Calloway stood a step back away from the table as his inner council poured over the map. Normally someone like Dom wouldn't be allowed in the room at that time since he was new and hadn't earned his way up the ranks, but at the same time that was his best asset; he was unknown. There were plenty of people in Calloway's faction that were capable of doing the things that needed to be done, but they had been seen before, and therefore had no element of surprise. Dom would be Calloway's new go-to guy for infiltration, something they had been needing for a long time.

Colin moved a small red piece from one spot of the map to another that Dom realized wasn't far from their current location. The others around the table looked curiously and pondered what the move meant, and after a moment some of them shook their heads positively while one or two of the others grimaced with some knowledge that Dom didn't have.

"If we move into that area too fast I think we'll hit a bigger backlash than we can afford to take right now" said one of the guards, adjusting his gun over his shoulder.

"We have a lot of good men on the outskirts of that sector that are itching to make a move sir," said another guard. "I think we should capitalize while they're at peak to minimize losses."

"I'm not really sure what I'm looking at so I can't really be the best assistance right now" said Dom, crossing his arms over his chest. "From what I can see I'm guessing there's a settlement somewhere in this sector and we're looking to move in there?"

"Yes" said Calloway, stepping back up to the table, "they hit one of our outposts about a week ago and killed four of my men. Stole a large amount of supplies."

"Do we have any intel on the actual people? Are they fighters, scouts, civilians?" Dom looked back and forth between Calloway and Colin for an answer.

"From what we've gathered they're scouts for a decent sized civilian group. They've been moving east from the coast, picking up people as they go. I sent out some scouts of my own after the last attack to try and get an eye on what's going on over there. They have a pretty good sized group, but that will also be their weak point. Lots of women and children, they won't move very fast." Calloway moved an orange piece from the side of the table to a spot about an inch away from the red piece. "This orange piece is you, Dom. They don't know who you are, so I'm thinking we might have an in with you. It'll be tricky since you look like someone I would have in my Faction, and they're on high alert for moles, but I feel that if you can get an in with this group we might be able to land a good enough surprise attack that we won't have to use deadly force."

Hearing Calloway say that they wouldn't be killing people was a jumpstart to Dom's upper body. He had been worried since he first came up with the idea to do this that he would be forced to kill an innocent person to keep his head out of the guillotine, and while that wasn't entirely out of the question, this recent remark had him off edge and relaxed a little more.

They continued to strategize for a moment until a small commotion sounded outside of the conference room doors. Everyone turned their attention up until a strikingly good looking woman and large-built man walked through the door with their eyes set on Calloway. Their introduction to the room was definitely something based on the way everyone seemed to stand very rigid and completely silent. Dom copped the same pose as the rest of them while the General and these new people talked in hush tones in the corner of the room for a moment, eventually breaking up when the man made his way to the table and the General and the woman left together. The man, whose service-issue name tag said Butler, addressed the table.

"General Calloway has given the green light to move this plan ahead." He turned his body a bit so he was facing Dom. "You're going to come with me for a little while, we have work to do."

"Yes sir" said Dom, nodding frankly. Colin and the other guards dispersed from the table and went to do whatever they needed to do while Dom waited for his instructions. Butler closed his eyes for a moment as if he was memorizing the positions of the map, and when he opened his eyes again he waved Dom towards with a quick "let's go."

The two of them headed out into the parking lot and got into a military issue Humvee that was waiting at the back of the hotel. Butler got into the driver seat and took off as soon as Dom shut the door. They sat wordlessly in the truck for the first ten minutes or so, watching the trees whip past the windows on the highway. Dom wondered if he had already been found out and this guy was taking him to a prison they had somewhere, but then he thought again that the Calloway he saw in Wanagi didn't seem like the kind of guy to keep prisoners. He knew that he had to get himself into a headspace where he didn't automatically assume the worst of every situation, since that stress was sure to get him caught sooner or later, but it was much easier said than done.

When they approached the third exit Dom had seen since they'd left the hotel Butler finally spoke up.

