Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
What in the donkey dicking fuck…
I stared at him and had absolutely no response.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get rid of all that,” he said. “If I can do it, anyone can.”
“You—” I had to clear my throat. “You were in the Army too?”
“Yeah. Only, I was very good with a sidearm in my field.” He smiled.
Actually, he’d been wrong about that one. The one and only miss in a sea of hits. I was very good with a sidearm too, though not thanks to the Army. A guy had to do something when everybody else went out drinking and fucking around.
“There’s something interesting about you, though,” he told me. “You don’t strike me as one of the warrior alcoholics who can outdrink an Irish jarhead, nor are your pockets filled with cans of Zyn. When one of the other recruits sized you up earlier, you didn’t even notice.”
I scrunched my nose. “I noticed.”
He smiled again. “You just didn’t care. I think I like you, kid. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
Welp. High praise and a threat all rolled up like a pair of socks.
My face felt a little warm, and I didn’t know how or if to answer. What did one say to that?
Luckily, he seemed ready to change the topic. He checked his watch. “I have the next babysitter joining in a few, but before I go…” He shifted his gaze back to me. “Outta curiosity, how would you have described yourself in three words before joining the Army?”
Three words before joining…
Hmm. I chewed on the inside of my cheek and thought back on my childhood, my teenage years—or the early ones, at least—and losing Mom and…
“Um, I’ll say lost, unprepared, and scared,” I said.
I was just gonna throw myself to the wolves and provide all the answers they asked for.
“And now, post-service, three words,” he finished.
That one was tougher, except the first word. “I’m still lost.” I said it like a joke, even though it couldn’t be truer. “I’m indifferent. And, um… I don’t know. I don’t know the third one.”
“Lost and indifferent,” he echoed. “Let’s hope that changes soon.”
That’d be nice.
The next babysitter, to use Operator Rose’s word, let us get familiar with the schoolhouse on the first floor. We saw the classrooms, most of which were on the small side since they didn’t take in many recruits at once. There were some large ones as well, though. After seeing our dorms, it was clear they were used to accepting bigger groups of people too. Operator Hyatt said they often took in government personnel that were sent here for advanced training for whatever reason.
That led to some of the recruits asking why the government would send employees to Hillcroft, and Operator Hyatt replied absently while checking his watch.
“We train security escorts and drivers, for instance. We teach them how to handle certain situations like riots, assaults, protests, terrorist attacks…”
I tuned him out and wandered into one of the classrooms.
Nine seats, one teacher’s desk, one big-ass whiteboard. Nothing whatsoever on the walls.
It made me curious to find out how individualized our schedules were. Had they already profiled us enough to customize our lists of classes? Would someone take history but not a second language? Were there any classes they’d taken off my list?
“Listen up, everyone!” That sounded like Beckett.
I ducked out of the room and looked down the hall, and both Beckett and Coach were coming in hot.
“Thank fuck,” Operator Hyatt muttered. “I’m out. It was nice, uh…” He glanced at the recruits and changed his mind. “Never mind.” He left. “Don’t do this to me again, Coach.”
I smirked.
“Love you too, sunshine,” was Coach’s reply.
I folded my arms over my chest as our hot teachers reached us.
“It looks like we have a water leak on our hands, so dormitory units one, two, and three will be moved,” Beckett announced. “Don’t worry, your shit hasn’t been damaged, but we gotta get plumbers in there. And depending on the damage, unit four might also need to be transferred, but we’ll know more tomorrow.”
Well, fuck. I was in unit four. I’d started clocking out mentally when he’d only mentioned the other units.
“For the affected units, congrats, you’re grabbin’ your shit and moving in to the condos across the street,” Coach announced.
Damn. The recruits in those units suddenly perked up, and I hoped they found a fucking flood in our room. I hated bunk beds.
Beckett spoke up again. “As Coach mentioned earlier outside the dorms, all Hillcroft operators are entitled to a home close to work, whether it’s temporary or a permanent residence. Hence, Lincoln Towers across the street, where several of our operators live in between deployments.”
“And we’re tellin’ you this now because you gotta keep your mouths shut,” Coach said pointedly. “There are still primarily civilians livin’ in that building, so you better not treat the place like the barracks. You can pair up right now, and each duo will share a studio unit until we know more about the leak.”