Max's POV
Max sits in his office chair, his fingers rubbing his temples at the paper covering his desk. Eric sits on the other side, growling lowly as nothing in the reports seem to make sense. They were trying to figure out what supplies Dauntless still had and what this spy had managed to get away with. But the reports were saying that nothing was missing and the checks the Leaders have made into the supply units state otherwise. Whoever the fucker was, they sure did know how to cover their tracks.
Eric had originally come to his office for an update that Max required about the special ops. Eric's units were going out into all of the sectors trying to find places where the Factionless rebels could be hiding… So far no luck. During the night, Eric and his squad had gone to the coordinates that Zack had gratefully shared with them. Though, straight after the first mission, Eric had came banging on Max's door at three a.m. Max had been absolutely furious. The younger Leader had woken Livvie up and he was ready to rip him apart until he saw the angry but distressed look on Eric's face.
"What is it?" Max had hissed.
Eric shook his head, swallowing. "No one was there."
"What do you mean?"
"At the safe houses. No one was there and there's no signs of life anywhere. Its like they knew we were coming and packed everything up and left." Eric had run a hand through his hair. "There was no evidence, nothing."
Max swore darkly. "Only Leaders and the ambassadors knew about those coordinates."
"And Leaders' assistants." Eric added slowly.
"You think the spy is an assistant?"
He shrugged. "Sure, only Leaders and the ambassadors knew about those coordinates but the Leaders' assistants take on all the reports from each unit in a department, that information could come across their desk. And, it's the assistants that create the supply reports and overlook the deliveries in the loading docks."
Max sighs loudly rubbing at his face, his gaze coming back to the reports between them. Nearly all of them were duplicates, made so that one can be kept in the department and the other is sent to Max to look over. What they were looking for was a small difference in numbers. They had found something similar just by pure accident but it was clear that it had been forged. The Head Leader looked up to Eric to see the younger man frowning at his phone. Eric's whole posture was tense and he was currently glaring at his phone. Before Max could ask if anything was wrong, Eric pushed himself away from the desk and stood up with a snarl on his face.
"Eric?" Max was ignored as the younger Leader stormed out of the office with the door slamming shut behind him. Max was left in confusion as he stared at the door. For the millionth time that morning, he sighed and began to pack everything up for lunch.
xXx
Something had definitely happened within the last few hours. Max is currently sat at the table with the other Leaders and is watching Eric. Its not until Harrison mentions that Issy had accepted to promotion to Squadron Captain and that she called a meeting with the whole family a little while ago to tell them does it make a little more sense. Though Max still feels like he's missing something. Why is it that Eric – the most observant person Max knows – being so unfocused with a lost and worried expression on his face? There have been several times already during lunch when Max has had to push Eric's plate in the general direction of where he's absently stabbing his fork before it hit the table. The only thing that continuously catches Eric's attention is the cafeteria doors each time they open. Though Max can't help the grin that takes over his face at how young Eric actually looks at that moment.
A group of the usual headache causers are led by Alec and Four and Max kicks Eric, making the younger Leader snap to attention. Eric turns around, his eyes on the group as they stop at the Leaders' table
"Anybody like to join us for a game of Manic?" Alec asked with a grin.
"Sure." Eric immediately responds.
Max grins. He had heard about all the shit that went on during the first game and he was instantly curious and wanted to have a go. Max leans back, his grin widening. "Why not?"
Max, Alec and Four shared a knowing look with raised eyebrows and smirks when Eric leans back and searches through the group for Issy. Eric frowns when he doesn't spot the golden-eyes woman.
"Issy's gonna meet us there." Alec says. "She's just rounding up a few more players."
Four hides his snicker when Eric slumps back. "Meet us at the tracks in twenty minutes."
Max straightens his back as the group leaves, undoubtedly going to recruit some more players. "Harrison? Eric and I will out of the compound for the rest of the day, will you take care of things until we get back?"
"Sure thing Max." Harrison smiles. "Anything that you need to see, I'll put on your desk." The older Leader claps him on the shoulder but both Leaders pause to watch Eric leave. "Trouble in paradise?"
"No idea." Max gets up and wanders over to where Marissa and Livvie are sat with some of Livvie's friends and their parents. "Hello sweetheart." Max grinned as he picked up Livvie and lightly threw her in the air. Livvie giggled loudly, even as Marissa shot him a disapproving look. He grinned innocently as he sat on the bench with Livvie on his lap. Max leans over and presses a kiss on his wife's cheek and winks at her.
His wife sighed, trying to hide her smirk. "What do you want?"
Max slams a hand to his chest and feigns a hurt look. "Me? What makes you think I want something?" Marissa raises an eyebrow as the other adults on the table start snickering. "I was just coming over to tell you that I'm leaving the compound soon with a group and I don't know how long we'll be."
Robbie, who has Livvie's best friend on his lap, snorts. "Tryin' to keep up with the younger generation Max?" Robbie nods his head to the side and Max looks over to see Issy running through the cafeteria with Bree following her closely and Clark following them at a slow pace. "Don't dislocate a hip while you're at it."
Max rolls his eyes as he squeezes Livvie in a quick hug before passing her back to Marissa. "See you tonight." He grins as she swats him on the arm and Max leaves the cafeteria.
xXx
The train is stationary on the tracks as a large group begin climbing in. Max recognises his daughter's initiation class and Issy's squad in the mix. Eric is helping Four and Zeke get the guns and a few other boxes in the train cart when Four turns around.
"Okay! Everyone in!"
They follow Four's orders without a second thought. During Four's initiation Max didn't really want him as a Leader. Sure, he expressed Leadership qualities but when tasked with making a decision, Four kept the thoughts and ideas to himself, only doing what he thought was best. And yes, most of the time it worked in his favour and helped with his rankings but Max wasn't confident that Four, as a Leader, would be able to share his reasonings. Now, Max has seen him get better with sharing his reasonings but there are still moments when Four doesn't share tasks with his team in the control room.
