Alpha Squad: Boot Camp

Chapter Five

Chapter FiveThe first morning of training had gone well; at least, Eric thought it had. As he found himself sitting around a large wobbly table inside a kitchen c*m break room with the remaining recruits, one of them, especially, could not keep quiet.

"That was fun, wasn't it? I wonder what else we're going to end up doing," Thomas Blackwood, the wolf, said.

Eric eyed him across the table in silence, preferring to stay in the background as the conversation unfolded. Blackwood looked even more excited now than Adam had been on their way here.

Bentley didn't hold back as much. "This isn't the scouts, you know. Despite what you lot have been led to believe, this place hasn't always been the joke it is today. Good men have died training on these grounds."

Thomas shrugged. "Don't feel bad just because I beat your time on the obstacle course. In fact, the three of us decimated your time, didn't we, lads?"

Adam grinned. "And that was after setting the thing up while you stood by and watched, ain't that right?"

Eric shrugged. So what, the shifters had ruled the obstacle course. What else was new?

"And how about the major, huh? She's quite something," Thomas said.

Eric's ears perked up. If he said anything more, anything that could even remotely be construed as disrespectful, he would ignore the whole us vs. them dynamic the shifters and humans had fallen into and take Thomas' head off for it.

"She's our superior. It would serve you well to remember that," Bentley said. His condescending tone did not match his words. He didn't give the impression of ever being impressed by anyone, especially not her.

"Hey, anyone else hungry?" Adam remarked.

All heads, including Eric's, turned in his direction.

"I mean, we've been here almost a day now, and I've still not seen any kitchen staff arrive."

Bentley rested his head in his hands. "You're having a laugh, right?"

Adam glared at the man. "What's your point?"

"Kitchen staff… Where do I begin," Bentley mumbled to himself.

Eric sat back and watched. His little brother could take care of himself; then again, Eric already knew where this was going, whereas Adam still had a lot to learn.

"This ain't a hotel. If you're hungry, you do something about it."

Adam opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it again without saying anything.

"I'm sure the major and that little fox, Callahan, aren't sitting around starving to death," Cooper quipped from his corner of the table.

He and his big mouth still had not learned a thing. No matter, Eric thought to himself. The inevitable extra push-ups his attitude would earn him would do him good. So far he had been the weakest of the group.

"What Major Williams does is none of your concern. We're but lowly cadets. We haven't yet earned the right to be waited on," Bentley grumbled.

"Aight. So. Who's hungry, then?" Adam rephrased his earlier question, in a gruffer tone.

Bentley shrugged and stared straight ahead. Eric and Blackwood nodded, as did Cooper, but nobody made a move.

Finally, Eric gave in and got up to help his brother, who had already started rifling through the refrigerator. There was nothing much inside, just some eggs and bread. The various cupboards were equally bare.

"Finally, something I have valuable previous experience for," Adam grumbled to himself as he started assembling the makings of a very basic meal.

Eric couldn't suppress a chuckle. His brother had never held onto a regular job, but he had worked in the kitchen of a local café one summer when he was still in school. He had lasted all of two weeks in that role, before flipping off the owner in a dispute over who was going to do the dishes.

Just as Adam began frying up some eggs, a crackly and distorted version of Private Callahan's voice interrupted their activities.

"All recruits are requested to report to Major Williams' office one after the other. Work out the order amongst yourselves." Another crackle signaled the end of the announcement.

Eric couldn't help but wonder if the timing of the announcement was deliberate. He scanned all corners of the room, and sure enough, there was a small red light inside a vent beside intercom speaker. A human eye would have never picked it up, but Eric could spot something shiny like a small camera lens in there.

They were being watched. Obviously.

Nothing was quite as it seemed in this place.

Adam shrugged as he continued to operate the stove. "One of you lot go first. I'm busy."

The two humans did not seem keen, but Blackwood jumped up. "All right then! Wonder what this is about."

Eric waved him down. "I'll go. You guys eat first."

The wolf shrugged and sank back down onto his chair. "If you prefer."

He did, actually. If this was anything like the basic training he'd undergone with the New Alliance, it was time for individual assessments. Perhaps the major had prepared some tests for each recruit, or she would just wing it and have conversations with each of them.

In any case, he welcomed the chance for some alone time with her, no matter how loudly his stomach growled.

He could not explain it, neither did he expect anything to happen. He just knew that he craved to be near her. His inner bear practically demanded it.

"Come in," Janine answered the knock on her door.

Individual assessments were an essential part of training, but she was dreading one in particular this time. Eric King.

Of course it was him who had decided to come in first. She held her breath as she observed him enter her office. His movements were much more stealthy and refined than she would expect from someone of his stature. Was it deliberate?

Either way, hopefully, she could get this conversation out of the way quickly, so that she could move on to the easier subjects.

"Take a seat," she offered.

Cadet King—she'd tried to force herself to think of him in those terms, even if it seemed wholly inappropriate—sat down. He made the substantial wood and leather chair in front of her desk look small underneath him.

Her heartbeat sped up against her will.

His eyes were fixed on her face as he folded his hands and waited for further instructions. Despite Callahan's observations as well as her own concerns, he had been quite comfortable taking orders all morning. Was it just an act?

