The Covert Academy (11 page)

‘Hey... a little help? You a
re not going to leave me here right? Hey guys?

...Guys?’

The Nyctalopia touched down on the landing pad, and the entire structure descended into the depths of the island. Joshua preferred entering the Academy with the ship; from here he could see where he was going, the bright landing lights showing the way down.

He entered the cockpit where Richard was in the process of shutting down the systems. Everything was now controlled remotely from the Academy’s Air Traffic Control centre, it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.

‘Howdy there pard’ner. Y’all...’

‘Drop the jokes Ric
hard. I prefer your Kiwi accent,’ Joshua cut him off. He was exhausted. The six months of gruelling training had hardened him, and not just his physique. The layers of new muscle were still awkward for him, and the constant burn of lactic acid kept him from sleeping. ‘Sorry,’ he added. ‘Just tired.’ He let out a huge yawn.

‘Argh, I shouldn’t have looked.’ Richard followed suit with a y
awn of his own. ‘And I’ve gotta drag the rest of your squad back down after I drop you and Sleeping Beauty off.’ He stuck out a thumb, indicating Sarah’s snores echoing up the passage.

Joshua chuckled, slapped Richard on the back, and left to catch a few winks before they arrived back at the Academy.

He sat in the galley, and picked an apple from the bowl on the table. He pulled his knife, forgotten during the long day’s exercise, out of its sheath strapped to his hip, and sliced up the apple. He turned the knife over in his hand, admiring its construction.

His sister Lucia had repaired the handle for him after he’d damaged it trying to pry open a door, back in Chicago, years ago. She’d had a way with tools like she’d had a way with words. The sharpest knife in the drawer. Even now he could see her telling him off for being too hasty, going with the first idea that had popped into his head to open that door.

She was the thinker of their duo, the planner. Always in control. Even at only nine years old, she had looked out for Joshua as much as he had for her.

Had the Confederacy been watching them, even then? It seemed ridiculous, but how else could they have known Lucia had such a gift for building things, a knack for everything but staying silent. He could hear her high voice, the way she stomped around as if she owned the place, but always with a smile, and always in control. He could remember every caper they’d pulled in those days...

Joshua was suddenly pushed awake. He blinked to clear the fog in his head and saw Richard standing over him.

‘Dude, don’t you have a class to get to?’

Joshua leaped up, smashing his leg into the galley table. Pain shot through his leg as he ran for the exit, hopping like a madman.

‘Say hi to Casey for me!’ Richard called after him.

There was no sign of Sarah or Ichiro on the landing pad outside the Nyctalopia. Joshua sped through more empty corridors, the hexagonal shape of the tunnels amplifying his heavy footfalls. He reached the main courtyard, deserted as well.

His first few days in the Academy had been the most alien experience Joshua had ever had.  For the first time, he wasn’t trying to disappear in the crowd of people, but interact with them. On top of that, most of the other students were at least five years younger than him. He just couldn’t relate to these kids who had grown up in the safety of the Academy. Not to mention they’d had over a decade’s head start on their training.

Joshua finally reached the auditorium where the class was already under way. It was the same room he had gone to on his first day, where Casey taught him the truth behind the Confederacy’s origin.

Today it was full of students, and when he opened the door all 250 of them turned as one to watch him find a seat. Joshua didn’t feel embarrassed; he
had
after all just aced the end of term assessment by beating Sarah, the perennial maestro. He looked over the crowd but couldn’t see her anywhere. So many eyes looking back at him made his skin crawl. He chose a seat and the moment passed.

Casey, standing on the podium, at least had the grace to continue speaking without pause. He would probably just dock the entire class their free time for their lapse in attention.

Ichiro sidled over and took the vacant seat next to him. Somehow not a single head turned at
his
movement. He had the advantage of a small lithe body and dark features, well suited for sneaking as well as acrobatics. But it was Ichiro’s quiet, solemn demeanor that helped him most.

Joshua had a lot to learn.

‘I apologise for just leaving you on the ship, Joshua-san,’ Ichiro said. ‘You looked like you could have used the rest,’ he added with a grin and a jab in the ribs.

‘Thanks, I think.’ Joshua grumbled. He was no mood for games, especially with Ichiro. It was hard to tell when he was trying to be sarcastic.

Casey inclined his head towards Joshua and growled. ‘Perhaps you would be so kind as to assist me with this demonstration Josh?’

Joshua gulped. He hadn’t been paying attention. What was Casey demonstrating? Joshua had mastered all the tricks that the jumpsuit provided. He made a mental checklist.

Active and static camouflage.

Enhanced strength.

Automatic medication.

Partial anti-gravity.

Surface adhesion.

The standard issue ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene launcher. Joshua had decided to stick with Sarah’s name for it, rope. “Ninja rope” if he was feeling pretentious.

And of course the suit could deflect a stray bullet or a knife slash. The boys down in the Academy’s R&D really had built a thing of wonder with that material. It had given them an advantage no one else had.

It couldn’t be anything to do with that. Casey may not like to admit it, but he’d proven to be a quick study. Many of the younger students still struggled to adapt to the enhancements provided by the suit. At first some had resented him for surpassing their efforts, but the story of Joshua’s retrieval of the bio-ID had gotten around, and now he had his own little fan club, like Ryan’s.

In fact the Academy students were for the most part split between him and
Ryan as to whom they adored more. Joshua thought the whole thing was stupid. They should be focussing on finding the members of the Confederacy, but instead this popularity contest had distracted the entire school. There was a mixture of hushed cheering and hissing from the crowd as Joshua walked down to the podium, just low enough so Casey couldn’t hear. The stage had been cleared, and Casey waited while Joshua climbed up next to him.

