Page 26 of Monsters within Men
“There are some ideas in the notes I’ve written for you.”
“Uncle Nathan, this isinsane.”
The general jumped up, crossing the space to cup one side of Noah’s face with his hand.
“I promised your mother I would look after you. This is me doing the very last thing I can do to help. If you won’t take it for me, take it for her.”
Noah’s heart lurched at the mention of his mother. For a moment, the familiar feeling of utter loneliness that haunted his dreams consumed him. He’d lost so many people over the last decade. His parents. Siblings. Friends. Lovers. And now, it seemed he was on the precipice of losing many more. Possibly everyone. Sighing, he pocketed the parcel.
“Good lad. Now, let’s walk over and see this squad of yours. I’ve rather missed Bianco.”
When Noah and his uncle entered the classroom, Vitt was sitting cross-legged on top of the desk at the front, her head tipped back in laughter. At the sight of the unannounced guests, she fell backwards and half-fell off the desk. Everyone else in the room—Zeke, Luo and Frankie—turned to stand and salute General Forrest. He waved their hands down.
“You must be the two new recruits I’ve just heard so much about,” he said, walking over to shake their hands. “It is a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you in advance for your dedication to your duty and your service.”
Noah cringed, lingering behind his uncle.
“We’ve been working them hard, sir,” Vitt said.
“I’m sure you have been, Bianco. Now, do me a favour and look after my nephew here? He could use a bit of fun, I think. When’s your next rest day?”
“Day after tomorrow,” Luo said. “But we rarely havefunon them.” He shot Noah a pointed look.
“I’ll be working through it, with Zeke and Frankie.” Noah had already resigned himself to his fate of losing his day off when he woke up this morning to Zeke’s wound bleeding through his bandage. If he was to prepare them for what was to come, he was going to need every last second.
“Nonsense!” said his uncle, giving him a playful slap on the back. “Bianco, I put you personally in charge of dragging Lieutenant Forrest into the city tomorrow night.”
“On it,” Vitt said, saluting.
“Sweet!” Luo said. “Thanks, sir.”
“Absolutely not.” Seeing Vitt’s disappointed face, he groaned, and finally added, “Maybe right at the end of their basic, in December.”
His uncle’s voice turned deadly serious to say, “We never know how much time we have left. It’s important to grab life by the balls while you still can.”
Frankie and Zeke, both conspicuously quiet since their entrance, gave each other an indecipherable look.
A few minutes later, Noah’s uncle made his excuses to leave, and Noah immediately announced lunch, sensing a less than productive energy in the room. Noah chose a seat next to Zeke, passing him a cheese sandwich mystery bag.
Noah nudged Zeke with his knee. “From tomorrow, I’m going to get Splat to start showing you how all the demolition stuff works. We normally have one expert per squad, but two definitely won’t hurt. I think you’ll be really good at it.”
Zeke tipped his head to one side, a tiny blush on his pale cheeks. “Thanks. I really want to be as useful in some way, considering… well… you know…” Zeke broke off, shoving his cheese sandwich into his mouth. “But anyway, thanks, I’ll try my best.”
“You’ll be blowing stuff up in no time, firestarter.”
Noah bit the inside of his cheek. Why did that line sound incredibly flirtatious, now that it was out of his mouth? In lieu of a better plan, he jumped up and headed over to talk to Vitt, resisting every impulse to look back at Zeke.
That night, the entire compound lined the streets to watch the fireworks, in honour of the lives taken the day before. Noah tried to count them, but lost track after 250 bursts of light streaked through the sky.
ten
Zeke
Timewarpedasthenext few weeks raced past. Early morning runs with the squad, Wolf nipping at his heels. Target practice, drills, VR simulations. Endless mystery bags. Habib, next to him, shouting in his ear. Frankie, pulling him up off of the floor when he was tired. Noah, smiling at him no matter how many times he failed a drill. Vitt at the fire pit, passing him one mug of steaming tea, and then another. Late night informal sessions with Splat, learning about explosives, blast radius calculations, and controlled detonation techniques.
Rinse and repeat.
Zeke was present for every session and complied without comment. However, during evenings spent around the fire, he daydreamed of his life back in London, or of Doctor Harding arriving at the gate, demanding his star student back.
