SENTINEL 555: WAR ✔

30 BOYFRIEND

Matrix in hand, Dev stood watching the wet girls. Five of them. The sixth, Pleasant, standing doubled over before a table in the rec-room, still kept her head in the bucket.

The qualifier indicator had long come and gone—she was out to prove something.

Surely, now with their private rec credits depleted, they were turning more than a few heads. Pleasant's ability attracted an amazing amount of onlookers.

At Dev's back, Sen and Oni took up root. Each beep from the matrix attracted other crewmen. There was a small army by the time Sen held Dev's shoulder.

"We need to get her out."

"No." Mercy, standing on the left side of the table, never took her eyes off Pleasant's back. "If she makes a record, it's good stats."

Dev shook her head. "The record is held by a head cadet, she'll never beat it." With the crowd size around them increasing, Dev felt foolish. The other five girls had all passed with ease. Pleasant was showing off.

But if she passed out or suffered any type of damage, they'd just be a spectacle yet again. A spectacle Mother'd surely hear about.

With a sign to sound Dev's defeat, she walked around the table and tapped Pleasant on the back. She didn't move.

Alarmed, Dev hooked her matrix to her hip and dragged Pleasant up with all her might. A fist connected with Dev's cheek.

Fatigue robbed Pleasant of power enough to cause damage but Dev's pride suffered nonetheless.

Huffing and puffing, gasping for every breath she could, Pleasant staggered back.

"Is it enough now?" she demanded. "To put on a show, to make fools of us? Is it enough now? You think we're not capable of anything 'cause of where we come from? What do you take us for?" The next breath to leave her carried a shout which wasn't all that loud. "Are we done with the pageantry? We thought you finally respected us. Now this? Is it enough now, you menga!"

The way her body trembled told Dev the girl wouldn't stay on her feet much longer. A bigger problem loomed. Mercy hadn't taken the test.

Asking that of her now seemed cruel but from the very start, she'd been Dev's target.

No, this situation wasn't ideal but a lot came from it. For one, it highlighted how the girls operated. The tallest, who Dev secretly referred to as number one, started. Then the twins, two and three, and finally the two youngest, four and five. Pleasant was always the seventh—until today.

That was the only thing Dev needed as proof. Now, even Pleasant's rage seemed protective.

It was also deadly and stupid.

"You can't carry her to the other side of this, and it's foolish to try," Dev said. The throbbing of her face was enough to conjure up embarrassment. She must have looked like a right moron for trying to reason with—help someone who'd just punched her. Maybe if the impact was a bit stronger Dev wouldn't see the desperation in it. "This has to end here or it's going to end in death."

Silence rushed in, stealing all but the pounding of Dev's own heart echoing through her ears.

This was weak. This wasn't the process. Anyone able to advance, should. Anyone foolish enough to try the impossible, deserved what they got.

That was the way of the Volunteer—the creed and Dev trampled on that now by doing this, and doing this public.

At Pleasant's back, Mercy trembled as well. She went so far as to hold Pleasant's shoulder, not in an effort to help her weary sister up, but to shield herself.