Page 119 of Hunted

She took two steps in and stopped with hands clasped neatly behind her back, causing the three of us to swivel around to look at her, or keep our eyes trained on the Commander. Personally, I never liked having someone behind me—I didn’t trust anyone except my brothers. And maybe a certain tiny blonde.

I turned just enough to keep them both in my periphery, wondering what had prompted the Commander’s summons.

“Have you conducted your evaluation on the girl?” he demanded.

“I have, Sir.”

“And what conclusions have you drawn?”

Calper lifted her chin. “It’s too soon to say for certain. I’d like more time with her.”

“You’ll have it,” he grunted. “But in the meantime, what have you found?”

I felt her eyes pass over my face, then slide sideways to likewise encompass Dek and Van. “Subject is compliant.”

Subject.

Like they’re studying her.

“She answers mission-related questions directly, if not in great detail,” Calper continued in an ear-scratching monotone. “She has shown excellent markers of ongoing obedience, particularly when presented with scenarios of a more personal nature. It is my belief that such reactions are the result of Recruit Deveaux’s elimination. Subject is demonstrating early signs of attachment and dependence on her handlers”—Varco’s gaze snagged on my cheek—“but I have not yet determined the cause of such attachment.”

“Go find out, then. Dismissed,” Varco growled.

Calper left as quickly as she came, and the Commander watched us with steepled fingers for several minutes.

“What on earth did you three do to cause such unwavering loyalty in an asset you’ve only had under your command for less than an hour?” he asked in a sardonic, caustic manner.

None of us were stupid enough to answer.

“I have my theories, of course, but perhaps we should test just how far each of your loyalties are willing to extend. Perhaps⁠—”

Mars crashed through the door, interrupting the Commander’s monologue. His face was pale, and his heart thudded so ferociously it was visible in the side of his neck. “Sir, we have a situation.”

“What is it?” Varco boomed at his second, who—to his credit—remained unbothered by his sharp tones, like a man who’d long since battened down the hatches to weather the storm.

Mars’ eyes flicked over to us and back. “I doubt their clearance level covers this,” he muttered, taking several more steps into the room to whisper something in the Commander’s ear.

A series of emotions crossed Varco’s face—shock, disbelief, concern—before it finally settled on cold, hard rage. “Show me,” he bade, voice dropping in barely contained lividity.

Mars hit a few different keys on the Commander’s keyboard, then stepped back, seeming to brace himself against the wall.

Varco watched something play out on his screen, unflinching until⁠—

“NO!” he roared, leaping to his feet, drawing back as if to punch the monitor. Then, thinking better of it, he tapped a button and shoved it around to face us.

Blowing up the entirety of the screen was a black-and-white security camera feed, timestamped from just a few minutes ago.

Addie was seated behind Calper’s desk, with the most intensely beautiful expression on her bruising face. That expression quickly morphed into shock, then horror, then devastation, and I had to fight the urge to leap through the screen and find out what was wrong with our girl.

Seconds later, Calper entered the field of vision from where her doorway would be off-screen, stopping dead upon entry. She reacted quickly, pulling something from her pocket and converging on Addie with a third, unknown person visible only by the back of their head.

Whoever it was—male, thick-built, short-haired—was pointing a gun right at my Ice Queen.

Just as the doctor reached her, she shot to her feet and slashed horizontally, slitting Calper’s throat with nothing but a cold, dead blankness on her face.

I mimicked her actions, leaping to my feet like I’d—I don’t know—help her? Stop her?

My lungs stalled watching her use Calper as a shield. I didn’t dare breathe as she progressed across the room to the unknown man until he ran out of bullets. When she dropped the doctor and flicked a very familiar knife through the air, my heartbeat faltered as well.