Anarchy | Book Two, The Genesis Series

Seven

Dylo hadn't expected Amber's mission in Fengtai to be so catastrophic.

After skimming over Amber's squad roster, he'd figured that they'd had it all under control. After all, Benji and Jade scored some of the highest marks out of the entire second wave of recruits, and their hand-to-hand combat ratings weren't too shabby for their ages, either. Even Angelo, no matter how slothful he could be at times, still came through for the team when it counted.

And Amber, while she could definitely be a bit stubborn sometimes, wasn't a terrible leader. Her innate ability to swiftly locate foes on the battlefield from a distance was unmatched, not to mention the fact that she had eyes like a hawk. Besides, she'd led her squad to victory plenty of times during their simulated team training exercises in The Grid. A straightforward task like this should've been easy for a veteran Elite like her.

Not even an hour before the mission concluded, various news reports had surfaced pertaining to the aftermath of the altercation. While Amber's squad had managed to successfully detain Vertigo, Singularity, and Siren, and extract Crawford Cray from their clutches in the process, far too much collateral damage had been caused. Thirteen casualties were stacked on top of over thirty injuries.

Snippets and portions of the confrontation had been captured on several phone recordings. While the quality wasn't the best, the rough, grainy footage depicted the gruesome scene. Amber had seemingly constructed a ramp of dense ice, which the jeep had bolted off of before flipping over and sailing into a multitude of civilians.

While Director Callan rarely got upset, Dylo knew he'd be displeased by the result of Amber's mission. Genesis Industries had come under extremely heavy fire as of late, and the fact that the botched extraction had occurred in an area where Elites were usually frowned upon only worsened things. Still, though, Dylo felt as if this whole situation would all blow over sooner or later.

Hopefully, it was sooner.

Dylo sunk into the cushions of one of the couches in the commons area as the flatscreen replayed Amber's colossal misstep. Kai, Eliza, Bianca, and Leo lingered around him, waiting for Director Callan to call them into his office. Unfortunately, Arthur had appeared as well.

"Maybe she was still a little nervous, guys." Leo hypothesized as he attempted to cram the last of his comic books into his midnight-blue duffel bag. "Creed's presentation really got under her skin. I mean, wouldn't you guys be a little discouraged if someone highlighted your worst mistakes?"

"Eh, I'm sure I could've handled them, mate." Arthur scoffed, unbearably arrogant as always. "After a couple waterballs to the chest, those blokes would've dropped."

Bianca arched an eyebrow. "Waterballs?"

"Uh, yeah." Arthur continued. "Fire has fireballs, so water should have waterballs, right?"

"No, just... no." Eliza sighed, shaking her head. Her icy blue eyes never broke contact from the graphite-black butterfly knife she flipped in between her calloused fingers.

"Arthur, I'm gonna need you to never say that near me ever again." Dylo swiftly added. "Matter of fact, I think you just ruined my vacation."

"It's not a vacation, Dylo." Kai sternly reminded, his bolstering, brown eyes meeting the blond's. "I don't know if you forgot, but the world's got us under a microscope now. That means less leeway. We need to make sure that Project Rebirth's transport and presentation runs smoothly. That means no mistakes. I don't know about you, but I'm not so keen on letting Creed's plan gain any more headway."

Dylo fought the urge to roll his eyes.

He didn't know what all the fuss was about. Over the past two years, hundreds of people had openly expressed their disdain for Elites and Genesis Industries as a whole-especially when the general public had first caught wind of their existence. Some of them had even gone to great lengths to get their own movements started in an attempt to rid the world of Elites. But no one had wavered back then, so there was no reason to do so now.