"Usually Calloway takes people that look like they know what they're doing so there isn't a rigorous training regiment that anyone needs to follow, since we like to get people moving as fast as possible. We're in the beginning of this thing still and timing is everything. You look like you're knowledgeable, am I right in thinking so?"

"Yes sir" said Dom.

"Good. You're getting specialized training from me and someone else to do what you need to do. The physical aspect I'm sure you won't have much trouble with, it's the personal aspect that we're going to try and hone. You'll be meeting with Giana for that."

They continued another few miles and took the next exit as Dom chewed over what was about to happen in his head. He was meeting another person in the upper ranks of the group and getting specialized training. It was kind of scary to think about what he was going to be taught and how he would have to use it, but it was also kind of thrilling at the same time. He had always talked about spy movies and stuff with Matthew when they were younger and about how they wanted to be secret agents. He was getting that chance now, for real, and if he screwed up it could cost him his life.

Butler pulled the truck into what looked like a warehouse district. Rows and rows of closed buildings stretched for probably a quarter mile with wide roads in between them that would easily accommodate a rig. They passed the first few rows and turned in towards the middle, making their way to the back of the section. As they went deeper into the district the warehouses got larger until they hit the back row, a curved street that was backed by a massive fence with three large buildings in front of it. Guards flowed freely from one building to the next, some carrying packages while others talked. Dom tried to drink everything in that he could while he was still in the car since he imagined as soon as his feet hit the ground he would be put to work. When the truck came to a stop Butler hopped out and he followed suit, finding out his instinct was pretty spot on. He was nodded forward by two highly armed guards who turned on their heels and headed for the building in the middle, so he trudged along behind them until they stopped in front of a smaller door on the left.

The guard on the right stood silently as the guard on the left gave Dom a walkthrough of the area.

"This is the workout center. All training exercises are performed here." He then pointed to the building on the right. "This is the infirmary. If you're sick, shot, whatever, you take care of it in there." Lastly he waved a lazy arm to the left side building. "That's Calloway's building. You don't go there unless you're directed to do so. All clear?"

"Yes sir" said Dom.

"Take a minute to get acquainted with your surroundings and then we'll get you started."

The guards disappeared after that and Dom was given free roam of the outer street area. The buildings themselves were very large but they didn't really bare any specific markings, so leading people to this spot would have to be done by way of more apparent landmarks. He looked for odd-shaped trees or any sort of power lines that would be able to direct someone here but it seemed pretty bare beyond the district. He would just have to describe the general area and hope for the best.

A lot of the people in the district were tasked with inventory and the jobs associated with it. Hauling, unpacking, labeling, itemizing. Probably two dozen people scurried around like worker ants, muttering different bits of information as they passed each other. The bigger guys were stacking boxes full of what Dom guessed were canned goods in Calloway's building while the younger, not as developed people were counting and writing things down outside. They had a table set up and runners that buzzed between the two points to relay who had what and how much of it. It was a good system and Dom wondered if maybe he would be tasked with hauling boxes, a thought that didn't completely irritate him since he admitted he could bulk his upper body a bit for a fighting advantage.

Behind him a rumbling sound grew louder until two vehicles, a Humvee and a Towncar, pulled into the end of the district. A small group of soldiers got out of the Humvee in full tactical gear, helmets and all, while a couple people in suits got out of the Towncar. All of a sudden the scale of the whole operation felt way bigger than he had previously thought and his decision to be the inside man was bubbling in his gut. There was no way he could back out so it didn't matter how nervous he was, he had to continue on. That meant heading to the workout center to meet whoever his new trainer was going to be.

Inside was a sort of workout center that was peppered with members of Calloway's faction in the corners. Some of them were doing Kickboxing-style exercises while others were practicing balance on different sized gymnastics beams. Most of the people participating were in similar clothing, which Dom learned quickly was their sort of uniform. Dark grays and dark blues, pants and tight-fitting t-shirts. Easy, breathable, tactical. The instructors wore the same as the soldiers but you could tell when someone was higher up. They didn't have decorations like the old U.S. Service members did, but their uniforms were a little slicker, a little darker. It was a subtle thing at first but after a few minutes Dom could notice the difference more easily.

