At my words and clear resolve Christian nods, pushing off the table and walking towards the door.

"Then we will do something about it, but I don't want you to tell anyone, there is no reason to cause alarm or the trainees will panic. This stays between us, am I clear?"

"Crystal sir!" Says Cassie, who seems to falter when Christians gaze falls on her for the first time. I forgot that Cassie never actually met Christian, which means--

"Who is this?" he says, looking at me again.

Cassie turns bright red, and I feel a slight irritation at how he just ignored her, talking to me as if she weren't in the room. Of course, Cassie and I are used to this kind of treatment, we had our fair share of it back at school and on the streets, but I honestly didn't expect it here, especially not coming from the mouth of our director. But I know that Christian means no harm, so I try not to get annoyed and answer him instead.

"This is Cassandra, Cassie, the girl I told you about. I wouldn't have joined the program unless she came with me."

He doesn't seem to remember right away so he doesn't bother himself with it any further, directing a friendly smile towards Cass, who seems a bit less red, and getting back to the matter at hand.

"We will keep an extra close eye on Simon Says and double security at his cell. In the meantime, I want you to go on as usual. Don't arouse suspicion, carry on with your training as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, but I will take it from here."

"But sir," Kalen starts to object, "we could help."

Christian interrupts, cutting him off with a single hand gesture.

"End of discussion. You can get to your class now."

Kalen's mouth shuts so fast I'm surprised he doesn't break his teeth. He looks like he wants to say more, but he just tilts his head and walks out the door. I can tell by the slight heat that I feel radiating from his skin when he passes by that Christian has upset him and is, quite literally, making his blood boil. One by one my teammates file out of the room, but I stay behind, needing to get something I've been thinking about for a while off my chest.

"What is it Brianna?" Christian sighs when he sees I haven't left yet.

"It's about Simon Says," I start, stepping closer to his desk. "When we first found him, well, when I first ran into him, he had some documents."

Christian nods.

"It was one of the President's files, about his daughter."

Christian nods, looking both bored but patient at the same time.

"Yes, we have it safely locked away. Why is that important now?"

I wring my hands together, his words making me nervous.

"Well, I was thinking, if Simon Says is as much if a threat as we think he is. Shouldn't we contact someone? The council, or President Khan himself, at least to let him know we have his fi..."

Christian shuts the door so fast that it makes the entire frame shake, and I take a step back in surprise.

"No one is to contact the President!"

His usually dark skin has turned pale, and if I didn't know any better I would think it looks like Christian was... panicking. He takes a step forward, towering over me, his sudden anger catching me off guard.

"But Christian--"

"That man," He seethes, "would be no help to us."

I flinch as his dark brown eyes bore into mine. What is it with these people and the President? First Jordan, now Christian? What did Khan do to deserve such... mistrust?

"Why don't you trust him?" I ask, keeping my tone gentle, trying not to add more fuel to the flame.

Christian snorts, shoulders tensing, as he walks around the table and sits back down into his leather chair. He leans back, crossing his large arms over his chest, reminding me of a parent who is in the middle of scolding his child.

"He lost that honor a long time ago," He says, leaving it at that. No explanation, no nothing, just the anger that seems to be coming off of him in waves.

"Now I think you should be getting to your class, Miss Acero."

I nod quickly, wanting to get out of the room as soon as possible, and nearly jump out of my skin when the door shuts loudly behind me. How did he even have time to get out of his chair that fast?!

"What's up with him?" Asks Cassie when I emerge, spotting me first. She and the others were waiting for me around the corner in the hall, all wearing the same annoyed expressions on their faces.

Cassie looks like she's still a bit pissed about how Christian had addressed her. I shrug, not understanding what was going on with our director either. Mara pushes off the wall she had been leaning on and sighs.

"He's probably just stressed. He has enough to deal with without having to worry about criminals that we already have locked behind bars."

She has a point, still, what happened just now was strange. Something president Khan did obviously hadn't sat well with him, maybe even with the whole compound. That didn't mean he couldn't address the situation with a bit more care. I understand not getting along with someone, but sometimes you have to put aside whatever it is that happened and work it out. But it looks like he didn't care enough to do so.

Of course he does Bri, don't be so harsh, I scold myself. Mara's right, he's probably just stressed, that's all, perfectly understandable.

"So, what now?" Asks Jayson, who is still looking at Christians door as if it were going to open any second and we would have to run back to our room to avoid getting told off once more.

"I guess we get back to class," says Mara, and I can't help but groan.

I love training but going to classes was something I had thought I wouldn't have to deal with again. I've come to realize that I'm not very good when it comes to sitting still and listening to someone talk for an hour. I'd much rather be on my feet, preferably getting to hit something. But I guess going to class is a necessary evil that I will have to endure if I ever want to complete my training, so I begrudgingly tag along as the others make their way to the labs. With any luck, we might get to see something explode.

When we get down there and walk into the lab we've been using as a classroom the past few days, every single head in the room turns around to stare at us, and their curious gazes make me hesitate in the door. Jordan stops explaining... whatever it is he had been explaining, and turns around to see who walked into his lab, a smile stretching across his face when he spots us.

