The Skin Thief

Chapter 55

"Yes, I was made aware that was what this was about, please continue," Marcus says. My mouth goes completely dry and I look over the words, pretending I need a moment to translate them. Inside, my stomach churns with fear so much so, that I almost feel as though I'm going to be sick.

"What's the Royal Military Academy?" I ask, my voice coming out a little quieter than I would like. "Knowing what it is may help me understand the topic a little better so I can translate easier."

I ask the question to learn what he knows so far. I pray that his answer is just the basics and that he hasn't heard a report with me in there somewhere.

Marcus leans forward, his stare distant and a frown on his face from concentration.

"The Royal Military Academy of Athaine is one of the best military schools in all the realms," he begins.

"Really?" I ask. "That can't be right. How can they have a better training scheme than schools and military training camps here?"

"I don't know what they do there, so I can't answer what it is that they are doing better than us," he explains. "What I do know, is that the top graduating students that come out of there are people we need to be very worried about."

"Oh," I reply, then look back at the report. I realise that this would have been written from within Realm Intelligence, probably to an Athainian politician.

"Okay, erm," I scan the text a little more. Now all my initial shock has passed, I realise that it is written in the familiar type-writer font, concluding my theory that it is from home. This document would be highly confidential. I dread to think how Marcus got his hands on it. Then again, there are probably as many spies back home as there are here.

"Since espionage training was introduced into the syllabus a decade ago, we have seen an exponential growth in expertly trained candidates for the Wraith program."

Marcus takes in a sharp hiss of air upon hearing the words wraith. In my chest, my heart pounds and I rub my hands on my skirt to try and rid my palms of the clammy sweat that had built up.

"What's a wraith?" I ask, frowning.

"Very dangerous people," he mutters, "carry on reading."

His tone is slightly harsh, and I gulp. I carry on reading and translating the very long report. It takes a long time, and I write down plenty of notes and explain some of the language to Marcus. Not long into the report, I realise that it doesn't directly affect me in any way. There is no further mention of Wraiths past that point I had initially read. There are also no mentions of agent names. Most of it is just numbers and statistics of how many successful operations were carried out since the improvement and inclusion of specific espionage training.

When it's done, Marcus leans back in his chair, his lips pulled into a thin line.

"Is everything okay?" I ask, closing the folder.

"Yes, thank you, Ivy," he says and I know from his tone of voice he isn't going to say anything else. I look away awkwardly, wondering what to do now. Marcus stands suddenly, making me jump. He moves around to his computer and starts typing away quickly.

I sit there in silence, picking at my nails.

"Ivy, I'm about to play some audio. It's very muffled, so if you can't make it out, then don't worry about it."

"Okay," I say.

He types for a few more seconds, then stops and clicks on something. Silence fills the room for a few seconds, followed by low, humming static.