Radiance | Finnick Odair ¹ ✓

18 | god complex

"Ontari," Johanna says, her sharp voice yanking the woman back into the present. Her face is stony, eyes bright and knowing. "You were spacing. Try to stay alert in the event of an attack."

Her expression reads otherwise, her words a mere cover-up of her true meaning. Don't lose faith. Remember who the real enemy is.

This is the second day in a row that Ontari has started to doubt their contact in the Capitol. If she goes on like this, her performance may be slacking. There isn't room for anything other than perfection. Johanna is right: she needs to remember that, although she isn't best friends with Plutarch, Snow is the real enemy.

"Sorry," Ontari replies, then further explains, "I'm just tired."

Johanna's lip twitches. "Aren't we all?"

Finnick, satisfied with the sharpness of his spear, walks to the water and wades up to his knees several meters away from where Katniss is still trying to teach Peeta how to swim. He stays there for a good ten minutes, poised to strike, but either there aren't any fish or he's too distracted to grab one, because he returns to the sand empty-handed and stony-faced.

It seems they're all on edge, now.

Beetee finally calls them in for an alliance meeting. Cassian sits beside him, face deliberately unreadable so he doesn't give any extra details away. Ontari can't help but wonder if her brother plays a bigger part in this alliance than she realizes.

"I think we'll all agree our next job is to kill Brutus and Enobaria," Beetee begins, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. "I doubt they'll attack us openly again now that they're so outnumbered. We could track them down, I suppose, but it's dangerous, exhausting work."

Katniss considers this for a moment. She tucks her knees toward her chest and rests her elbows on them before asking, "Do you think they've figured out about the clock?"

"If not, they will," Cassian answers, "and soon. Which is why we need to move while we still have the upper hand."

Beetee nods. He sticks a hand out and draws a circle in an area of damp sand, dividing it into twelve wedges to represent the arena. "If you were Brutus and Enobaria, knowing what you do now about the jungle, where would you feel safest?"

"Where we are now. On the beach," Peeta replies. "It's the safest place."

"Then why aren't they on the beach?"

Ontari answers this. "Because we're here."

"Exactly. We're here, claiming the beach. Now where would you go?" Beetee flickers his eyes between each of them, clearly having already thought about each of the questions he's asking, but he wants the team to figure them out for themselves.

"I'd just hide at the edge of the jungle," Katniss says. "So I could escape if an attack came. And so I could spy on us."

Finnick adds, "Also to eat. The jungle's full of strange creatures and plants. But by watching us, I'd know the seafood's safe."

The older man smiles, pleased at their critical thinking that seems to line up with his own. "Yes, good. You do see. Now here's what I propose: a twelve o'clock strike. What happens exactly at noon and at midnight?"