"I have a few questions for you, and it's best if you are completely honest." Janine shuffled a few of the papers on her desk, pretending to look for the checklist she had prepared earlier. In reality, she was just trying to avoid eye contact.

"Of course, Ma'am."

His voice still affected her, perhaps even more so than the first time they'd spoken. He was so near and yet so unattainable. She could not wait for this torture to be over.

She glanced up into his eyes and immediately focused on the questionnaire again.

"Why are you here?" she started, folding her hands to resist the urge to fidget with the paperwork again.

"You called all of us in," Cadet King—Eric—answered.

Janine shook her head. Don't make this any more difficult than it has to be! "I mean generally. Why join Alpha Squad?"

He paused, stealing a glance downward, presumably at her lips. Her heart skipped a few beats, but she did her best to maintain the same steely expression.

You're mine, a voice said in her head. Was it a voice, though? It sounded more like a low growl. Janine readjusted one hand on top of the other and continued to stare straight at the bear of a man in front of her. Now she was truly losing it.

"As you will have read in my file, I've been involved in the New Alliance. I just want to make a difference, Ma'am."

And what a difference you've made already, Janine thought.

I'm here to claim you, the same voice in her head seemed to say. The hairs on her arms stood upright, tempting her to scratch herself, but she managed to resist the urge. Janine's eye twitched involuntarily. What was that voice?

"In your own words: what is the purpose of Alpha Squad? The mission statement, if you will…"

Eric continued to look at her directly, his expression as calm as could be.

"To aid the traditional law enforcement agencies in any shifter related matters."

Janine nodded and made a quick note in his file. "Let's drill down, shall we? In concrete terms, what are we here for?"

"For example, shifter on shifter or shifter on human crime. We could more effectively investigate the shifters in question. We would be a bridge between the shifter community and the human government."

Janine scribbled his response onto a further sheet of paper, rushing so much the end result was hardly legible. Still, if her previous interactions with this man were any indication, she wouldn't need the notes to recall his answers word for word. This conversation would get re-played and analyzed over and over during those moments when she lay in bed at night with sleep still eluding her.

Whether she liked it or not.

"Very good. So would you say you are here because you believe Alpha Squad will continue to let you make a difference?" As soon as Janine finished her question, she listened for his response, as well as any more comments from that weird imaginary voice she'd heard before.

"Yes. Absolutely." That was it. The other voice remained silent.

Janine glanced up at him briefly again. He sounded firm and determined, but there was something in his eyes that suggested that he was either hiding something or not completely convinced of his own answer.

Fair enough, neither was she. He talked the talk, though, and that was all that mattered for now.

She asked him a few more routine questions about his background, how he grew up, his skill set, and what he thought his strengths and weaknesses were, and that concluded the assessment. The mysterious voice seemed to have gone away by itself.

Her phone rang with impeccable timing.

"That's all, then. Excuse me," she said, gesturing at the phone.

Eric, no, Cadet King, nodded and started to get up while she lifted the receiver to her ear.

"Ma'am, the Secretary of Shifter Affairs is on the line for you. He wants an update on the Squad," Callahan explained.

"No problem. Put him through."

Janine watched as Eric left. That had gone pretty well, hadn't it? She hoped she'd been able to disguise her discomfort well throughout his assessment.

Meanwhile, a voice she'd previously only heard in the media answered the other line. "Major Williams? This is Oliver Teese. You are the officer in charge of Alpha Squad, am I correct?"

"Secretary Teese, this is unexpected! Yes, Sir, I am. Training has only just begun, though…”

"No matter, I was hoping to receive regular updates from you throughout training anyway. This initiative is important to me, so I expect to be kept in the loop."

Bloody brilliant. If Oliver Teese had his way, she would end up reporting on Alpha Squad's failures to General Stone while telling Teese stories about how she was doing the best she could. What could possibly go wrong?

"Anything I can do to help, Sir."

"Wonderful. Why don't you tell me about your initial impressions of the recruits," Oliver Teese said.

Janine rested her head in her hand. This was not how she liked to conduct her training. At least military men like Stone had a solid understanding of the unwritten rules and boundaries.

"As I said, it's still early days. We have a lot of work to do just for assessment purposes. I would be more able to report on the trainees' performance at the end of the first phase of boot camp," she explained.

Oliver Teese sighed at the other end. He was obviously not pleased with her answer.

"I don't need to remind you that you report to me now, do I? Alpha Squad was my project, and I intend to know what is going on with it."

Janine rolled her eyes. His project. "I understand, Sir. It's just that I have not even had the chance to individually assess each of the cadets yet. Reporting on their performance would be really premature."

"Fine. But I do hope I can count on you to check in as soon as you have something to of note to tell me, yes?" Teese insisted.

Janine ran her hand over her smoothly tied back hair. "Of course, Sir."

"All right then. I'll be waiting for your call." With that, Teese cut the connection.

At that very second, there was another knock on the door.

"Blackwood here. May I come in?" a voice asked.

"Just a moment," Janine responded, as she dialed Callahan's extension.

"Yes, Major?" the private answered.

"Could you get me a glass of water, please?" Janine put the phone down again and located Blackwood's grade sheet on her desk.

Between resisting her attraction to Eric and warding off intrusive questions from politicians, Alpha Squad was turning into an even bigger headache than foreseen. Not to mention that weird voice she'd heard.

And this was only day one.