by A. A LEVINE
I’m back in the tree with the flag still clutched in my hand. I climb down keeping my hand on the tree when I reach the bottom, because I’m still feeling disoriented.
I make it through the rest of the day, but the fear I felt in the tree stays with me. It felt like I was being locked inside a box. Something tells me that that’s not a common thing.
A horn blares signaling the end of the training event. Our team comes in second place, behind the mega team, and Shane’s coasting a high. All but one other team lost points for using their powers. The aim of the lesson was to teach us that even when no one’s watching we’re expected to follow the rules. I have a flash of someone sitting in a room watching us and scan the forest for a camera. Spoiler alert. Orion’s always watching.
Chapter Sixteen
Phase III
Holli
Alex slides off the table she was sitting on. “Congratulations. You have all made it through another round of testing.” She gives us a few minutes to enjoy the accomplishment. “Phase three is where the things you’ve learned so far really come together. Your team dynamic is shifting once again. You’re getting shuffled around so that you get an idea of what an integrated Orion team really looks like.” There are some groans because we were just shuffled at the beginning of Phase Two and we’re just starting to get used to our new groups. “We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating, the lessons get harder and we demand more and more from all of you, because this is the last cut we make before winter break. If you want a spot here next semester, this is where you give it all you’ve got.” She scans the room. “And if you’ve already decided that this isn’t the place for you. If you know you don’t belong here, then you should probably quit right now.”
This is the part of the speech where I usually doubt myself, but not anymore. The exercises I’m doing with Mrs. Price have given me better control of my telepathy and I can run a solid seven-minute mile. Running away from the voices in my head helps. Go figure.
Alex concludes her pep talk. “Ok then. I guess everybody’s still in it. We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.”
It’s bittersweet moving on to the next round. We lost another ten percent after capture the flag, and because our team came in second place, I’m now sitting in the number 150 spot.
I brush past one of the TO’s and freeze. Dread settles in my stomach. I slow my steps on the way out of the building and pause next to the railing.
“Another one?”
Huh? I look where Chloe is pointing and can’t believe what I’m seeing. The suits usually stay hidden, but this is the third student this week, that they’ve escorted off campus. “What was it this time?”
“Not sure. Illegal contraband I think.”
“You mean drugs?”
“Cell phone.”
Now how the heck would he get a phone on campus? I’m fairly certain the five-hour walk to get here was to give the instructors time to search our stuff. When I unpacked my suitcase, my journal wasn’t in the pocket where I put it so they would have already found and confiscated his cell phone. Maybe his parents snuck one in on family day? I can see that happening, because if I thought I needed one, Aiden might’ve snuck one in for me. But who ratted him out?
I recall Gwynn’s words. Nobody’s your friend here. I think of all the students who were caught violating the code of ethics and removed from the program. There have been a total of seven, and out of all of them, Millicent is the only one to come back to campus. What makes her different?
'I didn’t do this'; she’d said when they were driving her away. It seemed like a sincere plea. None of the other recruits have professed their innocence, at least not that I’ve heard. The logical answer, I realize, is because Millicent was innocent. Something a telepath would have discovered on the mental probe I’m sure they put her through.
John’s voice cracks like a whip, startling us all. “Okay people. Enough standing around. Get to class.”
Today started off like every other day. Up for our two hours of physical training, breakfast and classes. At the end of the school day, I went to the library to get some studying done and then headed over to see Mrs. Price. When I arrived five minutes early to our session, her door was closed with a note telling me to report to the operations building on the other side of the Quad. It’s the first session we’ve ever missed.
Mr. Chen leads us down the hall to a room filled with people hunched over computer consoles and electronic display boards anchored to the walls and suspended from the ceilings. In- I didn’t see this coming news- he tells the fifteen people in our group that this is our new office for the next five weeks.
He explains, Phase Three includes different levels of simulated training events for Breakers and Intel Officers. He leads us further into the room. “This is a mockup of one of the work centers you’ll see if you make it through your training.”
I drift closer to the screens with multi color dots lighting up all over them. “What are these?” I hadn’t meant to ask, but there I go breaking rule seven again.
“Those are the psychic signatures of paranormals.”
“Why are they different colors?”
“The yellow means they’re passively using their abilities and may not know it. They’re usually early breakouts. Orange, are people actively using their powers. Think street magicians and psychics. They’re using them out in the open but not enough that people take them seriously.”
“And red?”
“Rogue paranormals. Red means an immediate threat to human life or that their behavior risks exposing to the rest of the world that breakers exist.”
“So we only go after reds?” Someone behind me asks.
“Not exactly. We recruit breakouts the same way most of you were recruited. We try to get them as young as possible, and most of them come in peacefully.”
