Chapter 27 Emery
EMERY
Mikah is fidgety all evening. It strikes me as odd because she’s the only one technically going back to the home base.
Cameron watches me from across the room as I sit beside her on the sofa in the common room.
Our eyes meet and a playful grin spreads over his lips.
My cheeks burn with what we did in the forest. Twice.
Before my heart can race again at the thoughts, I refocus onto Mikah. I figured it would be helpful to gain any information that I could from her before she leaves in the morning.
“Oh.” She startles. “Hi, Emery.”
I pull my legs up and wrap my arms around them. “Hey, Mikah. Is everything all right? You’ve seemed a bit jumpy all day,” I say with a hushed tone so no one will overhear us.
She smiles vaguely and shakes her head. “I’m fine, just preparing for the trip back to base tomorrow.” Her voice breaks at the end. Her eyes are focused on the ground, and her lips are chapped.
Well, that’s not convincing.
I scoot a bit closer.
“You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?” I practically plead with her. If she knew we were going to all die, she’d tell us, right? Mikah’s eyes dart over to where Erik is speaking with Thomas and Gage.
She ensures that he’s fully engrossed with his conversation before she looks back at me.
Her throat bobs a few times as she considers what to say.
“I found some disturbing messages on Lieutenant Belerik’s receiver.
” I almost forgot his real last name is Belerik and not Erik so it takes a moment to click in my head.
“What were they?” I whisper, trying to seem inconspicuous by looking down at my nails and trying to buff out some scratches with my finger.
“They were written in a series of coded phrases. That’s what initially caught my attention, but as I read into it more, I became…
concerned.” She feigns a yawn as Erik looks over, seeming to think we’re having an innocent conversation and setting his attention back to Thomas as he spills on about something.
“I don’t think I’m landing in Coronado tomorrow, Emery,” she says with a twisted expression that I can only decipher as fear.
My stomach drops. “Why do you think that? If anyone should be safe, it’s you.” Her eyes flash up at me with confusion, so I explain, “I have reason to believe that the entire Fury Squad will be terminated after we complete the next phase of this mission.”
She studies my gaze before standing and giggling, grabbing my hand and saying, “Okay, fine. Let’s find you a new hairstyle. Thanks for trusting me, Emery.” I immediately catch on and throw an award-winning smile and nod.
“Thanks, Mikah.” I pretend like we’re having a grand time. The men buy it with the exception of Cameron. His gaze follows us across the room. Erik doesn’t bat an eye.
The second we get to the bathroom, Mikah closes the door and pulls out an old flip phone.
My eyes widen. I didn’t think she was allowed to have one.
So either she probably stole it from an officer at some point or has been keeping one secretly.
I guess there’s a chance that the IT department gets to have things the soldiers don’t, but a burner phone doesn’t seem like it fits the bill. Who would’ve given her that?
She speaks quickly in a hushed tone. Her entire demeanor seems to have shifted, and it makes me uneasy.
“Remember when you asked me about the ‘cards’ on our first mission? I didn’t say anything because I couldn’t.
I still technically can’t, but if this all unfolds the way I’m predicting it will, then there really isn’t much to lose anymore.
” Mikah walks to the shower and turns it on.
We probably have about ten minutes before someone comes to check on us.
“No one has earned their cards because it’s a farce.
A lie. Something they tell the soldiers to keep you motivated because you truly believe that there will be a way out someday.
That you were saved from death row and can be fixed if you serve the Dark Forces.
Well, it isn’t true. The truth is that no one will ever get out.
You either prove your loyalty and rise to become an officer or”—Mikah swallows and her face pales—“they tell you you’ve earned your cards and execute you shortly after. ”
I stumble backward and brace myself against the sink. I fucking knew it. Yet it still feels like a kick to the gut.
“What do they tell the other squads after we don’t come back? Why do so many of the soldiers believe it to be true?” I ask hopelessly.
Mikah takes a staggered breath. “They tell the others that the entire squad died while on a mission. I saw the order go through on Captain Bridger’s internal file. He’s already set everything into motion. He’s already having the Fury Squad’s death report created.”
