Identity Zero novel · Chapter 15 of 32

Chapter 15: The Bargain

Gideon keyed the radio.

"Copy, Colonel," he said.

That was all.

He set it down on the floorboards.

"No," Jesse said.

"It's a contract. It's what I am."

"You told me nobody gets out. You came back."

"I came back because he let me." Gideon pulled his shirt on. "Now he doesn't."

"So we do something."

"We do nothing." Gideon looked at him hard.

"You go to formation. You keep your head down for five weeks. Whoever comes for the case, it's not you."

He went down the stairs first.

He didn't wait for Jesse.

At ten that morning the board sat in the long room on the second floor of the admin building.

Jesse knew because the cadets on kitchen duty had carried up two trays of pastries and come back whispering about the cars.

Four black SUVs by the gate. Washington plates, Idaho, one from Nevada.

He went up the stairs in his clean grey shirt with his hair still wet.

The guard at the door was a cadet from the class above his, holding a clipboard.

"You can't go in there, Seventeen."

"Watch."

Jesse opened the door.

A long table under the black eagle. Seven chairs.

Gorham at the head with his mug, in his pressed olive uniform.

Sallow at his right hand, tapping a pen.

Four men and one woman in expensive rain jackets, the kind that have never seen rain.

At the far end, a heavy man in a camel coat who still had his leather gloves on.

He was the only one not drinking coffee.

Gideon stood against the wall with his hands behind his back.

His duffel was on the floor at his feet.

Packed.

Every face turned to Jesse.

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