Is this destiny?

Hong told himself to calm down. Dinner or not, panicking will not help anyone, and he can't scold Sarah because a man showed interest in her.

"What will you do?"

Hong was asking if Sarah plans to go to that dinner, but her mind was on Aiden.

"I don't know if I should warn him…"

"Absolutely not!", Hong hissed and leaned closer to Sarah. "If you tell Alex that his team leader wants to seduce you and that he is using him as a chip so he can score a date with you… guess who will start a brawl? Tell him after the event."

Sarah understands Hong's point, but... "What if that leader guy does something?"

Hong rejected that as a possibility, for now at least. "Alex is an asset that reached the top twenty, and his leader will not harm him recklessly. Not now when cameras are recording everything. Also, if he wants to get rid of anyone, he does not need to play games."

"What games?"

"He wants to have dinner with Olga.", Hong reminded Sarah.

"Divna."

"What?"

"He calls me Divna.", Sarah explained.

Hong groaned in frustration. Why is that important? "Great, just great… Let's watch. It's starting."

"There is one more thing."

Hong was afraid to ask. "What?"

"He said that we got a pass to leave because he intervened."

Hong frowned and thought for a second before sharing his thoughts.

"If he can do that, he is someone up in the hierarchy and not a regular operative. We might need to abandon this mission and take a different approach. There is a chance that he spotted you the moment we stepped into this base, or maybe even from the previous one, and he waited for the right opportunity to approach you. But he is not stupid, and he is up to something otherwise he would expose you. As much as I try not to think about it, the fact is that they can surround and eliminate us at any moment, and no one would bat an eyelid."

Sarah agreed with Hong. Maksim is a variable they didn't expect. But first thing first… she needs to stare at the monitors and confirm that Aiden finishes this thing safely, returns to her side, and then they can talk.

There is nothing they can do and causing a ruckus has zero chances of getting them out of this base safely. The risky mission plunged into the category of impossible.

Sarah hates this feeling of waiting without being able to do anything about it. She wanted to warn Aiden, but she knows that Hong is right. Tipping off Aiden would make him unstable. Sarah is well aware that the only thing that can get Aiden into a rage is if someone gets any ideas about her, and Maksim definitely has ideas... even though she is not sure what they are, yet.

Sarah was desperately holding onto the possibility that Maksim is obsessed with her and that he will not do anything to harm Aiden because he needs him in order to ensure that Sarah will join him for dinner. And she really hopes that the dinner is important enough for Maksim to get Aiden safely back to her.

…

A few minutes ago, on the stage…

While Sarah was talking to Maksim, Aiden was doing his best to keep Mila out of the touching distance. He does not want to give more stress to Sarah.

Aiden could not believe that Mila is talking like nothing happened, after he blew her off during the competition in marksmanship.

When the man with the tablet stepped away, the сокол team members exchanged names. Besides Alex and Mila, the other two members are Jasha and Kolya.

"What do you think that challenge will be this time?", Jasha asked.

Aiden smiled while thinking about his conversation with Sarah that included knitting. Now he needs to learn knitting, but he will do it gladly, for Sarah. And he will make her the best sweater possible.

"Maybe they will ask us to kill someone, or interrogate prisoners.", Kolya said, pulling Aiden away from his sweater-making thoughts.

Aiden rejected Kolya's idea. "Anyone can do that. I believe it will be something that shows if we qualify to be the leaders, and maybe to test where our loyalty lies. Whatever it is, we need to be calm and not rush into this. The key will be that we succeed as a team."

Kolya frowned. He didn't like that Aiden dismissed his idea. "Why would we listen to you?"

"I will listen to Alex!", Mila exclaimed and inched closer to Aiden while smiling. "Whatever you say, I will do it."

Aiden gave her a displeased look. "Then I hope that you can focus on the task at hand. I have no intention of tolerating dead weight."

"You will listen to him because he is the pretty boy?", Kolya asked Mila with a sneer.

Mila rolled her eyes. "No. I will listen to him because what he said makes sense. And the good looks are a bonus."

Jasha stifled a laugh and patted Kolya's shoulder. "You should calm down. It's in our interest to collaborate. At least temporarily. Any grudges can be settled later."

"So, we agree to follow Alex's lead?", Mila asked while her eyes darted from Jasha to Kolya.

"Don't talk about unnecessary things.", Aiden spoke before the other two can respond. "We will get the leader assigned. What we should do is support each other unless he orders us otherwise."

"What if he is assessing our leadership capabilities?", Jasha asked.

"We are not high enough to make our own decisions. Other than skills, they will assess us on following orders.", Aiden responded.

The other three nodded in agreement.

"So… back to what we will be facing…", Jasha said and looked at Aiden. "Any tips?"

Aiden shrugged. "If one of us fails, it will be difficult to complete the challenge whatever it is, because the remaining members will need to redistribute the load left by the one who is out. We will need to work together as a team to succeed, and then we can think of who did better. However, we will figure out what that means only when we find out what tasks are ahead of us."

"It seems that our team leader is here…", Kolya mumbled and Jasha, Mila, and Aiden turned toward the stairs that lead to the stage where they were standing, in time to see Maksim climbing up.

Mila's eyes flashed in delight. Another man-candy in the team!

Maksim approached them and smiled. "You have the honor to be on my team. I have big expectations for each of you. Let's step to the side and I will tell you about what you will be facing…"

Aiden and the other three followed after Maksim and Aiden was not sure if Maksim gave him a mocking glare or did he imagine it.

Aiden shook that thought away. 'I must be getting paranoid…'

They walked into one of the hangars, out of sight of the spectators and Maksim started vaguely: "This will be a team exercise, but each of you is fighting for your own place. I hope that you will keep that in mind. The trick of passing is to strike a balance between showing your skills and supporting your team members. If the team fails, you fail. Do you understand?"

"That is what Alex said.", Mila said with a big smile on her face.

Maksim scrutinized Aiden suspiciously for a few seconds before breaking into a wicked grin. "I want to talk to each of you individually before we start. The first one will be Mila…"

Mila perked up and followed after Maksim, leaving Aiden, Kolya, and Jasha behind.

---

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