‘That knife o’ yers better be stowed away,’ Casey grumbled low to Joshua. ‘You might be a senior compared to that lot, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re not ready for lethal weapons.’

Joshua didn’t answer. Maybe he was right, Joshua hadn’t ever killed a man, and maybe Casey thought he didn’t have it in him. Sarah was sure to have reported about how he had stopped her from slicing up the last Confederate soldier that day they met on the rooftop.

Would I kill to find Lucia?
He’d find out soon enough.

Joshua had just about had enough of waiting for permission to leave this place. There was always some excuse. He hadn’t finished his training. He needed to assist Dr. Prewett’s work acc
essing the data from the bio-ID. He didn’t know where in the Colonnade Lucia was, if she was there at all.

The last one at least made sense to Joshua. But he wasn’t going to find out by sitting in lecture halls and running around a tropical island all day.

A table was brought out onto the stage, and Casey placed a large cardboard box on it. A few youngsters in the crowd snickered, thinking this might be the object Casey would demonstrate for them.

Kids
, thought Joshua. What sort of idiot would hide in a cardboard box?

Casey unpacked his toys and laid them out on the table. Necks craned to get a better view from the audience. Joshua couldn’t help himself either, sidling over to Casey’s shoulder. He kept his hands to himself though, since he still wasn’t in Casey’s good books after his presumptuous enrolment.

Master Casey Jayne ignored the attention and picked up the first item. It was a ball, about the size of a toy marble. He held it up for the students to see.

‘This little guy is yer best friend,’ he meant the ball. He handed it to Joshua then loomed over him
, threateningly. ‘When over powered or surrounded by a much stronger, smarter and handsomer opponent...’ he paused for effect, letting his audience chuckle. ‘Simply throw it at yer feet.’ He nodded at Joshua, indicating the ground, then charged at him. Joshua barely had time to think as he took a step back and heaved the ball downward. A plume of smoke instantly flew up into his face, stinging his eyes and invading his nose, causing him to cough and hack.

Casey meanwhile, instead of the feigned attack, had grabbed an air filter off the table and put it over his face. The smoke quickly dissipated, and Casey addressed the audience while Joshua fought to get himself under control.

‘That was yer standard smoke pellet, fairly harmless,’ he drawled. ‘It will give you just over twenty seconds to get the hell outta Dodge before that handsome opponent comes at you, angrier than ever. A versatile tool, the smoke pellet can be laced with additives to yer preference for mission parameters, such as hypnotic drugs or lethal toxins.’

Casey smiled grimly. ‘We’ve had unconfirmed reports of a Confederate faction using similar t
ech. So keep an eye out.’

He turned to the table and made a big flourish with his hands as he selected the next item. No one but Joshua noticed the small flat disc he threw, landing softly behind him. He picked up another one, this time displaying it for all to see.

‘Now this is a fun one,’ he turned it over. The device resembled a frisbee. ‘If you have the room to manoeuvre, throw it away from the direction you need to travel. Every distraction disc has a trigger built in to yer jumpsuits. Simply select what incapacitation type, lethal or non-lethal, and hit the activation. The disc will automatically scan its surroundings and emit a noise just loud enough to attract the attention of the nearest person.’

As he spoke, a low whistle came from behind Joshua who turned and walked in the direction of the noise. Joshua didn’t have much choice but to play along, as Casey would take any indication of insubordination to throw him back out on the streets of Chicago. He dutifully stepped on the disc, and his foot became stuck. The disc had become glued to the floor on the underside, and the topside attached itself to Joshua’s foot.

He flailed a bit, but kept his balance, barely. The audience laughed along with him.

Casey folded one of his fingers into his palm and shut off the device. ‘Retrievable and reusable, these “distraction discs” can be the difference between a milk run of a mission, or death.’ Joshua pull
ed himself off the device and wearily shambled back to Casey.

He could see Casey’s mouth subtly moving, as though he was speaking to someone over a comm link during his lecture. Joshua thought he caught a name. Mr. M-
something
. Who was that? Casey abruptly stopped and smiled to himself as though he’d won the debate in his head. It happened so fast; no one else seemed to notice.

He selected his last toy for show and tell. It was a hybrid organic and synthetic eye, an iPC. The auditorium fell into a hushed silence. Joshua stared.

‘This contains the bio-ID,’ said Casey.

Joshua crashed into the door of Dr. Prewett’s quarters, knocking over a beaker when the door slammed open. The doctor looked up at Joshua over his computer monitors.

‘That was expensive,’ he said. Joshua glanced at the beaker, but made no apology as he stormed over to confront Dr. Prewett.

‘When did you unlock the bio-ID
?’ Joshua demanded. ‘You didn’t tell me.’

‘Should I have?’ The doc sighed. ‘I don’t answer to you Joshua, or to anyone else.’

‘Casey just waved the General’s iPC in front of the entire school!’ Joshua fumed. ‘Every one of them will be scrambling to get to it somehow.’

‘Is that so bad Joshua? It will force them to work as a team. You’ve seen how
there are already two camps in the Academy, split between you and Ryan. This will give them all a common goal.’ Dr. Prewett spread his hands palm up, reassuringly. ‘Casey can look after the bio-ID better than anybody and he won’t waste it on himself if that’s what you’re worried about.’

That brought Joshua up short. ‘What? Why... Who would he give it to?’

Dr. Prewett considered. ‘I think he’ll give it to someone who can put it to the most use.’

‘Don’t
you need it?’ Joshua pressed on. ‘You were supposed to be accessing its data to locate the Confederate members.’

‘No, no boy,’ the doc sa
id. ‘I only designed the bio-ID itself. Someone else back at the lab created the interface to merge with an iPC. But they encrypted it. It’s an algorithm I’ve never seen before.’