Broken Lies by Claire Vale

Author:Claire Vale
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Published: 2015-03-10T04:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

When my name is called at marching drill the following morning, my immediate thoughts spin into a tumble of another two weeks of latrine duty and what, what could I have possibly done now and this is a load of holy crap.

So when the lieutenant gets to the part about, “on assignment this evening,” I’ve missed most of the names he’s called out from his lengthy list with the exception of Ava’s. Which is the only name I really need to turn my apprehension into tentative excitement.

We’re to meet at Command Central at precisely 1900 hours, which gives Ava and me hardly any time to shovel down supper at the end of the day and sprint all the way back across the barracks again. The place we’ve been directed to is a semi-circle of large grey hangers that all open onto a central asphalt lot. The front of one hanger is peeled back, revealing some kind of mechanical shop, a cavernous bay littered with numerous shapes of vehicles propped up and open in various states.

The entire lot is swarming with busy, noisy men and women bustling with purpose, barking orders or just shouting to be heard, some clutching manila folders and others slinging rifles, doors opening and closing.

“That looks promising.” Ava points to a set of double wooden doors that’s experiencing more traffic than the others.

We make our way over, swerving around a loitering group of unranked guards that look young enough to be draftees but are distinguishable by the absence of name tags stitched to their jacket pockets. If you choose to stay on past the draftee stage, apparently people are more inclined to remember your name.

Through the doors, we find ourselves in a small hub that sprouts into a warren of narrow passages. Conscious of the time, we hurry across the hub to a clump of small desks resembling a reception area.

A man glances up at our approach, sees our branded pockets and points us to one of the passages. “Second door on your left.”

“Thanks,” I call out, but his eyes are already turned down onto the thick ledger opened on his desk.

“This doesn’t seem very organised,” Ava mutters. “If we’re punished for being late, I’m lodging an objection.”

“Hello..!” I snark at her back as we shuffle-run along the narrow passage. “Two weeks latrine duty here. If there’s an objection lodgee person, I claim first dibs.”

She throws me a look over her shoulder. “There’s a Complaint Board.”

“I have so many complaints.”

“Stand in line.”

“How did you even find out about this board?”

We’ve reached the second door to the left and she pauses, her hand closing over the knob. “Oh, I… Um…” Then she shrugs, turns the knob. “I must have read about it in our regulations booklet or something,” she says smoothly, as if reading through all that fussy small print is a perfectly normal thing to do.

I can’t probe further, however, because ten pairs of eyes have turned to watch us enter. Ava told me twelve names were called out this morning, which means we’re the last to arrive.

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