The walk over to the testing center wasn't very organized. No lines, no one calling anything out. Just clusters of first-years moving in the same direction, breaking and reforming as people fell into place next to whoever they'd been around the past few weeks.
The morning air had that particular edge to it that came off the campus grounds after a cold night, damp and sharp, carrying the smell of cut grass and something harder underneath it. People walked close together without deciding to, the weather doing the same thing cold mornings always did in unfamiliar places, pulling people into proximity without them noticing.
Eli stayed where he was in the group, not pushing ahead, not falling behind.
Caspian was already talking, half-turned as he walked. "They said civilians the other day, right? So it's gotta be some kind of rescue thing. Not just sparring."
Naomi didn't answer right away. Her eyes were up, tracking the building ahead instead of the conversation. "If it was that simple, they would've said more."
"That doesn't mean it's not simple," Caspian shot back. "They just like being vague."
Eli let them go back and forth without really jumping in. He'd heard the same guesses from three different groups already just walking over. Combat. Rescue. Evaluation. Nobody actually knew, and nobody liked that, but everyone was pretending it didn't matter. There was a specific kind of noise people made when they were actually uncertain about something, the kind where the conversation kept moving but nobody was really listening to the answers.
Up ahead, the testing structure came into full view.
It didn't look temporary or recent.
Wide, enclosed, clean beams all the way across the front. No visible wear, no patchwork additions, nothing that made it feel like a training setup thrown together for a class. It sat there like it had been built to be permanent. It loomed over the academic building next to it, sitting around four stories tall, its exterior the same pale stone and clean lines as everything else on the campus, except larger and with fewer windows. The kind of building that didn't need to explain what it was for.
Caspian let out a low breath. "Yeah, alright. That's not just some basic test."
Naomi slowed slightly, taking it in. "No."
Eli didn't say anything. He was already watching the entrances. The doors were sealed, no way to see what was inside from this angle, and the approach had been cleared, a wide stretch of open ground between the student groups and the building that nobody had told them to stay out of but that nobody had walked into either. Some things didn't need signs.
They weren't the only ones there.
There were people already in place standing at a wide glass pane on an upper level, looking down at where the groups had started to form. Not other students. Too still, too spread out, watching everything below without talking to each other. The way they held themselves wasn't restless or curious. It was the specific stillness of people who had been at things like this before and already knew what they were looking for.
Eli caught a few suits first. Then more. Older, sharper. Some with people standing just behind them, quiet, like they were there to listen more than anything else. The whole observation level had the quality of something that had been arranged deliberately, people placed at specific intervals, nothing accidental about where any of them were standing.
Caspian noticed it a second later. "Why are there this many people here?"
Naomi didn't answer. She was looking in the same direction Eli was.
Closer to the side of the window, a separate cluster stood out from the rest. Not because they were louder, but because nobody was getting near them. There was a kind of invisible perimeter around that section of the observation level, nothing marked, just a gap that everyone seemed to have decided to maintain without being told.
Dark uniforms. Clean, minimal. A few faces Eli recognized without trying.
BSI.
Brad was there.
He wasn't looking at Eli. Not yet. Talking to someone next to him, posture relaxed, like this was just another assignment. He had that particular quality he always did in operational settings, settled in a way that made the people around him look slightly less settled by comparison.
Eli's attention caught on a smaller cluster set just off-center from the rest. Not crowded. If anything, people were giving it space without being told to. The distance around that particular group was wider than the natural spacing everywhere else, the kind of gap that formed when people were aware of someone without wanting to be caught being aware.
The man at the center wasn't doing anything to draw attention.
Tall, but not imposing about it. Clean posture, hands loosely set behind his back. Dark coat, tailored but not flashy. No visible insignia, nothing that marked rank outright. He didn't need any of it. The way the space organized itself around him said more than a badge would have.
Short dark hair, kept tight. No movement in his stance. He wasn't scanning the area the way the others were, making small adjustments, checking faces, tracking movement. He was just watching the students as they came in, steady, like he already knew what he was looking for and was waiting to confirm it.
Two BSI agents stood a step behind him. Not talking. Not shifting.
Naomi slowed slightly beside Eli.
"Ashcroft," she said under her breath.
Eli glanced at her. "What?"
She nodded toward the group without looking directly at them. "That's Caius Ashcroft."
Eli looked back.
A couple of students farther ahead had noticed too. One of them muttered the name again, quieter this time, like saying it too loud would carry.
That explained it. The cleared space. The agents. The way the entire observation level had arranged itself at a slight angle to wherever that man was standing, everyone aware of the center of gravity in the room without acknowledging it.
