He laughs. “Just Zeke. The Officers know. The others follow because they trust the Officers and their elders. This is a normal dinner in Mass. Badass and parties are the norm. I’m glad I’m not a Prince; they got bombarded with Mass then Connecticut. It was nuts.”
I smile. “Stella told of the elephants at a birthday party.”
He nods. “My grandfather is by the perpetrator of that fiasco.” He points at Knight.
I didn’t see him come in with Danny and Ben. “He’s healed?” The Brother doesn’t move like he’s hurt at all.
“He’s healed. Aylen and Aiyana did it at the reservation early this morning.”
I put my hand up and shake my head. He knows I don’t need it and smiles with a new subject. “Your girl is going to get Web his power and do it safely.”
My eyes snap to his. “That wasn’t thrown in for nothing.”
“It wasn’t. She knows what she’s talking about, Alder and Asa trust that more than the overbearing know it all that doesn’t know it all. She needs to stick to SMR. She’ll understand.”
I raise brows at him. “You could tell her.”
He smiles. “I don’t talk, she doesn’t know me and I will show when I need to.”
I don’t have an answer but he’s walking away. I find my girl and drag her out then toward the stable. “I was told you needto stick to SMR and you’d know what that means. It’s challenged and LP and Asa trust you. Fight for it if you have to.”
She stops and watches me. “You don’t know what it means?”
I shake my head.
“I’ll make it happen the safest way possible.”
It’s the radiation or power thing they went off to look at. I nod and kiss my girl for not asking or giving me more than she needs to. Some shit isn’t for me to carry. I trust her to make that call.
Chapter Fourteen
Two weeks
Liminal Rising
Hud
“Havoc, train the Brothers to move like fire is chasing them up the ladder!” Turning, I look at the Brothers. “This time you move like your life depends on it. If it doesn’t, scores of civilians are dead. GO!”
They run one at a time yelling their name for the bot to log them.
Havoc’s ferocious bark and encouraging snaps at their legs and feet, like a rabid bite is a real consequence for the last slow-assed times, makes me smile. I note the Brother that moves to the second ladder. The one at a time wasn’t an order from me, so I like the initiative.
It takes them twenty to get through the simulated scene on the lofted second floor. When they’re back, they all made it within time. I point to four that I noted. “Stand.”
They do.
Out of twenty, only four took the second ladder. “Stay. The rest of you get to the wall simulator.”
They groan. It’s not an easy one and shit gets thrown at you the whole way up. I look for summary bios and check out my four then point and ask, “Why’d you go up the second ladder?”
The last defector smiles. “Havoc can only go after one of us. I played the odds and won. It got me fighting the clock while the other side finished too, Boss.” He mustn’t like his time but he’s within what I want.
I nod knowing he didn’t fight a clock. Both sides run separate. “Go to the wall simulator.”
One says Havoc, one claims time.
I’m holding out hope for the last who was the first defector. He’s Green Beret with a good record. I nod for him to talk.
