32. Chapter 32

32

B efore she realized it, Rowan had already made his way across the gym toward her, and now Rebecca had zero viable means of escape.

“This place was downright creepy for that mystery initiation,” he murmured, “and now look at it. I mean, granted, you guys clearly have to improvise with most things, right? It’s not every day a secret military base comes with its own old-world ritual cave, you know? You’re just working with what you’ve got. It’s commendable.”

Rebecca stared straight ahead, pretending to watch the other operatives taking their places around the gym. All while fighting the urge to punch him in the face and send him flying out of her personal space and across the room.

“Any chance you wanna fill me in on what I’m looking at, here?” Rowan asked.

She gritted her teeth, then finally muttered, “Nope.”

“Hey, now that we’re here, though, no one’s actually told me what this whole Shade thing really is. I remember specifically being promised all the answers I could possibly want after hanging out in that casting circle and successfully not dying . So how about it, huh?”

By the Blood, she was this close to putting him on his ass but successfully held her tongue and her composure.

“Nothing?” Rowan whined. “Come on. Not even just a general synopsis, like what you guys do here and what the point of all this even is ? Enlighten me. Whatever you wanna share, I promise I’ll listen closely, boss.”

“There’s no intro course on this one,” she told him flatly, surprised by how level and even her voice sounded. “You’ll have to figure it out as you go. Just like the rest of us had to when we first got here.”

He leaned away to gape at her in mock surprise. “Even you ?”

Yes, even her. Because as far as Shade knew, Rebecca Knox was just another magical with nowhere else to go and a decent amount of knowledge and experience to offer a place like this. She intended to keep it that way, no matter how hard Rowan tried to break her resolve. Or how damn annoying it was.

She didn’t take the bait but stepped away from him instead. Once she reached the center of the gym, she stopped to address the entire task force.

She hadn’t noticed Maxwell entering again, but when his low growl rose somewhere behind her, she appreciated his presence here with her.

“Fall in line, elf.”

Rebecca smirked.

Points to her Head of Security for getting up in Rowan’s face so she wouldn’t have to.

Rowan eventually conceded, walking away from the shifter and chuckling to himself. He didn’t have to like it, but he was smart enough not to pick another fight with Maxwell. Not with everyone in the same room to see it.

She hoped.

Time to get this show on the road before she had the chance to find out.

“All right, listen up!” As soon as her voice echoed through the gym, the other side conversations petered out, replaced by focus and eager anticipation coming from every member as they settled their gazes on her.

“These, as you know, are the weapons our team confiscated from Eduardo’s convoy last night. Weapons Eduardo was intent on shipping off to someone else, which means they’re most likely also on the market and out there on the streets already. We can’t assume this was the first time he tried to get this stuff out into other magical hands.

“In these crates are some of the same weapons his forces used against us when we went up against Eduardo and his griybreki the first time at their base.”

“Even the RPG cannon Aldous wanted?”

Whispers circulated until Rebecca found the speaker in the room.

“Not quite, Hank,” she replied to the dwarf still sporting multiple bruises on his face, neck, and arms from his last mission weeks ago. He grinned back at her in excitement. “That one was—”

“Unfortunately,” Maxwell cut in beside her, “the only weapon of that type we’re aware of was destroyed before we could acquire it.”

Huffing out a laugh, Rebecca turned toward her Head of Security. He was still sore about that one, wasn’t he?

As if he’d read her mind, Maxwell leaned slightly toward her without taking his eyes off the gathered task force and muttered, “Yeah, I still blame you for it.”

Well at least now he was getting that out into the open.

Rebecca had destroyed that insanely powerful magical RPG launcher inside the lobby of Eduardo’s abandoned apartment building, but she’d also saved Maxwell’s life and the lives of everyone else on their team that night. Not to mention keeping a weapon like that out of Aldous’s hands, which were essentially the same type of hands out of which Shade wanted to keep these new weapons.

