Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Fifty-Five - Ira

I found myself improvising a tune as I stirred the hot chocolate in two steaming mugs. Four might get annoyed that I used up the safehouse's valuable resources, but she should have expected it when there was basically nothing here but lingering radiation. Milk in the loud fridge was a miracle.

"Here." I walked to Linkin's sore excuse for an office in the corner and handed her a mug. Four's teammates, still not properly introduced to us, carried on working at their stations.

Linkin looked between me and the mug before recognition filled her blank blue eyes. "Thank you." She took a sip. "Where is everyone?" Linkin asked, scrolling absently through a document.

"Stuart is sparring with Yulian, Thierry is wrestling Four in the snow," I said. Poor Thierry had been interrogated for most of the day, and couldn't seem to catch a break under Four's supervision. I took a small sip of my hot chocolate and it scalded my lips, so I blew on the drink instead. "I must admit, I'm not looking forward to my turn. Girl's got moves."

Linkin's jaw clenched, but her anger never surfaced. "Your architect friend asked about you." She sighed and took another sip, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck.

"Architect friend?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Skinny guy with glasses, pure New Yorker," Linkin tried to put on the New York accent, rubbing her eyes. Her hands were trembling. "He helped me draw an accurate blueprint of the Alaska compound."

"Nate's here?" I asked. Linkin looked up at me and nodded, looking defeated. There was no denying that something as wrong. I sat on the corner of her desk, and if she was displeased, she didn't let me know. "What's going on with you, Linkin?"

She didn't say anything, just shrugged and went back to glaring at her computer screen. Linkin only looked up when I put a doubtful hand on her shoulder. "Oh, nothing. Just everything everyone is stressed about. It's fine." She licked her top lip and looked philosophically at her mug.

"It'll be okay," I said, looking at the strange building we were in, filled with strangers. "It's different this time."

"Exactly," she agreed quickly, then promptly took her eyes off mine. She closed her eyes while her fingers twitched nervously. Just when I thought that Linkin wouldn't say any more, she spoke up. "Ira."

"Ya." I left my mouth hanging open when I saw the fear in Linkin's eyes.

"Everything comes at a price, doesn't it?" She sighed slowly but held my gaze. When I frowned, she added, "You should know. Do you think there could be exceptions?"

I blinked, trying to figure out what exactly she was talking about. I was interrupted by someone calling my name. "Your turn." Snow was melting into Thierry's hair, and he looked at us with concern and curiosity on his face. When I shrugged off my jacket, he said with a grin, "Some One on One time?"

"Stop thinking right there, Thierry." I gave his arm a soft punch on the way over to the door.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Eagle!" he called after me, but I could hear it in his voice that he was absolutely spent.

󠁌♟♙♟♙

When Four tackled me to the soft ground for the tenth time, I began to wonder if she practiced black magic. "Too slow, Ira. Come on. Don't make me wonder why Oasis sent you lot." If I listened closely, her Chinese accent was tinged Australian. Her face was puffed red and the patches of burn scars make her look even more dangerous against the snow. Rapid regeneration, of course, I remembered. No wonder she was undefeatable.

She lunged at me as soon as I was up on my feet. I was on defence, just trying to not get hit by her calculated and agile moves, no longer trying to outsmart her. Four had already split my lip and I was trying to ignore the other spots where she'd hurt me. To her, this wasn't training. This was a test.

"Where's your fight?" Four asked me between swinging punches. "Where's your rage? Don't you want to be free?"

It only made me think about how tired I was. "I do want to be free," I told her, ducking and attempting a kick to her abdomen. She jumped out of the way.

"Then you - we - have to get this right." She stayed out of range, barely out of breath. The reddish-orange sunlight was beginning to fade from the snow. "We'll go into the night and starve if we have to. I know they've trained me for a decade and you for a few months, but give me some hope, 3-1."

The number was foreign to me by now, but it ignited my blood. I'd spent the better part of a year defeated, used, playing along with the Oasis Project just to see another day. Four had planned her escape while bedridden, made a deal with the Egyptian Foreign Minister who she was assigned to spy on and assassinate, and was now spearheading an ambitious break-in. I took in a lungful of freezing air and sprang at her. She was quick to block me and throw a punch back, but I ducked and with adrenaline pumping, I used my height to my advantage and aimed at her face. It threw her off balance and I tackled her to the ground, pinning her tight. My breaths were heavily fogging up the air and I stood up to pace on the spot.

Four got up and stretched. "Pretty good."

"Nicest thing you've ever said." I retied my hair. "Warms my heart."

"Go and get Thierry." She ignored my sarcasm, looking to the darkening forest. "We're going for live target practice."

"What?" I gawked at her.

"How do you think we get dinner around here?" Four asked. She wasn't joking in the slightest.