Trials in Walls of Ivy (Triskelion Trilogy Book 1) (5 page)

“And you accepted?” I poured her a glass of water and forced it into her hand. “Bree, drink up. Now.”

“She didn’t give me much choice,” he laughed. “It seems when you’re in the Wolves, turning down a drinking challenge is seen as being soft. Think she’s got a bit of a chip on her shoulder.” He reached over and scuffed her hair. “She’s one tough Wolf, I can tell you that.”“Wolf?” I asked.

“I know, stupid isn’t it? But, it seems that a few round here like to refer to the different faculties by those names. My tutor in particular won’t call us anything else. All morning I’ve had nothing but,
Wolf Loncastre
, screamed down my ear drums.”

“What’s a Loncastre?” I asked, feeling lost.

“My surname,” he winked with a grin. “So, am I ever going to get your name?”

“Bree already told you, I’m Roz.”

“I know, I just wanted you to say it.” He chinked my glass with his. “What do you study here, Roz? Apart from being the sober friend.”

“Hey, don’t say it like I’m the party pooper. Look at her, she needed to stop.”

I took a gulp from my glass as evidence of my ability to drink with the rest of them. I regretted it instantly as my stomach flipped over. Drinking on an empty stomach was never a good idea.

“I’m studying sociology.”

He downed his water and poured himself another before he spoke. “Sociology eh? That would make you a little Mole then.”

“Wow, thanks for that.”

“Don’t blame me, that’s what guys in your department are called. You’re a Mole because you go underground until you’re in position. You get in where people don’t notice you, in plain sight.”

“And, you’re a Wolf because?”

“Because, I’m with the team who’re on the ground. We out manoeuvre and take out the target.” His smirk faded. “We’re the muscle, I suppose.”

“What about the others?”

“According to my instructor, there’s five groups. Infantry and intelligence are Wolves and Moles. That’s you and me.” He leaned over and nudged my arm with his elbow. “Then, there’s the computer nerds. They’re split into hackers and surveillance. The hackers are Sharks, supposedly because they can cut through anywhere. And, the Surveillance guys are Spiders, because they have eyes everywhere in their webs. My house mate, Jay,” he nodded to the guy who still held the Tequila bottle, “he’s a Spider. Thinks it’s the best thing in the world. Honestly, he’s a little keen.”

“The last group, they’re the science people?”

“Yep, and I bet you can guess what they’re called? What animal can you always find in a lab?” He grabbed my forgotten beer and took a sip.

I only had to think for a second. “A rat?”

“That’s the one. A whole zoo of animals, all working together.”

“All carnivores too. Strange names for groups which are supposed to work together,” I said, still disgruntled that I was lumbered with Mole as a designation.

“Would you rather we have names like slug and hippopotamus?” He laughed.

“It just seems too far-fetched, that’s all. Animal names for groups, all the secrecy, it’s just hard to fathom. I don’t even think I’m going to pass.”

“You’d better,” Ash said, sharply, “what do you think will happen if you fail?”

I shrugged. “Go back to working at the beach bar, I suppose.”

“Not a chance,” he laughed, humourlessly.

“What do you mean?”

He leaned in close and lowered his voice. “Think about it. We had to agree to be in this, to keep the secret for life. The guys who didn’t want to, left before she said anything really secret, so they weren’t in the know. But us, we know the truth now. We know what this university trains: spies. So, what do you think will happen to those that fail the first year?”

“Well, what can they do, lock us up?”

“Who knows?” He looked around quickly and leaned closer to whisper.  “My Dad’s military, and he said those that know too much are never free. Those soldiers, who have seen too much, are always tagged. But this, this is covert training. We’re going to be placed in key positions. If we fail here, I don’t want to think of where we would end up. Probably the arse end of nowhere for the rest of our lives. Somewhere where we can be forgotten and not tell their secrets.”

