Page 54 of Monsters within Men
Zeke didn’t look at him as he replied, “What’s there to say?”
“Forrest. Take a seat.”
Captain Murphy sat opposite him on the other side of her expansive table. She’d summoned him to this ‘incident follow up’ meeting within three minutes of his shift ending. Noah followed her instruction, squirming uncomfortably in his seat.
“Ma’am,” he said.
“You’ve had quite the day.” She swung lightly in her chair. “And quite the scare, by the look of it.”
“Fortunately, no personnel were seriously injured, ma’am.”
“Indeed. You weren’t exaggerating the other day when you mentioned Bates was struggling to adapt to his new role.”
That was one way to put it. An array of conflicting emotions tore at his heart. Was Murphy about to pull Zeke out of his squad?
“Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
And how exactly shall I do that, ma’am?
“It was never my intention that Bates and Fleming would be left alone on their first mission. As you can see from the no—”
“Yes, yes. Cameron King has always been a… quirky one. See that you have no more drone malfunctions.”
Noah’s cheeks burned as he dropped his gaze, gritting his teeth. “Is that everything, ma’am?”
“Almost. Heard from your uncle recently?”
This again.
“No, ma’am, not since we spoke about him a few days ago.” He fought to keep the impatience out of his voice. If they were that concerned about General Forrest, wouldn’t they be monitoring Noah’s communications, anyway?
Murphy gave him a long, hard stare. “That will be all.” She flicked her wrist towards the door and dropped her gaze to the table, bringing the holographic display back to life with a wave of her hand.
Noah scurried out of the room.
After collecting Wolf from Alice, Noah headed over to the mess hall. Squad E was stationed at their usual table in the corner. Noah’s heart sank when it became apparent Zeke wasn’t with them, although he couldn’t say he was surprised. As he slipped in beside Frankie, he said, “How are you doing now?”
“Better.” She gave him a tight smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “Do you know where Zeke is? The guys lost him as soon as we split up to shower.”
Splat cut off his conversation with Savannah. “We didn’t ‘lose’ him, he pissed off. I gave him a massive pep talk about not being too hard on himself, but I don’t think he was in a receptive mood.”
“I’m sure he’ll be here in a few minutes,” added Luo.
But he didn’t arrive for dinner in a few minutes. Noah made them wait around for almost an hour until the kitchen staff shooed them out of the hall. On the way out, Frankie tried ringing him, which earned her a look from Habib.
Admitting defeat, Noah followed the rest of Squad E over to the fire pit. Clouds were spitting light drizzle, causing the flames to flicker and waiver as it continued its defiant burn. Despite the weather, a handful of officers from other squads huddled around the fire. Noah’s team fanned out to claim their usual spots. A stranger on the other side of the clearing caught his eye. She sat alone, swigging from a hip-flask. Her Black Ranger uniform attracted many furtive glances. What was a Ranger doing relaxing around Avantis’s unofficial hang-out spot?
“I’ve got a voice message from my relatives in Canada,” Luo abruptly announced, his voice hushed. Everyone’s attention immediately focussed on Luo; direct news about other cities always drew a crowd.
“They finally managed to get back to you?” said Meredith.
Luo slipped his headphones in and shut his eyes. Noah felt a pang of jealousy at the outside contact. There was nobody left to leave him voice messages. Nobody apart from his suspiciously absent uncle.
On a whim, he jumped up and trudged through the long grass to the gated allotment patch. He tapped on his wristband to call Uncle Nathan. It rang for an eternity before being cut off. He considered leaving him a voice note, but settled on typing:
Call me back.
He hit send, turning around to head back to the fire. He didn’t take a single step, however, before banging into something. The something—someone—started hissing in mumbled German. Turning on his wristband’s flashlight to reveal his attacker, he illuminated the pale face of the Black Ranger. Hazy eyes indicated she’d now consumedmanysips of her hip flask.
