The Covert Academy (8 page)

Joshua shook his head. ‘What
is
this place?’

Casey started walking down into the now dry lagoon. ‘Welcome to the Academy,’ he said.

The youngsters followed Casey down the slope, careful to avoid tripping on the sharp coral skirting the rim. Sarah set a quick pace to catch up with Casey. He led them in the general direction of the Tower, but kept silent for now. Sarah took it as an implication that she should narrate the tour for her guest.

‘We added a few things here and there to complete the look,’ she said and pointed out a pile of logs stacked in a line that disappeared into the distance. ‘This
is the Colonnade wall. You can climb it if you want, but we’ve got several easy entry points for when the map is not in use. We do close it off entirely during exercises. Wouldn’t be fair otherwise.’

‘Exercises?’ Joshua said.

Sarah nodded. ‘We do a lot of our training up here. It’s important to be able to operate in broad daylight, can’t rely on having unlit corridors on every mission. Plus every student is required to memorize the layout of the surface level of the Colonnade.’

Shortly
they walked past a distinctive block of coral, not far from the Tower.

‘You might recognise this one,’ she indicated. ‘That’s where...’

‘That’s the building where we met,’ Joshua cut in. He looked at Sarah and she turned away. He kept talking to fill the silence. ‘If this is used for training as you say, then apart from memorizing the layout, it doesn’t seem to be very useful.’

Casey stopped and turned to him. ‘Care to explain that little remark?’

Joshua swallowed but he was committed now. He pointed to the gap next to the coral-building. ‘It’s empty.’

‘So?’ Casey said. He folded his arms, experienced cords of muscle bulging in defiance.

‘I slipped past two Confederate soldiers and disabled a drone in the alley that gap there represents.’ Joshua held up an arm and flexed his own pathetic muscles, his rake-thin arms illustrating the point. ‘You think I did it with my bare hands?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I know the streets around the Colonnade like the back of my hand. But if I had had two blank walls on either side when they came for me, I’d be dead now. I was unarmed, weak from hunger, and had no fancy suit like Sarah’s. I used the
environment
to my advantage.’

Casey caught on and nodded. ‘There should be other obstacles, sewers, ladders, trash bins and the like.’ The frown on his face stayed put however, and he walked them the final distance to the Tower in silence.

Sarah whispered to Joshua, her eye on Casey’s back. ‘He won’t ever admit it, but you just taught him a lesson. But don’t push him, Casey is like a gorilla – he won’t roll over for a young new male leader without a fight.’

Joshua gave her a sharp look. ‘What, you think I’m a...?’

‘We’re here,’ Casey called over his shoulder. Joshua looked up at the “Tower”, which wasn’t carved out of coral like the rest of the imitation Colonnade. It was in fact the fuselage of a gigantic military aircraft, sticking out of the bottom of the lagoon like a birthday candle.

Joshua wondered how it had got there... some ancient crash perhaps?

It was painted the same dull greyish green as the lagoon. From the sky, it would look like just a large outcropping of coral, and even on closer inspection no one would care about an ancient aircraft crash site.

Casey opened a door on the side of the fuselage and stepped in. Joshua and Sarah followed on his heels.

The inside was as dull as Joshua would have expected a military aircraft to look, grey everywhere, seats hanging off the walls that ran up the length of the plane, and luggage netting that hung down from the ceiling. It was very disorienting.

A large rectangular crate was lashed to the rear of the plane, well out of reach. It looked as solid and impenetrable as a bank safe.

‘Best if you don’t ask,’ Sarah warned, before Joshua could form the question as to what it held.

He looked down towards the cockpit. The entire section sat below the seabed level. It had been completely stripped, and in its place was a stairway leading straight down. Nearby there was what looked like a man-sized tube, also pointing down into the dark depths of the Earth.

‘This is the fun part,’ Sarah said, and ran ahead of Joshua to jump head first into the tube after Casey, who disappeared inside it before he had realised.

Joshua stopped for one last glimpse at the bright blue sky behind him. On the ridge they had walked down from, he thought he caught a glimpse of a dark blue silhouette, and then the spectre seemed to blend back into the landscape as though it had always been a part of it, watching him from afar.

Not quite the deserted island after all
, thought Joshua.

The door of the plane he had walked through slowly began to close by some unseen automatic mechanism. As it slid shut, the water of the lagoon outside re-emerged as it filled itself back up. Some of the water splashed into the plane before the door closed, soaking his boots.

He took a few deep breaths to steel himself, and climbed feet first into the tube.

Joshua fell through darkness. He imagined it was like the story his mother had read to him as a child, the one about a girl falling down a rabbit hole... Or maybe he was journeying to the centre of the Earth, or perhaps even back in time.

All he could feel was the wind pushing into his face and the smooth slick surface of the slide, going faster and faster, twisting one way then another. He couldn’t imagine how far underground they were, or if they were even still under the island they had entered from. Eventually the tube began to go in circles and the incline flattened out, bringing him in for an easy touch down on an inflatable landing pad.

He flailed around, disoriented, and then Sarah was there, offering her hand to help him up. He hesitated for a second, and then took her hand. Her touch was icy cold, causing him to shiver. At least that’s what he thought it was. He let her go, perhaps too quickly, but the moment passed.

Casey was waiting for them by a short tunnel that was carved out of a solid wall of rock. Joshua could see the light from the other end only twenty metres or so distant.
There was a raised portcullis on this side, a decontamination chamber in the middle of the tunnel, and a criss-cross section of lasers barring the far end of the tunnel’s exit. There were no warning signs or guards to give them directions. It wasn’t a place one came to uninvited.