"Ah! Nice of you to join us." He says, not commenting on how we are practically fifteen minutes late, the goggles he's wearing making his eyes look ten times their normal size.

I learned a while back that Jordan didn't like to follow the rules of the compound and did everything his own way. He never scolded any of us for being late, but he would kill us if we broke so much as an elastic band. Nope, not on his watch.

He is currently standing in the middle of the room, the tables making a perfect "U" shape around him, holding two test tubes in his hands. One of them is bright green and glowing slightly, while the other one is pitch black. I try not to flinch as trainees continue to stare, and I feel Jayson and Mara both fidget behind me. Even though Jordan doesn't mind if anyone is late to his class, I'm willing to bet that my friends have never been less than punctual. Kalen just looks indifferent, as usual.

"Please take a seat while I keep explaining the theory behind radiation diffusion."

I sit next to Mara and Cassie near the front of the class, while the boys head towards the back. I watch as Jayson fist bumps another first-year trainee, and Kalen slides into his seat.

I turn my attention back to Jordan, who is pouring the bright green liquid into the other tube. The black substance starts to glow, and smoke starts coming out of the tube. I watch as more smoke than seems physically possible keeps spilling out of the test tube, when suddenly it stops altogether. The glowing also stops, and only the black liquid remains, practically the same as it was before.

"So, as you can see," says Jordan, continuing with the lesson and picking up where he left off before we came in and interrupted him.

"This is what Ruthenium II does when it comes in contact with radioactive substances. That's why nuclear plants now use this when they want to get rid of unwanted waste."

Oh, Ruthenium II, also known as RII, the element of the century.

It was discovered during the third space expedition to Saturn, when astronaut Bill Hase became the first man to walk on Saturn's biggest moon, Titan. He discovered that, among other rare qualities the planet was made up of large quantities of liquid Ruthenium, but it was slightly different from the earthly element. Which is why it was called Ruthenium II. I had never actually seen what it did when it came in contact with radiation, but I know that they used it during the disaster of South Africa when it's main nuclear power plant suffered from an attack by a group called the Violet Crows. At the time the people had been trying to overthrow the government, and many rebel groups were born, among them the Violet crows. They fought for better services such as health and education, seeing as the government was more interested in making weapons and selling them to anyone with money.

I can't remember all the details, but the American government sent over trainloads of Ruthenium II. They hadn't known what the exact outcome would be, but their scientists had discovered that it was resistant to most forms of radiation. Now, every nuclear plant in the world, or anywhere dealing with dangerous radiation really, has Ruthenium II on hand.

It has many other useful properties. It's not dangerous to the human body and it can be used as fuel. It was the replacement for petroleum once the precious liquid eventually ran out in 2156. Just 50L of RII could power an entire plane.

"All of you have RII in your mission packs, you never know when you will need it" Continues Jordan, turning around to dispose of the liquid safely.

Excitement spikes in the room at the mention of our mission packs. We would all get to choose our weapons soon and get to use them in our combat training. With those would come our mission packs, which we would get to use whenever we were assigned a new mission. Mara, Jayson, and Kalen already had their own, but they told us that every year they had the option of changing their weapons for new ones, or even got to update their mission packs so they were stocked with all the newest technology.

"Each of you has different vials of radiation on your table. Which is why we are wearing our protective suits."

Meaning the bright yellow banana suits we had to slip into before we entered the lab. The baggy material protects us from dangerous chemicals as well as radiation, and the goggles covering our eyes and half of our faces were an extra precaution.

"We will be observing how the different types of radiation react with the RII. Write down your observations on your TekPads. You can choose to work alone or in groups. Three people maximum, I don't want groups of seven!"

He sends a pointed look at Jack and his team, who seem to know who he's talking about even without the glare he sends their way.

Mara links her arms with Cassie and mine, smiling.

"What do you say, partners?"

I glance at Cassie, who is smiling just as much as Mara. I find their enthusiasm contagious and a grin splits across my face. I nod.

"Let's show these people how lab work is done."

"You're on!" I hear from across the room. I turn around to find that Kalen, Jayson and that boy he fist-bumped at the beginning of the class have formed a group of three as well.

"Try and keep up boys," says Cassie, already pouring our first vial into the RII.

Jayson laughs and copies her, picking up a glowing purple tube. I smile at their friendly banter, and my eyes wander on their own accord to the face next to his. Kalen is watching me with a cocky smirk on his handsome face, mischief sparkling in those stormy eyes.

"You're on."

I laugh, already knowing how this will end.

I am very competitive, it's one of my better qualities, even though Cassie and the hundreds of games we've played in our years of friendship would argue otherwise.

We spend the next hour pouring radiation into RII, having to evacuate once when another group spills their substance with Gama radiation into the wrong vial. We all laugh at Jordan's freaked out expression, as he hurriedly pushes us towards the hallway. Once it's clear to come back in we've wasted half of our class time, but we get back to work, sabotaging the boys once and a while, and suffering the consequences after.

"Jayson, if I see you flick another pencil at table four I'll send you out of the lab!"

"Sorry, Jordan," he mumbles, and I laugh at his kicked puppy expression. Serves him right.

Thankfully Jordan didn't catch us messing with their stuff, or we would be in more trouble than they are.

But hey, the class isn't over yet.