Caspian leaned in a bit. "That's him?"
Nobody wanted to answer right away.
Ashcroft hadn't moved. Still in the same position, still watching like nothing here was unexpected. Not performing calm. Just calm. The difference between the two was the kind of thing you picked up on without being able to explain exactly how.
"Yeah," Naomi said after a second.
Eli let his focus drift off Ashcroft and back down to the floor level.
The groups had settled without anyone calling it.
Jonah was off to the right with Nolan and Selka, standing a little apart from the rest. Not stiff, not formal, just already in sync. Nolan had his hands at his sides, relaxed but ready, his attention moving across the entrance in the unhurried pattern of someone who had already decided what they were watching for. Selka stood slightly forward of both of them, eyes fixed on the entrance like she wasn't interested in anything else.
Closer to the center, Rowan's group had formed tighter. Rowan was saying something low and controlled, and Darian shifted half a step as he spoke, adjusting without needing it repeated. Runa didn't look like she cared much for the discussion, but she was listening, eyes sharp, posture set, the specific kind of not caring that was actually paying very close attention.
Mira's group was further left.
They weren't talking much. Alina leaned slightly toward Perrin, saying something quick under her breath, while Perrin nodded a little too fast before catching himself. Mira stood just ahead of them, not saying anything, just watching the building like she was already working something out and didn't particularly need input on it.
Caspian shifted next to Eli. "Everyone's already set, huh."
"They've been set," Naomi said quietly.
Eli didn't respond. He was looking at the same thing she was. Everyone in the room had spent the past few weeks finding their people, establishing the small rhythms that made a group function under pressure, and by now it had stopped being something anyone thought about. It was just how they moved. He had it too, with these two, and it had snuck up on him the same way it had snuck up on everyone else.
At the front, one of the instructors stepped aside.
Arkwright moved forward.
He didn't take long getting into it.
"This will be a controlled scenario," he said. No raised voice, but it carried across the whole group anyway, the words landing cleanly without effort. "You'll be entering a contained structure with multiple civilians placed throughout."
No pacing. No buildup.
"You are responsible for locating them, stabilizing the situation, and getting them out safely."
A few people shifted where they stood. Not much, just enough to show they were actually listening now, the small physical adjustment of attention becoming more specific.
Arkwright's sleeve shifted slightly as he moved, something metallic tightening faintly at his wrist before going still again. Eli noticed it. He hadn't known what it was the first time he'd seen it. He knew now.
"Once you enter, the environment is sealed."
"There is no early exit."
A small pause, just long enough for that to land.
"The boundary remains in place until every assigned civilian has been recovered."
Arkwright's eyes moved across the front row, then further back. He wasn't checking for reactions. He was just making sure the room had actually heard him, which was different.
"You've been given the tools to handle it," he went on. "What matters is how you use them."
He gestured to the group directly around him.
"Staff will not be entering your zones."
No emphasis. Just stated.
"What happens inside, you handle."
He let that sit for half a second, then added:
"Work as a team. Make the right decisions."
That was it.
No mention of threats. No explanation of what could go wrong. Just the objective, stated plainly, and then nothing more. It was the kind of briefing that trusted you already knew what the silences meant.
Caspian let out a quiet breath beside him. "That's all we're getting?"
Naomi didn't look at him. "Yes."
Arkwright stepped back without another word.
Movement started almost immediately after.
Staff along the entrance shifted positions, opening the space in front of the doors and guiding the first group forward. They didn't rush it. Just a small gesture, and the group stepped up.
The doors slid open as they reached them. The interior was visible for a moment, lit, intact, nothing out of place from this distance, just a corridor and then whatever came after it.
Then they went in.
The doors closed behind them, sealing off the view.
No one said anything. Eli watched the entrance for a moment after they were gone, the closed doors telling him exactly nothing, which was presumably the point.
Caspian watched the entrance for a second longer than he needed to. "That's it?"
Naomi nodded slightly. "They're spacing it."
"How far apart?"
"Couple minutes, probably."
Caspian exhaled. "So we just stand here and wait."
"For now," Naomi said.
The second group was already being moved up.
Jonah's group stepped forward without hesitation. Jonah said something quick to Nolan and Selka, low enough that Eli couldn't catch it, but they moved on it immediately. No adjustment, no second-guessing. The kind of communication that worked because it didn't need much to work.
They reached the doors just as they opened.
Gone a second later.
Caspian clicked his tongue quietly. "They're not even thinking about a plan."
"They are," Naomi said. "Just not out loud."
