The Five Unnecessaries

Chapter 5

"There is an incredible spread over here! Why is no one eating this?" Eva said, pointing at the food on the table. "Get carbs while you can!"

"Collin? Really? Can they even do that?" Lynn asked.

I needed answers, so I searched for Brie's eyes, hoping she would break her silence again. I silently begged her for answers.

She sighed, and said, "Collin is competent. He's super focused, especially spiritually. He's a purist. He's an idealist."

Tessa interrupted, "Ugh, Eldridge loves him! I wonder if that will change when she doesn't come back from her first mission."

The only person I trusted so far was Eldridge, so the fact that Eldridge liked Collin and Tessa didn't was slightly encouraging.

But only slightly.

Brie continued, "With this being his first year training, you're both—" someone interrupted with what I guessed was a Republic swear word. Brie ignored them. "At a disadvantage."

I wanted to defend him or ask more questions, but I was struggling to not to throw up, since it was my only virtue so far­.

Any hope I had to bridge the gap in training was disappearing, if the person training me was as inexperienced as me. I almost wanted to go downstairs and tell the Council this was a horrible decision and that I wanted Sir Avery instead.

"So," Eva continued, swallowing her food, "Collin is in the hot seat right now, even though he probably isn't being allowed to talk, so we might as well eat this not-so-mediocre food for another thirty minutes until we can go to our Circles."

I felt claustrophobic. I wanted to get out of the room. I'd rather be on a mission in the Republic than stuck here waiting.

"Well," Lydia said loudly, "I wish I knew what was going on down there, don't you?"

The silence continued. Tessa and Brie stared at each other, but it was no longer with contempt. Tessa whispered, "C'mon."

I realized that Lydia's statement was not a vague wish; it was a challenge.

Eva's eyebrows jumped up twice, but she remained frozen, waiting on Brie. The only thing to interrupt the tense silence was the tapping made by Cassidy's foot.

Brie put her hand on her hip. "Don't get caught."

"Don't get caught," nearly every voice in the room echoed.

Eva spoke quickly. "I'll get audio with Cassidy. Visual?"

"Yes!" Cassidy shouted and jumped onto the couch.

They moved fast, pulling out what I assumed were portable comms. They pulled two from the side cabinet and synced them. Eva caught a small speaker someone threw at them. They began opening the back of the speaker, exposing the circuit board and cutting one wire to attach it to another. The one wire on the matching comm was cut and fused with a tiny device that Cassidy took from her pocket. A little smoke rose from the tool.

"Is that a..." I started to ask, but then said, "What is that?"

Eva winked. "Miniature soldering iron. Want one?"

All the technique and skill enthralled me. Their proficiency erased any chances I had of catching up to their level. Meanwhile, Tessa kept reading off what sounded like random numbers to Brie who was typing them in an Mobile Computing Unit, or MCU, which I had never seen except in a textbook.

Megan came up from behind me. Trying to be casual, I asked her, "So, this is what you learned at the Academy?"

She sighed. "Some of it. I can't do it as well as they do. At the Academy, we didn't need to master all the subjects to succeed. Only Brie and Tessa have mastered it all. A techie might find an opportunity to break in a lab. Another girl's extended medical knowledge might help her spot a Vessel faster. You will rescue who you were meant to save. That's what we're supposed to believe. You should believe it, too. If you do, you'll be fine."