“Yes, ma’am, I can do that.” I tried to seem anxious—willing, but anxious. Really, I was busting at the seams. I wasn’t just getting out into the field. I was being delivered right back to my family!

“It is imperative that they not leave our observation while en route. Under no circumstances are they to be lost before we can complete the mission.” She pulled her chair back in and retrieved her glasses. “Now, I am going to explain the Rules of Engagement to you.”

“Yes!” Mitch clapped. He couldn’t contain himself for one more second. I was sure the vomit was on its way.

“Agent Dusome, please,” she scolded.

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”

The rules were simple enough—so simple, in fact, that it was hard to find the cracks. I would go with another Agent, and we would be dumped within six miles of the group’s current location. We would walk in and join them. To avoid potential complications, we would not carry anything that might give away the mission: no walkie-talkies, no GPS devices. We would instead find one of the trackers left along the border at potential extraction locations and activate it so that Recruiters could be dispatched once the full network was exposed: nurses, transporters, and the route and methods of travel. This would ensure that the entire operation could be shut down as opposed to just the collection of bodies.

We took in every word for different reasons. I was trying to think of ways to slip away or change the route. Mitch was making sure he heard each letter so he could expand his knowledge of field work in order to be a better snitch.

“Now,” Agent Mellin said, “let’s move on to the regulations surrounding the final test.”

“Final test?”

“Yes, of course,” she answered. “We wouldn’t include you in this vital mission without making sure you were ready, now would we? Frankly, I’m annoyed that we have no choice but to use you this early on.”

I only half paid attention while she explained the test that would be the final step before I was sent back to the group. She rattled off longitude and latitude, the appropriate time frames, when I would be deployed, and whatever. I was stuck on the fact that I was going to be reunited with my family. Soon—maybe within days—I would be back with them. Then I realized I would have to convince them everything was okay while also maintaining my cover with the seasoned agent until I could get rid of the second agent for good. But I’d killed before, and I could do it again, especially now with what was at stake.

It was easier planned than executed. Even if I had to maintain the illusion for only a short time, I’d never lied to Miig before. He would know something was up, but he couldn’t know, not until I figured out a way to get us all to freedom, out of the grasp of the Recruiters and the school. Then Mellin said something that snapped my attention back into the room.