“Wow,” June said.

“Yeah, it looks like a small, crappy plane from the outside, but it’s not bad inside,” Ava said. She sat on the couch near the entrance.

About forty people streamed into the turboprop. The new employees had to go to the back, but since Raine was going to help Ava with her essays, she got permission from Song Hyun-Woo to let him sit beside her near the front. The square-jawed Korean man was there, sitting just a few feet away, but Ava said he was Song Hyun-woo’s right-hand man, Kim Jun-seo. He was perfectly sane, but, according to her, very annoying.

With his worries settled, he waited calmly for others to board. From where he sat, he could see everyone who entered.

A short blond man stepped onto the plane.

“Oh, wow. It’s you,” the man said with a look of surprise.

Raine blinked. “Kayden?”

“It’s a small world,” Kayden said. But they couldn’t talk, since there were others boarding behind him. He said goodbye and went further down the plane.

“The poached Shields candidates,” Ava said with a snicker.

“How many people do you even take from Jones Clark?” Raine asked.

“I myself got you and him,” Song Hyun-woo said. He was on an armchair near them. “Other recruiters probably snatched four or five in total.”

“But that’s not important.” Ava pulled out her notebook. “Help me out. We only have two or three hours.”

Only? He smiled wryly and started reading.

. . . .

“It’s beautiful.” Ava wiped away an imaginary tear.

“Yeah, it’s pretty good now.” Raine leaned back in the couch and yawned. All this flying made him tired. But they were about to land.

“That was one hell of a productive flight. I should hop on one of these flights on my own.”

“You want to fork over $4,000 an hour?” Song Hyun-woo said.

“Someday I’ll earn enough to make that financially sound.”

“It’ll never be financially sound,” Raine said. “You would get better bang for your buck by riding first class on a regular flight.”

“You’re a dream-killer.” She stared out the window to watch the plane land.

Raine smiled lightly. What a funny kid.

He looked out the window as well. The island was beautiful. A huge mountain stood near the center, its snowy peak poking the clouds. A river ran through the whole island, splitting it in two, and half of it was covered in vegetation. The other half was occupied by massive open spaces, tall buildings, and a colossal structure that looked like a modern fortress. The buildings on the north and south sides of the island had wildly contrasting looks. On the north side, they looked beautiful and Gothic. On the south side, they looked imposing and modern.

“The Gilman-Costas Island,” Song Hyun-woo said. He was the only one not looking out the window. “It’s a beautiful place, but no one who goes there remembers it for its beauty.”

Ava shuddered. “My god, don’t remind me. I was just thinking about how it looks amazing from up here.”

“What’s so bad about the island?” Raine asked.

“It’s not the island itself, but the training.” Ava looked at him and grinned. “It starts very early. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

It can’t be that bad, Raine thought. But he was a bit concerned.

The plane landed. They got out and received their luggage. There was a white-and-purple double-decker bus waiting for them nearby. They lined up to put their bags into the luggage compartment.

Why did we get our bags if we’re going to throw them in the bus? Raine wondered.

A second plane came just minutes later with another forty or so people. The first person to come out was a short-haired woman with a black eyepatch over her right eye. Striding over, she greeted Song Hyun-woo.

“I have one injured recruit, but that’s it,” Song Hyun-woo said after returning the greeting.

“None on my side,” she said. “Although my group should have lower athletic ability on average.”

“So the ones in the first deck’s last two rows will be from your group?”

“Yes.” She started calling out people’s names to have them enter the bus first.

While waiting for those first nine or so people to get in, Raine heard more than one person complain about their butt hurting from sitting still for so long.

“Do you want to follow us on a bike?” Ava asked one of the complainers. “We have bikes. You’ll have to take your luggage with you, though. Because the bus is carrying some other junk, we don’t have space for all of your bags.”

The complainer narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “How far do we have to go, and what’s the ride like?”

Ava looked to Song Hyun-woo.

“It’s ten miles with a small incline most of the way,” he said. “The path is smooth.”

“Okay, nevermind.”

