All was silent. Operatives everywhere averted their eyes or looked down. They had known it - had a pretty good idea of it, at least. But a hunch does not blow such a force upon you as a set-in-stone truth. And there it was in front of them. Two countries had undergone such a terrible fate. If everyone inside was not killed by the blast, then they would surely be dead within a few days, or at least sick beyond repair. Within that time, if the countries wished for it, enough weapons could be launched to end humanity completely - turning earth into an uninhabitable radioactive hell.

And just a few button presses could make that happen.

We cannot let that happen.

Whiteford cleared her throat. "That is all. Everyone but the Xarnon agents are dismissed."

The six of us just stood there in shock while the agents filed out of the door. Whiteford and Sanchez approached us. It was only then that I realized Officer Torres was nowhere to be seen. "This is really happening, isn't it?" Les asked after a moment of silence. "Nuclear war."

"Not just nuclear war," Whiteford interjected. "If that was the case - the six of you wouldn't be here at all. No, Les, this is also cyber war."

I opened my mouth, as if to ask a question, but Whiteford spoke before me. "We have reason to believe that prior to launching the attack on Ukraine, Valamir shut off communications in many points across the globe. We were luckily unharmed, but many other people are stranded without access to anything else. Canada has been silent."

"We need you to reverse that, along with training our cadets." Officer Sanchez put in.

“Wait—” Seph. “Do we know what Valamir has been doing? Or what he even wants?”

“Unfortunately, not. He has not just shown up and done some shitty movie monologue.” Whiteford replied sarcastically.

Seph rolled his eyes, to which Whiteford shot him a glare. “But, that is beside the point. War is coming and we’ll have physical combat, nuclear attacks, and cyber warfare in our future. You—” She made eye contact with each of us in turn. “—will need to be prepared for all.”

“So, you’re training us to fight.” Naomi commented dryly.

“Well, and to survive nuclear scenarios.” Witeford responded.

“Pray?” I suggested. “Do a little dance? Say - I’ll survive, then knock on wood?”

“If you want to die a fool, yes.” Whiteford said with no hint of a smile whatsoever. “Regardless, you should rest today. Combat training will be more… draining than teaching. It starts tonight.”

Without another word, she left the room, leaving us to walk our way back to the dormitory. I realised it was only three hours ago that I woke up disgruntled at five in the morning. Since then, so much had changed. I tried not to think of Livia and Khan, but images of their faces kept flashing into my mind. Shut up! I shouted at whatever part of me kept sending these visions.

We reached our door, and silently walked in. “So much for the first lesson,” Seph grumbled.

I walked over to the couch, a blank look on my face. I couldn’t ignore it. Valamir had stolen the only people I loved - and the only people that loved me back. “Are you… ok?” Les asked softly.

I couldn’t lie about this, and I don’t think I could speak either. I just shook my head slowly.

“Oh my god.” Mel gasped. “You didn’t know people in one of those countries, did you?”

I brought my chin slowly up, then let it fall down in a nod.

“Holy shit, Cade.” Seph breathed. “I- I’m so sorry.”

Sure, he was sorry. Like that mattered. Sorry doesn’t undo the bombing. Sorry doesn’t bring them back. Sorry doesn’t rip Valamirs stupid shitty body into pieces, screaming at him, making sure he knows who he is. Sorry doesn’t leave the pieces in a bloody, broken heap.

Sorry, isn’t worth shit.

But I had to be grateful that these five people. Vivian flashed briefly in my mind. Okay, these four people - I corrected - are here for me.

So I must be there for them.

I looked up, and found my voice. “Thanks,” I muttered hoarsely.

Naomi sat down silently, and turned on the TV. “Cade, in the light of things - you should decide what to watch.”

Xe handed me the controller. I flipped through the news channels, my stomach flipping whenever I saw news coverage of what had just happened. It was unfortunately everywhere. There was no break, just endless videos of fire, carnage, and death.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Drones were few, but somehow the news had managed to get hundreds of videos showing the aftermath - bloody, broken bodies and all. Seph gently pressed the power button, turning the screen back into its peaceful, pure black. “Maybe TV isn’t the best thing right now.” He suggested softly.

“No, not at all.” Les breathed.

Mel walked over to a group of cabinets. “There’s got to be something else…” They muttered. They slowly opened one. Inside were several playing card decks. She held one up for us to see. “Does this work?”

