Chapter 67: Late

"I suppose people make do with what they have."

"Apparently." She looked down at her notes again, then pulled a fresh sheet towards herself. "Now, explain that pressure system one more time."

Behind them, Deadlock remained beside the door, its mechanical eyes fixed on Frost.

"Unauthorised visitor has exceeded the acceptable duration of..."

"Oh, shut up," Yasmine muttered, without looking away from the page.

Frost was about to ask another question when his gaze landed on the clock mounted above the door. He stared at it for a moment, his mind taking far too long to understand what he was looking at, before his eyes suddenly widened.

"Shit! I’m late!"

Yasmine looked up at him, a brow rising as he scrambled to his feet. "Late for what?"

"Training!" He glanced toward the door, already imagining Ava standing in the training hall with her arms crossed and that unpleasant smile on her face. "I have to go. I was supposed to be there already!"

He hurried toward the exit, nearly catching his foot on something lying on the floor before awkwardly stepping over it.

Deadlock turned to watch him pass, its mechanical eyes following his movements, and Frost instinctively gave the robot a wide berth.

"Excuse me. Coming through. Please don’t grab me again."

Yasmine snorted behind him, finding his panic far more entertaining than he did. Frost reached the doorway and was already halfway through it when her voice followed him.

"You should come here more often!"

He glanced back over his shoulder, finding her watching him from where she sat.

For a moment, he wondered whether that invitation included another encounter with her murderous little assistant, but he had no time to ask.

"I will!" he called back. "As long as that thing knows I’m allowed in next time!"

Deadlock’s head swivelled toward Yasmine, but Frost didn’t wait to hear whether she would make the necessary arrangements.

He vanished through the doorway and hurried down the hall, his footsteps echoing as he broke into a run.

’Maybe she hasn’t started yet.’

The thought lasted all of two seconds before he remembered who he was dealing with. Ava would have started exactly on time, and worse still, she would have noticed his absence immediately.

"Dammit," he muttered, quickening his pace. "I’m so dead."

By the time Frost reached the training hall, he was breathing heavily. He slowed just outside the entrance, dragging a hand through his hair before trying to smooth his clothes into place.

There was no hiding the fact that he was late, but perhaps he could at least avoid looking like someone who had spent the past few minutes running from a crime scene.

The doors were open, and the recruits were already spread across the hall, working through their stretches. Frost spotted an empty space near the back and quietly began moving toward it, keeping his head lowered.

"Good of you to join us."

He stopped, one foot still hovering above the floor. Ava stood beside a rack of training equipment, watching him with her arms folded.

Several recruits turned to look, and Frost slowly lowered his foot, abandoning the rather optimistic idea that he could somehow blend in.

"Sorry," he said, managing an awkward smile. "I lost track of time."

"I noticed." Her gaze travelled over him briefly. "Where were you?"

"I was speaking with Yasmine."

Ava raised a brow, and Frost quickly continued before she could decide that he had been wandering somewhere he shouldn’t.

"I got a little lost earlier, and then her robot grabbed me. There was a misunderstanding, but she sorted it out, and we started talking."

"Deadlock grabbed you?"

"By the leg," he confirmed. "Upside down. Then it decided that I needed to be purged."

Ava shook her head. "Weren’t you told to stay out of restricted areas?"

"Uhm... The door was open," he tried.

"And that made it less restricted?"

Frost opened his mouth, considered the argument waiting on his tongue, and wisely swallowed it. "No."

"Good. We agree." She pointed toward the clear stretch of floor along the wall. "Start running. You can join the others once you’ve warmed up."

He glanced toward the recruits, who were now beginning to pair up. "How many laps?"

"I’ll tell you when you’re done."

’Shit.’ That meant he would stop when he was half dead. ’And I didn’t eat either!’

Frost walked toward the wall before breaking into a jog. His legs still felt the strain of his hurried journey through the corridors, but he settled into a steady pace, hoping that if he behaved himself, she might take pity on him.

That hope gradually faded over the next few laps.

While he ran, the others began working through a routine of squats, push-ups, and short sprints between marks on the floor.

Ava moved among them, correcting their posture and occasionally demonstrating what she wanted. Frost watched whenever his route brought him close enough, trying to pick up the instructions between breaths.

"Eyes forward, Frost," she called without looking at him.

He immediately faced the wall ahead.

’Does she have eyes in the back of her head?’

By the time she finally beckoned him over, sweat had begun soaking into his shirt. He approached with his hands resting briefly on his hips, only to straighten when her eyes dropped toward them.

"Warm now?"

"Very."

"Good. Find a partner."

Frost looked across the hall and discovered that everyone had already paired up. For a moment, he simply stood there, hoping someone might be taking a break or finishing early, but the steady movements around him offered little encouragement.

Then Ava stepped onto the training mat.

"With me."

His expression fell.

She smiled.

"Something wrong?"

"No," he replied quickly. "Just wondering how much of my body I’ll still be able to feel afterward."

"That depends on how well you listen."

"That doesn’t sound promising."

"Feet apart."

He obeyed, settling into the stance she had spent the past several weeks correcting. Ava circled him once, nudged his rear foot farther out with hers, and tapped his raised elbow.

"Better. Now, we’re working on balance and keeping your footing when someone puts pressure on you. You’ve become stronger, but you still lean too far forward when you’re expecting a hit."

Frost nodded, fixing his attention on her shoulders. He had learned enough by now to know that watching only her hands would get him into trouble.

It got him into trouble anyway.

Ava caught his wrist, stepped across his stance, and gave him what felt like an almost casual pull. Frost tried to recover, his foot skidding against the mat before the rest of him followed it down.

He landed on his back with a heavy grunt.

He lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling while the breath slowly returned to his lungs. Ava leaned into view above him, waiting for him to work out where he had gone wrong.

"Too far forward?" he guessed.

"Too far forward."

Frost sighed and accepted the hand she offered, letting her pull him upright.

’I should have stayed with the robot. At least that thing only dropped me once.’