“I’ll bike,” Edgar said, getting out of the line. “I’m tired of sitting around for so long.”

“Me too,” Kayden said.

A handful of others joined them. Raine understood why. It was warm, but not hot, and ten miles would take about an hour of cycling. Even if it would be terribly exhausting to him, he would have cycled if not for his injury. It would be a good way to make connections early, establishing a sense of camaraderie with others who cycled.

Raine got into the bus and went over his connections with those at Hopkins. I should befriend at least a dozen more people.

He got to work immediately. He had a chance to sit next to the Stanford girl and took it. She smelled like minty mouthwash.

He tapped her on the shoulder. “So how’d you get recruited?”

“Hm, me?”

Yes, you. I wouldn’t tap you on the shoulder otherwise. He nodded with a smile.

“It was surprisingly normal compared to what I’ve heard from others,” she said. “They came to me and basically said, ‘Do you want a job?’ And I’m broke, so I said yes.”

Raine stared at her, trying to tell if she was being serious or not. She looked like it. “My god, I wish my recruitment had been that simple.”

He retold his story of being a bodyguard, getting shot, and driving around Beverly Hills with an armed motorcyclist following him—with some details blurred out and a little bit of understatement for believability. He watched her eyes go wide with shock as she heard his story. “What the...what kind of ridiculous test is that?!”

That was exactly the reaction he wanted. Raine smiled calmly at her, but inside, he wanted to do a pump fist to celebrate.

“You aren’t joking, right?” she asked, suddenly suspicious.

“I’m serious.”

She stared at his face for a moment. Then she leaned back and stared blankly at the ceiling. “Wow. I lucked out.”

“Do you know why your recruitment was so simple?” he asked.

“Prior achievement is a big deal.” The words didn’t come from the Stanford girl, but Ava instead. She was walking to the back of the bus for some reason. “If you’ve done something really impressive before, we don’t test you. But you...” Ava frowned but didn’t continue. She continued on to the back and, when she reached the second last row, clapped her hands. The bus slowed to a stop.

“Okay, you people get out. Last and second last rows.”

“I’m sorry, what?” someone said, baffled.

“You know how we told you training’s rough, right? Well, training started the moment we landed. Get out.”

They did as they were told, grumbling about how strange the job was.

“What are we going to do?” someone asked as they got out of their seat.

“You’re going to get on bikes and race the idiots who started cycling earlier. The group that wins gets to have the nicer rooms, the nicer bathrooms, and the nicer food.”

With those words, the ones reluctantly leaving found a sudden burst of invigoration, like someone had set fire to the bus and they had to escape. Raine watched through a window as they hopped onto bicycles and hurried down the road.

“Are we allowed to get off and cycle too?” someone asked.

“Nope,” Ava said. “They just took the last bikes.”

“Dammit.”

“Don’t envy them; they were the ones with the shittiest stamina.” Ava grabbed a seat at the back. “They’re going to take forever to reach the residences.”

I probably would have been included in that shitty stamina group if I hadn’t gotten shot. He looked down at his injured leg.

The girl next to him glanced at Ava and said, “I should have taken a bike at the start.”

“Ava, how big of a difference will it be between a room of someone here and someone who wins the race?” Raine asked.

“What’s bigger isn’t the difference between rooms, but between the number of roommates. Winners share a room with one other person, not three.”

“Wait, we’re going to be sharing a room with three other people?”

“Yup.”

Raine hesitated, but asked, “How big is the room?”

The question was evidently on the minds of many around them. Their eyes were on Ava. She checked her phone.

“About 25 by 15 feet. But each unit has a decent living room and a small kitchen.”

Sighs, everywhere. Sighs.

“If I get off now and start running, will that do anything?” someone asked.

Eyes lit up.

“Nope.”

The bright light in those hopeful eyes dimmed.

“But you’ll have more chances to get nicer rooms and whatever. Anyway, no more questions. Steele or somebody is going to give a speech about what to expect and all that stuff.”

Raine turned to the Stanford girl. “With every passing minute, this job seems to be getting stranger.”

