by Angela White
“No. He agreed to treat you like one of the men.”
“Good.”
Kyle leaned in, his branch almost even with hers. “There are other lessons that go on here, out of the camp’s view. You know that.”
“Like my Kai lesson that has Marc so pissed.”
Neil grimaced, thinking Marc would be even more upset when he found out they’d given her this new information. “Exactly, except Adrian’s lessons usually handle a direct problem the person has.”
“Or a fear,” Kyle hinted.
“How does a person go about that? Just ask?”
“It has to be suggested by senior level men.”
Angela’s interest was replaced with bitter exhaustion. “And will it be, if I want it? Have I proven enough or is there some other trick you guys want?”
Kyle and Neil both laughed, much to her surprise.
“That’s part of why, too. Not even Seth had that much fire,” Kyle pointed out, talking to Neil.
“I agree.”
“It’s unanimous, then. Yes.”
Understanding they were razzing her like a rookie, Angela immediately set out to please them so they really would talk to Adrian.
“I’m restless when I get off third shift duty. When you can, will you both schedule me an extra hour then? Help me catch up?”
Surprised, they gave short nods and silence.
She dropped from the tree, trying to hide her soreness. “Thank you. Good night.”
She left and Kyle lit a smoke. He took a light draw of the cigar before speaking. What she needed was someone who would hit her.
“Kenn.”
“We can’t let that happen,” Neil insisted angrily. “If he ever does it here, for any reason, this camp will change. We’ll lose everything we’ve worked for.”
Kyle let the note of self-preservation pass in order to get an answer instead of an argument. “What if she can win?”
Neil snorted, mouth opening, but he stopped, not sure what to say. She was good for a female. Marc had gotten the basics down with her and she was quick on the pick-up. Being able to read what was coming was an amazing ability all the Eagles wished they had and Kenn would never expect her to fight back.
“I don’t know,” he said finally.
Kyle was encouraged. He’d expected a set denial. “You’ll think on it?”
“If she could back Kenn down in front of the camp, the way would be clear for her and the others Adrian wants,” Neil said.
“Others we need. There’s too many sheep. We’ll lose a cut and that’ll kill Adrian some more. We have a long way to go in this new world and we need more fighters for the battles that are coming.”
“We need more like her,” Neil replied reluctantly.
“And for Brady to get on board,” Kyle added.
“He’ll miss her first course work out before we go. He’s scheduled for duty over the opposite end of camp.”
“He’s smart to separate them for it,” Kyle stated, meaning Adrian.
Neil surveyed the darkness. Clear. “I’ll let Marc know where you’re taking her for the sets, but I doubt it will matter. When she rolls in, he’ll blow up like her boy did. None of our rookies ever come back in the same condition as they went out.”
“Yeah. Wish those three grunts would grow up.”
Kenn overheard the comment as he went by them, but didn’t stop. He was meeting Tonya outside the taped perimeter and he wanted that conversation more than he wanted to pay the mobster back for the insult.
Later, the Marine told himself.
Finding the sloppy setup not far into the darkness, Kenn tapped lightly on the tent flap, ducking inside at the giddy call, and the first hour of their time was spent in an amazing wash of pleasure and pain.
As they lounged on her bedroll in the aftermath, Tonya’s voice rose and fell, telling him everything she’d discerned over the last few days. She was quite the able spy and he had no problem using her as such now that he knew her for what she was…an evil genius with an Adrian obsession.
“That’s most of the gossip. Nothing unusual among the camp, but the guards will keep talking about it, so I’m sure the herd will know soon.”
Tonya sat up carefully, sore and sated. “Neil’s team made some schedule change with that blonde woman, and the new guy, Rick, might be following her around. He’s slick, so I’m not sure.”
Kenn stored both of those and waited. Once Tonya got rolling, she made connections fast.
“Hilda said the new women, the nuns, all think Angela’s in charge! Can you imagine?”
“Yes,” Kenn stated sarcastically, beefy hands clenching. “Yes, I can.”
Tonya winced, patting his hand. “The men won’t stand for it, you know that. They don’t want any woman in the Eagles, no matter how well she shoots.”
“But they will, once he lets her show what she can do.”
“You think he’ll take that risk?”
“I know it. He’s already planning the steps in which to reveal it so the camp will accept it.”
Tonya gasped. “Tell the herd? They’d kill her!”
“Not if they love her first,” Kenn answered, facing his own demons with the words. “If she gets them to like her, helps them like he has, they’ll accept it. Especially if they find out she might have saved him tonight. Heroes are what they live for now.”
“And they have that in Adrian,” Tonya realized, horrified. “But they don’t have the female equivalent.”
Kenn was bitter, thinking of the warning that had gotten the cutting crew out of sight. The stories were currently flying through the levels.
“They didn’t.”
Tonya suggested something she knew he was capable of. “Then you need to make them aware of the fact that she’s a weak female. If she flunks out in her first days, it’ll be a long time until they’ll let another woman try.”
“I have some things planned.”
“Are they bad?” Tonya squealed happily. “Tell me all of it!”
Chapter Eight
Welcome to My Army
April 13th
SD National Grasslands
1
“I think I understand now.”