I shivered. He was right in that we were told everything here was secret. I had spent the entire first night, once I was alone, pouring over the introduction booklet and my assigned role. It was spelled out plain and clear. We were forbidden from revealing this location, purpose or existence. According to my cover story, I was a sociology student. But the overwhelming tone was clear: absolute secrecy at all times. Nowhere in the pages did it reveal what the penalty for revealing those secrets would be. But, reading between the lines, it was clear it wouldn’t be good, and it
would
be permanent.

Bree let out a shallow snore. She was slumped over and sound asleep on the seat beside me.

“I really should get her home.” I shook her shoulder. “Bree, time to go.” I shook again. She was out of it.

“Come on. I’ll carry her. Just tell me you’re not on the top floor of those flats?” Ash reached over and scooped Bree into his arms. He lifted her like she was a child. “You ready?” His muscles flexed in front of my face as he lifted her over the table.

I jumped up, embarrassed at my preoccupation. “Yeah, sorry. Here, I’ll get the door.” I made a path through the crowd for Ash to follow.

We stepped out into the freezing air. The wind blew hard against my eyes and I held down my hair, away from my face.

“It’s this way. We’re in the houses, past the Keep.” I walked beside him, periodically checking on Bree. She was still snoring gently, drool beginning to trickle down her cheek. “Can’t wait to tease her about this in the morning,” I laughed.

“She’s a stubborn one. I’m guessing this isn’t her first time in this state though. As soon as she got into training today, she came straight for me.” Ash laughed. “She’s definitely one of the Wolves.”

“What do you mean? She attacked you?” I couldn’t believe it. I know I hadn’t known her long, but Bree didn’t seem aggressive.

“Yeah, attacked me is about right. We were supposed to be just trying out some simple falls. Next minute, I hear this crazed battle cry and she’s charging at me.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because I was the biggest in the room. At least, that’s what she said when I plucked her off my back. Honestly, I don’t think the sergeant had ever seen anything like it.” He shook his head, laughing at the memory.

“What is it you guys are studying, battle tactics?” I joked.

“Pretty much,” he said, without any hint of humour.

I stopped and stared at him open mouthed.

He looked back at me. “What?”

“You’re, I mean, you and Bree are studying battle? I thought you were, I don’t know, something like body guards?”

“The official title is
Custodian
. Basically we’re to be trained in combat, infiltration and your basic under the radar black ops. Kind of like what you’re training in, just more physical.” He smiled at me like there was nothing wrong with his revelation.

“What I’m training in? It’s completely different. How could you be having military training here? This is a university. I know Llamp said it’s part of the government, but I thought she meant desk jobs and things like that.”

“It’s not military,” he shot, before turning and continuing down the path.

I ran to catch up. “Hey, I wasn’t trying to be funny with you.”

He sighed and shook his head, but didn’t slow his pace. “I know. I just… never mind. But really, what are you studying in sociology?”

“Just the basic stuff. What crowds of people are like in different situations and cultures.” It felt pathetic in comparison.

“Learning how to manipulate social groups of people and how to blend in plain sight? Aren’t you doing the same subject as me then?”

“In what way?”

“I use my physical skills, you use your brains. It’s all to the same effect. I infiltrate when force is needed. You infiltrate where stealth is needed. You’re a Mole, just like I’m a Wolf.” He stopped to shift Bree’s weight in his arms.

She was still snoring soundly, her head resting against his chest.

“Which house is it?”

I hadn’t realised we had arrived at our makeshift street. I pointed toward house G and dug my keys from my bag. I was about to unlock the door when I took a sudden step back.

“Oh no, I forgot. We can’t go in there.”

“Isn’t this your house?”

“It is, but. Well, when I left, our housemate was in the process of shagging some girl on the settee. Why do you think I went to the pub alone? I couldn’t stay here.” The words fell from my mouth in a flood of panic. What if they were still writhing there in the middle of the living room? I did not need to see that part of Warwick again.

