I’d like to say that Parker left me alone for the rest of the day, but that would just be lying. He had his goons try to isolate me throughout the day, and a few times I climbed up stuff and used my urban street rat skills to scamper away to more public places, which led to me sitting down for lunch in my gym clothes.

“You should clean up before you sit for a meal.” The ass says while eating daintily with a knife and fork.

“I mean, I would normally, but I can’t ignore that one of your goons is missing and there were signs of entry on my door.” I open my food box to find three sandwiches, one of them barbeque, some coleslaw, fries and a bag of chips for sides. “Hells yeah! Barbeque sandy. You want the chips Marks?”

He slides a bar across the table and I toss him the chips.

“How much do you pay for that much food?” Parker asks.

“It’s part of my program. Too skinny my Mentor tells me. I’ve been gaining about a kilo and a half a week? Maybe four. Starting to see a little chub.” I say, poking at my belly, while I flex my very toned arms.

“A wee baby whale in the making.” Marks smiles while opening his chips.

“Nah, definitely a baby hippo. Too much rage for a whale.” Jerrico joins in the fun.

“Flagrant waste if you ask me. If they are Org funds, then you won’t mind if I . . .” he starts to reach for my food.

Apparently he’s never discovered the intimate relationship between an Orphanage and food. I slap his hand away. “No. Mine.” I say, childishly. Parker’s face screws up in a rictus of anger—apparently no’s a word he doesn’t respect.

He reaches for something else, but at this point I’m only focused on the hand and that no one is allowed to steal my food. I’ve stabbed people for as much, so I let myself get triggered and nail his hand to the table with a knife from my holster. It embeds with a loud thud and a shake of the table top. I get up with my food and take a few steps back while everyone is momentarily shocked.

“Why can’t you just behave?” I ask, not expecting an answer. Though, I do suddenly realize I don’t have a gun on in my workout clothes.

“You stabbed me?! Over food?” The prick shrieks.

“Honestly, I would have done the same.” Jerrico says, having stood up and put a palm on his sidearm. Parker’s goon is in a similar position and Marks has his pistol on the table now, still snacking on chips. “Mr. Strum, if you keep showing signs of not being able to control your emotions, we’ll have to conduct training without you. Or delay until you figure it out.”

“Me? She fucking stabbed me over a sandwich!”

Marks snorts and coughs enough that people stare at him. “Sorry, but raise your hand if you’ve stabbed a dude for food.” Even Parker’s goon raised his hand.

“See, Parker, it’s you that doesn’t understand.” A jovial female voice says from behind the barracks. Everyone turns to look. “Hands off the gun, jumbo.” She warns, pointing an assault rifle at him. Jumbo does as he’s told. “Grab your meal and this bag and get in the car.”

“You can’t do this! This is my training program, Marcella, and your protegee stabbed me.”

“You keep thinking that Porker. And with your questionable treatment of her, I’d say it was self defense, or defense of one’s property. Something like that. Plus, she probably told you about the video right? Good. I’d hate to hold security refresher training for everyone in your department.”

No she wouldn’t hate it, the smiling freaking liar. I love my fucked-up family.

I walk quickly with my food and grab my duffel lying on the ground next to Marcella. She gestures to the warehouse doors and follows me in that direction. I hear a commotion behind me as I keep moving, and a clatter some 10 meters distant as I get to the car. That must have been my knife. Poor baby being left behind. Marcella jumps in behind me tells the driver to head toward our next destination.

A half hour later, I still don’t know where we’re headed, but with the look on Marcella’s face, I don’t dare ask. Eventually, she sighs and slumps into the seat.

“There will be consequences for stabbing him. He might have forgotten about you once you picked up a Track, but now he never will. I’m not surprised, but I had hoped nothing would have happened today.”

“I know, I tried. He and his goons harassed me and tried to corner me for hours! And then I thought things were okay, I’d identified he’d laid a trap for me in my room. Then he tried to steal food from me. I slapped his hand the first time, but then he snarled and reached at me in anger. Next thing I know I’m ten feet away and he has my knife in his hand.”

“Ah, well, at least you slapped his hand away first. Super effective.”

“Wait, are you mad at me?” I can’t believe this, I used self-control so many times this last month, but one minor slip up and this?