But if the shifter wanted to keep holding grudges for something that had changed the course of Shade’s history, and that was on him.

Rebecca laughed off his comment and addressed everyone again. “Hannigan’s right. We don’t have any more of those, but we’ve got the other stuff Eduardo’s been trying to offload to other black-market clients.

“As far as our intel goes, I’m pretty sure these weapons in front of you now were supposed to end up in Maryland, but now they’re here, and I’m hoping the rest of you will be a little more grateful for that than our Head of Security seems to be at the moment.”

The tension Maxwell had created with his snide comment shattered beneath a raucous round of laughter from the rest of Shade’s operatives.

Whether he’d meant his comment as a joke, Rebecca’s certainly was.

It was entirely worth it just to see the wide-eyed surprise on the shifter’s face when he shot her a sidelong look. As if he couldn’t believe anyone would dare to make him the butt of any joke.

Aww…was this his first time?

Unable to stop herself, Rebecca shot the shifter a quick wink, which only made him look that much more confused as the others’ laughter continued.

He averted his gaze and cleared his throat, and it was all she could do not to laugh with everyone else.

But she’d made her point.

If her Head of Security was going to call out her faults in front of the entire task force, she had no problem responding in kind.

“Great,” she continued with a chuckle and clapped her hands together to recapture everyone’s attention. “Let’s get these crates open and take a look at what we’re working with.”

Maxwell must have been grateful as hell for the switch of focus. He immediately gestured toward his security team to get them opening the various weapons crates stacked around the gym. Those they couldn’t open were broken into swiftly and efficiently.

Then Rebecca made her rounds for a real-time inventory, paired with an explanation of each weapon’s specs and what made them different from the weapons comprising the current catalog of Shade’s armory.

They had revolvers, semi-automatic and automatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, tactical crossbows, and something that looked like a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun but with its own mount.

The last crate she inspected contained nothing but magitek rounds for each class of newly acquired weapon, which gave her an idea. She called up Leonard, Diego, Nyx, and Titus so each of them could offer a quick demonstration for the rest of the class, complete with an explanation of how they’d seen these weapons in action.

Rebecca gave them the green light to fire a few test rounds at the wooden targets erected around the room.

The members of her small team were happy to oblige, and with every demonstration of firing each new weapon, the palpable excitement and eager anticipation in the gym heightened into a visceral enthusiasm just waiting to be unleashed.

Seeing these weapons in action in a controlled environment instead of during combat engagement in the field gave Rebecca the opportunity she hadn’t previously had to consider each weapon and its implications. The cache they’d intercepted was admittedly impressive.

Magitek weaponry had come a drastically long way since she’d first stepped foot on Earth, she’d been watching the evolution of its advancement over centuries.

These weapons were top-of-the-line, no doubt about it. Recognizing this made her wonder at the mastermind behind such advancements.

Something told her Eduardo’s griybreki forces didn’t quite have the mental capacity for inventing or even manufacturing stuff like this. Which now made finding the manufacturer of these new weapons just another item she could file away on her mental to-do list.

Once they’d performed a demonstration with every type of weapon in their new cache, Rebecca didn’t have to read the room to know every member of this task force was itching to get their hands on one and try it out for themselves.

“Okay, now that you’ve seen what these babies can do,” she called out, “listen up! I want everyone armed, and by the end of the day, I expect every operative in this building to know how to handle each new model like you’ve been training with them your whole life.”

“By the end of the day?” Maxwell murmured beside her.

She shot him a coy smile. “They can handle it. It’s just gonna be a long day.”

He snorted and shook his head but didn’t correct her or add to her newest order.

“And in case anyone has any bright ideas,” Rebecca added, “the first person to get knocked on their ass because they started screwing around with loaded magitek gets a prize .”

The dozens of murmured side conversations came to a halt while every pair of eyes turned back toward Shade’s Thon-Da’al.

Rebecca could see their minds working furiously to figure out whether she was joking or merely implementing a poorly dressed-up threat.