My throat feels dry and my eyes burn. “Why?” is all I can muster.
She shakes her head sadly. “Because the Fury Squad has been around for too long and it’s time to cycle it out for a new one.
They are replacing Fury with a new team: Hades.
They’ll end up selecting a handful from the pool in the Under, and the cycle will continue over and over.
Always using the idea that ‘your team can be the first to earn an out’ as a motivator. ”
My teeth grit together. Rage pushes aside the hurt.
This has to end.
I have no words. Only the raw and ruinous emotions that course through my veins. They treat us like test animals. We’re less than rats to them.
Mikah seems to understand. She pulls me in for a quick hug.
As we part she places the phone in the center of my palm, clasping her other hand beneath it to hold my hand steady.
“Take this. It’s untraceable. You can see every Dark Forces squad member with a tracker on here.
There are a few select soldiers that don’t have them, but you see this?
” She points at the one purple flashing dot on the screen.
I nod. “That’s mine. Purple for the hackers, red for soldiers, and blue are for the sleeper agents. ”
I still. “Sleeper agents?”
“Yes, they are officers who’ve been placed in society and are living normally. They live their lives and drop everything on a dot if need be. They are lone soldiers, most serving as cops or bodyguards so they can keep weapons on them at all times.”
I zoom out on the map and feel my heart race faster when I see how many sleepers there are spread out across Europe alone.
That’s where they’re sending soldiers who have talent like mine and work best in solitude.
It begs the question, Would I have been assigned to a sleeper role if not for Cameron and my father?
Then again, I never would’ve become an executioner in the first place.
I’d be eating croissants and making art in my gallery.
Mikah shuts it off and slides it into my pocket. “If you see my dot go out tomorrow on my way to Coronado, it means they terminated me. If that happens you have to send a message to Jayce. He’s my direct contact and you need to inform him immediately. Got it?”
My hands are trembling so I tighten them into fists. “Jayce… What will he do? Mikah, if you’re already worried, then why don’t you leave tonight? We can help—”
She cuts me off sharply. “No. I have to go. If I try anything, then you guys will be deemed corrupted and they’ll suspect the squad has been compromised with information I shouldn’t have access to.
Nolan will send Ri?t right away and you won’t even have a chance to escape.
I have to do this. Just let Jayce know and prepare to try to escape the world’s most elite forces.
Fury Squad is crazy enough, you guys might pull it off. ” She laughs sadly.
I suppress the urge to argue with her, and to ask again what part this Jayce person has to play in this. The fierceness in her gaze tells me that there’s no changing her mind on the matter.
“I’ll be watching,” I settle on muttering. Mikah grabs my hands and squeezes them.
“Thank you.” She smiles and blinks away tears before clearing her throat and shutting off the shower. “Now then, your hair.”
I try to enjoy what little time I’ve spent getting to know Mikah. She braids a crown that wraps around the center of my head and does the same on the other side, tucking the ends into the braid so it looks like it doesn’t have a tail.
“It looks beautiful.” I’m surprised she was able to make me look somewhat like me again. I was sad to lose the braids, but it was a small price to pay. I straighten as I stare at my reflection. She really made it look like I’m wearing a crown.
“You are our lethal dose of pink morphine. Take them all out, okay? Promise, for all of us.” She presses her hands down on my shoulders and gives me a firm nod in the mirror. Hope and trust brim in her stare. There’s no fear in her eyes anymore, and I suppose that alone should give me solace.
But I think of her as I stare at the ceiling in bed, and long into the night.
I think of her as she boards the transport plane the next morning. I wave back, forcing a smile that doesn’t show my fear for what might happen.
I watch as the purple dot gets as far as the tip where Alaska nearly meets Russia.
And then I watch that light go out.
Cameron holds me, wrapped up in bed beneath the sheets, and whispers to me soothingly as I shed tears for her.
I force myself to pull the phone back up and go to the contact listed as Jayce and message him just as I promised I would.
Me: Mikah’s light has gone out.