When Max climbs into the cart, his eyes find Eric who is standing towards the front of the cart with a red band on his arm. A bag of guns and a smaller box either side of the bag separates Four and Eric from the rest of the group. The train begins to pull away from the compound when Max realises there's still a few people missing and where the train begins to pass the compound, a few more bodies jump in. From his place at the front of the pack, Max hears Eric exhale a sigh when his eyes find Issy and Max smirks. Issy snickers, glancing from Eric to Four. Four grins back and pulls the yellow Manic band onto his arm.
Eric furrows his eyebrows, taking a small step forward. "Then who's –" Eric breaks off and people begin laughing into their hands when Issy steps forward, picking up the blue band and twirling it around her fingers.
Issy stands at the front of the cart level with Eric. "Don't have a problem, do you?" She smirks challengingly as she pulls the band up her arm. Max watches as Eric stares at her, even as she grins there's something dark in her gaze.
"Ladies first then." He motions to the group standing around them.
With what seems like a lot of force, Issy removes any emotion from her face and looks over the group. When her gaze falls onto the Head Leader, she winks before looking away. "Declan." Eric's head snaps to Issy and the smirk she shoots back is positively devious. "Problem?"
Ever so slowly Eric turns back to the group, his jaw clenched hard. "Max." Max walks to Eric's side of the cart, picking up a red band and a gun as he goes. The older Leader catches the taunting look Issy sends in Eric's direction.
"Are you feeling threated Eric?" Eric hardly tilts his head in her direction and folds his arms across his chest. "I just can't but think it if you feel like you need another leader on your team to make up for a loss."
Eric glares at her and she stares right back. "Are you choosing or not?"
Issy bats her eyes innocently at him before calling out for her twin.
Max tries to keep in the laugh that's bubbling at his throat as Issy and Eric go through a small portion of people.
"Lilah!" Eric barks out through gritted teeth. A smirk curls on Issy's mouth, sending him a knowing look Lilah picks up a red band and a gun and Eric growls lowly in response. "I swear, I'm gonna throw you from this train."
Issy laughs then, her eyes glowing gold with mischievousness. "Nah you wouldn't," Issy lightly bumps her shoulders with his, grinning widely. "You'd miss me too much." Max laughs loudly, unable to stop himself at the audacity she has. "Bree? C'mon sister."
Max grins at Bree, thinking about a room deep within Dauntless. If things keep going the way that they are, Max's bet will be dead on. Bree lifts her chin up at the challenge before turning back to Issy.
xXx
The game had been hilarious in Max's opinion. Memories of his CTF were brought up during it. His team hadn't won but it didn't cause the desire to win flowing through him like this game did. Maybe it was the fact that his ranking wasn't weighing down on his shoulders or the people who he was playing with.
Before going home, Max made his way to his office to pick up the paper work that he and Marissa need to fill out so that Livvie can go on a trip outside of the compound with the day-care staff. He unlocked his office door, switching the light on, and groaned when his eyes found the mess of reports about the supplies. Nothing seemed to make sense when it came to that. Whoever made the mistake of getting the duplicate wrong had realised what they had done and was careful since then.
As Max searches through the pile when something catches his eye. On one of the sheets is a mark shaped like several scratches with a dot. If Max didn't have adrenaline still running through him from Manic then he wouldn't have noticed it. To anyone else, it would have looked like a peculiar doodle from a pen or a smear from the printer. To Max, it meant a hell of a lot more than that.
He falls into his chair, raising a hand to cover his mouth in disbelief. "Shit!" He hisses and tries to find another sheet with a similar mark. It takes a moment but the next sheet Max finds has a weird looking unhappy face made from two scratches and an arrow with three dots next to it. He leans back in his chair, not quite believing his eyes. Back when Max was still training as a Leader, Dauntless used a set of marks that mostly looked like a set of random doodles and dots. The doodles signified a letter while the dots was a number. This strange language was mostly used during missions when silence was key and there was no chance of using radios. Normally the doodles would be grouped together as a secret message in plain sight with the dots were being how many foes where around. They stopped using it when too many soldiers were getting confused and ruining missions. Immediately Max pulled out his phone and called Eric. When Eric didn't pick up, Max swore and called Josh instead. Thankfully Josh picks up after the first ring. "Josh, get me Eric! Now!" Max hanged up before the other man could utter a word.
By the time that Eric slams the door open, Max already has several reports in front of him with the marks on. Finally – after what felt like years – they were getting somewhere! Max looked up with something akin to excitement on his face but paused at the scowl on Eric's face. And then his eyes found the red marks trailing along his neck tattoos and noticed how his hair was sticking out in odd angles, as if someone had run. Max nearly felt sorry for dragging him away.
"What is it?" Eric snarls.
"You're really not having a good night, are you?"
"Max!"
"Oh! Right, yes." Max shuffles some of the papers around before laying some of the reports in front of Eric. "What do you see?"
Eric's eyes narrow at him before glancing down at the sheets. There's a moment before he sighs. "Max we've been over –" Eric trails off, squinting at the page as his fingers ghost over the marks. "Are those –"
"Claw glyphs? Yes."
Eric inhales sharply. "Max –"
"I know son," Max smiles widely, trying to reign in the hope that's bubbling in his chest. "I know."
The only reason I didn't write all of manic out is because I'm gonna write it in Eric's POV coming up next – and it was feeling forced.
Also the "claw glyphs" aren't real but what I based them off are on the Pinterest board. I'm not actually sure what they're called in real life but claw glyphs sound pretty cool – like something Dauntless would come up with…