information.
No one could convince me that she hasn’t hacked into the Dark Forces’s database and snooped around.
With talent like that, the world could all but be hers.
Probably the exact reason she’s in the underground like we are. She likely hacked the wrong system and got caught.
Blood drips from my nose and wets my upper lip. I wipe it away thoughtlessly as a lovely, wicked idea springs into my head.
“Any chance you can get access to the lieutenant’s laptop?”
She shoots me a wry grin, excitement flashing across those icy eyes as she leans forward a little. My eyes dash to where she was just leaning against the crate, a black tablet is hidden behind her.
“I already have it.”