The same person asks another question. “And when they don’t?” I turn to look at him. He’s a Canadian transfer and one of the only people who have the nerve to ask questions. I like him already.
“In the rare instance that they decline our offer, to study and train here, we monitor them. It’s a preemptive review to catch them before they turn red.”
I raise my hand to ask the obvious question. “If you have all this fancy equipment, what is it that telepaths actually do here?”
He looks at his list as if committing my name and face to memory. I must be at my question quota. “Finding them is the easy part. Knowing the inner workings of their minds and how to classify them, that’s where your kind comes in. Sometimes the kinetics get clever and put up a fight. Having someone that can match that skill set in the field is the safest alternative for us all.”
Mr. Chen looks beyond me to the people in the back. “And lest you think humans are the weakest link, we’re not. We are the elite force on an Orion Tactical Team. We go under cover for missions to embed ourselves in areas where we know rogue paranormals are hiding. Breakers often sense other breakers so they’re not very effective for missions such as those.”
Canadian guy speaks up again. “Tactical Team? You mean like a Swat Team?” He looks around the group. “Are you saying we’re here to kill people?”
“No. No. Our focus is to bring everyone in peacefully with no casualties. Nobody’s being asked to kill anyone- but if it comes down to it- in the rarest of circumstances and only as a last resort, the most senior Orion agents, may have to.”
The silence is deafening. I don’t think any of us thought about that being a possibility.
Mr. Chen tries to lighten the mood. “We’re far off from that. You have to graduate high school, and college if that’s in your plans, and then train some more before you ever see time in the field hunting a higher threat level. Then, only after you’ve been an agent for longer than your probationary period, would we issue you a gun with bullets. Until then, tasers, stun guns, tranq guns, and suppression cuffs are your weapons of choice.”
We’re each handed a p
hone. “These are phones but they act more like short-wave radios. They won’t connect to any lines outside of Orion and they’re for official use only. These simulations don’t always run during normal school and work hours. You can expect to get calls in the middle of the night, on weekends, whenever the mission dictates.”
Canadian guy is still practicing his Intel gathering skills. “This seems like an awful lot of trouble for make believe cases.”
“We train like it’s real because that’s the only way to find out who can and can’t cut it.” My back stiffens and my stomach clenches in knots at the sound of John’s voice. What’s he doing here?
“I think some of you know John. He’s one of our best paranormal trackers and will be one of the team mentors for the next five weeks.”
I grit my teeth. I can’t seem to escape this guy. This is just one more place I can look forward to him telling me I don’t make the cut.
Xander
John just came back from meeting his new batch of mentees in the operations building. He’s slams the door and scrapes the chair loudly across the floor as he sits down in the corner to read his paper.
“Intro with the newbs not go well?” Alex teases.
“Did you know they put Holli on a tracking team?”
I didn’t know. The recruits usually start out in research. They don’t move to tracking breakouts until after their senior year. “Some kind of mistake?”
“Alex, you know as well as I do that operations doesn’t make mistakes.” He lowers his paper and looks at her. “Any idea what type of tutoring she’s been getting from her advisor?”
Alex spins away from the camera and slides her chair closer to the table. She furrows her brows contorts her lips and shakes her head. “She never said and none of us have ever asked. You know the recruits aren’t required to report what happens in their sessions and we don’t have access to those files.”
I feel a sense of relief that Holli’s on a tracking team. It means despite John’s insistence that she doesn’t belong, headquarters sees something in her and thinks she’s got a real shot at staying here. “Guess you were wrong about her, John.”
He looks at me with pity. “Xander, don’t break out the champagne just yet. She’s got five weeks to get through and now we won’t be the only people watching her.” His implication is clear. This could backfire. I don’t want to think about what it means if the head of operations decides Holli or any of the other recruits are not Orion material.
Today, I meet up with Holli as she’s leaving the library. It’s been a week since she started her assignment in the operations building and so far she seems to be in good spirits and having no trouble handling the added workload. She’s still training with us in the morning, taking a full load of classes and then going to the op center for work. I fall into step beside her, my hand casually grazing hers. “Heading to operations?”
She nods looking down at where our fingers touched. “Mrs. Price has moved our tutoring sessions there too. She says it will help if we align our practice sessions to the simulations.”
We never talk about her tutoring sessions. It’s a private thing and sometimes recruits are embarrassed about needing the extra help. But now that she’s on display to a wider audience I’m concerned about how it’s going. “Have the sessions been helping?”
She’s slow to answer. Maybe I should’ve left it alone.
“Yes. Mrs. Price is patient, and she understands everything that I’m feeling.” She chuckles to herself. “I’m not a complete disaster anymore, but there’s still room for improvement.”
I never thought she was a disaster before but if she’s joking about it, things must really be working out for her. “You’re saying you could read my mind now with no problem?”