The walls of the building were mostly bare on the outside but the inside was a different story. There were pictures and posters, even sports jerseys taped up around the main workout floor. It reminded Dom of a sports bar with all of the memorabilia on the walls. He wondered if maybe that particular warehouse was like that before they got there, but the more likely alternative was that the soldiers that had joined from the surrounding areas brought some personal things with them when they fled their homes and ended up donating them to the cause.

Most of the equipment looked a little dated, especially the punching and speed bags, but they were sturdy enough to be used on a regular basis. There was an exercise bike and a stair stepper as well, but no Treadmill. He guessed that they were trying to consume power since he saw that there were lights on in quite a few of the buildings, but not many things inside them used it. Figuring out all of the little quirks and corners of these buildings and the people in them was going to take some serious time and effort.

Not long after he entered the building the same woman that he had seen in the conference room at the hotel headed in his direction. He stood at attention with his eyes down while she approached, and as soon as she was standing in front of him her face broke into a wide smile.

"You don't have to be so rigid."

"Oh, I'm sorry" said Dom. "I wasn't in the service but I've seen plenty of movies and stuff and I know they were really strict about that sort of thing."

"Well we're not like that around here. Some of the people are like that for Calloway but it's more because they're scared of him than anything. But if you're in this building, you aren't one of the normal soldiers, so you don't have to be super proper and bow or whatever shit people do these days." Giana adjusted her ponytail and looked Dom square in the eye. "All right tough guy, let's see what you got."

Dom hesitated and looked around to try and catch someone else's eye but not one was looking. "A-Are you serious?" The woman had her fists up and she was in a fighting stance so he mirrored her footwork, setting himself up in case she attacked. They stood like that for probably fifteen seconds until her stone faced cracked and she started to laugh a little.

"I'm just kidding, let's go."

"Where to?" asked Dom.

"The start of your training."

At the other side of the building there was another set of doors that led somewhere Dom was unsure of, but was about to find out in a moment. Giana went through first, pushing both doors open at once and Dom passed through behind her, squinting a bit at the bright lights. There was a small room with a table and two chairs and a large glass wall, and as soon as he laid eyes on it he knew what it was: an interrogation room, equipped with a two-way mirror and a pad of paper.

The table was bolted to the floor and there were some fresh spots of paint on the wall where you could tell holes were patched up, but in the grand scheme of things it didn't seem too intimidating. The chairs could still move freely so he pulled his back and sat down, clasping his fingers together on top of the table. Giana sat down across from him and smiled brilliantly, no doubt a move to catch him off guard.

"So you originally had a small group of people with you that decided to take off when given the chance to stay. Correct?"

"Correct."

"So you're saying it's correct that they decided to leave? Or is it more correct to say that you decided to stay?"

Dom's eyes peeled at the question and he immediately knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"We talked about it between ourselves. The girls thought it was too dangerous to be right in the middle of everything and wanted to try to stay on the outskirts, but this whole thing got my brother killed so I told them I wanted to stay and try to help get things back to normal."

"I see. How did they feel about splitting up with you?"

"It was hard. We said we would stick together through this thing in the beginning but as they say, stuff happens. You never know what decisions you'll have to make in the future."

Giana nodded her head and wrote something down on the pad of paper in front of her. "You just got bit by the nobility bug and decided that, regardless of the fact that it was Calloway and his men that killed your brother, siding with him was the best option?"

Dom was starting to get nervous but he did his best not to show it. He squeezed his hands together to relieve some of the stress and used the space of a few breaths to formulate a passable answer. "Well the way I look at it, yeah, Calloway got my brother killed, but it wasn't out of nowhere. It was because of this Conflict and what it's done to people, to this country. The only way we're going to get any sense of normalcy back is if we work together to rebuild what we had, and the best way to do that is to help the biggest power in the area, right? I figure the quicker we get the ball rolling on rebuilding to less of a chance there is for someone else's brother to die."

"That's very selfless of you, Dom" said Giana as she nibbled on the cap of her pen. "I kind of got the feeling when I first saw you that you're the kind of guy to worry more about others than yourself. You don't seem as...hard as most of the other people around here."

He wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or if it was a subtle hint that she knew more than she led on, but he didn't want to tip the scales either way by responding, so he sat in wait for her to continue.

She looked him over for a moment, scrutinizing his facial features, trying to figure out some more unsaid things about him. If she believed anything it was that people told you a lot more about themselves in their silence than they did with words. "So if you're such a stand up guy, why did I have a guard telling me they recognized you from somewhere else as a guy that killed a woman and stole her car?"

"I have no idea what you're referring to" said Dom, his heart slamming against his chest. "I've never killed anyone."

"Are you sure?" asked Giana, her expression unchanging.

"I'm positive. Killing someone is huge, I think I would remember if I did."

"OK, but why would this guard, who has no real reason to lie to me, want to implicate you in something so terrible?"

"I don't know. We just got into this area today. The area we were in before was, well, you know about Wanagi I'm guessing."

"I do. Did it happen there?"

Dom was starting to sweat. His hands were shaking and his body was doing everything it could to give him away, and in his bewilderment he couldn't do anything about it. "I really don't know what this guard told you exactly but I promise you it wasn't me. He saw someone else."

"I want you to concentrate really hard on the way you feel right now. Listen to your pulse, feel how your heart is slamming against your chest. Your hands are clammy and your fingers might feel a little cold, probably a little tingly." Giana wrote something else down in her pad and continued talking with her eyes down. "You feel jittery, like you can't relax. Like maybe someone is about to find out a lie you told and you're going to get in trouble. Am I right?"

"Yeah, but I don't understand" said Dom.

"There's a possibility that you'll be in a situation like this when we send you in for your mission, and my job is to prepare you for whatever may come. If you happen to get found out, or if they become suspicious and want to question you, you need to be ready. You need to react quickly and correctly. Calloway will not tolerate anyone in his ranks giving up information. About anything."

Dom heard the conviction in her voice and he knew that she wasn't kidding. So this whole thing was a test. She threw out a phony accusation to see how he would react as a test for interrogation from the other side. Smart move he thought, the 'enemy' as it were was definitely going to be looking out for people like him. "OK, so basically you want me to remember how it feels to be falsely accused as vividly as possible and try to force those same reactions on myself if I get questioned?"

"Precisely."

The next hour or two was spent with Giana in that room. They went over interrogation tactics, common questions and reactions from the enemy. She taught him how to spot certain types of people based on the way they presented themselves and attributed certain types of questions with each. His best weapon would be observation, and she was going to give him all the ammunition she could so he knew what to look for in the heat of the moment. Interrogation was about accuracy of information, sure, but at the root of it it was about breaking someone down, getting them to tell you things they shouldn't. Getting someone to completely give up hope and betray everything they love and care about and give you exactly what you need to end them. As the thought passed through Dom's head he realized how truly important his position was and what he could accomplish with it, but he had to force himself to stem his excitement and pay attention to the knowledge being offered, or his position would mean nothing to no one.

The interrogation techniques that Giana taught reminded him of how his parents used to work him and Matthew when they were younger. If something got broken around the house, instead of just getting them together and coming out and asking who broke it, they would pit them against each other. Tera would offer Matthew some sort of music related thing and Daniel would offer Dom a new tool or a piece of software for his computer in exchange for information. They both would resist as long as they could but eventually the want for the things they were promised grew to be too much to ignore, mostly because they knew that everything would be okay once they got the truth out and helped to replace whatever they broke. It was different in the real world though. If Dom broke and gave up information people could potentially die, and he surely wouldn't get anything for his old computer in return.

Giana led the questioning in a steady, rhythmic fashion, firing questions at him in controlled bursts. He had to try to choose the best answer for a question based on a list that was handed to him which had been broken down into sections. If he gave a wrong answer or took too long she made a buzzing noise with her mouth and did a mock hanging motion. Dom sat still and tried to control his breathing in between questions, concentrating harder on this lesson than he had anything else in his life.

"Do you know why Calloway thinks it's so important to have people like you and me on his side?"

Dom was silent for a second as he thought. "Because knowledge is power."

