All the eyes were on me. Every single one.

I recognized most of the faces, but there were a few young ones that had been added up to start the next generation of contractors. It felt a little sick. When I had been initiated there were about thirty of us and the people standing in this room right now numbered eight, not including the fresh recruits. We had a survival rate of less than thirty percent. 

They were all still here. These were the same kids I’d grown up with. Hermes was behind me, I hadn’t known him well or anything but I knew who he was. Raijin was glowering from the corner, looking like he wanted to stab me himself. Then there was Mars and Diana, the only two of us who were related by blood to each other. Tenjin was observing but had yet to pass judgement on me. The other two were Ares and Bellona, who were anxiously watching my every move.

There was also the older contractor, who I did not know, and the two young ones, probably only eleven years old or so, who were going to be forced into the bloody work soon.

No words were spoken, I scanned the room briefly to make sure I wasn’t going to be surprised later by a sudden onslaught from firearms but no one was visibly holding one. It was just my knife for now. I stepped over the cracked concrete, kept my distance from anybody else and opened the door to the back hall. The smell immediately made me cover my mouth. I hadn’t been here in so long I forgot that without plumbing, we had bucket duty. And even with bucket duty, during warm days the entire building reeked of human waste. I managed to swallow down the bile that rose in my throat. I had lived here for most of my life. I could stomach walking through this hall to the pit.

I passed the bucket room and went to the door with an external bolt, which was undrawn, and pushed it open.

The director had set himself up a folding chair, which we didn’t usually have in the pit. His hands were folded, patiently waiting and as he saw me come in, he smiled.

“Athena,” he said silkily. “I’m glad to see you.” His eyes lingered on the knife in my hand.

Mia was still handcuffed to the pole in the corner. Next to her was the director’s bodyguard scowling deeply at everything in the room.

I let my eyes wander to the other side of the room. It was just as I remembered this place. Dark, smelly and damp, the floor was even worse than the floors in the main room. It was soft and crumbling. Bits of rocks and glass were everywhere and I knew from experience they could do a great deal of damage to your skin if you were unfortunate enough to get thrown in here without clothing.

“Are you going to drop the knife?” the director asked.

It wasn’t really a question, it was a demand. 

I hesitated, holding onto my last piece of security .

“Be a good girl, Athena, and put it down,” the director said.

Mia tugged at the handcuffs on her wrist but it wouldn’t be doing her any favors.

With a slow movement, I bent over and set the knife on the floor.

“Kick it over to my bodyguard,” the director continued.

I did so, sending it skittering in the vague direction of Mia with a loud clanging.

“Good girl,” the director said. “Now let’s have a little chat.”

“What do you want?” I said lowly. If he wanted me dead I would be dead by now. I knew that. 

He unfolded his hands, sitting more upright on his chair. “I could have you back,” he said. “We don’t have to end this with you dying.”

“And if I refuse?” I asked.

“Well then I’d have to kill you and your little friend over there,” he said.

Mia flinched at the mention and tried to speak through her gag.

The director gave his bodyguard a nod and the guard had no hesitation to smack her across the face, effectively shutting her up.

My blood curdled. I wanted to throw up. There was no justice in this place. No sense of right or wrong and if I reacted as if anything was wrong, I’d get an even worse punishment. This was how we were conditioned to tolerate these absurd conditions.

I swallowed down the urge to react and simply took a breath. I was once again faced with two paths but both just led to more death.

“Athena,” the director said warmly. “Do you have any idea how much you’re worth?” He made a broad hand gesture. “You’re one of the chosen few to survive this long. And that’s saying a lot since you entered this program as a toddler. Most contractors we get any older than a few months can’t handle it. You’ve gotta be raised just the right way to do this kind of work and you decided to survive despite the odds against you. Doesn’t that give you some sense of pride?”

At one time, it did give me pride. And that was what bothered me the most about this. At one point I had been indoctrinated into this system so completely and entirely that I would rather try to escape a hospital when I desperately needed help, than be taken away from this place.

“If I stay, will things be the same?” I asked.

The director made a considering face before saying, “more or less. We’ll be moving people around in a few months here. A new flock will be coming in that you can start training yourself and once you’ve gotten back in the swing of things we can reevaluate your career prospects. I think it’s a great deal considering how worried I was about you. It took a hell of a time to find you, I almost thought you were dead.”

I let the options sink in. Could I sacrifice innocent lives to save Mia? She was what was important to me. I cared far more about her than I did random strangers who were probably involved in the criminal world to begin with, and knew the risks that they took on when they became problems. But I also said I wouldn’t exchange one life for another. I knew I wasn’t going to be walking away from here one way or the other. One contractor I might be able to take down, but eight to ten, there was no way. On top of that, I would forever have a contract on my own head if I managed to get out of here.

But if I stayed I’d go back to being Athena and turn off the human side of me to simply be a machine that did dirty work. 

I made a slow and careful movement to get down on a knee and bowed my head, silently pledging fealty. The grit under me bit at my skin despite my pants. If things worked out, I could get Mia out of here alive. It was still a long shot considering she had seen so much and so the director would not want her running out of here with that knowledge. But he also wanted me to stay. I knew they sunk thousands and thousands of dollars into the contractors. A good one could be bid off for hundreds of thousands of dollars to whoever, no questions asked. If I could convince him she was worth the risk, she might be okay.

“Good girl,” he said happily and stood to approach me. I bowed my head lower, tensing as he got closer. Every human part of me told me to run away from this, but I refused. I was done with running. “A good girl gets to eat another day,” he said cheerily. “So I’ll have some work for you tomorrow but for tonight I’ll let the others take good care of you.”

My stomach churned. He bent over to grab my hair, much like he had a hundred times before.

I moved, rocking my weight back to get away from his grip.

I caught a flash of the expression on his face, the shock followed by his regret. I was a trained killer. My life was easier with a weapon but…

He tried to move away in time, but I grabbed an arm and yanked him back. He struggled momentarily but I grappled with him to get his neck under my arm.

His body guard approached, letting his muscles bulge as he primed to beat me to death.

And then he froze as the director and I came to a standstill.

I had an arm around his throat, the other on his jaw in a prime position to break his neck.

“Move and I’ll do it,” I growled at the guard.

Mia whimpered from her corner, once again pulling at the handcuffs. And then nobody moved.