Chapter 106

#Chapter 106 – Training Camp “Is Amelia going to be there?” Alvin asks as Evelyn loads a cooler full of snacks into the back of the hummer.

“What?” Evelyn says, confused. “No. Why would Amelia be there?”

Ian shrugs. “She said she’s gonna ruin our lives. She didn’t say when. She could be anywhere.”

Evelyn shakes her head and goes to kneel next to her boys, concerned. She really wishes that they hadn’t been privy to that conversation, but she can’t help it now.

“You boys don’t need to think about that,” she says. “Amelia was just mad – she didn’t mean it. And your daddy and I can protect you. Plus! We’re going to a military Beta base!” she says, very cheerful.

“There are lots of Betas there, all sworn to protect you. I promise, you’ll be fine.”

The boys nod, encouraged, and climb into the back of the car.

Victor is cheerful as he comes down the driveway, dressed not in a suit but in tactical black. Evelyn smirks, thinking that the last time she saw him dressed like this was during her rescue from her father’s house. When she’d had a chance to get up-close and personal with that tactical gear, pressed into the little hideaway in her closet.

She glances down at herself, her jeans and blue cardigan. “Am I…underdressed? Do I need something in a camo print?”

He laughs, considering her. “No, civilian. You’re fine.”

“I want camo print!” Ian shouts from the back of the car.

Victor smirks and gives Evelyn a false look of derision. “Now you’ve got them started.”

She laughs. “You’re the one dressed like a GI Joe.”

“Touche!” he says, swinging him into the car. “Everyone buckled up?” When he hears three assenting answers, Victor swings the car out of the driveway and onto the open road. To more hummers full of Betas follow.

Today, he’s taking Evelyn and the boys out to the Beta barracks. They’d all been very excited when he told them his new plan to incorporate Rogues into his Beta forces – Evelyn’s eyes had welled up at the idea – and it’s time for the boys to see the more military aspects of the pack. One day it will be theirs, and they shouldn’t think that it’s all paperwork.

The trip is a long one, two hours out to the middle of nowhere, beyond his farm and the woods in which they had gone camping, out to a flat plane of earth where it looked like there was nothing around except the barracks planted smack in the middle.

Evelyn gasps when they start to pull into view of his forces. “Oh my god, Victor,” she says, truly awed.

“Is this honestly all yours?”

He smiles, pleased, secretly, that she’s impressed. But it is an impressive space. They pull through a tall metal gate topped with barbed wire and drive through what seems like a small city’s worth of cinder-

block buildings topped with corrugated tin roofs. “These are the sleeping units and mess halls,” Victor murmurs, navigating carefully through groups of troupes that travel in packs of ten.

Beyond the buildings are everything his Betas need to train – fields dedicated to target practice, a small set of woods in which they will run tactical missions. And beyond that, hangers which house his small air force and his arsenal.

“Is that a…” Evelyn leans forward, squinting to see better. “Is that seriously a helicopter?”

He laughs. “What else would it be?”

“You have a helicopter?”

He smirks. “I have six.”

Evelyn shakes her head at him, but turns towards the back seat when she hears Ian shuffle close to Alvin to whisper. “Three for me and three for you,” he hisses. Evelyn laughs as Alvin nods seriously.

“What, I don’t get one?” she asks. Ian, equally serious, shakes his head no.

She laughs again and turns her attention back to the front of the car as Victor pulls into a spot by the nicest building in the area, made of bricks instead of cinder block. “What’s this?” she asks, unbuckling her belt.

“My office,” he says, opening his own door and stepping out. “With a little sleep space, in case I need it.”

They each help the kids down from the back of the car and take them by the hand, leading them into the office. Ian and Alvin barely blink, looking around at everything, trying to take it all in.

“I love it here,” Ian whispers, truly awed.

“It’s good,” Alvin adds with a shrug.

Evelyn laughs at them both. “Really? I think it’s kind of…bland. Needs some flowers. Or colorful paint.”

She shrugs along with Alvin.

Ian shakes his head at her, baffled and a little disgusted. “You just don’t get it mom.” She laughs again and pulls him through the door to Victor’s quarters.

“Spartan,” she says, looking around as she puts her bag down on a metal chair by the door. The room is very small, with a big metal desk at the center of it. In a corner is a single bed, sparsely dressed with a green wool blanket and a single pillow. Behind a wall to the right – Evelyn grimaces to see that there’s no door even – there’s a small bathroom with a tiny shower.

One of the walls of the room, Evelyn is surprised to see, is actually a sliding glass door that opens into a grassy area, with a firepit sunk into the ground. She notes a series of camping chairs lined up against the wall. For more casual meetings, she assumes, or perhaps just nights of contemplation.

All very clean, functional, and rudimentary. She c***s her head to the side, considering this office’s contrast with Victor’s modern home, all glass windows and fine furniture. Oddly, it all fits. The two sides of his personality, perhaps, coming together.

Ian runs over and throws himself onto the bed. “I love it here, mom,” he says, very seriously. “I’m never leaving.”

Alvin comes up and takes her hand. “We can stay for a little while,” he says, and then looks up at her.

“But maybe we can go home tomorrow?”

Evelyn smiles and gives him a kiss on his head. “Yes, baby, that’s the plan.”

Victor, by this point, has moved to his desk and is going through the papers waiting for him there. As he shuffles, a knock comes at the door. Victor calls out, inviting them in, and Evelyn’s face lights up when she sees that it’s Edgar at the door.

“Edgar! Hi –“ she starts, but stops when he raises his hand a little and gives her a wink. Of course, he’s on duty. She hopes she hasn’t gotten him in trouble, but Victor’s face is still aimed down at his desk.

Edgar snaps a salute to Victor. “Sir!” He says, his voice booming.

“Report,” says Victor, passively.

“All is well, sir. We have several new recruits ready for your inspection, and the building of the new barracks is going well.”

“Good,” Victor says, finally looking up at Edgar. “At ease. How are the new Rogue recruits settling in?”

“Your instincts were right, sir,” he says. “They’re doing better when they’re obliged to join existing Beta battalions, rather than forming their own. When left to themselves, they fell back on old rivalries. When they joined existing groups, they began to align more with the group identity as part of the Kensington pack.”

“Good,” Victor says, nodding. “Then that will be our new procedure, unless you see any reason to adjust it?”

Edgar shakes his head no, and Evelyn is pleased – and a little surprised – to see Victor defer to Edgar’s knowledge on this matter. Her father would never have done that. But then again, he’s an inferior leader. Victor knows when to lean on the expertise of those he trusts.

“Okay,” Victor says, standing up and clapping his hands. “Please have the group leaders come to report on their individual barracks, and have someone bring some more cots up here.” He gestures at the rest of the room. “We’re staying over, so we can survey everything in the morning. Time the boys saw their inheritance firsthand.”

“It’s gonna be so great!” Ian says, leaping to his feet on the bed.

Evelyn smiles at him, and then turns back to Edgar. Her attention is caught, halfway, though, when she sees that Victor is watching her, not his son.

“Yes, it is going to be great,” he agrees, not taking his eyes off her.