“You took care of that pretty effectively, Sten.”
“I mean it,” I tell her. “I’d do anything. Anything you’d ever want me to do, I would do.”
“I know.” She looks away from me, her expression pained.
“Why does that upset you so much?”
“You’ve said before that you are drawn to me,” Riley says.
“The chemical reaction between the components of FOG and whatever you take to complete the interaction.” I remember talking about this some time ago.
“Exactly. This will only enhance that feeling.” She opens her mouth to say something else but then quickly closes it again. “I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do. The closer you are to me, the more you will look to me for guidance.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“It depends on who you ask.” Riley shakes her head slightly. “Mills thinks it’s advisable. She says it will strengthen the bond you have with me already, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” I tilt my head and focus on her face. “Isn’t that the whole idea of this chemical reaction? It seems like a tactical advantage.”
“Maybe it is,” she says, “but I feel like I’m…like I’m taking advantage of you.”
“I really don’t mind.” I chuckle.
Instead of laughing, like I expect, Riley presses her lips together and scowls.
“You don’t know if you mind or not.”
Chapter 8
My solitary instruction in a virtual training center is complete. Today, I’ll meet some of the others like me, and we’ll begin to work together.
This also means I’ll be leaving the medical facility for the first time. We are going to be transported to an outside training area near a military base on the edge of the city. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m anxious to find out.
“You are doing so well,” Riley tells me. “You are officially at the top of your class, so to speak. I can’t wait to see how you all perform together.”
Riley tells me about the plan for the day as I dress in black fatigues, a dark T-shirt, and a pair of sturdy boots.
“You’ll be working with two other specimens,” she says. “Most of the missions you’ll conduct will be in groups of three. You should find them very easy to work with—you’ve all been given the same programming to help you work together. You’ll each get your tactical assignments, and your skill sets will complement each other.”
“You’re really excited about this.”
“I am.” Riley smiles. “We’ve worked so hard for this, Sten. You’ve been through so much. This is the first real demonstration of what you are capable of doing. There will be a lot of higher-ups watching your performance through the closed circuits. If everything goes well, you’ll be looking at your first real assignment within the next thirty days.”
“What would the assignment be?”
“Military intelligence has some objectives for you,” she says. “I don’t have the specifics. We’ve had some trouble on the eastern border with the Carson troops. They infiltrated one of our new farming communities last month. All those who lived there were either captured or killed. God knows what’s being done to those they took prisoner.”
“I thought Mills didn’t have much agriculture.”
“We don’t. There are only a small number of communities. Their focus is on the plant compounds we can’t recreate easily in a lab.”
I don’t know why we can’t grow actual food instead of this crap.
The voice in my head is familiar, but I can’t figure out why. There’s a brief flash of a dark-skinned man with closely cropped hair and a flannel shirt, but the image fades quickly. I shake my head to clear it.
“Why would Carson take farmers as prisoners?” I ask.
“Disruption of supply lines. We have so few with farming skills. Taking any of them out of the equation can have a huge effect on the overall process.”
Information about supply lines and the best ways to disrupt them flow into my head: destruction of a key point in the route, elimination of transport vehicles, removal of key personnel—strategies feed into my head from the implants placed there.
When I’m dressed and ready, Riley leads me out of the lab and down the hallway to the left. I’ve never gone in this direction though much of it looks familiar based on the virtual mission I’d done before when I was trying to get Riley out of the facility. The main difference is the people. I have encountered almost no one since I’ve been here, and the number of people we pass makes me tense.