“Ha, is that all? Get the door open. Come on, she’s not as light as she looks.” He used Bree’s feet to nudge me toward the door. I twisted the keys and thrust the door open. Ash barged in ahead of me, walked straight to the living room and lowered Bree to the chair.

“They must have finished. That, or moved into the kitchen.”

I cringed and shut the door. “Do me a favour? Go check. I don’t want to walk in on that again.”

Ash didn’t stay long. I left Bree curled up on the chair, dead to the world. I thought about staying with her a while, but couldn’t stand the thought of being in the same room as Warwick’s lusty residue. I woke in the morning with a fiery determination to set some boundaries in the house. I wrapped my dressing gown around me as I marched down the stairs. Owen was already sat at the breakfast table, newspaper propped in front of him. Karissa was sat beside him, reading over his shoulder. Sat at the far end of the table was Bree. Her head propped on one fist, she was inhaling deeply from her steaming black coffee.

I slammed the button down on the kettle and almost made it tip up.

“Steady now,” Bree whispered.

I looked up to the ceiling. “Is
he
up yet?” I snapped.

“I’ll presume you mean Warwick, since I’m the only other
he
living here?” Owen said, with an overly bright smile. “Not seen him yet.”

I stormed to the bottom of the stairs. “Warwick, get your arse down here now!” I screamed, then returned to the kitchen and stood by the sink, arms folded.

Owen, Bree and Karissa watched me with open mouths. None of them seemed to know if they should laugh or be afraid.

“I just need to set out some ground rules,” I said, to the room. “If we’re going to live here together, we have to set the boundaries.”

Owen shrugged. “If you say so.”

I heard stomping footsteps coming down the stairs before Warwick slammed open the kitchen door. “What the fuck are you screaming at me for?” He grunted, clearly hung over.

I folded my arms. “I’m screaming at you because this is my house too. We all have to live here, and we all have to work together. So, I’m laying out some ground rules.”

I watched him as he slumped himself into the chair beside Bree.

“First rule, no shagging on the settee!” My voice cracked with the embarrassment of having to say it aloud.

Owen’s head snapped up from his paper. “What?” He looked to Karissa.

She erupted in laughter. “Not guilty.”

“I mean it,” I continued, “we all have to sit in that room. I don’t want to sit where you’ve been doing it the night before.”

“Who were you with?” Owen asked.

Warwick shrugged. “Think she was called Kate. Or Kath, could have been Kathy.”

Bree slapped his arm. “You don’t even know her name? Women aren’t toys, you know.” She shoved herself away from the table and stood beside me.

“It’s not like she knew my name either. What’s the problem?” He leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head.

“The problem,” I interjected, as Bree was about to lunge at him, “is that you have your own room. Why use the settee?”

“Sometimes, your room’s just too far away.” He laughed and bumped fists with Owen, who seemed to find this hilarious.

Bree leaned toward him and slammed her fist on the table. “Well next time, you’ll just have to manage it. Or you’ll be picking up the girls with your eye swollen shut. You hear me?”

Warwick slid from his chair and bolted through the door. “Bloody lunatic,” he shouted, as he fled the scene.

I put my hand on Bree’s shoulder. “You okay?” I asked. She seemed angrier than I was and I was the one who had to see him.

She shrugged me off. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just hate guys who use girls as toys.”

“From the sound of it, she was using him too,” Owen said, barely holding back a laugh. He lowered his eyes back to the paper when Bree shot him a glare.

“Aren’t you angry about this?” I asked Karissa.

“None of my business. We were only ever a one nighter. He’s fine to see who he likes, and so am I.”

She grinned at me, like I was ridiculous for being so upset. I sucked in a breath to protest, but then thought better. It wasn’t my business.

*   *   *

The following few weeks at uni went by with a mixture of fascination and terror. Through each lesson we would learn how to manipulate situations, convince people that we were on their side and how to recognise when it was being done to others. But, there was the constant realisation that we were being prepared for a life of shadows and secrets. I loved the idea of being a part of an organisation which worked to protect our country, and was kind of enjoying knowing there was going to be danger too.