Adrian peered at the teenager over the engine they were filling with fluids. “Understand what?”
Charlie motioned to a pair of shepherd pups nearby that Matt was walking on short leads. “Why my job matters.”
“Tell me.”
“Because they’re a…warning, an alarm. You knew from the dogs that someone had messed with the water.”
“And?”
“They’re a tool. Without knowing how to handle them, you wouldn’t have known when they were acting differently and we might have lost people.”
Adrian was pleased and a bit surprised the teenager had gotten it right. “Very good. Now, I have an important question. Do you trust me?”
“Absolutely.”
“And if I asked you to…do things? Things the rest of them can’t?”
Charlie’s expression betrayed his youth, but his tone was even. “I’d say yes, with conditions.”
“So, you don’t trust me.”
“I don’t trust them! If they ever found out…”
Adrian shrugged. “I’m not asking yet, but your awareness made the question necessary.”
Charlie was relieved. “I’m loyal too. If my mom hadn’t made it here, I’d be your witch.”
Shadows not made by his army padded behind the dead corn, Adrian pushed their conversation into the direction he needed. “You’ve got her courage, and your dad’s. It takes a lot of guts to stay someplace you’re not wanted.”
Charlie recovered quickly from the knowledge that Adrian knew about Marc. “She wants him. He won’t leave with an invitation like that hanging.”
Adrian’s sigh was resigned. “Yes, she does. What about you?”
The teenager tensed and Dog came from his place in the dim sun to heel at Charlie’s ankle. “I don’t
even know him.”
There was silence for a minute and then Adrian put a hand on the boy’s arm. “Maybe you should correct that. He got her here alive and made her stronger. We both owe him a large debt.”
Adrian proceeded to the next stop on his rounds–Angela’s first training set in public. “Let me know. I’ll arrange some down time.”
2
“Ready?”
Angela nodded at Daryl’s lowly spoken question. It was her first official session with them as a team and Angela could feel their tension threatening to ignite her own bubbling emotions. The day’s workout would be supervised by Kenn, against the schedule Adrian had planned for her. The others didn’t know yet that he had switched shifts.
The men walking through the dim dawn around her felt her pause instinctively as Kenn came into sight. Determined to succeed, Angela steeled herself, and advanced.
“He’s not on til tomorrow!” Chris stated angrily.
“He knows I’m off then,” Angela explained. “He switched with Jeff or Lee, not sure which.”
“I’ll find out,” Kyle threatened.
Angela shrugged, flashing a hard smile. “Don’t do that. I’ll earn my place here with him as well. He can’t accept me as anything else yet. When I can match him in the cage, then that will change.”
There was a thoughtful silence instead of the immediate protest she would have gotten from any of the other levels at that goal. Kyle scanned his team, his thoughts mirrored on their faces. More than the appreciation for her good reflexes and aim, she’d given Adrian exactly what he wanted. Being able to get the nuns to join them was something that had taken their leader’s coming depression and changed it into joy. For that, these nine men were now firmly in her corner. “We’ll help you with it.”
Grateful, Angela gave them all a quick glance, sharing her goal. “I hate how this feels. I want to never be afraid of him again.”
There were immediate offers for personal, private training and she accepted each one gracefully.
Angela didn’t see Adrian during her subtle manipulations, but she felt those observant eyes following her progress. She also knew when he realized who would be the training guard today and understood he had a hard time making himself turn away instead of interrupting. Adrian had to play fair, but Kenn didn’t and he wouldn’t.
“Course is set. Rookie goes first.”
Kenn’s gloating call had Angela waving off Kyle’s protest. “I have to be the one to do this.” Trembling, she stepped to the front of the line and started her first run as an Eagle in Adrian’s army.
“Ugg!”
Losing her grip on the slick cord, Angela hit the jagged-edged rocks under the rope with a second surprised grunt, but managed to keep from the groan, or even tears, that her Marine had been hoping for at the pain. She picked herself up, not bothering to wipe at the layer of the dust she was coated in.
Required to repeat it until she got through it, the Eagles in line around her also swallowed their unhappiness, knowing special treatment would not get her accepted with the other levels who were currently training in the field next to them. Or at least they had been, until she’d stepped to the front of the line. Now, even the instructors were witnessing Angela’s first attempts.
“Go.”
Kenn’s voice was a hard smirk and Angela knelt down instead of doing the run again. She’d fallen twice from the slick ropes she was supposed to swing on, and she wasn’t about to hit those rocks a third time. She ignored the stares and mutters of the small crowd who had lined up near the far side of the tape, shoving large handfuls of the dusty earth into both her jacket pockets.
When she stood up, her team was grinning and Kenn’s face had tightened, both recognizing that she’d found the solution.
Angela used her dirt-coated hands to get a better grip on the greased ropes and while it wasn’t easy to dip her hands into her pockets between swings, she was able to finish the course on her third attempt.
“Pass.”
Kenn gave it grudgingly, but it couldn’t be withdrawn, and it counted.
The Level Six men watched Angela go toward Kenn with a swagger as she hit her feet, and each of them tensed to come to her aide if it was needed.
