Page 44 of Monsters within Men
The smile dropped from her face like a mask falling to the floor at the end of a performance. “None of those teams have vacancies at present. And frankly, as you know, we need to get bodies out there.”
Noah clamped his tongue to the roof of his mouth to resist arguing and dug his fingernails into his wrist, hard. He heard Khyan’s voice in his head telling him to stop, and found his dove tattoo, stroking his wrist in gentle circles.
“I’m sure you’re selling yourself short, Lieutenant Forrest. Your training seemed very thorough every time I’ve happened by.”
The guy can barely shoot a stationary object from twenty feet away, Noah wanted to say.Even the thought of being remotely near a type has him in a panic. He’ll probably choke the moment he sees one, putting us all in danger. Plus, the thought of him being hurt sends my brain into a frenzy… “Yes, ma’am.”
“Very good. Anyway, I wanted to let you know about a special assignment. Likely in three days’ time. Take your new squad members on patrol duty until then. Give them some real war-zone experience. Then, we want you to lead a live capture mission of a specific type implanted with a tracker.”
Noah fought back his shock from showing in his expression. A live capture mission? He’d seen a fair few brought in over the years, but had never led such a mission before.
“You did ask for meatier assignments, Forrest. This is it. Unless you’d rather another squad pick it up?”
Habib would kill him.
“No, ma’am. I was just… honoured to be chosen.”
“Very good. I’ll send out the details this evening.”
Noah stood up and pushed his chair in.
“One more thing.”
He froze.
“Has… has your uncle been in contact recently?”
His blood ran cold with the memory of their last conversation.
“No, ma’am, not since the conference. Did you… need something?”
Captain Murphy gazed at him with narrowed eyes. What was she searching for? What had his uncle done? Why was she askinghimabout it?
“Very good. You’re dismissed.”
Noah left the building, heart thumping like a captured baby rabbit. He picked up Wolf and headed straight back to his room. He rummaged through his bottom drawer for a solid minute before he found what he was looking for: the small parcel wrapped in paper his uncle gave him weeks ago, unopened. Toying with the edge, he ripped the corner off of the thin, brown paper, but something stopped him from tearing it all off.
Something had happened with Uncle Nathan, that was for certain. Until he opened this package, he could plead innocent. Laugh off their recent conversation as the ramblings of a tired general. If Murphy found him to have documents and keys to mysterious boats in his drawer, there would surely be consequences. But yet, he could not quite bring himself to throw it in the bin. He pushed his laundry-mountain to one side to pull at a loose skirting board, slipping the package behind it.
Wolf growled quietly and nudged his knee with his head. He wanted to walk. Glancing out the window, he saw the sun was high in the sky, making a welcome change from yesterday’s downpour. Time for the lake.
Lightwater Lake was a thirty-minute trek south of Avantis’s cluster of buildings, just within the permitted radius for rest days. Noah meandered through the thick forest, now in no hurry to reach Squad E despite his feelings of loneliness earlier. He paused to watch a tornado of Blackcaps burst out of the treeline, taking flight.
Wolf ran ahead several times, unhappy with his slow pace, howling for Noah to catch up. Noah smelt the lake before he saw it: the thick, earthy odour of damp reeds, slightly obscured by the sweet scent of the water-crowfoot flowers that floated along the edges.
His squad was camped on the far side, forcing him to walk all the way around to join them. Despite the early-December chill, the women laid their towels out like they were at the beach. Splat and Zeke sat beside them, sprawled out on the mossy grass. Down the bank, Habib sat on a deck chair on a small jetty, fishing rod in hand. Half of the wooden boards sunk into the lake, making it look like Habib was on a sinking raft. He waved to Noah before casting his eyes back to the bobber.
“Chilly?” he asked, throwing himself down next to Vitt. She and Zeke were the only ones in their coats.
“You know my Italian blood runs cold,” Vitt replied.
He turned the conversation away from coats before anyone asked why Zeke was suddenly in Noah’s.Because I’m an absolute fool, that’s why.His heart had tripped a beat seeing him in it again, Zeke’s hands grabbing the collar to pull it further around himself.
“Who let Habib bring his rod?”
Splat groaned. “As if welethim. We’ll be here until midnight now.”
“Who’s up for Blitz?” Vitt pulled the game out of her yellow anorak. The other three girls grunted in response. They were lying face down on their towels, trying to steal a few more hours of sleep.
