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Morgan was halfway to standing and sank back into her chair. “I don’t think I could handle it if we added nonstop saluting to my plate.”
“Does this have something to do with the pass I’m giving you?” Fiona crossed her arms as she swung her gaze from Morgan to me.
“That was partially a joke.” Morgan’s cheeks mottled pink. “We’ve been so busy researching potential locations the Kronock could be holding prisoners that we might have forgotten to start our Strategy homework.”
Ariana sucked in a breath, as she cut her gaze to the books piled on our table. “This is all research to find my sister?”
“Like Morgan said, we went down a bit of a rabbit hole.” I shifted from one foot to the other since I’d remained standing. The thought of turning in an assignment late made my skin prickle with unease. I hadn’t gotten where I was by slacking on anything, ever, for any reason. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to complete our work for your class, Captain.”
Fiona’s stance had relaxed. “If anything deserves a pass, it’s this.” She touched a hand to Ariana’s arm as the woman gaped at our research. “Have you found anything?”
As I said ‘yes,’ Morgan said, ‘not really,’ which made the other women eye us with confusion.
I looked at Morgan who mimed locking her lips and pointed to me. “What we mean is we haven’t found any solid leads but we’re making a list of places we can eliminate.” My own pride at this withered when I saw the hope in Ariana’s eyes fade. “But that means we’re closer to finding sites that we can consider.”
Fiona squeezed Ariana’s arm. “She’s right. Narrowing the field is crucial when we’re talking about the entire galaxy.”
Ariana flicked us a weak smile. “I appreciate all your hard work. I really do.” She jerked a thumb at Fiona. “But I don’t want to be responsible for this hard ass flunking you.”
Fiona gasped in mock horror. “Hard ass?” Then she swiveled her head as if staring at her own ass. “I mean, it’s firm, I’ll give you that.”
Ariana rolled her eyes but released a small laugh.
“This research is exactly the kind of work that I’d expect from Assassins, although I can’t stop assigning you the same homework as the other cadets simply because you’re doing this.” Fiona flipped her golden waves off her shoulder. “However, I can offer you extra credit for your extra work, and some extra time for your homework.”
As much as I appreciated the captain’s offer, I knew that I wouldn’t be turning my work in late, even if I had to stay up all night to finish it. I’d been too self-programmed to do all the right things to let something slip, even now.
“Thanks, Captain.” Morgan relaxed into her chair and waved a hand at the book in front of her. “What happens when we do find some possible targets? What then?”
“Then I lead a mission to check out every site until we find Sasha.” Ariana’s expression hardened with determination. “We infiltrate the site, kill as many of the scaly monsters as we can, and we bring my sister home.”
That seemed long on emotion and short on tactical details, and the strategist in me twitched.
“Typical pilot,” Fiona groused, casting a fond look at her friend. “Flying in guns blazing without thinking of the strategy.” She pivoted to face us. “There’s more to it than that. We’re developing a plan for the incursion based on various scenarios. We won’t know which one we’ll need until we determine the type of prison or facility we’re dealing with, and we won’t know that until recon missions scout out the sites.”
“But in every plan we kill the Kronock and get my sister,” Ariana added.
“Have you considered making this an assignment?” I asked.
Fiona cocked her head at me. “You want an additional assignment? I thought you had too many already.”
“Not an additional assignment just for us.” I slid my gaze to Morgan. “What about giving the task to the entire School of Strategy?”
Fiona’s eyes widened as she rocked back on the heels of her boots. “Now that’s a thought.”
“Imagine if you had all the Assassins working on the plans.” Morgan bobbed her head with enthusiasm and swept a hand wide over the table of books. “Imagine if they were all helping us with this.”
“Could you do that?” Ariana asked. “Could you harness the power of the academy to find Sasha?”
“I don’t see why not.” Fiona was smiling brightly. “The Kronock are the sworn enemy of the Drexians, after all, and Sasha was captured when she was fighting against them. I can’t think of a better reason to use the talents and resources of the academy than this.”
Ariana threw her arms around her friend. “I could kiss you!”
Fiona laughed as she hugged her friend back. “But what would Volt say?”
“If Drexians are at all like guys on Earth, he’d love it,” Morgan said under her breath with a mischievous grin to me.
When Fiona extracted herself from Ariana’s hug, she narrowed her eyes at me and Morgan. “Did you just manage to sweet talk your way out of work?”
