Page 12 of Specter Bred

Her scowl deepened at the nickname.

"No, sir," she answered through clenched teeth.

"Good."

I stalked past her and turned my attention to the growing crowd of recruits.

Several of the candidates who had crossed the finish line together were already congratulating one another, slapping backs and shaking hands. Relief, pride, and more than a little arrogance filled their faces.

They thought they'd won and accomplished the impossible. The recruits actually belived they'd earned their Specter insignia on the first day of training. They were wrong.

"How many recruits passed, Captain Cutter?"

Cutter glanced across the field, pretending to count.

"Hmm. Let me see..." He scratched his chin dramatically. "Zero, Grizzly."

The smiles vanished instantly.

"What?" one recruit blurted.

Another stepped forward. "But sir, we made it across the finish line with our flags. You said—"

I cut him off.

"I said you needed to complete the mission."

"We did, sir."

"No," I barked. "You didn't."

The recruit immediately fell silent.

Confused looks spread through the crowd. Most of them were still trying to figure out what they'd missed. All except Hayes. The beta stood quietly near the back, looking far calmer than everyone else. Interesting.

"Hayes."

His head snapped up.

"Sir?"

"You look awfully confident for the first candidate eliminated."

A few recruits laughed, but Hayes ignored them, looking remarkably unbothered.

"Tell me," I said. "Why did not a single recruit pass?"

His eyes flicked briefly toward the finish line before returning to me.

"Because we failed the mission, sir."

"Go on."

"The objective wasn't to get ourselves to extraction." He nodded toward the flags still clutched in several recruits' hands. "It was to recover the intel."

The crowd grew quiet.

Hayes continued.