After two idle days, Renee Morgan went for a walk alone in the back garden after lunch to help digest.
They called it a garden, but in reality, there weren't many flowerbeds; rather, it was a patch of green woodland.
Renee wandered through the woods, and as she was coming out, she bumped into someone at a corner.
He'd probably just returned from a mission—on a sweltering summer day, he was still in a dark green tactical jacket, his face smeared with camouflage paint, shoes spattered with mud, and the heavy scent of blood lingering in the air. It was impossible to tell if it was his, someone else's, or both.
Though she couldn't make out his actual features, those eyes—once you'd seen them, you wouldn't forget.
The instructor's superior—Ethan Sterling.
Renee greeted him politely, "Hello..."
Sterling, seeing it was her, replied calmly, "Pack your things, the plane's leaving for home this afternoon."
Renee's eyes lit up. She looked up in surprise, "Is the mission over?"