Sure of how far Kenn could be pushed in public, Angela took her time dumping the dirt out of her pockets onto the ground at his boots. As she did it, her eyes burned into his.
When her pockets were empty, she gave him a hard glare, ignoring the blood trickling down her leg from one of the falls. “You can’t make me quit. If you waste your time trying, you will lose everything you’ve built.”
She spun away before his anger could get out of control and Kyle’s Eagles laughed at his furious face, impressed yet again.
3
“Lovely.”
Samantha swallowed a second groan as she reread her schedule.
Babysitting? I don’t even like kids. She hadn’t been around many and they intimidated her a little. What was she supposed to do with them?
Determined not to whine, Samantha got a mug of tea from the crowded mess and headed for the children’s area. Still feeling awkward, she only gave a short nod to those who called greetings.
When she saw which team of Eagles was waiting at the campers, she tripped, sloshing steaming liquid over her injured hand. “Damn it!”
Jeremy spun to yell at whoever was cursing by the kid’s area, but exchanged the reprimand for a smile of welcome instead. He had personally asked Adrian to assign the blonde woman here today. One of Adrian’s simplest tools to test new people was to put them around the elderly or the kids. It never failed to reveal their true nature.
“We’re waiting on a few others and then we’ll leave.”
A bit surprised the sentry was talking to her–she’d thought they were strictly protection–Samantha asked, “Where to?”
“It’s field trip day. This time, we’re hitting the town.”
Confused, but not wanting to seem clueless, she waited patiently and was glad of Jeremy lingering by her when Neil came through the shadows a minute later.
As soon as he spotted them, there were instant questions lurking, hard ones she didn’t want to answer.
“There they are.”
Sam rotated at Jeremy’s words and immediately braced herself for a long shift. Walking next to Anne and Peggy, was Cynthia. Who was asking little Becky’s mom things that she didn’t want to reveal, Samantha assumed when Peggy’s profile tightened. Didn’t the reporter realize she was trying to pry information from a convert? Even if Peggy knew something about Adrian, she wouldn’t tell.
“Hey, Neil.”
“Ms. Kelly.”
“Peggy.”
Neil flushed at the tone. It said, When you marry my daughter, you’ll call me mom.
He flicked a fast glance toward Samantha. Has she found out yet?
The camper door opened and the excited voices of young children drew their attention away from the sparks.
“All right. Each chaperone will be responsible for two children. The kids get to pick.”
Sam sighed resignedly, viewing the sticky-fingered offspring with trepidation. Some days were hell.
It took a while for Anne and Peggy to get the kids settled with their chaperones, and Samantha tried not to make any contact with the man waiting patiently near the camper door. She envied Neil’s coolness in the face of battle.
Samantha smiled uneasily when a girl with short brown spikes pointed her way. The child appeared to be about eight and was sporting a signature-covered cast on her wrist. Next to her was another girl of the same age. This one was so thin that Samantha’s heart clenched. They’d known hardships that she hadn’t.
Both girls came her way with giggles.
Each one wanted her hand and Sam reluctantly surrendered her tea mug to let them hold onto her. Sticky and warm, she waited restlessly with them as everyone got set, trying not to be caught staring at Neil. She’d been happy that the trooper refused little Be
cky, but the idea that he was willing had to have come from somewhere.
“What’s your name?”
The kids were waiting, thin girl’s expression hopeful, and the storm tracker put her thoughts away. “Sam.”
They both giggled again. “That’s a boy’s name!”
Not offended, Samantha grinned at short-spikes girl. “I’ve heard that.”
“Why do you have a boy’s name?”
“Is it a shortner?”
Confused by the garbled word, Samantha shrugged. “My mom wanted a girl, Samantha. My dad wanted a boy, Sam. This way, they both got their wish.”
They laughed harder. “That’s silly.”
Samantha nodded, thinking until they made it here, there probably hadn’t been much for them to be happy about.
She saw Neil get chosen by two very energetic boys in roughly the same age group as her charges. The kids were bouncing, excited, and she realized field trip day must be something rarely done. The rest of the time, Adrian probably kept them isolated for safety, and these moments out of their area were special.
The lives of these kids had been flipped around too, and Samantha felt the need to give them a good day. They were war orphans and the bond she suddenly felt was something she wouldn’t tell anyone about, but it was there. She’d also lost her roots, along with everything else she had leaned on for stability, sanity. They deserved a fun day and she would be proud to give it to them.
“Everyone ready?”
There was a loud cheer. “Yeah!”
“All right, a quick reminder to the chaperones about the wild dog sightings. Keep your kids close,” Peggy warned. “Okay, our first stop is…Safe Haven’s secret hideout!”
This cheer was twice as loud and Samantha let the girls lead her through the slowly waking refugees. They were right behind Peggy and her group of five tweens, and Sam didn’t envy the woman her sulky 12-year-old charges as she listened to them complain about someone’s dawn snoring.
The line walked across the camp, drawing attention from those up.
Everyone waved. Kids roaming the streets before the war were a sight to be avoided or ignored for their poverty. Here, children were rare and welcome, no matter their condition.