"We haven't used the names we were given by our mothers in a long time."
"He trained with you. Lived beside you. How long have you known him?"
"Six years. Or maybe it was five. Or four. The time before the enhancement is a little blurry. I don't remember much."
"But you remember me. My name. How can you not remember the names of your teammates?"
He took in a long breath. "I don't know. For a long time, everything from before was blurry. But we remember more about our lives from before we were taken to the training camp, when life still felt good. The camp was so brutal that everything is just blurred."
She swallowed. "Still, these men are your teammates. You interact with them daily. How could you have forgotten their names?"
He looked down at his boots.
"It stopped being relevant. Once we started being called by numbers, the names became useless, and they faded."
"Does Number Four remember his own name?"
"I don't know," he said. "I could ask him."
"Please do. When it's time to tell Asira about the escape plan, I will need a name, not a number."
He nodded.
"Does that happen to all of you when you leave here?" she asked after a moment. "You stop being someone with a name and become a number?"
He was quiet for longer than the question deserved.
"No. It's just the Eight of us."
"So, Asira's brother is one of the Eight. Number Four of them."
"Yes."
It suddenly occurred to her that Yaaf had a number too.
"What's your number?" she asked.
"I'm Number One."
Her mouth curved into a grin before she could help it. She knew it was foolish. Numbers were not ranks, and even if they were, ranking was not a thing to be pleased about in this place. But she was pleased anyway.
Yaaf had always been first at everything.
"Does that mean you're the leader of your team?" she asked.
"No."
"No?"
"I'm the spokesman. The one who speaks for the others. That's all."
That didn't sound right. "Why can't they speak for themselves?"
"They can, but they prefer for me to do it."
Perhaps he was more eloquent than the others, or less shy.
"So who is the leader?"
