100 reviews? Damn, you guys are awesome. For that, how does two new chapters sound? It's not as awesome as all of you are, but it's the least I can do. You can blame all the updates on pure boredom and aggravation that none of the fanfictions that I've been following have been updated lately, it's killing me!

Anyway, this chapter is a little boring, but it's important. It'll get better really soon, I promise!

I woke the next morning in pain, but pushed it aside. Normally, I would want to just take a day or two to recover but I couldn't let that happen today. I had to be in my classes and I wouldn't let Maxon come to my room again–it was too dangerous since the King could easily watch the camera feed and see everything that we did.

I stretched out a little bit, careful to not reopen any of the cuts on my back. They would heal eventually, just as all my other ones had. I got dressed for the day quickly–opting for a pair of my looser jeans and a baggy t-shirt for the day. I'd look like a bit of a bum but I was dressing for practicality, not for appearances.

As soon as I walked into the training room, I knew something was wrong. I looked over the entire room but nothing was out of place. Everything was in the exact same place as it was yesterday but…something was different.

It was when I entered my office that I realized exactly what it was. A gently hum that was barely noticeable resonated in the room, seeming to charge the air. I searched my entire office and narrowed my eyes when I finally found the device. A sound recorder. That bastard of a king was recording everything that I said to anyone. Shit.

I walked away from the recorder. No doubt the King had demanded this to be set up and I had no doubt that when I returned to my room, it would be wired as well. He probably thought I'd only be able to identify cameras because since I'd torn them down several times before when he'd attempted to put them inside of the training room. There was no way I could let him know that I knew about the sound recorders. He'd just put them in another place and another until I wouldn't be able to find them. God damn suspicious old bastard.

I went through all of my classes as usual–though I didn't participate as much as I usually did–and spoke even less than what was considered normal for me. The time seemed to crawl by and I was brutal in each of my classes. In less than a week all of the men I trained would be dispatched to assist in the war efforts. Normally, I wasn't allowed to train men as long as I had been with this new group but the King had agreed that we needed better soldiers in the field and had given me a few months to train them. I just hoped like hell they'd be ready for New Asia.

When the time came around to Maxon's lesson, I came up with the perfect lesson to teach him.

He walked in with a small smile and I was on him, covering his mouth before he could so much as say hello. I raised a finger to my lips in the universal sign to be quiet.

He nodded and I removed my hand from his face.

"All right, today we'll be practicing hand signals. Pay attention. You need to be ready for New Asia soon and I refuse to let you fall behind. These special lessons will be canceled unless you totally devote yourself. If you don't then I'll kick you out and you can try your best to survive New Asia on your own."

Maxon seemed confused but he didn't comment on my words. Thank God.

I walked us over to the middle of the room and sat us down across from each other so that I could look directly at him and still have a view of the door in case anyone decided to peek inside. I pressed two fingers to my forehead. "New information found."

He repeated the gesture and nodded for me to continue.

I made us stay and practice the gestures longer than I normally would with a class. Maxon had to remember the gestures I taught him so that I could talk to him silently if the need arose.

I nodded when we finally finished. "All right. I'll give you a packet with the signals so that you can study them. I want you to memorize as many of these signals as you can within two days. Oh, and start learning sign language as well. It'll help you immensely if you get in a situation where you can't talk to a teammate. After you've learned the signals and sign language, I'll test you. If you pass, we'll move on to other forms of communication such as with a number of blinks."

Maxon nodded and though he still seemed confused about my directive to not talk he remained silent through it all.

He followed me into my office where I grabbed a packet for the signals and also one for basic sign language, putting an extra sheet of paper on top. I wrote what I needed him to know so that he wouldn't do anything stupid.

Maxon, our voiced are being recorded in here right now. Don't say my name and don't come to my room because it'll probably be wired too. Speak as little as possible when you're in here. Burn this.

I handed the papers to him and he nodded after he read the note. He gave me a quick one-armed hug and mouthed "I'm sorry" before he left.

I sighed as I sat back in my chair, beginning to work on a few papers that the King had sent me for the day. I signed several of them and circled errors in others, writing notes in the margins so that the errors would be fixed.

Once I finished, I went to my room and searched it from top to bottom. There was a recorder in the bathroom, taped under the sink, and another right underneath my bed. There was even one in my closet.

I sighed as I leaned against the wall by my door. This wasn't good. I needed to talk to Maxon but there wasn't any way for me to do that without the King knowing about it.

I had to figure out a way to talk to him quickly though, Maxon needed to know what was going on and I needed to get an update on my situation with the King as well. I hoped that he'd been able to convince the King that whipping me was only a hallucination.

I thought about it for a minute and then grinned. Maxon would absolutely hate me in a few days but it was one of the few ways that we'd be able to talk. It was the best option I could think of.

Within three days, I would put all of my classes on hold and put Maxon and a few other prospective recruits through a few tests. My team needed a new member again since Edmund would be retiring from his military career in about four months.

Maxon was going to despise me when I forced him to go through all of the tests.