Verde

Chapter 12: Sunrise

     Cassidy could recite the names of all thirty Third Year trainees, first and last, from her memory. That was why she was panicking at nine o'clock on Tuesday evening.

      Nisha Jayashankar, Hope Sharrows, Ace Moores, Creighton Fay, and Brian Owsten were missing. Only twenty-five Third Year trainees were missing from the group scattered in the tree-line of the woods behind the Verde facility.

     "Where are they?" Cassidy whispered fiercely at the others.

     Philip Zhu shrugged a little, trying to lighten the moods he was about to stain. "Brian, Creighton, and Ace don't want to come."

     Cassidy stared at him in amazement. Did he really just say those words? Did  I hear right? She asked herself in the ensuing silence.

    "I don't know about the girls, though," Philip shrugged again, nonchalantly leaning against the tree he was taking cover behind. He didn't meet Cassidy's eyes.

     Don't shoot the messenger, she told herself. She had once heard her father use the phrase, and had begged him to explain what it meant. Since then, she had heard a few superior agents saying it. It was a funny little saying - she didn't know why, but it just sounded alien on her tongue.

     "And did they say why not?" Cassidy managed to bite out. "Philip?"

     This time, it was not Philip who answered. 

     "They don't think it's reasonable - it's too soon, it's a whim, and there's no plan. It won't work, Cassi." Jayden Ramsey told her. His voice had started off fierce and argumentative, but by the end it was soft, easing Cassidy into what he believed to be a valid conclusion.

     "Wrong!" Cassidy's voice caught. There was a hard, painful lump growing in her throat, choking her. She couldn't find an argument against him. "Then why are you here?" she countered finally.

     "Because," a voice cut through the air like the lash of a whip, stopping the hearts of the twenty-five trainees hiding in the trees. "The only thing worse than leaving - sailing away to our sure failures - is staying, and facing the consequences of having anything to do with this absurd movement."

     Heartbeats thundered. Cassidy's breath came in a single, ragged gasp before she held it. If she made no sound or movement, maybe no one would no she was here. She wouldn't be caught, and maybe enough others would make it away that they could still go through with the trip.

     But, gradually, as her pulse slowed, Cassidy realized that the voice was extremely familiar - and not that of a superior agent.

     Grass rustled under feet in the suffocating silence, before the owner of the voice finally came into view under the dim glow of the moon.

     Nisha Jayashankar. And behind her, Hope Sharrows, Ace Moores, Creighton Fay, and Brian Owsten. 

     She continued, quieter this time, as the five crept closer. "Which is what it took Hope and me so long to convince these three morons of." She said, gesturing at Ace, Creighton, and Brian. "Are we ready to go yet?"

     "We are now," Cassidy didn't know what to make of the situation. Of course there were people who didn't want to pack up and leave the only home they had known for over a decade, all within a day, and at only a mere suggestion by a trainer known for her incapability for following rules. So, she just ignored it, continuing as if nothing had happened. Convincing everyone that they were doing the right thing was for later, after they had already done it.

     "Cassi," came a soft call from a few trees away. Alison was back from checking on the boat.

     The trainees were more or less in two lines of fifteen, skipping one tree between each of them.