Their bets didn’t bother me. I was trading one danger for another, but I wasn’t mining on my first day. Ahiga said to expect a couple days of training, and that meant today wasn’t going to be dangerous. But I stood outside of room 12WA and wondered what training would mean exactly.

I stared at the keypad next to the door for a while. No one had told me that I could go into the previously restricted areas—there hadn’t been any alerts or updates on my wrist unit—but that didn’t mean I needed to knock. Not that it necessarily meant anything bad if I couldn’t open the door, but it felt like the beginning to my way out if it opened.

I blew out a heavy breath. It was just a freaking door, and I wouldn’t know if I could open it unless I tried.

I pressed my hand against the black pad and got a sharp buzz of energy. A second later, there was a beep. I jumped back and dropped my hand before I realized that the beep was the door unlocking. I tried the knob, and it turned.

Here goes everything…

I stepped into the room and was a little confused. There were rows of desks in a semicircle. The front of the room was a blank vidscreen. It was a classroom?

Carl sat in a chair at the front of it, snoring away. Aside from him, the room was empty.

I walked down the stairs, not worrying about being too loud. I made my footfalls a little heavier than usual, hoping that would wake him up for me. But as I made my way to stand in front of his chair, he just kept on snoring.

Oh man. If I woke Carl up, he could get pissed. To do anything to piss off the man who held my fate in his hands was idiotic. He’d accepted my transfer when no one else would. He figured out I was Aunare, yet hadn’t turned me in. And if I was going to survive my mining runs, then it’d be because of his knowledge. Pissing him off—

Another loud snore ripped through the room, and I knew I was going to have to do something more to wake him up. I needed whatever training he could give me too badly to waste time.

“Carl?” I whispered.

Nothing.

“Carl?” I said a little louder.

Nothing.

“Carl!” I expected him to jump at my yell, but he just sat there. Another snore ripped through the room.

Clearly, noise wasn’t going to wake him up. I reached out and touched his shoulder. As soon as my fingertips made contact, he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him as he punched.

I ducked, narrowly missing a fist to my face. “Carl! It’s Maité Martinez. It’s oh-six-hundred,” I said as I broke his grip.