The Children of Erebus

IX

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I groaned in bed and reached out for the clock, thinking it the sound of the alarm. It wasn't. It was my link buzzing. Dragonfly grumbled unintelligibly under his breath and went deeper, burying his face into the soft pillow next to my head. I groaned pushing him aside to reach for the cursed thing. Sighing in disgust, I opened the line.

"Commander Black," I said.

"Commander, have you killed her yet?" My blood froze instantly.

"Highness!" I sprung awake and so did Dragon his features that of utter disbelief. Erebus called me! Why – he never calls.

"Have. You. Killed. Her?" He repeated: mockingly dragging the letters and pronouncing the words slowly with an aggravated undertone.

"Not yet, Highness."

"Excellent." I was perplexed.

"Pardon?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. Excellent indeed. The mission is being slightly altered. The hacker is to be brought in."

"Brought in?"

"Yes."

"May I acquire the reason for it? Execution?" I asked.

"That is none of your concerns commander. Your job is to obey. Now go obey." The link went off and the call ended.

"What was that about?" Mumbled Dragon: sleepily rubbing at his eyes.

"I think we're all screwed," I told him.

I threw myself against the mattress again, while Dragon propped himself on his right elbow to face me: studying me intently. He proceeded to rub a soothing hand over my shoulder.

"What now?" He whispered. I shrugged.

"Survive."

===

My "new" mission outline was attached with a letter half an hour after the call from Erebus while I was about to enter school grounds. It read:

The newbie is to be brought in to me personally in 36 hours.

Fucking bastard! I thought to myself as I passed through the doors. I – rather she – bumped into me. Tilting her head back, she smiled: those damned eyes of hers alight with a warmth that scorched me.

"Oh." She said breathlessly. "I didn't see you there." I arched an eyebrow at her and though I tried to keep my treacherous lips closed, I couldn't; they curved upwards slightly.

"I am six feet. How did you miss me?" Her cheeks heated up and she wrinkled her nose playfully at me.

"Yeah, well, I am half-blind." She shrugged.

To my surprise, she took my arm and raced outside the doors again.

"C' mon! I need to show you something!"

Is she bipolar?

She dragged me to the back of the school, to the edge of the campus and under one of the huge fake trees. 

"Watch it! You're gonna step on it!" She shoved me away and I hissed at her; she ignored it though. Looking down to the patch of synthetic grass I spotted it. It was a sprout barely visible, most would've missed it entirely. Katarina opened her water bottle and poured some of it onto the ground and squatted down watching it. 

"It's real." She whispered.

To most, the sprout would be of no significance but to her, living in the bogus city of Gnosis, the district of fabricated imitations, it was a sight most rare.