Spycraft Academy by B. Miles (little readers .txt) 📕

back as well, mirroring Sam's stance. "The minute Sam opens his mouth he becomes a loose end."

"Look, I get it," Drina said, "But this isn't the slums of Roslav. Sam, you'll be protected, nobody is going to just leave you to the wolves here."

"Can you guarantee that, Drina?" Sam held her obsidian gaze in his, not allowing her to escape. He needed her to understand how serious this could get, he needed her to understand why all of them had to keep their mouths shut.

Drina's jaw ticked, but she didn't say anything. That's because she couldn't, because there was no guarantee that her promise of safety was true. It was only an assumption, and one did not gamble a life on assumption.

"That is why all of us are going to keep silent on this. And I mean it." He leveled his gaze on Fletch, then Rosin. The table was silent for some long moments, but Rosin finally broke it.

"Well, we have to do something, at least. If any of this is true, it means somebody swiped the key to bringing the entire military, and the country, to its knees. Meera would win the war, and the Varin population will be slaughtered by the thousands. Autocracy has no room for acclimation, and it has no tolerance for resistance."

Sam didn’t want to get involved in this at all, but he already was, and Rosin was right in any case. If what the third-years said was true, it meant Sam's inaction, small as his role was in this hypothetical military espionage, could be the deciding factor on whether Apelles got his information to the Meeran government or not, and whether Meera would subsequently be able to crack the coded messages that circulated in the Varin empire.

"We'll investigate on our own," Sam said after a moment.

"Are you mad?" Fletch scoffed.

"I didn't say you had to be involved. You elected to stay out of the crew, remember? You're not expected to help. You're just expected to keep this a secret. It's nothing Mattie and I haven't done before."

Drina looked like she wanted to refuse for a moment, but then she relaxed and smirked. "Yeah, alright. Spying on people is cake. Do I get to be infiltration? I've been wanting to see whether Apelles is really as prickly as he acts."

"No." Sam leveled a stare at her. He hoped his unwillingness to allow any of them to put themselves in harm's way was clear in his eyes. "If there's any infiltration, I'll be the one to do it. You three just make sure I don't get killed or caught in the process."

"That's not fair." Drina crossed her arms. "And who made you captain of this ship, anyway?"

"I did," Sam said. "Because I'm the one with the good ideas. I'm the one who I don't mind sacrificing if it comes down to it, and I'm the one who's going to make sure you don't do anything to get yourself or anybody else killed."

Mattie knew the drill, and Rosin didn't seem to have any qualms with it, but Drina's sharp smirk was indicative of her unwillingness to hand over her trust freely. He supposed he didn't blame her.

"Alright, love," she purred, threading her fingers and resting her chin on her knuckles. "Let's see what you've got, then. You fuck up, you're fired."

Sam quirked an eyebrow. Fired? He'd like to see her try.

He'd done his job well for years. He might have blundered a couple of times, but that was to be expected. He hadn't gotten anybody maimed, killed, or imprisoned yet, and he wasn't about to start today.

Sam scanned Drina from her smirking face to her curled knuckles. If she tried to fire him, he'd make her take it back. He could, too. He was stronger by far, and she was much too cocky for her own good. Judging from the furious blush she had the other day when he gave her a taste of her own medicine, it wouldn't take much to get her to retract her statement.

"And I suppose you'd be point, then?" Sam asked. He should have been more offended at the challenge, but something about her challenges made them exciting to partake in. He relished it.

"I suppose I would." Drina shrugged.

"Alright. Let's see you try and fire me, love. It should be fun."

He smirked at her, his imagination running wild in the gutter, and it must have shown on his face because her own smirk slowly fell away.

"Well, since Sam's in charge at the moment." Mattie pushed her empty plate toward Sam. "He can start on his duties early today."

Rosin grinned and pushed her dishes toward Sam. The eye contact he held with Drina was broken and he wordlessly gathered the dishes. Unfortunately, Mattie had always been too clever and exacting. Years ago, when they first took on a third crew member, Sam had become the de facto commander of their runs. Mattie had decided that since his job was to take care of them, it extended to home life as well.

He eventually parsed out the chores to the whole crew so they'd have equal work, but for about a year, Mattie had slyly poked and prodded him into doing all of the cooking, cleaning, and washing in such a way that he thought it was his idea. To keep him humble, she told him later.

Sam reached for Drina's dishes and for a moment, he thought she'd be stubborn and insist on doing it herself, but she just smiled and gave him her plate. Fletch was still working on his meal, which was just as well. Technically, Sam didn't have to do anything for the man, but he would out of common decency.

He stood up with an armload of plates, bowls, and cups, heading directly for the long metal wash bin near the serving line. He was halfway there when somebody rammed his shoulder. Every piece of food ware went clattering to the floor. When Sam looked up to see who'd bumped him, the