Caspian didn't look convinced. Eli thought she was right, though. By the time you needed to say the plan out loud in a situation like this, you were already behind it.
Eli's attention stayed on the entrance for another second, then shifted when someone stepped in from the side.
"Eli."
He turned.
Brad.
Same as he remembered. Same posture, same calm look like he wasn't in a rush even when everything else was moving. He was in the dark BSI jacket, the lanyard at his collar, hands easy at his sides. He looked exactly like he always did in a space like this, like he had already taken stock of everything in it before anyone else arrived.
Eli stepped out of line without thinking about it. "Yeah."
Caspian glanced over. "You good?"
"I'll be back," Eli said.
Naomi didn't say anything, just watched him go.
Brad didn't move far. Just enough to be clear of the next group being brought forward, enough space for a conversation to exist without being heard.
Up close, nothing about him had really changed. Same tone, same way of standing like he already knew how things were going to play out. Whatever he was there for, it wasn't the evaluation. He was watching it the same way he'd been watching everything else since the beginning.
"Been a minute," Brad said.
Eli nodded once. "Yeah."
They didn't shake hands. No awkward pause. They just picked up where they'd already been, the way it had always worked between them.
"You ready for this?" Brad asked.
Eli gave a small shrug. "As much as they'll let us be."
Brad glanced toward the entrance, then back. "They keeping you busy?"
"Enough."
A short pause.
It wasn't uncomfortable. Just the particular rhythm of two people who didn't need to fill every second of a conversation to be having one. The room kept moving around them. Groups shifted. People talked at a low even volume. The building waited.
Brad nodded slightly. "You've been handling it fine from what I've seen."
Eli let out a quiet breath. "You've been watching?"
"Part of the job."
Eli looked past him for a second, toward the building. The sealed entrance. The observation window above. "Figures."
Another group started moving up behind them. Eli tracked it in his peripheral without turning.
Brad didn't waste time after that.
"Listen," he said, tone shifting just enough to matter. "Don't rush anything in there."
Eli looked back at him.
"They're not tracking speed," Brad went on. "They're watching how you move when something doesn't line up."
Eli frowned slightly. "Meaning?"
"Meaning don't force it," Brad said. "If something feels off, it probably is."
He said it the way he said most things, straightforward, no particular weight added. But it landed the same way the useful things always did, not dramatic, just true.
Eli nodded once. "Alright."
He hesitated for a second, then said, "You already had me set up here."
Brad didn't react.
"At KMI," Eli said. "Before everything with my mom."
"Yeah."
"That wasn't random."
"No."
Eli waited. The noise of the room kept going around them, the low movement of students and staff, another pair of doors opening somewhere ahead.
Brad didn't fill the space.
"So what was the plan exactly?" Eli asked.
Brad exhaled lightly. "You were going to end up somewhere like this either way."
Eli shook his head slightly. "That doesn't answer anything."
"It's what you're getting right now."
Eli held his gaze for a second, then looked away. Same answer, just worded different. He'd had enough of those conversations to know when the wall wasn't moving today.
Brad shifted slightly. "She just got out of the hospital, by the way. Your friend."
Eli looked back. "Lila?"
"Got released a couple days ago," Brad said. "She's fine."
Eli nodded. Something in his chest settled that he hadn't been fully aware was still unsettled. "Good."
From the entrance a voice called out:
"Next group."
Caspian turned, already looking for Eli.
Brad glanced over, then back at him.
"Stay with your group," he said. "Pay attention to what doesn't make sense."
Eli let out a short breath. "You gonna actually explain any of this at some point?"
Brad gave a small shrug. "Eventually. Promise."
Eli rolled his eyes once, a small thing, not really directed at Brad but at the general situation. "Yeah."
He stepped back, already turning toward the line.
Caspian looked him over once as he slotted back into place. "We good?"
"Yeah."
Naomi's eyes flicked between them briefly, then back to the entrance. "We're next."
The space in front of the doors cleared as the last group ahead of them moved through. An instructor near the front gave a short motion.
"Last group."
Eli took a breath. The kind you took not because you needed to but because it was something to do with the second before a thing started, the last moment of standing outside it before you were inside it.
He looked at the entrance.
Then at Caspian.
Then at Naomi.
Neither of them said anything. They didn't need to. They had done enough of this together by now that the silence before it started was its own kind of communication, a confirmation that everyone was where they were supposed to be.
They stepped forward together, pace steady, all three of them locked in without needing to say it.
The doors opened as they reached them.
Eli didn't slow down.
They stepped through.
The doors closed behind them.