War Begins Book One by Odette C. Bell

Author:Odette C. Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Odette C. Bell

8

Sampson Ventura

He was back in his quarters.

Fortunately Forest had secured him a single quarters. It wasn’t the biggest, but that didn’t matter.

It was secure.

He sat on his couch, a specialized unit visible on his arm. It was his holographic armor generator. While it could send an invisible sheen of pure protection pumping over him at any moment, it also doubled as an untraceable communication device.

It was time to call home.

He activated his neural implant, sending a silent command to the communication unit to contact Forest.

He didn’t need to wait around. She answered.

Being a functional holographic projector, his device had no trouble sending a perfect image of Forest rippling through the air in front of him.

He bothered to stand and salute, even though he knew it wasn’t necessary.

“It didn’t go well, then,” Forest surmised. “If you’re bothering to follow command pleasantries, Sampson, then you’re not about to tell me good news.”

He hesitated. “I don’t have usable intel yet,” he admitted.

Forest had looked disappointed. Until a second ago. She’d noted his hesitation – she noted everything. She was seated at her desk, and she pushed forward, her interest clear. “What do you suspect?”

“Nothing concrete.”

“Did you manage to infiltrate the students? Did you find any disturbed psyches?”

“Yes, I infiltrated a group I think will be useful – the E Club.”

“I want to tell you that no one from the E Club would dare harm the Academy, but these are strange times, and I’ve given you a blank check to investigate as you will. Answer my second question, though.” Forest never forgot, and she never let anything drop.

Sampson made the mistake of hesitating again.

“Who is it?” Forest asked bluntly.

Cadet Diana Fenton. Forest wanted to know if he’d discovered any disturbed psyches – he hadn’t met anyone like Diana. But it wasn’t anger and a desire to kill that sat behind the closed curtains of her mind – it was….

“Who? If you’ve got a feeling, Sampson – even if you don’t have concrete evidence – tell me. I’ve learned to trust your intuition.”

Sampson shook his head. “Nothing. Except for a general malaise,” he added. “I might never have gone through standard Academy training, but I didn’t expect this.”

Forest frowned. “What does that mean?”

Yeah, good question – what did it mean? Why was Sampson even bringing this up? While he’d undoubtedly run across behaviors he disagreed with, he couldn’t hang the Academy up to dry based solely on how it treated a single cadet.

No. Wait. He knew himself well enough to know that was a lie.

He could, and he would. He looked Forest in the eye. “I don’t like the culture here, Forest, not one bit.”

Forest was smart enough to conclude that wasn’t a general complaint. It was the assessment of a trained psy soldier.

Her cheeks stiffened, and she forced a deep breath. “If that had come from anyone else, I would have disagreed. With you, I need to ask what you mean.”

“Bullying, manipulation, excessive reliance on competition – pick one, though it’s the first that worries me the most.

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