dorms?” Pierce asked, earning laughter from the guys and eye rolling from the girls.
“That’s about enough of you, Bowen,” O’Keefe said. “One more wisecrack and you’re on toilet detail.”
“Shutting up now, sir,” Pierce said with a melodramatic salute.
“I swear, if the Thule don’t get me first, that boy will be the death of me,” O’Keefe said, not realizing his microphone was still on.
“Each squad assigned to Project Betrayal will have one of these, so I want squad leaders thinking about who you would trust with your lives—because if you lose it, there’s a good chance you’ll be stuck on Gathmara forever. And let me tell you, it’s not exactly a vacation destination—especially for humans.”
“You’re in charge of ours,” Colt said, leaning over and whispering in Danielle’s ear.
“Why me?”
“Because I trust you with my life,” Colt said. “And because if I gave it to Oz, he’d either lose it or break it.”
“I heard that,” Oz said, nudging Colt with his elbow.
“I know.”
“Show map,” Rhane said, and a holomap of Dresh, the Thule capital, appeared. “This is the reactor facility,” he said, tapping a domed building that sat next to the shore of a massive body of water. “And it’s where we’re going to spend most of our time training today.”
He went on and explained how drones and soldiers from the Defense Corps, Vril, and the Dagon Alliance patrolled the facility.
“Why don’t we just open up a portal and drop a nuke on ’em?” Pierce said without bothering to raise his hand.
“Because this mission is about stealth, not might,” Rhane said. “Besides, a nuclear bomb wouldn’t so much as crack the exterior wall of the facility. This mission has to be handled from the inside out.”
: :
CHAPTER 29 : :
There was a rare break in the schedule before dinner the next night, so Phantom Squad decided to meet in the Agricultural Records Room to discuss everything they had learned over the past few days.
“Can you believe it? We’re actually full-fledged CHAOS agents,” Grey said, looking at his new uniform in the mirror.
“Junior agents,“ Oz said. “And for the record, it’s technically the Department of Alien Affairs now, not CHAOS. The agencies were officially merged, remember? CHAOS doesn’t exist.”
“Let him have his moment,” Danielle said, slapping Oz on the shoulder. “Besides, it isn’t the Phantom Flyer and his Agents of the Department of Alien Affairs. They’re still calling it the Agents of CHAOS.”
“You realize that’s just for show, right?” Oz said.
“Does that mean your reinstatement into the academy was just for show too?” Danielle asked.
“Not the same thing.”
“Would you two knock it off?” Colt said.
“Agreed,” Stacy said. “It’s kind of nauseating.”
Colt had been watching Danielle and Oz bicker, prod, tease, and pretend to be annoyed with each other for the better part of an hour. Just tell each other, he wanted to yell. Tell each other how you really feel, because who knows how much time we have left? Not that he was the shining example of putting himself out there. Sure, it seemed like he and Lily were at least kind of a thing, but then again, were they?
Then there was Stacy, who was sitting right next to him. She wasn’t a classic beauty like Lily, but she was still attractive. And she knew as much about comic books as he did. Check that. More. But maybe Danielle was right. Maybe he liked her because it made Pierce jealous. Or maybe he just liked her. Even Stacy thought that he should go for it with Lily, but did she mean it?
“This is driving me crazy!” Danielle shouted at her computer screen.
“Need some help?” Oz said.
“Yeah,” Danielle said. “What can you tell me about the Casmir effect? Or how about exotic matter and negative energy density? Know much about gravitational singularities? Cosmic strings? Quantum physics?”
Oz shrugged. “A little.”
“Seriously?” Jonas asked, his mouth agape as he stared at Oz. “That’s amazing. I had no idea you were interested in theoretical science.”
“He isn’t, so ignore him,” Danielle said, turning back to her computer screen. “He’s just a distraction.”
“Really? You think I’m a distraction?” Oz smiled as he raised a single eyebrow. “Not that I can blame you. I mean, with these dimples? You’re only human, right?”
“I’m going to need a barf bag,” Danielle said.
“Oh my, are you ill?” Glyph asked. “Perhaps you should lie down. There’s a terrible virus going around.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” Danielle said. “You know . . . because he’s annoying.”
Glyph frowned. “No, I’m afraid I don’t know.”
“Never mind,” she said