"Very good" said Giana. "Know thy enemy."

"For my missions, do you think I'll have to kill anybody?"

Giana considered his question with her eyes on the paper in front of her. "I think if we all do our jobs to the best of our abilities we should be able to get through most of this thing without a whole lot of casualties." She tapped her pen on the pad in what sounded like Morse Code. "Of course, there will definitely be a lot of bloodshed, but if that shedding stops or not depends on how quickly and accurately we can strike."

Something about the way she answered the question made Dom feel more comfortable with her. She seemed to be softer than Calloway, not just physically, but emotionally as well. Calloway was rough around the edges but his edges curled inward pretty steep. Giana on the other hand seemed to have a pretty solid grip on her moral compass, and that was something that made Dom feel a little more hopeful about the whole situation.

Once he could go through the list of questions and give an acceptable answer in the allotted time Giana smiled and stood up from the table, stretching wide with her eyes toward the door.

"I think it's about time we get out of here and find some food. How does that sound?"

"I'm starving" said Dom, blurting the words out so fast it sounded like he hadn't eaten in days, which was mostly true.

"Alright then, follow me."

Outside where Dom and Butler had originally entered the grounds were buzzing. Dozens of soldiers stood around talking and laughing, having drinks and eating. It looked like a normal party someone would be having on the fourth of July. In fact it was so real Dom felt like he was at least partially anticipating the the beginning of a firework show. The soldiers nodded their heads politely with smiles as he and Giana passed, and he couldn't help but return the smiles in kind. He knew in his heart of hearts that he wasn't the same as these people, but in a situation like that it was hard to tell sometimes. It's much easier to see someone as a monster when they're actually doing monster-like things, but when you see someone doing the same things that you enjoy it makes the distinction a lot harder to make.

A table had been set up to the side that had a small buffet of fruit and vegetables on it. Some other soldiers were moving through the line when they approached so they fell into the back and watched. Dom almost drooled on himself at the sight of fresh watermelon. It had been so long since he had had something really refreshing and nutritious to eat he almost forgot what it felt like to feel satisfied. Giana noticed the look on his face and just shook her head with a laugh.

Once they each had gotten something to eat they found a spot off to the side of the buffet table where they could stand and eat without being in the way. Dom watched as the soldiers interacted with each other. Talking, telling war stories and even dancing. Being with Calloway definitely had its advantages with the supplies but he was careful to separate his want of the finer things they were used to with the reality of how they acquired those things. During his watching of the people it occurred to him that of all the people dancing and having fun, Giana seemed to be staying right there with him, which struck him as odd.

"Shouldn't you be out consorting with your friends or something?"

"I probably would be if I called any of these people friend" said Giana. "I like to keep things professional."

"Good to know" said Dom.

"I have been known to let me guard down on movie night though."

She finished the last of the strawberry she was holding and tossed the paper plate into the trash can next to the table, then passed Dom with a courtesy nod as she headed toward the last building on the left. He took her leave as dismissal but he wasn't sure what to do so he just stood his ground and watched, waiting to see what the others did so he could follow suit.

Eventually the party started to break up little by little as people began filtering into some of the warehouses up the road. The crowd was beginning to thin out when he found Butler and Colin talking next to one of the Humvees so he made his way over to ask about the housing situation. When he approached the two of them they acknowledged him with a nod paused their conversation.

"I was just wondering how the housing works around here" said Dom.

"We just fill in from the last empty spot when we get new people. Last I knew we're in building D, which is the fourth one right over there." Butler pointed to the building and put his hands back in his pockets.

"OK, thanks. I'm gonna turn in, it's been a long day."

"Sure. Up and at 'em at 0600 tomorrow" said Colin.

"You bet" said Dom.

The thought of getting up at six in the morning wasn't exactly amazing but he was sure that he would get used to it soon. He usually didn't get up much later than eight on most days anyway, so two hours shouldn't make that much of a difference. The sun was all the way down behind the warehouses now and the sky streaked a dark purple with hints of pink. Stars began to poke out on his walk to the barracks, and with one last look at the sky he opened the door and walked into his new home.