Chapter 21 #3
Mace squares his shoulders. ‘We all wanted to become candidates for Central Command one day, right? I mean, we didn’t break our bones in training for nothing.’
That … isn’t surprising. If the PR team worked to make superstars out of Top Team, I imagine this happened with the blessing of Central Command, that they have been grooming these people to replace them – or lead by their side – one day.
Far be it for me to have thoughts like that, though, with my abysmal rankings in the Quarters. I’m one of them and I’m not – I could never aim for the stars as they do.
‘Well, I think we have even more reasons to keep at it,’ Mace says. ‘Do a good job, so that we get picked one day.’
Allen lifts his glasses, rubbing his eyes. ‘I guess I know what you mean. At least, we’ve found out that there’s hope. If we manage to become Commanders one day, we might affect real change.’
‘Like what?’ Julian asks.
‘Like, for instance, the fact that top Warriors don’t have to wait for Command’s approval regarding who they can enter a partnership with, you moron,’ Xandra says. Just think about it. If we had majority in Central Command, we could overturn laws like that.’
‘Pick with whom we want to be?’ Julian says, his features pinching. ‘I’m all in for that.’
‘Or we could overturn the law that says that people with Warrior magic have to train in the Warriors’ Quarter,’ Allen says.
Oh, I think to myself.
Of course. Allen did say, a while ago, that he would have chosen the Engineers’ Quarter. And Xandra… Is it possible that she doesn’t actually want to be forced into a partnership with Mace?
I think about what Allen once said – that Xandra has entirely given up on what she wants – and I wonder if that has something to do with why she’s sometimes so against me. I feel that I’m missing a key piece of the puzzle of her motivation.
She stretches her long legs, crossing them at the ankles. ‘I think it’s worth fighting even harder for things like that,’ Xandra says. ‘I think it could help us stay focused.’
Fight.
‘Alright,’ Julian says. ‘I’m for whatever you just said. But how does it change anything during this mission? I mean, if we want to be Central Command one day, it will be years. And the other Commanders have to pick us. So how does it change what we do now?’
‘We could find other ways to fight back,’ Mace says. ‘Like Allen said, maybe there’s more information we could uncover that could serve us. What’s blatantly obvious is that there must be other blocks of information out there. And that they’re nearly impossible to access without Ellie helping us.’
‘Of course this comes back to Ellie,’ Xandra mutters.
Mace ignores her. ‘You know what I’m about to ask.’
Julian says, ‘I’m all for treasure hunts.’
‘We’d be hunting for information, not treasure,’ Mace says.
‘We have to make sure that our standings aren’t affected, though,’ Xandra adds.
‘It’s not going to be easy.’ Allen opens his ART to a map of the Disputed Lands. The western corner of it, to be precise. ‘I found a clustering of sensors here. But it’s close to the border with the Kingdom of Piken, which is risky.’
‘Why?’ I ask.
‘Because we could be attacked by enemy Warriors,’ Allen says.
‘Ouch.’
‘Aside from that,’ Mace says, ‘in order for our standing not to be affected, we’ll have to work our way there from mission to mission. And that’s assuming that Stella won’t send us somewhere else on purpose.’
‘It sounds like a handful,’ Xandra says on a sigh.
‘When did you ever back out of a challenge?’ Allen and Xandra’s eyes meet, before she looks away.
I’m getting a thread of an emotion I can’t quite place for a moment, before my link to Allen is cut off.
Did he just shield himself from the link between us? I have to ask how he did that. And if it’s another skill I can learn. Though the list is growing and growing by the day, next to the combat training, physical fitness, and training aspects of my power.
I’ll never be done with even half of it while the mission lasts.
And then what? Going back to The Citadel, getting separated from Mace, and being assigned to some Quarter I have no affinity for?
I will never be allowed to stay on the team and continue completing missions in the Disputed Lands after this Test Mission is over, if someone decides to look closer at what Mace and I have been up to.
It’s too depressing. I can’t even begin thinking about it. So I refuse to.
It’s all well and good that they plan to make changes at some point in the future, but what is to say that they’ll even succeed? And it’s going to be years, even if they do.
How does that change anything in my life? It’s the same dead end it’s always been. Defeat right around the corner.
Allen must feel that my emotions are off, because he looks to me, raising an eyebrow. Is everything alright?
I plaster a fake smile on my face. Couldn’t be better.
Mace clears his throat. ‘So, Team Gold, are we in agreement about what we’re doing next?’
If anyone has any objections about getting on with our search, nobody voices them.