“I’m mostly mad at the situation. I’d have preferred you to have not sat down at that table for lunch, but what’s done is done. I’ll be staying in Primm with you for the first day to see that you and the field unit there gel, but then I have to get back to work.”

“Okay,” I shrink into myself at the tired and disappointed look on Marcella’s face. All of my accomplishments of the last three weeks seem unimportant next to the cold reception from my mentor. I don’t know what she’s been through in the last few weeks, something that’s affecting her much more than me right now, but it feels like someone I thought was my family is rejecting me.

“Hey, Kimber, none of that.” She slides up next to me and pulls my legs into her lap. “I’m upset, yes, but I still care about you. I really wanted us to be over this part, but we rushed the process and sometimes you get incomplete results.”

“That’s not very fair.” I pout.

“Fair? You know very well that life, and even more so emotion, isn’t fair. I’m also mad at myself for not being able to prevent a situation that wasn’t supposed to happen in the first place. Does that seem fair?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I sniffle and laugh. “No. Not being fair with either of us. But I wasn’t being a very good representative for you, and that’s not great either.” She held me while I cried on her, as though I was repenting for everyone I’ve disappointed in the past. Those few moments where I felt Marcella was going to distance herself and eventually give up on me were crushing, even though it was just a misinterpretation of her situation.

“I’m sorry I’m adding more stress to your situation. You probably can’t even tell me what you’re stressed about, but if you need someone you have me and Belle too, okay?”

“I forget that you’re a menace and a sweetie in equal measure sometimes.” She kisses my head and ruffles my hair. “When we start Danielle’s research, we’ll spend more time together and I’ll fill you in on some stuff. But now, I should brief you on what’s coming up for you.” She taps a few imaginary buttons and projects a screen.

“Haley, divider up please.” She waits until the black glass slides up before showing me some pictures of people, “So, a friend of mine, Craig Hawthorne, and the team leader for this operation reached out to see if I knew a long-gunner. Kenneck said you’d be good at it, so I diverted your training from Barstow, where Haley will continue on, to Primm where some meth producers are mixing in something dirty that’s hurting people in our market. If all goes well, you and his squad will continue to Barstow and help another team put down a startup competitor there.”

“So you’re going to socialize me to the team, and then your off again to your mysterious work?”

“You’re so smart Kimber!” She boops my nose.

“Rude. Okay. So you’ll contact me or send someone when it’s time to come back?”

“No, not this time. I’ll be giving you Haley’s number. She’ll be waiting for you in Barstow and will be your lifeline once there. In Primm, you are on your own. If you make friends like you did with your two interrogation instructors, you’ll be fine. Any questions?”

“Yeah, is the trunk full of gear for me? Because I don’t know if suits and gym gear are right for this mission.”

“Yes, I stuffed a ton of gear in the trunk for you. Speaking of gear, though, hand over the ring. You’ll be toting around a much cheaper space saving backpack. Also, give me your phone and I’ll trade you.” My mentor slides a sleek metal tube out of her pocket. She pulls on a tab and slides a flexible sheet of clear material out of it that locks in place at about 20cm. She hands the expanded device to me as the screen displays as parts become opaque and others light up. The screen is firm now in all areas and the little tutorial walks me through how to use the device and a preview of the apps it can use.

I hand over the ring and my former work phone.

“The numbers you will need are in there, including Craig’s current number. It has a bunch of features you will have to look up, but at least one of the guys on your team should have this model. Also, all the gear I’m sending you with have manuals loaded on the phone, and the manuals for CQB and Urban Siege tactics are things you should absorb quickly if you can. First though, you need to double learn the manual for the cherry sniper rifle I got for you. There will be other new weapons and gear as well, but again, you’ll have tonight and some of tomorrow to speed read.”

“Wait, modular raid armor? Jesus, Marcella, did you trade my life for this stuff?”

“Never. I’d never trade your life Kimber. I did however check all of this out under your name, with my authority. If you lose any of it, you will be in debt to the Organization forever. Break it, a justification from Craig and a ton of paperwork will get you another one.”

I have a dozen more questions to ask, but I’d wager most of them would be covered by information loaded on this scroll tablet? Before I could contemplate the naming conventions for flexible screens, Haley stops the car and the divider slides down.

