Deathwatch (The Faded Earth Book 1)(54)

Beck made her way to the others, who had immediately clumped together and began chatting. Out of habit drilled into them by their weeks together, they toned it down as she approached.

“Guys, I’m not in charge anymore,” Beck said with a smile.

Jeremy grinned sheepishly. “Yeah. We’re all Sentinels now. How weird is that?”

“Not at all, since that’s what we’ve been busting our asses for the last two months,” Jen said. But she said it in a way Beck had come to understand as just being how the two of them got along. In their free time, amid the piles of study, the pair had discreetly disappeared often enough that no one in the group was fooled.

“Where do you think you’re going, Beck?” Tala asked, sedate as ever. “You’re from Brighton, right?”

“Yeah,” Beck said. “I have no idea. I assumed it was random, and now there are a bunch of extra Watchmen from Shān to spread out among the other Rezzes, so that probably screwed things up. I’ll go wherever they send me.”

“It would be nice if they put all of us in the same place,” Lucia said, and Wojcik nodded with his normal puppy-dog enthusiasm.

“Yeah, it would,” Beck said, realizing in a flash that the words were true. She wasn’t generally a long-term thinker—proved by her actions in seeking out the mystery that was Parker Novak—and so the brunt of her focus was always on training. On constantly perfecting first herself and then her team. They were friends. They were friends. She was their leader, however much the title felt awkward when thrust upon her. They got to be open and vulnerable with each other. She was apart, no matter how slim that separation might be.

She liked them, but she wasn’t close to them. Not the way they were with each other. This was neither good nor bad, just the way it was. Part of how Beck sewed her heart back together was to let her loss exist in the past. Not talking about it was probably unhealthy, but it worked for her. Likely right up until it didn’t.

None of them knew, and hopefully they never would. The constant reminders brought on by the way people looked at her were hard enough to deal with when it was just Fisher and Eshton, though the latter had been far less guilty of the small crime.

It was this more than anything that made Beck wish she would be assigned a post with them. Working with people she already knew and liked without the emotional baggage between them appealed to her on a level she hadn’t even considered.

“Sentinel Park,” said a voice from behind her, silencing the chatter. “I hate to inconvenience you, but Brighton is my next stop this evening and I’m afraid that means you will have to leave earlier than intended.”

Beck turned toward Bowers, who stood a few feet away from the gathering. “Of course, sir. Do I have time to gather my kit?”

“Taken care of,” Bowers said. He gestured to the group standing in awed silence around her. “Everything you’ve all accumulated thus far has been packed and moved to the Loop stations. We expected you would want to get started on your furloughs as quickly as possible. I hate to impose upon you, Sentinel Park, but my schedule is rather full.”

Beck showed no irritation on her face, instead bowing her head in respect. “Of course, sir. I’ll suit up and meet you there.”

She said a round of quick goodbyes, sharing hugs with a few of the team and fighting back the urge to tear up. Dammit. She hadn’t meant to get attached. Not again.

Bowers walked with her to the carriage, his stride strong and even. The man showed little sign of his age, which Beck thought incredible given how rough their training had to be on joints over the course of years. He nodded to passing stewards and other staff, themselves readying to leave Acuet now that no cohort would be in attendance, and Beck marveled at how well Bowers carried the dignity of his office like his own suit of armor.

“I didn’t realize there were so many people working here,” Beck said. “They can’t all be in the Watch, can they?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. Not all, but certainly most,” Bowers said. “Some are active Watchmen, like your armorers and cooks, but required to put in only the minimum field time unless there’s an emergency. Some take service after failing their training—a surprising number of people genuinely desire to serve the cause.”

Beck suppressed a snort. “Though I’m sure the increased safety and better food and accommodations don’t hurt.”

“There is that,” Bowers agreed, the corner of his mouth tugging up at the corner. “Some are retired Watchmen. Not everyone can let it all go after years of only living this life.”

Once they were in the carriage, Beck finally noticed that the orders she was supposed to have been given were nowhere to be found. She stepped out of her armor and turned to look at Bowers with a curious expression, but the man raised a finger to his mouth. He pulled an honest to goodness piece of actual paper out of a pocket of his uniform and wrote on it with a stylus.

Beck took it when offered and read.

Disconnect the audio and video pickups in this car. I can’t trust that my overrides will work.

Well that was chilling. The implications behind the High Commander not being able to trust technology controlled by the Watch were dire at a minimum. The work only took a few minutes, and she gave him a nod.

“We can speak freely, sir,” Beck said.

“Good,” Bowers grunted. “Things have changed since Shān. New information has come to light. Doctor Novak has some vital news to share, though I couldn’t nail him down on the exact specifics, only that it was of great importance and has to do with Fade B. We gave him samples from the bloom to study, and his communications with me have become increasingly frantic.”