Our lessons seemed all the more real when I entered the room marked,
Mole
. I had been looking forward to this lesson, as I knew this was where I would be specialising. I took my seat not caring where in the room I sat. I noticed a few of my fellow students were now sitting together, only speaking to their own clique. It didn’t bother me that I wasn’t included. For the most part, I noticed we seemed to be mixing groups in most lessons.

Dr Llamp walked through the room and immediately began placing a sheet of paper on each desk.

“It is time for your first task as Moles. I have just randomly provided each of you with a target.”

The sound of rustling paper filled the room as we all studied the new sheet. I looked around at the other students sheets discreetly, mine looked to be similar to the others, but all seemed to have unique differences.

“You each have twenty four hours to complete this task and submit it officially.” She stood at the front of the room in her familiar stance, arms behind her back. “Complete it in whatever manner you deem necessary, with whatever means are at your disposal. Full Consummate procedure will be in effect.”

I read through the information quickly. I was to look for a code word which had been hidden within the university campus. Grading was based on my ability to fulfil the differing roles as a Mole agent. The rest of the page was blank, except for a strange sentence placed at the bottom.

I read quietly to myself:
Cased in the unfeeling armour of old time
.

The room had fallen silent while each of us scrutinised our tasks. The look of confusion spread across every face.

“Any questions?” Llamp called. She had already picked up her bag to leave the room, even though we hadn’t been here more than ten minutes.

A guy near the front held up his sheet. “It doesn’t actually say what we need to do.”

“Everything you need is provided. You each need to find what is stated on your sheet and deduce what to do with it. In twenty four hours, we will see who has succeeded.” She left the room, leaving the door open behind her.

“Anyone know what the heck this is about?” Spring asked, turning to everyone in the room. Her eyes met mine and I shrugged in response. “Well fat lot of good you lot are. God, do I have to carry this group?”

My irritation got the better of me. “Well, do you know what to do?” I shouted. The entire room fell in to silence. She glared at me with venom. I grabbed my bag and left the room before she could scream at me. My foot had just passed the door when I heard the room erupt in laughter. Guess she still got the last word in.

I stormed through the crowds of people milling through the campus until I was facing a seating area. I slumped myself on one of the picnic tables and crossed my arms. People moved in every direction, laughing in groups and having fun. I wanted to growl and scream at the lot of them. I had been here for weeks and so far had managed to piss off the popular lass in my group, fail to notice the simple sociology task, pretty much make an enemy of one of my housemates, and now, I had the daunting job of figuring out a ridiculous riddle within a day. I didn’t know where to begin.

“Billy no mates, you going to sit with me or not?” I spun on my seat to see Bree. She was sat at a bench with a group of people, including Ash. “Get your lanky arse over here blondie.”

I squeezed in between her and a guy who grinned at me from under his long hair. He watched me as I put my bag under the table. Then continued to stare. It took me a moment to recognise him as the guy with the Tequila bottle from the bar.

“Hi,” he leaned in close, “I’m Jay.”

I kept glancing away as he continued to stare. “Hi, I’m Roz,” I said, hoping it would satisfy him. He leaned his head on his hand, gazing at me. His grin spread across his bright white teeth.

“Jay, quit it,” Ash snapped. He leaned over and pushed his hand, making Jay’s head fall forward.

Jay erupted in laughter. “Alright, alright.” He shoved back at Ash.

“Ignore him, Roz,” Ash said. “He seems to think he’s some kind of ladies man.”

Jay leaned back in toward me. “Jayendra Suresh, at your service.” He picked up my hand and kissed it.

I snapped it back, unable to hold back the laugh. “Nice to meet you. I think.”