The three of them walked in
to the tunnel and stood still while scanners popped out of the walls to run over their bodies. Joshua had to put his knife in a drawer off to one side to complete the scan, Sarah and Casey having clearance for their equipment already.

‘I’m going to want that back,’ said Joshua, as his knife was whisked away by some unseen force in the drawer.

‘Just wait ’ill you get a load of our toys,’ said Casey, with a hint of humour in his voice.

The lasers shut down as the scan was completed, and Joshua stepped out of the tunnel into the blinding light from the Academy.

After his eyes had adjusted to the sudden unexpected br
ightness, Joshua saw the Academy for the first time. The light came from far above his head in the cavern, bouncing off highly reflective crystal formations and well placed man-made mirrors, amplifying the effect.

‘We have a couple of satellites in geosynchronous orbit with the Academy. The light is bounced off their mirrors and down fissures in the rock. So we can control the day/night cycle to any length of time we like,’ Sarah said in answer to Joshua’s unspoken question.

He pulled his gaze away from the ceiling and studied the grounds. The Academy could have passed for any one of the abandoned universities he had seen around Illinois. Except it was
full
. People walked to and fro everywhere, books tucked under their arms, or tapping away on holographic keyboards being projected for use with their student iPCs.

In the centre there was a statue of an old man carved in stone. He wore clothing similar to Casey’s loose pan
ts and tight shirt, but he leaned with a bent back on a gnarled cane, and he sported a beard that ran almost to his feet.

Perhaps a founding member
, thought Joshua.

In the distance
he could see faculty buildings, lecture halls, housing for students, even a mini mall. Anything a student would ever need. Joshua was more interested in the groups of kids, sitting in clusters on the neatly trimmed lawn surrounding the statue. They looked just as he imagined students at a university campus to be. Some played with a ball, others read books while eating lunch. Many just sat in a circle to talk about the state of the world. But they all looked younger than Joshua, every single one of them had to be only 14 or 15 years old, at most.

‘Where are the seniors?’ Joshua wondered aloud.

Casey made a noise halfway between a grunt and a snort. ‘We, uh, had some casualties during the transition from our previous base in Japan. There are only four other students your age here.’ He waved an arm, indicating the mass of youngsters in front of them. ‘Don’t be fooled by these kids though. They’re tougher than they look,’ he added with a dry chuckle.

Sarah waved to someone, and Joshua saw Richard driving toward him in a squat-looking silver buggy, designed to shuttle people around the vast grounds.
He had two passengers with him, one in the back, the other riding shotgun.

As they pulled up, Richard called out, ‘Hey guys, what’s up?’

He parked the buggy and got out to give Sarah a pat on the arm, and a thump on the back for Joshua.

The man in the back seat gazed over Joshua and Sarah
with his pale grey eyes as though they weren’t worth the trouble, but kept a friendly smile fixed in place nonetheless. He emulated Casey’s crewcut style, but with the added vigour of youth. He was so massive he barely fit into the buggy. He wore the same tight jumpsuit that Sarah wore, and it gave his chiselled body the impression of being carved from stone.

He turned to Casey as he
climbed out of the buggy and snapped a sharp salute.

‘Reporting another successful
mission, Master Jayne,’ he said, his thick accent turning “mission” into “mee-shan”.

Casey gave him an approving
nod, ‘Good work Ryan,’ he grunted.

T
he man, Ryan, continued, ‘But I don’t like being kept in the dark sir. You gonna tell me who I risked my neck for?’

Then the
other passenger in the buggy lifted his head and Joshua suddenly recognised him. ‘Dr. Prewett!’ he burst out.

Quick as a flash, Sarah unsheathed her sword and pointed i
t straight at Joshua. ‘How the hell do you know him?’

Joshua froze. All around him the Academy members turned hostile.
Sarah had her short sword out, and Richard drew a classic six-shooter pistol from a holster on his hip. Casey and the new guy, Ryan, were unarmed, so they simply assumed a fighting stance, ready for any kind of attack. Dr. Prewett looked around in alarm and raised his hands.

‘Stop!’ he yelled. ‘He was just a customer!’

Sarah lowered her sword from Joshua’s face but didn’t put it away. ‘You only defected from the Confederacy earlier today,’ she said to the doctor. ‘You’re telling me Joshua made deals with you
before
that?’

The colour drained from Joshua’s face as the sword, gun and two pairs of fists were now closing in on him.

Joshua finally found his voice to support the doctor’s story. ‘He sold me my knife. Gave it really. I was desperate. Near death. He helped me.’ Joshua was babbling. ‘We became friends after that. We would chat. I gave him some recipes. He would tell me about the projects he was working on. What was the last one... the, um... the bio-ID, right?’

‘You did
what?!’ Sarah and Casey said in unison, and everyone’s weapons switched over to point at the doctor.

‘That blade saved my lif
e more times than I can-’

Casey cut in
. ‘Forget your goddam knife,’ he growled. ‘The Confederacy will be unstoppable with the bio-ID, and the doc here made it for them. Didn’t you?’ he asked this last of the doctor.

Ryan
prompted Dr. Prewett with a shove; clearly peeved he hadn’t known how valuable his passenger was until now.

‘Yes,’ s
aid the doc, ‘I made the bio-ID for General Withers. He said he was going to use it to end the Confederacy. Start having elections again. When I found out he’d called a meeting with the Confederacy leaders instead of putting them in a jail cell like he should have, well, that’s when I contacted you.’

Casey looked about to explode, ‘And jus’ what do ya think you’re goin’ to do to fix
yer fine mess now?’

Prewett shook his
head, ‘Even if I had the General’s bio-ID here now, I...’