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The familiar stab in the chest came over me again. I’d left my home, had traveled halfway across the world to be here, had defied my parents, my entire clan, had probably humiliated my family for life—and for what? To sit behind a desk for two whole years, taking calls and filling out reports, never once given the opportunity to go out there, do some real work, save some real people from the monsters hunting them?
It was not fair.
“Hey, chin up, Pink,” Hunter called, as if he could read the emotions on my face. “You’ll get your shot. I know you will.”
I groaned. “You know I hate that name.” Why did he love making me miserable? We were supposed to be friends.
“And that is why I’m going to call you that until the day I die,” he said proudly.
“That day might come sooner than you think,” I muttered.
“Aw, you’re so cute when you get mad and make threats,” Hunter said, and Patricia nodded with a sweet smile plastered all over her face.
Cute. If there was one word I hated more than pink, it was cute.
But, apparently, the more I tried to stop them calling me those names, the worse it would get for me. So, I let it go with a sigh.
Not that I was trying to hide how I felt. They all knew how frustrated I was that the Chief never even considered me for any of the bigger missions that would require me to be out there in the world, instead of locked here, underground, ass glued to a chair. A very uncomfortable chair, at that.
“I don’t get it,” Eva said. “Why would you even want to be out there?” She pointed at the ceiling. “You get paid exactly the same as Mr. Hottie Hot over there, but you get to sit here and not risk your life at all.” She nodded ahead, at the line of offices. I knew very well who Mr. Hottie Hot was. “It’s a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.”
“Some of us don’t want desk jobs all our lives,” Hunter said, widening his eyes at Eva opposite him. We’d rearranged our carrels to face each other—me across from Patricia and Eva across from Hunter. It kind of gave us the feeling that we were more isolated from the rest of our colleagues. We really weren’t, but it was the feeling that counted, I guess.
“I don’t mind at all,” Eva said with a shrug.
And I envied her, I really did. But these past two years for me had been death. A very slow and very painful death. Every week when I called back home, I died a little more. Every time I lied to my parents I became a little less confident. Just how much longer could I stand it until it got too much and I hopped on a plane back home?
“Enough talking,” Patricia said. “Let’s get to work. Phones on, on three, two, one…”
We all pressed the red buttons on our landline phones next to our computers.
“See you for lunch, gang,” Hunter said when his phone rang, and he picked up.
And so, we got to work.