The group continued on with their multiple conversations. Bree seemed to be in the middle of them all. It didn’t take me long to realise that this group wasn’t just Wolves like Bree and Ash. There was a girl from my Mole group who I hadn’t spoken to yet, and a guy who Bree continuously referred to as
shark
, which I presumed meant he was with the hacking group.

“How was today then?” Ash asked, dragging me away from listening to the other conversations. He had a packet of biscuits in front of him, which he was demolishing swiftly. “You getting used to it here?”

“No, not at all. How about you?”

“Doing alright. I’m used to training, so not too different from home.” He offered me one of his biscuits and I refused. “What is it you don’t like?”

I shrugged. I didn’t dislike it here. But, I wasn’t overly happy either. “I don’t know really. We’ve just been given a task which makes no sense. I’m not really making any friends here. I don’t know, I just don’t seem to fit.” I sank back in my seat, immediately regretting being so honest.

Bree jabbed me in the shoulder. “What do you mean, you haven’t made friends? What am I, a spare tyre?” She scowled at me and punched my arm again.

“Hey!” I protested, shifting further away from her on the bench seat. “I meant in class, that’s all. I just, don’t really fit in with them.”

“Well that’s okay, you fit in with us.” She slung her arm across my shoulder.

“Great. I fit in with the crazy wolf pack.”

The table thundered with cheers. I cowered with my hands over my head, as multiple hands smacked in high fives.

*   *   *

As night crept closer I was glued to my computer. I had made myself a nest at the table in the kitchen in the form of snacks, coffee mugs and pads of paper. A quick search on the internet told me that the sentence from the bottom of my task sheet was a line from a Wordsworth poem. My heart had lightened with the ease of finding that piece of information. But, as the hours dragged and I failed to discover what that poem meant, my heart was sinking in time with the sunset.

“What you got there?” Owen asked, as he put the kettle on. “You want a fresh one?” He picked up my forgotten coffee cup without waiting for an answer.

I held up my notes. “All useless ramblings and procrastination. I have no idea what to do. I’m going to fail my first real task and get booted out of here.”

He placed the mug beside me and sat in one of the rickety chairs. “Lay it out for me.”

“I can’t. It’s my task.”

“I’m not going to solve it. Come on, bat your ideas around.” He leaned back and gulped back his coffee.

“Well, I don’t really have any ideas,” I said, as he huffed and glared at me to continue. “Okay, okay. We were given a task. We have to find something which is hidden within the campus, then figure out what to do with it.”

“What are you looking for?”

I slammed my fist on the table. “I don’t know, that’s the point. I have to figure out what it is I’m looking for and where. It’s hopeless.”

He leaned forward and reached for the test paper. “This the only clue?” He read through the poem line a few times. “Not much to go on.”

“It’s nothing to go on. So far, I’ve figure out that it’s a poem by Wordsworth, about a painting. We don’t have the painting anywhere on campus. I went to the library and found nothing in any books that could look like something that was hidden. I even asked the librarian if anything was hidden behind the desk. She looked at me like I was crazy.”

Owen re-read the paper again. “What were you told to do, exactly?”

I sat back and thought back to Llamp’s words. “We’re to complete the task and submit it to her officially within twenty four hours. We can use any means available to us and are marked on how we perform all the different Mole roles.” I picked up the cup and sipped. I was surprised to note that Owen already knew how I took my coffee. “And, she said Consummate procedure would be in effect.”

“Well, that makes it more difficult.”

“Why?”

“You’ve read the info book. Consummate are never seen in action. Meaning, whatever you need to do in this task, you can’t be seen by anyone.”

“How the hell am I supposed to search the campus without being seen?”

“Go undercover, I suppose? Jam the cameras?”

“Hang on. I’m marked on using all the Mole roles. One of those roles is leading a team. Organising a team.” I sat forward and gripped his arm. “She didn’t say anything about getting a team together, but she didn’t say not to. And, I was told to use all means available. You guys could be my team.” I grinned at Owen.