The tang of alcohol lingered on Vivian’s breath. Meanwhile my breath was nonexistent. I rasped, her heavy weight crushing me. With a grunt, I pushed. My arms strained, and the weight on my lungs lessened slightly. I took a deep breath, and shoved.

  There was a thud as Vivian’s unconscious body hit the floor next to me.

  I took deep, gulping breaths, savoring the oxygen. It filled my lungs, gave me energy. I sat up, still dazed at what would happen. Vivian - the cold-hearted, stone-faced girl - had fainted on top of me, obviously drunk.

  There was a creak, and the sound of footsteps. Naomi stepped out, staring down at me. “Cade,” xe said. Xe looked next to me, then directly into my eyes. “What the hell?” Xe asked, xyr voice still calm.

  “Yeah…” I trailed off. “‘What the hell?’ indeed.”

  Xe stared, almost piercing my soul with xyr gaze. “Not my problem, I suppose.”

  I stood shakily. “Well,” I was speechless. “I… um. Huh.”

  Naomi turned away. “Please just show up to the lesson on time.” With that, xe walked directly out of our dorm.

  That left me to take care of the drunkard. I sighed, and knelt down. I pushed Vivian to create a bit of space under her, and stuck my arms below her back. I pushed.

  With all the strength in my body, I lifted her an inch. I pushed a little harder, lifting her a little more. That was not a good idea. I gasped, as the weight overcame me. Every little bit of my arm was being pulled. All of them were tired. I didn’t think I could manage to do this for any longer.

  My strength failed.

  There was a thud, and a sharp jolt of pain as Vivian landed directly atop my hands. I groaned, and pulled back my arms. Relief filled me, a light feeling. And yet, nothing had gotten done. I was back where I started, with even more heaviness in my body and much more pain.

  God…

  How out of shape am I?

  It was then that another door creaked open, and Les stepped out into the room. Thank god, I thought, and stepped towards him.

  He took a look at Vivian, then looked at me, then at Vivian again. He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “Yeah,” I began. “I don’t know what’s up with her, but some help removing her from my floor would be welcomed.”

  He shrugged, and, without saying a word, lifted Vivian’s unconscious body up like it weighed nothing. He gingerly carried her across the room and promptly set her down onto the couch. “Well…” he trailed off. “That’s something to wake up to.”

  I shrugged. “We have a lesson today, right?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he said, and started walking that way. I followed.

  “Naomi’s already making her way down,” I added. He said nothing.

  We walked the remainder of the way keeping that tone, with no more words being passed between us. We reached the Sphere. All glass, even on the doors, was reflective, allowing no view of the interior. Les opened the door, and stepped to the side.

  I stepped forward without thinking.

  And was met with the barrel of a gun in my face.

  My instincts flared, my stomach instantly clenching and replacing the feeling of carelessness with a new weight of panic. I froze. I knew that any sudden movements would get my head blown off. I had seen it happen too many times before.

  The face behind the weapon was Janet’s - her blonde hair ruffled and her face pale as a ghost. She wore a leather coat, her eyes red from crying. A sort of fire burned within her ghastly appearance.

  “What the fuck?” I said, narrowing my eyes.

  Les took a step, still holding onto the door.

  “Don’t move,” Janet rasped. “Or Cade gets his head blown off.” She paused. “And don’t try any of that ‘criminal maneuver’ bullshit. You know it won’t work.”

  My head was slightly dizzy, the memory of pain flaring in the back of my memory. And the feeling I had been trying to suppress forever.

  Guilt.

  I had shot a man with a life, a family. These people knew him. And now he was gone. Gone because of me. Because of my stupid fucking decisions.

  I suppressed the thought once more. Ignored it by filling my brain with the present, the now. The fire burning within me. The strange desire to end the life of the miserable woman in front of me. Even more strange, how the thrill to kill this woman could beat down the pain of another one of his victims.

  Which was a list that was getting way too long these days.

  “What do you want?” I growl.

  Janet’s eyes darted from me to Les, me to Les. “I want answers.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Les said nothing, but I paled. Thoughts jumbled around in my brain:

  Does she know?

  How would she know?

  And most importantly:

  What about everyone else?

  “Fine,” I spat. “I’ll give you your shitty answers.”

  Janet pressed the gun closer to my ear, and whispered: “Where’s Jules?”

  Officer Julia’s face flashed in my mind. Where’s Jules - how should I know?

  But I didn’t say that. Dying didn’t sound like a fun thing to do today. As Janet pulled back, I met her gaze. “I don’t know.” I said plainly.

  Janet lunged, roughly grabbing me. She stuck the gun at my temple. “Don’t you fucking test me, boy.”

  “Hey-” Les said.

  Crunch.

  BANG!

  “FUCK!”

  I barely had a second to think. I brought my knee straight upward into Janet’s chest. She made a strangled choking sound. My hand flew to her wrist, the other to her hand with the gun. Pushing her back, I wrapped my hand around the weapon.

  I slammed my head directly into hers. Pain erupted across my forehead, a burning that would probably bruise later. Janet’s grip loosened. In a second, the grip of the cool gun was pressed against my hand. I squeezed tight, placing my index finger directly adjacent to the trigger. I pressed my body against Janet’s, and pushed the barrel under her chin.

  “I’ll fucking kill you, bitch - I, I’ll…” I trailed off.

  Janet was rasping, panting, but I had her locked tight. I could kill her now.

  I could.

