Matthew Silver and the Monster Hunters, Book One: The Darkest Waters

Chapter Five

SilverCHAPTER FIVE

“So,”I said, while seating myself onto the chair next to Jay and giving her a lopsided grin. “What do we got?”

I had just walked into the Administrator’s office, and I wasn’t all too surprised to see Jay there already. She’d probably been ten minutes early.

Each Hunter team (both Senior and Junior) had a certain Administrator as a handler. The Administrators were responsible for giving out the missions and assignments to the teams under them. Our success led to their success, so they tried to help us as much as possible. If a team turned out to be very successful, then sometimes other Administrators would “borrow” the team for a certain job.

Our Administrator/handler, Ms. Amber, was a middle aged woman and a retired Senior Agent out of the Virginia Sector. She really cared about the recruits like us, and she had dedicated her life to instructing and managing young Hunters. Her goal was to make sure that every recruit under her left the Sector as fully capable Hunters, ready for every possible situation. She pushed us pretty hard, but we tried to give her the respect she deserved.

Ms. Amber gave me a slight smile, but it was strained. I guess she had a lot on her mind. It was probably the worst time possible to be an Administrator. With all of the monster attacks of late, they were scrambling around, sending out their available Junior and Senior Agents into the field and trying desperately to second guess where the next attacks would come from.

Normally, a recruit would’ve stood, addressed the Administrator, and waited to be allowed to sit, but I wasn’t good with adults. Something in my nature just refused to conform to rules of any kind. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to bow down before authority. Maybe it was that I didn’t want to try very hard.

“You are already assuming that I’m giving you a mission?” She looked at me quizzically.

“Wait…” I paused, feeling puzzled. “You mean you’re not? So, Scott was lying then,” I said mostly to myself.

“What?” She frowned.

I cursed under my breath. I hadn’t meant to rat out Scott. He’d probably never forgive me if he got in trouble over it, because I had coerced it out of him.

“Scott couldn’t keep a secret, could he?” She smirked in easygoing amusement, to my relief. “When I saw him walk out that door, I knew immediately he wouldn’t be able to keep quiet. I suppose I also knew that you’d try to get it out of him.”

“Okay, okay, okay. We got it. You were right; hooray for you! Now, can we please get on topic? I still have no idea what’s going on, so care to fill me in yet?” I wasn’t angry; just a little frustrated. I made an attempt to tone things down, which took some real pride swallowing on my part. “I’m sorry, but we barely made it with our last mission, and I’m met with rumors of another mission, and if it really is a four person mission, it’ll be much harder than the last mission. Am I right, so far?”

“You’re right, and you did very well with the Phoenix, and if I had my way you’d still be in your room, sleeping the day away and recovering, but—” she rubbed her red, sleep deprived eyes and stifled a yawn, “—the situation has gone critical as of last week. Right now we need all the help we can get, and if it makes you feel any better, we’ve chosen you four, because for this mission, we need our best Juniors.” She rubbed her eyes again. I thought that I was tired. She looked like she was barely holding things together. All the stress and worry had to be killing her.