Chapter One

Cara had left home over five years ago in a desperate attempt to save her little brother. He was thriving now without her, and the situation had once again become dangerous for her. It was time to let him grow up and discover himself. She wished she could keep watching him grow, but the threat of the young Corporal was becoming too much.

What’s more, her brother seemed to be doing fine. Better than fine, really. Good schoolwork, a developing stature that oozed the confidence that only a teenage boy could possess, and an impressive drive to understand the world around him.

She’d never told him that she left to protect him, of course. He was only nine when she decided it was time to leave her parents’ house. The night she left was the last straw, and he was too young to continue carrying the weight of her actions.

She’d been right to do it, too. The first time she’d snuck back into the house to check on him, he was bright and full of energy only a couple weeks later. Long enough for her parents to think she was gone for good.

Two years ago she’d been taken in by Lucy, a Nurse Sergeant at the hospital. She’d caught Cara stealing from the basement stores of medicine at the same hospital her mother reported to. Cara’s rivals little way of sticking it to her mother and the corrupt, violent, demeaning government she was a part of. Lucy was a part of it too, but Cara’s never met anyone like Lucy in the military branch before. Lucy was kind, sharp, and most importantly, she cared about the people she was meant to help. Her patients, her family, her friends, her community always got what they needed from Lucy, even if it wasn’t necessarily what they wanted.

When Cara had told Lucy she was stealing the medicine and dropping it off at the vet’s orphan shelter anonymously, Lucy hadn’t hesitated. That was how Cara had discovered the Contester Sects. The local one was run by Lucy’s husband, Mannon Moore.

There were a number of things she didn’t like about the group, they seemed to prefer to fight fire with fire, for example. But with the group she’d found a place to really make a difference. She’d honed her skills, with Lucy and Mannon’s guidance, and become the go to logistical planner for several of the sect’s covert operations aimed at understanding and ultimately dismantling the current regime to build something better. Something new and fresh – where her brother could be safe and curious and proud without having the shadow of the military cast upon him.

More and more, Cara had taken over the mission planning, getting contesters in and out of situations safely and successfully. Sometimes things went wrong though, and she was still trying to solve the issue of casualties on missions. Cole Merran was a notorious weak spot here. But Mannon kept sending him because he got the mission goals done.

More than once had Merran shot guards, soldiers, officers, and even a few civilians on missions. Always claiming it was necessary. Cara didn’t believe him.

Cole Merran was exactly what the contesters didn’t need – more anger and violence terrorizing the people they were trying to protect.

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