Beside her, Maxwell punched a fist into his opposite palm with a low growl and added, “A special prize.”

The gym went deathly silent.

Magicals shared wary glances with each other, still unsure what their commander and Head of Security were trying to say with so many mixed messages.

By the Blood, they were all taking themselves way too seriously.

Rebecca finally couldn’t contain a bark of laughter any longer. When Maxwell blinked at her, frowning with just as much confusion as everyone else, it made her laugh even harder.

Then she got control of herself and clapped her hands. “You have your orders. Better get to work!”

Whether it was her laughter, or the contagious excitement swirling through the training gym, or that their new Thon-Da’al seemed to baffle their Head of Security more than they’d ever seen, the task force didn’t waste another second.

They got to work selecting their preferred weaponry for round one of target practice, marveling at the new firearms.

While lighthearted conversations and shared pointers filled the air, Rebecca realized how content she was. Probably for the first time since the responsibility of Shade Command had been thrust upon her, leaving her with no say in the matter.

She’d made her fair share of mistakes, sure, just like anyone else. In a way, though, those mistakes were now culminating into an unequivocal victory this morning. Not only had Shade’s most recent mission been a complete success, but now the task force had the means and the opportunity to train with new weapons that had only ever previously been aimed at them in field combat.

Now, they were about to level that playing field.

Crates opened, weapons were drawn and loaded with ammo, and the low whine of multiple magitek weapon systems coming online and firing up echoed through the gym in a bevy of varied tones.

The first fired weapon was a bullseye hit against the wooden target across the room. A round of cheers exploded from the magicals who’d been paying attention.

The noise built and grew. Magitek rounds fired, zipping and blasting through the air with multicolored lights, punching through the targets, or enveloping them top to bottom in a crackling network of electric energy, or spinning them like tops where they were mounted.

Every operative got a chance at every weapon, leaving no skill set underutilized while Shade trained.

Rebecca didn’t expect to be the center of anyone’s attention anymore once the training officially started, so it surprised her when she noticed a new presence beside her a second before Bor cleared his throat.

“If those targets fail to hold up under the assault,” he said, “don’t blame me. I only had an hour to prepare.”

Rebecca chuckled. “Something tells me an hour is more than enough time for you to excel at what we needed. You did just fine,Bor.”

The old giveldi grunted and remained at her side to watch the controlled chaos firing across the gym and smashing into his hastily assembled targets.

For as little hands-on experience as Shade had had with top-of-the-line weapons like these, they were quick studies, to say the least.

Amid the shouts of victory and the rising cries of awe and excitement after each successful fire, Maxwell’s disgruntled comments cut through the din while he made his rounds like any good superior overseeing training, offering his sage advice wherever necessary.

“No, that setting won’t do anything. Bump it up by fifty percent.”

“You know where the target is, don’t you? Great. Aim at that , not me.”

“Don’t keep feeding the rounds like that. What are you trying to do? Kill yourself?”

Rebecca tried not to laugh every time she heard the shifter’s voice rising above all the other noise. He was just doing his job, and yes, he took it very seriously.

Maybe, she thought, in the best way possible.

“If you’d told me just a few months ago this day would come,” Bor grumbled beside her, “I would have called you full of shit and told you I’d only believe it when I saw it. And here I am, seeing it with my own eyes.”

“What?” Rebecca asked, turning toward him. “Successful training?”

“Nah, any training can be called a success if it does what it’s intended to,” he said. “I’m talkin’ about the day when someone finally gave this task force a shot to handle weapons like this. A real shot. Something we could be proud of.”

“So you’re saying it’s an improvement?” Rebecca asked with a chuckle.

“Don’t let it all go to your head just yet, elf. This place has had some top-notch commanders, don’t get me wrong. You’re up there, though. That’s for sure.”

“But not the best.”

He shrugged his already age-hunched shoulders. “Eh…top three. Maybe.”

“Sounds like a success to me.”