  There was movement, and a click.

  Shit.

  “Get the fuck away from her,” Whiteford commanded.

  Suddenly, I was back in reality. I stepped away, turning to see Officer Whiteford with a gun pointing directly at me. But that wasn’t the face I was most interested in.

  Seph’s brilliant eyes stared at me, in a mix of confusion and disbelief.

  But next to him, Whiteford’s face was unmistakable.

  Pure fury.

  “Drop the gun,” she seethed.

  “Whiteford-” Les began.

  “Shut up,” Whiteford hissed. She carefully creeped forward, and, keeping one hand clutched around her weapon, reached down. While she got lower to the ground, her gun’s barrel was still kept at a perfect angle for shooting me.

  In her other hand, she clasped the dropped weapon. She slowly stood up, examining the gun. After about ten seconds, she looked at me pointedly. “Where the hell did you get this?”

  I gulped. “From Janet.”

  Whiteford opened her mouth wide, like she was about to yell. “Wait,” I started, before she could speak. Her mouth closed. “I-I know this looks bad,” I stuttered. “But I wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger first.”

  Whiteford turned to Janet. “You fired the shot?”

  Janet stared at the grass below her. “Yes, miss.”

  Whiteford tossed the gun behind her, where Sanchez seemed to materialize out of the darkness to grab it, before disappearing into the shadows once more.

  I blinked.

  With her now free hand, she turned to Les. “As the one I trust the most here-” she glared at me and Janet, “-what the fuck happened?”

  Les recounted the story. Including the fact that the bullet had very nearly hit him in the temple - if Janet had just been a slightly better shot. After he was done with his account, Whiteford turned to Janet. “Is this true?”

  Janet nodded briefly. Whiteford then turned to me. I gave her a thumbs up. She sighed. “Janet, you’ll come with me,” she turned to me. “Cade, you and Les can go to the lesson. You’re late.”

  With that, she practically dragged Janet away, leaving me, Seph, and Les in stunned silence. After a few seconds, Seph rushed up to me.

  After reaching about a foot away from him, he slowed, as if remembering Les was there. Which made me wonder what he would do if Les wasn’t there. I shook the thought from my head. Seph muttered to me, “I was worried. When I heard the gunshot, I - well, I thought.”

  I put a finger to his lips. Little worry lines were etched around his nose. It was cute to see him concerned. Which was something, considering his usual badass vibe. I would’ve kissed him if someone wasn’t here.

  “Don’t worry,” I whispered. “I wouldn’t die without saying some certain things to some certain people.” His eyes narrowed, as if trying to make sense of that statement.

  There were many things I could have meant there.

  I guessed it was up to him to figure that out.

  Les cleared his throat, and I took a step back. “We should probably get to the cadets.” He said softly - which sounded strange in his normal echo-y deep voice.

  He led our group into the Sphere. The entire group of cadets turned and stared as soon as we entered. Mel and Naomi were standing on stage, with the lesson already in full swing. Naomi frowned at our arrival, but continued teaching. It was obvious that xe had full control of the lesson, and we were not needed.

  Les pointed to the back of the class, and we made our way there.

  For the remainder of the few hours, we scrolled through the database. It wasn’t much, but it was something. An activity. A breakaway from the crazy shit that has apparently been happening.

  Plus, reading though random interactions gave me a place to let my thoughts wander. It mentally pinned a few questions that I would need t find out:

  Where’s Torres?

  Where’s Janet?

  What’s up with Vivian?

  Who is my client?

  That last one stuck in my brain. It was something that I could have easily found out just a few weeks ago. But now, with any connection between us lost, it seemed there would be no hope in recovering any part of that exchange between us. And that included having no way of figuring out what they wanted and why they wanted it.

  Everything else was possible to figure out… but maybe not without a source. My only possible lead would be to worm out of Seph who he’d gotten his information from.

  I glanced up at his face, his eyes narrowed and staring at his computer. Something in me melted. How could I even imagine picking information out of a person like that? I threw the idea away. But it lingered, faintly, somewhere in the mess that was my mind.

  ??

  Time seemed to have faded away. When Naomi and Mel approached us, their footsteps clicking on the concrete floor were the only thing that could keep me out of my work-trance that I had seemed to fall into. I looked up, seeing them approach slowly.

  Mel flopped down next to me on the stone cold floor. “That happened.”

  Naomi sighed. “It certainly did.”

  Les glanced between the two of them. “Sorry?”

  Naomi looked to Mel, who was just staring up at the ceiling. Xe sighed. “The Cadet’s are fucking know-it-alls.”

  That made me sit up. From what I had perceived, the cadets had known nothing about hacking before. “Exactly how are they-” he imitated Naomi’s deep, calculating tone of voice, “-fucking know-it-alls?”

  Naomi brought xyr hands to xyr temples, rubbing them slowly. “They rushed into the assignment without listening, made some choices that would’ve given Russia access to all our personal information, and said ‘eh’ at the end of the day.”

  Seph smirked. “Someone must’ve had some fun to be that hungover,” he joked.

  The words hit me like a slap to the face.

  Godammit, he was right.

  And if Vivian was drunk too…

  The dots were connecting. Vivian seemed to have some sort of extra connection to the CIA, or else she wouldn’t have been able to go to this party.

  Something within me snapped.

  I stood, and started off toward the door.

  “Hey, Cade!” Les shouted after me. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Talking to someone,” I said plainly, before dashing out of the room.