Silver Elite

Wren meets Cross in his office. He is impressed with her performance and claims she executed the mission exactly as she was supposed to. The objective was for her to ask for the job, not to obtain it. Their attraction from the brothel remains, and Wren decides that they should have sex once to get it out of their system. Cross agrees to this proposal. Afterward, Wren feels deep shame for sleeping with the General’s son and flees the room.

The recruits are paired off for Fallen Soldier drills, in which one recruit acts injured while the other gets them both to safety. They have 46 seconds to navigate a smoke-filled hallway to the exit. Wren and Lyddie are paired for this drill, but both fail. At the mess hall afterward, Wren learns that many other recruits passed the drill by leaving their fallen soldier behind. Ivy explains that the Command views compassion as a weakness; recruits are expected to abandon the wounded to save themselves. Wren refuses to accept this, and when the test commences again the next day, she becomes determined to pass it without abandoning her partner. She is partnered with Kaine the second time, but she can find no way to pass the drill without leaving him.