KEN
She really is pretty damn close to being fine. She’s missing a tooth and now she’s cleaned up a bit, she somehow manages to look almost cute with the little gap which we’ll have to have fixed just as soon as we find enough rope to tie her down for dentist to see her.
I am unspeakably proud of her in this moment. The first mission is always difficult. The first mission going wrong is very bad news. We have no business being alive. And we wouldn’t be, if it wasn’t for her.
In that basement, she was a whirlwind of death. Those poor bastards never had a chance. When it comes to killing, technique and practice are key, but they’re nothing if you don’t have the inner steel to do it. She does.
She’s absolutely dangerous. She always will be. She’s a weapon and in the wrong hands she could do untold damage. But she’s mine.
I don’t like seeing her hurt. I could have fucking burst with rage when she came in streaming blood. But now, I don’t know. Something is different. I’m starting to realize she’s in her element. Brutality suits her.
The life she’s led has taken a lot from her, but it’s made her tough as hell in other ways. She’s sitting there with a half smile, and I’m watching Tom try to wrangle her into taking a shot. We all know she’ll let him in the end. This is just her way of making sure he’s still in charge.
“Ares. Head wants to see you.”
A summons from the Head cannot be ignored. I make my way gingerly to the woman’s office, thoroughly expecting to be chewed out for the shit show which just ensued.
* * *
“You wanted to see me, ma’am?”
“Congratulations, Ares.”
I literally never know what this woman is going to say. She’s unpredictable as all hell.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Mary is cleared for full status,” she says. “You can tell her the good news.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“That’s all.”
But that’s not all. It can’t be all. She’s not even going to mention that we were both almost taken captive? That doesn’t make sense to me. This woman rules with an iron fist. I’m pretty damn certain she doesn’t approve of mistakes. And a huge mistake was made today.
“Ma’am, a question?”
“Yes, Ares?” She looks up from the documents on her desk, and I feel the full force of being an inconvenience.
“Why wasn’t there backup?”
The Head looks at me with those steel gray eyes of hers. “You didn’t need it.”
“We needed it.”
“No,” she disagrees. “That girl needed to know she’s capable of surviving.
I have been racking my brain since we got clear how they knew we were there. Our approach was practically flawless. We tripped no wires, the security was laid out in the schematics and we flanked all of it. But they were waiting for us when we walked in. Like they had nothing better to do than just sit there and… holy shit.
“You….” I draw in a breath. “You tipped them off on purpose.”
“They were rogue operatives from another branch. Scheduled for destruction. No loss.”
Jesus Fucking Christ. This woman.
“You could have lost us,” I point out.
“If we’d have lost you, you wouldn’t have been worth having.” She gives me one of those thin, tight smiles. “You need to work on your reaction time, Ares. You were slow. You’re lucky she was there.”
“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth. “I guess I was. But ma’am…”
“Yes, Ares?” She raises her chin, as if daring me to say what she knows I’m going to say.
“If you ever put us in a situation with bad intel again, I’ll tell Mary.”
The Head breaks into a genuine smile. “Ah, you know how to make a threat, don’t you. Never fear, Ares. The testing period is over. Any damage you take from here on out will be entirely organic. I give you my word.”