After listening to some last-minute berating from Hale, I clicked my radio off and left my room. It was time for dinner. As I was just leaving, a soldier exited his room at the same time from just down the hall. He saw me and walked over.

"Hey, Eleven."

"Hi, Washington. I see you're a fast learner."

The soldier raised his eyebrows questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"You learned my name," I replied, grinning.

Washington smiled. "That wasn't what I was talking about back at the gym. Do you have a name that's not a number?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, of course not. Because UNSC codenames always match the birth certificates."

He laughed. "Sassy, are we? Fine. What's your real name then? Or am I going to have to assume your mom was a mathematician or something?"

"Assume all you want, because that's just something I can't reveal."

"Why not?"

"Four letter: U-N-S-C. You know what that stands for, or do I have to spell it out for you?"

"Very funny."

"Come on, don't you have all this secrecy too?" I asked, smirking. "You weren't really named after one of the states. And you probably can't reveal that either."

"Want to bet?" Washington asked. We stopped walking down the hallway and he faced me, holding out a hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm David."

"And I'm Eleven," I responded emphatically, shaking his hand as well. "You really don't understand what it means to be a secret agent, do you?"

"Guess not. But all that secrecy stuff doesn't matter to me anyway," Washington shrugged as we continued walking toward the mess hall. "I hope you realize that now I'm just going to have to figure out another name for you. I can't just call you by a number."

"Oh?"

"Or, better yet, I'll figure out your real name."

"Bring it on, David."

Washington laughed. "I will. Don't you worry about that. But I meant to tell you earlier, so before I forget—nice moves today."

"Oh, thanks," I said, smiling. "I didn't know you were watching."

"Whenever there's an impromptu spar, it's always nice to take a look. I've gotta say, you handed Carolina's ass to her a couple times."

I shrugged. "Yeah, but I ended up losing in the end…"

"Well, you can't win them all. You've got potential."

I smiled. "Well, thanks. That's nice of you."

"Don't mention it."

That night, at dinner, the atmosphere in the mess hall had changed somewhat. The Freelancers seemed satisfied with me. I had not embarrassed all of them by losing to one of the best recruits, but I wasn't a sissy. I was clumsy enough to show that I wasn't the stuff of a Freelancer, but I still had shown Carolina a thing or two.

More of the Freelancers talked to me that night than ever before. When Washington and I had gotten our food, we both sat down next to Georgia and her three friends, but instead of receiving the suspicious looks I did before, many more of the Freelancers came over to talk to me.

I was flattered. If losing meant that I'd actually be accepted around here—and not taken for some sort of Agent Florida—I was perfectly happy with that.

However, of course—as I had expected—Carolina didn't speak to me at all. I received multiple dirty looks from her and a few of the Freelancers surrounding her as the others continued talking and joking around with me, but I didn't care anymore. She had won the physical fight, but I was victorious mentally. She and I both knew it.

The Freelancers grew used to my continual presence. I was around them a lot more than I had originally thought I'd be—when I wasn't with them during a meal, I'd be tagging along for their training sessions or seminars. When they weren't training, I came along with them to the gym. I always felt intimidated actually working out next to the Freelancers, but I didn't let myself show it; instead, I chatted and laughed along with them.

I was seldom called Agent Florida or verbally attacked for being so close to the Freelancers. Granted, I got my fair share of good-natured teasing for being from the UNSC, but I didn't mind. It was endearing. Of course, the Freelancers had no idea that I was helping the Director rank them—they just thought I was collecting information mostly for the UNSC's information bank. They knew that the Director was looking at the reviews of their training, but they didn't seem to think much of it. They assumed it was just standard procedure.

I felt guilty not being able to tell them what was really going on. When the Director finally released his ranking list, I knew they would not be happy… and I knew they would not be happy with me. They knew that I was the one passing information to the Director. They just didn't know why.

I hoped that day wouldn't come soon. During their training sessions, normally, I sat quietly to the sides with my clipboard in hand, taking notes on the proceedings.

I tracked their skills effortlessly. Some were better at stealth, some at skill, some at strength. They all seemed to be at the top of their game to me; I still had no idea how the Director would distinguish one from another. So, technically, I had nothing to do with the rankings themselves. I was just submitting subjective observations of what I saw. I personally was unable to comprehend how (or why) the Director would order them from best to worst.

One night, after a particularly grueling training session, I was sitting in my room when I heard some sort of commotion coming from the hall. Before I could get up and have a look at what was happening, I heard a quick knock at my door. I got up, opened it, and was face-to-face with Del. It was the first time I had seen him without any armor.

"Eleven, you want to come with us?"

I peeked out into the hallway. The Freelancers were filing out of the bedrooms quietly, silently laughing and nudging each other playfully. None was dressed in armor.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We're going to the club!" Bama appeared. She was wearing a tank top and short skirt in the same color as her armor and was even wearing a little bit of jewelry.

"Wha—there's a club around here?" I stammered. "And you're going?"

"Come on, hurry up and get changed!" Bama complained. Georgia appeared behind her and was wearing a cute dress that also matched the color of her armor. "We're going to be late!"