by S. E. Weir
He gave them all his hardest glare. “This is not playtime. It’s not a game. It’s not a shits and giggles fest. This is serious work, and you will treat it as such, respecting your fellow trainees and the agents here. If not?”
His smile held no humor. “Then you will be shipped back home to get on with whatever life waits for you there. You will not get a chance to come back. This is your one shot. Don’t fuck up. Got it?”
They all nodded, some slowly and some with enthusiasm. When he glanced at Phina, he knew she completely understood.
That thought both comforted and freaked him out.
The devoted man found himself in the presence of his savior.
“You have news for me?”
“Yes, my Empress,” he responded with his head respectfully bowed. “Greyson Wells has come back to the base, along with his student Seraphina Waters.”
“What have you discovered?”
“Not enough, my Empress. Wells appears to have changed in some respects. I learned more about his student Phina.”
After a short pause, the object of his devotion responded with a softness to her voice that he hadn’t heard before. “Tell me all you know about her.”
The man eagerly obeyed.
Chapter Twelve
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Small Training Room
“Again.”
Phina took a deep breath and muscled past her first two inclinations: to punch Shaw in the face or to run and calm herself down with flips. Settling down without those stress relievers, she put herself back into the zone. She had begun to recognize a state when she was aware of everything and nothing at the same time. A meditation that movement didn’t jolt her out of.
Three weeks had gone by since the trainees had asked Agent Shaw to facilitate the competition.
Three long weeks.
During that time, Phina had learned a lot about weapons, easily picking up knives and short swords. Once she got used to wielding two blades at once, she realized that it could be fun, almost like dancing. The katana felt the same way, but it required more focus and attention since it needed more footwork, rather than just strikes and blocks.
Learning crossbows and guns had been interesting until she got used to the trigger pull and gravity drop, mentally calculating where she needed to aim to hit where she wanted. Once she got the hang of them and how they worked, she lost interest, becoming bored rather quickly.
The shurikens were a different story. Throwing them accurately took a blend of the aim she used for her throwing daggers and the shifting changes needed for blade work. She loved moving and dancing around the room as she threw them at the targets. That made it fun!
She could bring up Shaw’s face when he realized how quickly she had learned to use many of the weapons with perfect recall. If she were any more girly, it would make her giggle; the man’s expression had been that comical.
However, her successes just challenged the man to come up with more difficult exercises, which exhausted Phina so completely by the end of the day that she had been a lot slower in working her way through the minds of the people on the base.
Link had been sympathetic, but he was annoyed that he was stuck here in limbo for however long it took them to find the identity of the traitor. He’d itched to get into the hunt, but she’d reminded him why they had decided he would stay out of it. He hadn’t liked it, but they all had their burdens to bear.
Such as her current form of torture.
Phina whipped out five shurikens in succession and flung them at her targets. Once finished, she raised her blindfold and peered at the results. Shaw walked to stand a few paces in front of her, eying the bullseyes on the targets.
“Interesting,” he drawled.
Phina grimaced. The shurikens were all on the targets, but only one was close to the bullseye. Correction. She leaned forward to examine a target on the other side of Shaw and amended that. All were on the targets but one. It had missed by less than an inch.
“So, blindfolding you reduces your accuracy.” Shaw glanced at her sideways.
Phina shrugged. She couldn’t refute that with the evidence in front of them. She collected all the shurikens, deciding not to mention that if the targets had been people, she would have been able to feel where their minds were in relation to herself, which would greatly increase her accuracy.
Shaw had enough knowledge of her skills and abilities already. She wanted to keep the rest quiet if possible. More people than she felt comfortable with already knew, though she had asked her friends to keep their knowledge to themselves.
“All right.” Shaw moved back to stand behind her. “Go back to your spot and do it again. You’ll keep doing the same until you get them in the bullseye. Then you’ll change to a different spot in the room and repeat.”
Phina agreed and walked back to her spot. She glanced around the room again before lowering the blindfold. She entered that altered state before whipping them out one by one, careful to remain within human speed.
“Better,” Shaw announced as she pulled her blindfold off. He stepped up next to her and nodded as Phina checked the targets. The shurikens were better placed this time, just still not close enough.
Phina grimaced in disappointment, which caused him to grin and chuckle.
“Not used to working this hard to get it right, huh?”
“Not really.” Phina shook her head as she collected them all again. “I guess my knack for learning things relatively easily has spoiled me in some respects.”
He tilted his head. “Hey, you know it’s good to fail sometimes, right? It gives you more drive to succeed.”
Phina frowned at that while pulling one of the palm-sized weapons out of a thickly padded target. “I’m not sure how failing helps. It’s always been better when I get things right.”
Shaw studied her as she finished getting the last of them before speaking. “I’m guessing there’s more going on there than just what you’re saying.”
Phina shrugged, not wanting to explain about her aunt. She still had conflicting thoughts and emotions about that woman, even though Aunt Faith had died protecting her.
