Forging Zero by Sara King

Author:Sara King [King, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
Amazon: B00BTKA42Y
Publisher: Parasite Publications
Published: 2013-03-12T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22: Capture the Flag

Joe wore his sleeves rolled up proudly the next morning, and caught more than one strange look from other battlemasters and Ooreiki from other Battalions. Nebil had said absolutely nothing about them since he’d run his laps the night before.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Maggie asked as soon as she saw them that morning. She ran a fascinated finger along the band of cloth around his arm. “I wanna do that, Joe!”

“You can’t,” Joe said. “Nebil will make you run.”

“I don’t care,” Maggie whined. “I want to have my sleeves rolled, just like you, Joe.”

Joe put his foot down, however, and had to endure Maggie’s pout for the rest of the day. That night, when they formed up in the plaza for their nightly inspection, Commander Tril saw Joe’s sleeves for the first time.

“Battlemaster Nebil, have you lost your mind?” Tril demanded, coming to a stop in front of Joe.

“Zero chooses to run eighteen laps each night to keep them, Commander,” Battlemaster Nebil said with a shrug. “There’s nothing I can do.”

“Nothing you can—” Commander Tril broke off in the middle of his sentence, gaping at Battlemaster Nebil. To Joe, he said, “Fix your uniform, recruit.”

“It is fixed,” Joe said stubbornly.

“You see?” Nebil said. “Nothing I can do.”

Tril’s sudah were fluttering wildly in his neck. “Nebil, you will see me in my quarters tonight.”

“I will be sleeping in my quarters tonight, Commander,” Nebil replied. “If you want company, you should go back to yeeri academy and apply for motherhood.”

Tril stared at Nebil so long that other battlemasters started to fidget. Nebil met his eyes unflinchingly, his sudah utterly calm, hands twined casually behind him around his switch. Seeing that, Joe got the distinct idea that Nebil was a moment away from using the weapon on Tril.

Apparently, Tril saw it, too. Sudah fluttering madly, he spun and, without another word, their secondary commander stormed off, leaving Nebil once more in charge of his platoon.

“Well,” Nebil said. “Now that that unpleasantness is over, how do you pukes feel about a little shuteye?” His eyes caught on Zero. “Except for you, you fire-loving Jreet sooter. You run laps.”

Joe felt a surge of triumph that his battlemaster had the balls to stand up to Tril. A lot of the other battlemasters did not, and their platoons often didn’t get enough to eat because Tril ordered them to do more drills than they could reasonably fit in one day. Joe found himself proud of the fact that Nebil, despite Tril’s orders, made sure his platoon got three meals and a full night’s sleep each night—as long as his recruits weren’t stupid enough to want to run eighteen laps at bedtime to prove a point.

Joe ran his eighteen laps that night grinning, finding this small means of rebelling to be exhilarating instead of exhausting. Each lap left him with more energy, until he was running all-out, his head up proudly as he served his penance.

When he finally charged up the stairs an hour after the other recruits had gone to bed, Battlemaster Nebil was waiting by the door.

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