They keep walking.
“Impressive,” I remark. “They’ll be in your bed in no time.”
There aren’t many empty tables left, so I think,Fuck it,and make a beeline for Gray and his crew. I don’t usually join them if Xavier is with me, but I wouldn’t mind hitting Gray up for intel about why the Authority has been holed up in the war room all week. When I asked Kallister, he gave a vague answer about unrest in the wards and refused to elaborate.
We receive several wary looks as we sit down, mostly from Evlynne and Neema. The others seem too distracted by the conversation we interrupted.
“I don’t understand why we can’t just move in and get them out,” Henley is saying. For once, there’s no mischief in his eyes. His expression is stony.
“Move in where?” I ask.
Gray glances over at me. “Shit’s been escalating in the labor camps since Travis Redden’s big speech about how all Primes should be afraid of having their minds corrupted. The last few check-ins from Mods at the Ice Canyon facility have been concerning.”
My shoulders go rigid. Ice Canyon is the salt mine in Ward A. That’s where Tana is being held.
“Oh, and you’ll love this,” Gray tells me. “The little general was promoted and now runs his own unit in Silver Block.”
“Roe?” I say, feigning surprise. Cross already told me about Roe’s promotion, but I would never betray his confidence.
“He was at the salt mine last night. Beat a Mod to death and almost killed another because they had the gall to defend themselves after a group of Primes came at them.”
Saint growls in displeasure, displaying rare anger. “Let’s just raid these camps and free all our people.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying for weeks,” I remind Gray. “Tana is in Ice Canyon. Can’t we at least consider a rescue mission?” Everytime I’ve brought this subject up to Kallister or Gray in the past, they’ve responded with the same familiar refrain about howit’s not that easy.
“It’s not that easy,” Gray says, and I have to grit my teeth. But this time he actually elaborates. “The coal mine in Spearhead is surrounded by force fields. The camps in the south are too remote and heavily guarded, making them difficult to penetrate. With Ice Canyon, you’ve got the cliffs in the east, and we can’t get there by sea. Not to mention the airspace is monitored so we can’t land too close to the mine. That means approaching on foot.”
“So we just let our people get killed and beaten to a pulp?” snaps Evlynne.
“We’re running a risk assessment.” He lifts his coffee to his lips and takes a sip, pensive. “We’ll probably come to a vote soon.”
“Send it to a vote now,” she retorts. “What was the point of blowing up their base if we weren’t going to immediately strike again afterward?”
For once, I’m in agreement with Evlynne. I don’t understand why we haven’t hit them with another attack.
“We’re facing an entire military,” Gray tells her. “We don’t have the numbers. A quick in-and-out air strike is one thing. Executing a successful extraction where everyone doesn’t wind up dead is a lot harder.”
“But you’re considering it?” I push.
“Of course. We can’t have our people dying in these camps. We need to get them out. The Authority recognizes that. We’ll run some recon missions this week, see what we’re dealing with.”
I give him a hopeful look. “How do you get assigned to recon?”
“You don’t.” Evlynne gives a derisive snort, while Neema snickers into her drink. “Nobody’s letting you on their recon detail, Darlington.”
I wait until after everyone scatters before I pull Gray aside. “What did she mean by that?” I demand.
He doesn’t even try to let me down gently. “It means none of the mission leads want you on their teams.”
My stomach clenches painfully. Well. That stings. I can shoot a gun better than any of the people here and none of them want me to watch their back?
“Yet,” he clarifies when he notes my expression.
“So it’s not because I can incite?”
“That might be the case for a couple of them, but what it comes down to is you’re untested in the field. You’ve never run ops in the wards before, and most leads won’t take a chance on a greenhorn until they prove themselves.”
“How can I prove myself if nobody takes a chance on me?” I bite my lip, trying not to show how upset I am. “What about you? Are you against working with me?”