The rest of us - apart for Vivian who had disappeared - nodded assent. We went over to the couches, where Mel pulled out the cards and placed the deck in the middle of the table. “Any idea of what game you want to play?” They asked.

“Why not euchre?” Les suggested. “Although - two of us would need to team up as a single player.” Mel didn’t speak, and Naomi didn’t look particularly happy with not going solo. And afterall, why not? I thought. Seph didn’t seem overly against the idea, so I asked:

“Seph, would you like to go together?”

He shrugged, and sat next to me. Les quickly cycled through all of the cards, removing all but nines, tens, Jacks, Kings,you Queens, and Aces. The two scorecards were laid down as per usual. Les sat across from Mel, me and Seph across from Naomi - forming the teams.

“Do you know ASL?” Seph whispered in my ear.

I signed yes.

He smiled. The first hand was dealt. It was decent - if spades was the suite. We would have the left, ace and queen - but the other cards were shit. We went through the trump-choosing round, and we picked up the bower.

“You first.” Mel muttered.

Seph pointed to the ace - a strong first play. I set it down. Of course, no one could combat that. I followed with the queen, giving up control to Les, who won the hand.

The game went on, and we - to no one’s surprise - won the round.

“Ready for training later?” Mel asked. The suite was decided, the card ordered into Naomi’s hand.

“Not really.” I said. Les managed to take the first trick.

“Training should be fine.” Naomi said softly. “But there is one thing that may not be.” Xe paused, placing down xyr card, an easy winner. “You have noticed by now that Russia targeted multiple countries with their attack. But not the US. Why would that be, considering we are currently one of their largest threats?”

“Maybe not to piss off the big opponents?” Les suggested.

Seph stared darkly forward. The game had paused. “Valamir would thrust his arm in fire just for more power. He has the opportunity to become legendary for being the one to defeat America. He wouldn’t have given up this chance for anything. There has to be another reason.” He then pointed at a card, and laid it down. Naomi took the hand.

“I don’t suppose anyone has any idea on what that is?” I asked, glancing around. Everyone shook their heads. Vivian would know, I thought. Vivian always seems to know something we don’t. But that’s just her - there when you need her, gone when you don’t.

Mel spoke quietly. “He may have intended to attack America. You never know what could have gone wrong.”

“I don’t think we can surmise much, considering we haven’t the faintest clue as to how the cyberattack works.” Naomi put in.

The game went on, our conversation more limited.

Finally, we made it to ten, with the opposing side being at eight points. I collected up the cards, when Les stood.

“We may not know enough right now, but we can figure things out.” Everyone stared at Les, confused. “C’mon - we’re fucking hackers! We have computers! We have tools!”

“Now?” Naomi asked. “Without any confirmation from Whiteford?”

“We still don’t know about her - about anyone here, really.” Seph said. “They all have their own agendas and things to do.”

“Fine - we look a little bit.” I said.

We each grabbed our laptops, and opened them up to a blank terminal.

There was a pause. Les spoke first. “Well, what now?”

Everyone seemed to consider that. “Well…” Mel began. “One thing we can all be sure of is that nothing on the internet is secret. There’ll be records of everything, somewhere.”

“But where?” I asked.

“We can’t use something public - no cyberattack tracker or well-known archive.” Seph put in. “The dark web will give you whatever the hell you want depending on how much money you throw at them.”

“For now, we don’t have the CIA to back us.” Les said. “So we are a little lacking on that side of things.”

“Then we can do this ourselves.” I said confidently. “After all, the dark web must get their information from somewhere.”

“And that brings us back to your earlier question of: where?” Seph reminded me.

“To start, everyone needs their own discreet search engine to even get there.” Naomi said. “I’m sure everyone has one of those.” We all nodded. “Then crack that open, and let’s just brute force our way into finding something!” Xe continued.

I opened up my favorite browser, and started searching. The first place I went to was an information site - filled with hackers writing all kinds of articles. I had just begun to search, when Les announced: “Found something!”

Damn, he’s fast. I remember how fast he had hacked earlier, when…

When…

My thoughts stopped and I froze. As everyone else crowded around Les, I stared. A stray tear escaped, rolling down my cheek. All I saw was death. All I heard were screams. I smelt carnage and fire. I tasted ash.

And I felt pure rage.

I am fucking done with being sad.

Done with being helpless.

As soon as we get through this combat camp…

I am bringing hell to this bitch Valamir.