“I have to agree,” she said. She sighed. “And I never got your name by the way. I’m Livia.”

He spent the rest of the short bus ride speaking with her—standard topics like where they were from, where they went to school, et cetera.

The bus stopped, and when they stepped out of it, several people gasped in awe. The Gothic architecture surrounding them was incredible.

“We obviously got lost and managed to end up in Germany,” Raine said with a straight face. “We should immediately find our way back to the island before it gets dark.”

That got a few chuckles.

“There should be at least twenty minutes before the ones on bikes arrive,” Song Hyun-woo said. “That’s plenty of time for a quick test.”

Steele nodded and said to the new employees, “Follow me.”

They headed for one of the buildings with a slightly more modern look than the rest. It was wider and had thicker walls.

When they entered, they saw what was essentially an apartment lobby fancied up with arches and decorations to look Gothic. But there were no gargoyles. Maybe that part of Gothic architecture was just a little too much for Hopkins.

The Gothic look was also diminished by the two security cameras on the wall.

“This is the Gilman Tower, where you will stay. Those recruited in California, gather to the left. Those recruited in Maryland, gather to the right. Those recruited elsewhere stay at the center.”

Maryland? Raine thought as he went to the left of the lobby. Song Hyun-woo and Kim Jun-seo stood in front of the group.

The group on the left was the largest, with about thirty people. The group in the center had about ten. The last group had twenty.

“Okay, quiet down, people,” Ava said. Someone passed her a pouch as she spoke. “We’ll call your names and tell you the floor, apartment, and room. Then I’ll pass you your key, and you should go up to your room. That’s where you’re staying, with no changes unless management decides they’re necessary.”

Raine stood and waited until his name was called.

“Livia Wade, floor 5, unit 5, room 1.” Ava passed Livia a key.

“Edgar Roberts...oh, yeah. On a bike.” She groaned in frustration. “Raine Williams, floor 5, unit 1, room 1.” He got a key from her. He inspected it. It looked like a regular key. I guess not everything about this company is crazy.

He was one of the last people to get his key. He made his way to the elevators and waited with Livia and a few others. They entered. Raine hit the button to the fifth floor and closed the elevator doors.

On the fifth floor, he and Livia stepped out.

“See you,” she said, heading for her apartment. It was on the opposite side of the building as his. He waved at her and opened the door to his apartment.

He took a deep breath. Yes!

The living room wasn’t just decent. It was huge. It had three bean bags, two armchairs, and a couch and a shelf full of at least a dozen books. The kitchen was small, as Ava had said, but it had a side-by-side fridge, a stove, a microwave, and a mini-oven. Damn, what more do you need?

He opened the fridge. There was food inside. There were glass bottles full of green- and orange-colored juices at the back, and several glass bottles of water were on the door. Eight sandwiches were lined up, neatly packed in plastic wrap. Raine saw the filling: eggs, vegetables, and maybe a bit of chicken. He closed the fridge. This is incredible.

He opened the freezer. There was frozen mackerel and not much else.

He heard the door to one of the rooms open.

“Oh, hey.” A muscular man with a buzz cut came out the room. He looked about six-foot-three and wore a dress shirt and trousers. He walked up to Raine and extended his hand. “I’m Lukas.”

Raine shook his hand and introduced himself. “Isn’t this place incredible?”

Lukas laughed. “I know, right? Damn, that girl scared me for a while. You know, the one you were talking to.”

“Ava? Yeah, she scared me too. But this kitchen is great.”

“It really is, man, and the rooms are great too. There's a big closet in the wall. I was just hanging up my jackets before you came.” Lukas grinned. “This place is just blowing my mind. It's getting me pretty pumped about this job.”

The man’s excitement was infectious, and Raine had to see if the rooms really were great. They were, and soon enough, both of them were roaming around the apartment and pointing out every detail.

“The ceiling fans can be put on timers!”

“Wow, and the bathrooms have fans and windows.”

“Oh my god, there are two washing machines at the back.”

“The view is amazing!”

By the time they were done admiring the apartment, they proclaimed it a paradise.