“Alright ladies, ten minutes for snacks and bathroom, then on to Barstow.”

We get out of the car and Marcella leads us to the trunk where a backpack, a large duffel and a small duffel are stowed. She hands me the pack and the large duffel and we head toward the gas station building. My mentor gestures to keep eyes out and to follow her around the building. Parked there, was a two door Jeep-like vehicle with obvious off-road modifications and no top. She tosses our packs in the back, then to my great surprise, tosses me in the back and motions for me to stay down. She opens the door, slides in and we drive off in the alarmingly quiet off-road vehicle.

We drive for near a half hour, even though I know this town is not half an hour big. When we stop, I look up to see Marcella’s door open so I slide out and start getting our gear out. She motions for me to be quiet and to follow her and she in turn follow’s the driver. We walk some distance to a hatch covered in brush and lift the hatch up. Both adults motion for me to get in, so I climb into a 5m deep tube via latter with gear strapped to the front and back of me. I step back into a red lighted hallway that leads to another doorway that looks far sturdier than any other door I’ve ever seen.

After the three of us are down and the hatch is closed. They continue with gestures in this hall too, but I just follow as they chat in hand signals. We approach the extra sturdy door, and the man we are with moves a giant swing arm, then holds a latch while pushing with his shoulder to open the door. A gentle breeze wafts in from up the hall. Once through, he closes the door and swings the arm back over the door.

“Okay, that should do it. The desert is too quiet to talk sometimes. Good to see you again Marcie. This must be the Kimber I’ve heard about.”

I snap to attention to salute. “Reporting for duty sir.”

“You have never seen a proper salute before, but I respect the effort. I’m Craig. We’ll talk things over when I get the team together. We were not expecting you until nightfall.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. People gunning for little sister here, and she is worth burning a scattering device.” She says as casually as she can. Too bad I know she’s super serious about it.

“Aww, big sis loves me!” I cheer and glomp onto her side.

“Oh, gross. That was the grossest thing you’ve done in front of me.” Marcella frowns and shoves me off. Craig chuckles.

“Never thought I’d see you act like this again. Glad I lived to see it.” His smile is soft and proud. You can tell they’ve known each other for a long time. His sturdy build and his stately beard are comforting in a woodsy and caretaker sort of way. Super odd.

“Ugh, this is why I never visit people that know me: They remember things.”

“Does she mope at home too?” I see he’s talking to me.

“Hm? No, I’m usually doing that. She can normally be found torturing kids with burpees or eating their food because she can’t cook.”

“BETRAYER!” She grabs my head and starts twisting my hair in little swirls until they pinch.

“As wholesome as this is, we should get you settled in.” Craig seems amused, and thankfully tolerant. While spacious for a bunker, this place is still underground and more space means more air to pipe in, or so it seems. Maybe it’s just not worth it to make this place a real facility.

Craig shows us the modest mess area, crew quarters, and the ‘facilities’. He leads us to our room and tells us to meet in the mess in ten.

“This is cozy. Though I fully intended to crawl up next to you regardless. It’s been weird not sleeping next to someone.”

“I bet, 18 months of Bell trying to wear your skin would do that to anyone.”

“She isn’t that bad.”

“She has a locket of your hair in a ribbon, she’s a full-on clinger.”

I try to think of a witty response, but instead my mouth opens and spews, “I missed you Marcella,” I step forward and hug her middle.

“Missed you too kid.” She rubs my back and I nuzzle into her arm a bit. “how are you really doing?”

“Good, I guess. It doesn’t seem real that someone is trying to kill me and roughing up kids for their own good is starting to make a sick sort of sense.”

“Oof, you are too young for existential thoughts.”

“But old enough to beat kids and murder people?” I head butt her in the boob.

“Hey now. I suppose you’re not too young for much now. But you know that in this relationship, a small part of the sister job is me teasing you.”

“Does that mean I can call you old?” I smile into her shirt, knowing that she wasn’t going to like it.

“Don’t push it.”

We hold each other for a moment and it makes me want to nap and stay like this for a day and truly relax. Life has different plans as Marcella taps me on the back to indicate our time to meet the others.

“I probably should have used that time to change.” Nah, I used it wisely, I muse to myself.