I am looking at the heavy oaken door. I try to reach the handle, but my arm is frozen. Is that how fear looks like? What a shitty thing to feel. I sigh. Move, coward. You are already late. They are not gonna wait for you forever.

I smile at that thought. I smile because that is a lie. They are my brothers. They would wait for me for the whole eternity if I asked them. Stupid assholes; I am not going to give them satisfaction, at least not today. With smile still on my face I finally open the door.

The room is bigger than one could expect. It looks like something taken straight from XX century. Huge wooden table stands in the middle. No electronic devices, no Net access. God, how could people live like that? Of course, I understand the necessity of this Spartan design. If there was even a slightest chance of this meeting being infiltrated than this whole war would probably end today.

The place is crowded, with more than a dozen people sitting all-around. I recognize almost everyone immediately. Half of my year group is here. I nod to them when passing. Not a week ago we were drinking to our graduation; now we are brothers in arms. But there are also people I would never expect to find here.

“Hetman, what the hell are you doing here?” I approach Draco standing in the far corner of the room. He also looks surprised. And tired. We give each other a bear hug. “I thought you were supposed to hunt in North America?”

“What, you thought He would send pups for a job, just like that? I want to have some fun, too.” he smiles. “And don’t call me that. You know I’d always hated being your nanny.”

And yet, I could swear that you were the first one to volunteer for this job.

“Are you sure? I think you were pretty good. And I’m not the only one who thinks so,” I can see his muscle tens. “She is still waiting for you. Have you even talked with her today?” I turn my head to where Blaze sits alone on a sofa, playing with her favorite antique lighter.

“That’s-…”

Before he can say anything the door open once more and three more people come inside. A man in his forties and two younger women following him, acting as if they were his personal bodyguards. Both have long blonde hairs, pulled back in ponytails. They look almost like twins.

We all stand on attention and salute. Most of us, greenhorns, are still nervous. On the other hand, few gathered here veterans barely lift their hands. It is not that they are disrespectful, but rather because they already earned themselves the privilege of being informal with Him.

“At easy, brothers” the man says, his voice strong but calm.

I saw our leader more than once at the Academy, but that was always related to some major event. Start of the year, graduation ceremony and so on. The occasions I talked with him face to face are less than handful. And yet, I cannot stop myself from looking with awe at the man.

He does not appear to be someone exceptional. He is maybe a little over 1,8 m tall and – as far as I can tell – quite handsome. But nothing more. No particular label that you can attach to him. Maybe that’s the thing. Nobody would guess who he really is, how many names he carries. Madman, Lucifer, The Last Rebel… Friends call him Jack, though.

In short, here comes our Headmaster.

“Thank you all for coming here” he starts, when we all gather around the table. “I know how troublesome this past few weeks have been for many of you. And I know you all want nothing more, but to find out why the hell I ordered you to come here in the first place. Black, could you?”

One of his attendants hands him the suitcase she carried with her. That is one of the things why I love this man. Straight to the point.

“This,” he puts a small memory card on the table “is gonna be your new assignment.”

I, as well as the majority of my brothers and sisters, look at him in confusion. I suspected it may be something like that, but still. All of us for one job? There is more than a dozen members of the Brotherhood gathered here. Granted, most are greenhorns like me but that hardly matters. We are at war and there is no way we can afford such waste of manpower.

The table flashes with light and a holo map of the Union territory appears above it. Ok, so maybe it is not so primitive.

“Lords-brothers… We’re losing.” Any question I might have wanted to ask is now forgotten. Maybe it is just my imagination, but I think I heard fatigue in his voice. Not a good sign. “As you may know, three weeks ago the UG started with their counteroffensive. We knew they may try that, but we underestimated their… fierceness. It appears they want to throw at us whatever they can, and to hell with the public. I can’t tell you how many we lost; the reports are inconsistent. But before our contact with the HQ in Barcelona had been cut off we got info about 22 dead.”

“Holy fuck…!” I swear, without even thinking. I am not the only one, as I can hear whispers all around me. Twenty two. Twenty two of my brothers and sisters dead. This is more than we lost through the whole last year.

“What about the escort?” Someone asks; must be one of the veterans.

“We don’t know for certain. We had a force of around 3 000 followers and workers in the region. Considering that their leaders were well known figures I estimate that at least half of them is already dead or has been arrested.”

So… what now? Last stand? This questions must have been all over our faces.

“We’re losing, but we’re not yet lost, brothers,” Madman gives us a sad smile. “If you could, Black…”

The woman comes closer. She looks tens, as if she was rather accustomed to taking orders , not giving them.

“It appears, our friends in the UG forgot why we were fighting them in the first place. ‘Till now most people have been thinking of us as rebels in the best case or criminals in the worst. That led us to a stalemate. But with this,” she waves at the map, where red dots symbolize the UG movements. ”With this we have justification to strike back. And they are not the only ones with media backing them.”

Ah, PR-worker. That explains a lot.

“What we need now is to regroup,” Headmaster interjects. “We need to prepare for the upcoming storm. Barcelona is only the beginning. If it comes to that I’ll be ready to call for retreat and we‘ll withdraw our forces from endangered zones.”

This causes another commotion.

“Sir, that may cost us millions…” this time I recognize Nun’s sweet voice.

“I know,” He says. ”But we will suffer anyway. I would rather pay that price in stocks and broken contracts than in our blood.”

“What is gonna be our job then?” I ask, unable to wait any longer. “Are we going to reinforce our west flank?”

“No, I gathered you here for another reason.” I feel a little bit dejected when I hear it. “Continue, Black.”

“Uh, yes,” she seems thrown off balance.“ As you all understand, there is no way for us to compete with the Government in military aspect, and it had been known for us even before the war. The Brotherhood has hundreds of loyal and deadly effective soldiers and thousands of followers, but the UG has hundreds of thousands. What we need to do is to convince the citizens and elites alike that this war is harming them more than us. That by leaving us alone they will gain more than by destroying us. And thanks to the Code and our recent moves we still have pretty impressive base of supporters.”

“What we lack thou, is a symbol.” The other blonde finally speaks.

“A symbol? Like a mascot?” Draco cannot resist from grinning. ”Maybe panda bear would do? I watched some old videos, and damn, they were awesome. People would love them.”

The blonde also smiles, but her smile is more predatory.

“Something like that… Unfortunately, as pandas are extinct for a while now I think you will have to suffice.”

“…What?”

This time we all, veterans and newbies, look at our Headmaster with confusion.

“Well, that’s basically it. We need someone to remind the UG that, even if we are to go down, we will take a lot of them with us. We need them to fear us like they once did. And you will be the catalyst of that fear.” I can see fire in His eyes as He speak. “I chose you because you are clean. Most of you, fresh from Academy, has no records in their data bases and no responsibilities in field command. You are unknown. I want you to use it. You will get a list of possible targets. Politicians, CEO’s, corporations, military officers and research facilities. Assassinations, theft, coups, blackmailing… I don’t care what method you use as long as you follow the Code. You will report to no one. Take their money, take their dignity, take their lives if you deem it proper. Any of them is fair game, but remember, that every dead civilian means another bullet to use against our us. Other than that, you are free to act however you please… Lords-brothers, I want you to become their worst nightmares and bring chaos upon them!”