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A loud knocking on the bedroom door woke me from the deep slumber I was in. I sat up and blinked, disoriented as Remy turned on the light and Jace sat up beside me. We saw Will and Paul looking grave on the other side of the door.
“What’s up?” Remy asked Will, his voice still heavy with sleep.
“We have to activate you guys along with a few of the others tonight. We have gathered intel from a reliable source saying that in three hours at shift change, Horatio is sending in a team of gifted to a lab at a government facility. We don’t know what he’s after but it’s nothing good if he’s going there,” Will explained.
“We need you to gather the team and choose ten other Nons to go with you. The pilots are already doing their flight checks,” Paul added. “Wheels go up in one hour. The mission brief will be in fifteen minutes.”
“We’re going to gather the rest of the operatives. See you in fifteen,” Will stated as he closed the bedroom door behind them.
Any tiredness I may have felt, quickly faded as I sat up and stood. I went to the hall closet, grabbed all of my gear, and quickly slid it on.
“Who do we want to go with us?” I asked Jace as he came out into the hall and kissed the back of my neck.
“Ford, Yaris, and Spencer are on the top of my list,” Remy proclaimed as he came out of the room pulling on his black thermal top.
Troy and Drake were the next ones to come out of their room. “Do we have time for coffee?” Troy yawned as he looked at his watch. “Holy crap, we just fell asleep three hours ago.”
“Whatever, you didn’t play football for hours,” Jaxson grumbled as he stumbled out to the room rubbing his chin. “I don’t even have time to shave.”
“Relax, Princess, none of us do,” Troy stated as he rubbed his own stubble. I rarely got to see him with facial hair, and I have to admit, the stubble looked good on him. “Coffee is a necessity and no one forced you to play for hours. Training camp’s going to be harder and longer, so suck it up, buttercup.”
Jaxson attempted to punch him but stumbled in his fatigue. Troy and Remy chuckled.
“Let’s go,” Drake urged. “Knowing Pops and Paul, they’ll have something for us to eat and drink in the tactical room.”
“How are we expected to function with so little sleep?” Noah grumbled as he drudged over to the door and opened it.
“Why did Horatio have to strike the day after Thanksgiving?” Jaxson added in a disgruntled voice as he followed Noah out the door.
I found myself watching my feet as I followed after them. I wanted to do my own complaining but didn’t even have the energy to do that. We followed the dim corridors until we made our way to the tactical room.
I paused as we entered the room and was surprised to see Adams in the room already.
“She’s not going,” Remy stated as he came into the room and pointed towards her. “I would also like to add Ford, Yaris, and Spencer.”
“What?!” Adams cried in outrage. “I’m already up. I’m ready. There’s no use getting them up.”
“I don’t care,” Remy said brutally. “For our first real mission out, we’re not taking someone we can’t trust.”
Paul looked at Adams apologetically. “As one of the team leads, Remy has a say with his team. Can you get Ford, Yaris, and Spencer?” Then he turned to Jace and Remy. “Who else?”
Jace, Remy, and Troy threw out more names with the approval of Terrance as he joined us. More of the gifted came trickling into the room as bagels, fruit, coffee, hot water, and tea was brought in.
I pulled up my shirt in front of my face and burrowed into it. I was contemplating a nap as we waited. Adrenaline laced with fear was coursing through my body, followed closely by exhaustion.
I must have dozed off, because moments later, I was gently shaken and the room was nearly full. Troy handed me cup of coffee and a bagel smothered in cream cheese as he stood behind me. It was the most people I had ever seen go on any of our missions. The lights were dim but an image of a building surrounded by trees was now projected onto the screen.
I blinked tiredly around the room, seeing the Illinois team was there. This would be interesting. We had just began training with them at the beginning of the week, but I still didn’t have a read on them. They definitely had some natural talent on their team, but they weren’t nearly as organized or experienced as we were. They had been a community whose mission hadn’t been the same as ours. They were made up of farmers, butchers, and other blue-collar workers. They hadn’t seen or done much fighting before joining us. Today, they would be tested by fire.
I could see the trepidation and uncertainty on their faces. They had only seen Horatio in action on a television screen. They never had to face an adversity that we had seen. They were here to fight for our way of life. They liked living in near anonymity. With people like Horatio bringing them into the limelight, eventually they would suffer as well. They knew it was wise to join us now or possibly suffer later.
“Thanks for your help,” Jace stated as he gave a pointed look at Adams. She was standing on one of the walls trying to blend in with the rest of the operatives for the mission. “You can go back to your quarters.”
“You may need me!” she insisted.
“When we think you’re ready, we’ll allow you to accompany them,” Will said bluntly. He waited for her to storm off before he continued. “Here is the lab in question,” Will stated. “These are the four areas most likely for Horatio to breach. We need to be waiting for him before he breaches the labs. There are too many sensitive experiments being conducted in that building, and anything Horatio may be after cannot be good.
Troy, you’re heading up team Alpha. Terrance, you’re heading up team Bravo. Remy, you’re team Charlie. Jace, you’re the team lead for Delta. Delta, I need you here,” he pointed to a spot on the map. “Bravo, you are here,” he pointed to the opposite side. “Charlie, we need you in the basement of the facility. Alpha, you’re going to be guarding the labs. Hopefully none of them make it that, far but if they do, then I you need to be ready.”
