All These Warriors by Amy Tintera

Author:Amy Tintera
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780358106265
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2021-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

14

I texted Scarlett the next morning.

Hey, it’s Clara, from last night. Maddie gave me your number.

It was almost an hour before she replied with one word: Hi.

I was wondering if you had some time to talk today? Maddie and I will come to you. We can meet wherever you want.

It only took a few minutes for the second response to come through.

Fine. Come to my place around two.

She texted the address, which I sent to Maddie.

We headed downstairs and outside about an hour later. Maddie said Scarlett’s apartment was only a few blocks away, so we could walk. It was a cold, sunny day, and I buttoned my jacket as we started down the sidewalk.

“So I’ve been working on new training plans, and I’ve been thinking about the possibility of adding a noncombat option for the teams. Do you think you’d be open to that?”

She looked confused. “What would recruits do if they’re not fighting?”

“There are some different options. Scrabs leave a huge mess behind after they attack. People lose their homes or their businesses, they need medical care, they—”

“We’re not equipped to do any of that,” she interrupted.

“We could be, if we explored some different options.”

“Wait, did I know you were making new training plans? I thought you were mostly working on how to boost recruitment.”

“I’m working on both,” I said, trying to hide my annoyance. “Recruitment is important, but I think we need to address training too, especially if we can’t expand beyond combat. We might need to be a little more selective. And maybe have some sort of test they have to pass before being allowed to fight? Because I nearly got an ax to the head in that last scrab battle, and—”

“Jesus, really?” She grimaced.

“Yeah.”

“Well, weapons do go flying sometimes, if they hit the scrab in the wrong place.”

“Right, and we can prevent that by—”

“Fine, fine, tweak the training if you think we need it. But focus more on recruitment. We’re going to need more people once we’re out there.”

I opened my mouth, and then shut it. This was probably the wrong time to really get into all of this. I could tell Maddie was nervous about seeing Scarlett. And it was hard to get her to listen to me about this on the best of days.

“We’ll talk about it when I’ve worked on it a bit more,” I said.

Scarlett lived in a fancy building with a doorman, and we walked into the lobby and waited while he checked his list and then pointed us to the elevator.

She opened the door as soon as we knocked. She wore a soft pink sweater and skinny black pants, her makeup perfect. Her casual elegance reminded me of Maddie.

Her expression was not friendly, but a hint of curiosity softened it when her eyes landed on me.

“Hi, Scarlett,” Maddie said. “Nice to see you again.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, with a hint of skepticism. She stepped back, holding the door open for us.

We stepped inside the apartment, which was smaller than I’d expected.

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