He rubbed the back of his neck, sighed, and turned to face her. “I’ll just say that I’m here if you want to talk, okay?”
At her reluctant nod, he continued, “My point is that failing usually pushes us to get stronger. My favorite example is Thomas Edison failing over a thousand times to make a lightbulb before it worked.”
Phina stopped and turned to Shaw with a serious expression before reaching out to brace him by the shoulder. “You do know that Thomas Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb, right?”
Shaw appeared taken aback. “I don’t think so.”
“No, it’s true,” she assured him seriously. “It was invented by some guy in Earth England. Thomas Edison just made the cheapest and longest-lasting incandescent version that made it possible for everyone to use.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise. Feeling uncomfortable with how close they were standing, she dropped her arm and stepped back, fiddling with the shuriken belt around her waist. When he spoke, it wasn’t the question she’d expected. “You’re interested in Earth history?”
She shrugged. “I get bored easily, read quickly, and need to occupy myself. There was a time when I didn’t sleep much. I spent the time learning things as they interested me.”
“Huh.” He scratched his head, his brow furrowed. “That explains a lot about you.”
Phina cocked her head in confusion. “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately. I’m not that strange.”
Shaw grinned and patted her shoulder. “You’re different, Phina. Not in a bad way,” he told her with a shrug. “Just noticeable to people paying attention.”
“Uh-huh.” She scrutinized the man skeptically but decided a change of subject was in order. “So, you were telling me that failing is good for me? I’m not convinced. Failing just makes me frustrated. I’m always determined to succeed at what I’m doing r
egardless of how long it takes.”
His grin widened. “Yes, I can see that. Which is another way you are different.”
Phina sighed and gave up. “Fine. Stay or leave. I’m going to be practicing this for a while.”
Shaw’s eyebrows rose at the assertion. “You speak to all your instructors this way?”
Moving back to her spot and pulling the blindfold up again, she shot back. “Only those who speak to me familiarly instead of maintaining a professional distance.”
He muttered under his breath from his position behind her. “I find it hard to believe Todd lets you get away with being that demanding.”
Phina inwardly chuckled at some of her memories when Todd hadn’t minded so much but just shook her head. “I’m his girlfriend. He knows me and lets me work it out.”
As Phina began sinking into her zone, she thought she caught a faint, Lucky.
She couldn’t be sure who Shaw meant, her or Todd. Either way, he was right.
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Large Exercise Room
Phina flipped in the air and landed on her feet. She bent her body back to stand on her hands and walked toward the corner, where she stood up and took a few deep breaths as her blood rushed back down from her head.
Focusing on her movements, she ignored the buzzing of the other trainees’ minds around the edges of the room.
Phina rotated into a cartwheel, then ran a few steps and leapt into a back handspring before launching herself up in a back somersault that sent her flying toward the ceiling. This was one of the trickiest runs she had ever done. She had to rotate high enough to reach the pipes hanging from the ceiling, then untuck herself and catch her handholds backward and blind since she couldn’t see the pipe.
Her hands gripped the pipe, one spot on and the other by the tips of her fingers, which she corrected faster than the people below could blink. If she hadn’t been strong and quick, that might not have worked. Thankfully, the entire move wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for a human.
After changing hand positions and breathing a sigh of relief, Phina brought her legs up into pike position to get the momentum to pull her body up and do a split along the pipe for a breather.
Glancing down, she saw almost all the trainees had gathered in the room. They were either working on their own exercises, watching her, or both.
Phina ignored them and focused on the stress relief she was going for, but they made it difficult. This was the first time since the challenge had been initiated that there were this many trainees in one room since they all usually had separate or small group training sessions.
She took advantage of the opportunity while she did some stretch and strength work on pipes. Phina didn’t need to focus on her movements, so she focused on doing a quick dip into each person’s head.
She went beyond a surface scan to get an idea as to what kind of person they were. The scan didn’t give her access to memories unless they were actively thinking about something at the time.
Most of her scans didn’t reveal anything surprising. Gina could become a good friend. Not a best friend, Phina thought, just a good one. Savas and Nodin wanted to prove themselves for different reasons, but not at the expense of others—one of the reasons they got along so well with each other and Phina.
One of the few surprises she had was the discovery that Felan had respect for her because she had been trained by Todd. It made sense since he had trained as a Guardian and would have been around Todd and those trained by him. Felan had also known that she was in a relationship with Todd since he had smelled traces of Todd’s scent on her on the first day. It was what had convinced him to follow her advice.
It didn’t surprise her that Cade and Jasper were assholes focused only on their own concerns. Even now, they were talking shit about her while they slacked off on their training. The rest of the trainees were all typical for their age, gender, and species.
Until she reached Blayk.
What she found there almost caused her to lose her perch, but she repositioned herself and hung on, although it could have been dangerous to stay in such a position as she dug deeper into his mind.