“After Aldous, just getting up in the morning counts as a success. And he sure did his part to make that damn near impossible for everyone in this room. Yeah, including with weapons like these.”

Well that sounded like a mystery just waiting to be revealed.

Rebecca turned toward the old giveldi and folded her arms. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, nothing about you, elf. Not specifically. Ain’t hard to be better than what we had, but you’ve exceeded expectations already.” He nodded toward the crates of weapons being unloaded and tested by operatives eager and ready to put their knowledge and expertise to good use. “That ain’t common knowledge, though I’m sure most folks here already suspected as much.

“Aldous would’ve never opened up a haul like this to everybody else. Sure, we’ve brought back plenty of spoils before. You’ve seen it yourself. Hell, you’ve been a part of it. But all the shit our teams brought back? Bastard was either stockpiling it for himself in his own private collection, and ancestors only know what he had planned for that, or even where he kept it all. I’ve got no idea, and I don’t wanna to know.

“ Or he was selling it in private deals he made by himself. Hawking it off to the highest bidder kinda thing. Judging by the state of things around this place for the last decade or so, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that changeling was just lining his own pockets with the profits and leaving it at that.”

Rebecca shrugged. “Can’t really say I’m surprised.”

Bor merely grunted and scratched the side of his bald head.

Hearing details like these about the way Aldous had abused his power as commander wasn’t anything new. But the sudden flare of indignant anger rising in Rebecca’s chest definitely was.

In just a few short days as Shade’s new leader, she’d come to care for this task force and its operatives in a way she never could have imagined. Until it happened.

The fierce protectiveness she discovered now almost made her wish she hadn’t already killed Aldous so she could kill him again now.

Only when Bor cleared his throat and she noticed him glancing at her clenched fist did Rebecca force herself to open her hands at her sides. Staying this pissed off at a dead changeling wouldn’t help anyone. She was already making the changes she deserved anyway, and that had to be enough.

“You know what though, elf? The way things are going, we might even start doing some real good around here again. The way this place was always meant to.” He looked her up and down and snorted. “You’re all right. I guess.”

Rebecca huffed out a laugh. “What a compliment. I guess.”

A handful of operatives on the other side of the gym kicked up an even louder ruckus with warning shouts as they scattered. A second later, one of the new weapons fired against a target and consumed the entire thing with strobing purple light.

The bolt of purple energy crackled and sparked from one target to the next, and then the next, leaping to everything in close proximity and almost catching a sleepy-eyed warlock in the process before he scrambled out of the way.

The shocked silence lasted a split second before the magicals who’d watched the whole thing erupted in cheers and whistles.

Bor grunted again and shook his head. “Oh yeah. They’ll hold.”

Then the first target under attack snapped down the middle with a splintering crack before half of it broke away to dangle precariously from the rest of the wooden board. Like a door hanging open on a broken hinge.

The operatives howled with laughter and cheered some more.

Rebecca smirked at the old giveldi beside her. “You were saying?”

Bor’s wrinkled face pinched even further when he scowled at the broken target. “Again, I only had an hour.”

After that, Rebecca watched this impromptu training session with a mounting pride she hadn’t felt in anything else in such a long time. Shade’s operatives were far more effective and efficient than they’d been given credit for in longer than any of them wanted to admit.

She’d already known this when she’d joined, but their chances to prove themselves under Aldous’s leadership had been non-existent, if that. Now, though, this place was finally feeling cohesive, like a real team. All they’d needed was a chance.

When another round of rising shouts filled the gym, she searched for the cause, wondering who would be next to prove Bor’s last-minute targets generally effective. But this time, the shouts didn’t sound so encouraging.

“Whoa, man, whoa! You sure you wanna start with that one?”

“Hey, maybe leave that big guy in the crate, huh? That thing packs a hell of a punch.”

“Damn… I heard the new guy was badass, but this looks more like a death wish.”

When Rebecca finally found the cause of all the commotion, a tight knot curdled in her stomach. She took off in that direction.