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Prologue

ARROWS

Mercury was a cult That hat everyone said at the start The Psy laughed at Catherine and Arif Adelaja’s clai able to free their people from insanity and es of madness

It was accepted It was accepted

There was no cure

But then Mercury produced two graduates of their early version of the Silence Protocol - the Adelajas’ oin sons Tendaji and Naee of anger or madnessfor a while The experiment eventually failed The dark side of emotion rushed back into the Adelaja twins in an avalanche, and, sixteen years after being heralded as the harbingers of a new future, they co one, killed Naeem then himself There was no doubt that it had been a mutual decision

They left a note

We are an aboue that will kill our people from within Silence ive us

Their words were never heard, their terror never understood Found by acolytes of Mercury, they were buried in a hidden grave, their deaths ter a second generation, i the tools hich to excise unwanted emotion from the heart and e was the quietest - this time, they had the cautious support of the leaders of their people, the Psy Council

But they also needed support of another kind, the kind that would catch any other lapses and mistakes before they made it to the public domainand to the ears of the still-skeptical Council If the Councilors had found out about the continuing deaths, they would have pulled back And the Adelajas could not bear the thought of their vision being consigned to the trash heap of history Because, though shattered by the deaths of their twin sons, Catherine and Arif never lost faith in Silence Neither did their eldest son - Zaid

Zaid was a cardinal telepath with a furious ability in mental co adult, not a child Still, he believed The Protocol had given him peace froift of peace, to quiet the tor up theaway those who broke under the experi their lives as efficiently as he buried their bodies

Catherine called him her Martial Arrow

Soon, Zaid recruited others like him Others who believed They were loners, unknown shadows, darker than the darkness,that ht threaten the successful realization of Catherine and Arif’s lifelong dream

Time passed Years Decades Zaid Adelaja ashed from this Earth, but the torch of the Arrows continued to be handed from one acolyte to the nextuntil there was nohailed as visionaries

The Silence Protocol was implemented in the year 1979

The Psy Council was unanimous in its vote, the masses divided, but theeach other and thee and inhumanity unseen in any of the other races Silence see peace But would they have taken that step had they read Tendaji and Naeem’s last words? There is no one left who can answer that question

As no one can anshy a protocol ht with it the coldest, erous kind of violence - rumors of the Arrow Squad spawned on the heels of the i under Silence It was said that those who protested too hard had a habit of si

Now, in the final end, their existence or nonexistence debated endlessly in the PsyNet To the naysayers, the post-Silence Psy Council is a perfect creation, one that would never do anything as underhanded as create a secret squad to take care of its enemies

But others know differently

Others have seen the dark streaks of highly h the Net, felt the cold chill of their psychic blades But of course, these others cannot speak Those who come into contact with the Arrow Squad rarely live to tell the tale

The Arrows themselves do not heed the rumors, do not consider their secret army a death squad No, they have re father Their only loyalty is to the Silence Protocol and they are dedicated to its continuance

Executions are sometimes unavoidable

Chapter 1

A fist crashed into Judd’s cheekbone Focused on eli his opponent from the field, he barely noticed the i out Tai tried to evade the blow at the last second but it was too late - the young wolf’s jaw slae on the inside