Her unease and surprise turned to disgust, then pure incandescent rage.
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Greyson Wells’ Office
Link had just sat down with his coffee after lunch with Masha and Jack. They had gone over specs for the next missions, deciding who would be sent where and which graduating trainees would be assigned to what group.
Masha and Jack had tried to convince him to send Phina out with a group, but he refused on the grounds that she already had a priority mission lined up. He couldn’t say to their faces that the mission was to prove whether or not they were traitors.
Damned elusive traitor.
Link brought his mug up to take a sip when he heard Phina’s sharp mental voice.
Link, you need to get someone down here before I kill Blayk.
He sprayed coffee all over his desk in surprise. What the hell, Phina! Is he our traitor? I thought the trainees were too new.
No, he’s not the traitor. But I still want to kill him!
As he searched for something to clean up the mess, he wondered, What’s wrong with him? He’s been one of the top contenders.
In answer, Phina sent a few mental images from Blayk’s point of view. As he viewed them, Link’s hand tightened on the handle of his coffee mug. Once his mind cleared again, Link seethed in anger.
Never mind. I’ll kill him myself.
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Large Exercise Room
Wait.
Phina had somersaulted to the floor in the heat of her anger. Not wanting to let anyone see her face until she had control of her emotions, she walked to where she had left her things and picked up her water bottle. This had been fortuitously placed in the other side of the room from where Blayk now stood staring at her.
As she sipped her water, her thoughts calmed, and reason returned.
Wait, she repeated. Let’s check with the Empress via ADAM to see how she wants us to handle this. All the evidence we have right now is in my mind. We need to know if that’s enough, and if not, what else we need.
Smart, Link responded as Phina felt Sundancer moving invisibly about the room in response to her surging emotions.
Want me to kill him? I can easily tear his throat out. She caught a mental hiss as the Previdian bared his sharp fangs at the offending man. I can do it without anyone seeing me.
Thanks, Sundancer. I need to check with the Empress first.
Phina felt him reluctantly agree and settle in to keep an eye on Blayk while she reached mentally out to contact the Empress. She pushed herself to her limit but could only sense Bethany Anne’s presence in the distance.
Phina went to her backup plan. She sat on the bench and pulled out her tablet to cover her mental activity.
Stark, could you connect me to ADAM?
Of course, GG.
While she was waiting, Phina heard a crisp female voice over her implant.
I could have used our systems to connect with ADAM.
Phina had gained the impression over the last few weeks that Shade worshipped ADAM, as much as an EI could.
I’m sorry, Shade. I’ll do that next time. She paused, then had a thought. Shade, I have something else for you to do if you don’t mind.
Seconds after Phina had finished explaining, she heard the comforting voice of her friend.
>>Phina. I don’t believe you would go to this much trouble just to say hi. What’s going on?<<
Hello, ADAM. I have missed you, but you are correct. We have a problem.
>>What can we do to help?<<
She explained the situation. What should we do? There’s only the evidence I found with my mind. He’s too careful to leave physical evidence. I don’t feel in the mood to play bait for him to get some, but I will if we need to.
After several seconds ADAM came
back. >>Here’s what Bethany Anne says, word for word. “She saw this with her mind? We don’t need anything else. Tell her this... Take that abusive fucking waste of oxygen out. I don’t know how he escaped our notice, but I won’t stomach aberrations like him walking free in my Empire.” Does that help?<<
Phina felt stunned at the Empress’ show of faith in her. That was a level of trust she had only heard of about the Rangers. She had to wait for her mind to restart after short-circuiting. Um, yes. Thank you, ADAM, and please tell the Empress thank you, too. Is there a protocol or preference for how to do this without letting everyone know it’s happening?
>>Bethany Anne says, “get creative, and how many times do I have to tell that woman to stop Empressing me to death?”<< His voice held a tone of amusement. This hadn’t been the first time she’d told Phina that.
Sorry. And thank you.
>>You’re welcome, Phina. We believe in you.<<
Phina sat for another few minutes to process that statement and control her surging emotions. Before this whole adventure started, she hadn’t felt like anyone believed in her since her parents died except for Alina.
Now, she had one of her best friends, who was the most impressive AI to ever exist, and the Empress of the best people in the greatest Empire to ever exist in the whole universe, telling her they believed in her. It felt...amazing. Wonderful. Freeing.
She might actually be starting to believe it.
Chapter Thirteen
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base
Phina waited until lights out to get ready. Clothing, gear, and weapons situated, she pulled the hooded face mask of the specially-made bodysuit over her head. After taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, she left her room and walked soundlessly to Blayk’s quarters.
She surveyed the corridor to make sure no one was taking an after-hours stroll before quietly entering the room.
Soft snores greeted her, and she relaxed. Phina walked past the strewn clothes and discarded food wrappers to the bedside of the detestable man, her body tense as her white-hot rage rose again.