“As a matter of fact, I could. I’m so improved I could read yours and Alex’s and everyone else in our self-defense training in five minutes or less.”
Her smile lights up her whole face and I share a smile of my own. “You mean everyone except for John, right?”
That bright smile falters a little. “That’s because I haven’t learned how to get through his blocks yet. I think that’s under Advanced Placement Telepathy.” She gives me a smirk. “I’m not there yet.”
I chuckle at her assumption that she’ll ever be there. I’ve known John for over a decade and there has never been a recruit that could read his mind.
She steps in front of me and starts walking backwards. “Why do you think he’s so hard to read?”
I give her my honest opinion. “The work he’s done. A lot of it falls under classified, and part of his training is to keep it locked away from everyone. There’s less of a chance of mission details slipping out if his whole mind is a fortress all the time.”
“Every fortress has a key.” It’s a whisper to herself, rather than a response to the conversation we’re having.
Chapter Seventeen
Holli
“Am I trending up or down?” Mrs. Price looks confused and surprised that I’ve spoken, as if she’d forgotten I was still in the room.
“Trending? You mean like a social media feed?”
“You write in that folder every day. Is my average improving?”
“In what way?”
“Like I’m a B telepathy student now when I was an F before?”
She sets the folder away from her, no longer distracted by what’s in it. “We don’t assign academic values to your gift.”
“Then how do you know who's more powerful or whatever?” I pull out the current book I’m reading on the theoretic spectrum of psionic abilities.
“Where did you find that?”
“The library. It was in the science fantasy’s section but it’s not really a fantasy book.” I fan through the pages. “It’s like the one you gave me the first day, but with more information.”
She stares at the cover and gives a small nod to her head. “You’re right. It’s not a fantasy book. In fact, it shouldn’t have been in the library at all.”
“Why not?”
“Because, it’s more like a medical research book, or a professional journal, not meant for casual reading.” She holds out her hand and I pass the book to her. She flips through a few pages. “In fact, I believe this particular book was reportedmissing.”
“I didn’t take it.” I say defensively. I show her the annotation where I checked it out. I’m the first person to do so but the catalog number is stamped on the back flap.
“I wasn’t suggesting you had. Just that the library is not where it’s supposed to be.” She gives me a small smile. “But, I’m glad you aren’t the one responsible for its disappearance.”
That gives me an opening to ask a question I’ve been debating with myself. “What happens when you violate the student code of conduct?”
She raises a perfectly arched brow at me. “Are you planning to break the rules?”
I shake my head emphatically. “Oh, no. It wasn’t a premature confession. It’s just that a few of my classmates have gotten into trouble. I was just wondering what happens next. I know they’re dropped from their internship. Do they still get to graduate high school or are they permanently expelled?”
“I guess it depends on the infraction. Some get reassigned, others sent back to the main campus. It’s possible some might get expelled from the institute all together.”
“But when I got into that altercation at the campsite I got a tutor.”
“What’s your point Holli?” Her tone is more clinical than usual.
“Um. My point is, that it doesn’t seem fair, so I feel a little guilty that I’ve made it this far.”
Her face and voice soften. “The truth is, we don’t know what happened at the campsite. The boy won’t say. The girl won’t say, and you can’t remember. I saw the report. They did a full investigation like they do with everything else. You shouldn’t feel guilty that they didn’t get expelled.”
This presents another opening. “Uh, I don�
�t know if I’m allowed to ask, but do you know what the scans showed?” She picks up my folder and turns the page even though I’m sure she knows it by heart.
“They were inconclusive.” She flips another page. “The doctor’s notes say that you have a blank spot where that memory should be. We can’t force it out of you.” She lowers the folder again. “And for the rest of it, we have enough data to show that the senior abandoned his post during a training exercise. That’s enough to remove him from the program on a safety issue. The girl could have continued, but she opted not to.”
She gives me a warm, motherly smile, to put me at ease. “And Holli, don’t forget, that seeing me is not a punishment. You have a tutor because all of your training outputs show that you could benefit from individual instruction. It has nothing to do with what happened that night.”
Chapter Eighteen
Holli
The table in the middle of the room is cluttered with all types of gadgets and gizmos. Xander and Alex stand on either side of it as if they’re guarding a national treasure. “Everyone take your seat.” Alex orders. “We have a lot to go over in a short amount of time.”
I take a seat in the back of the room so that if I get a telepathic butt dial, no one will see me zoning out.
“These are the tools you will need to familiarize yourself with during this phase of your training. We have tasers, suppression cuffs, and tranq guns. You need to know how each one works and why the agents used them. This will help you understand the after-action reports that you’ll be.”
Xander holds up a suppression cuff. It looks like a high-tech fitness tracker. “This cuff is our first option for suppressing a rogue paranormal’s powers. It does what the chips on campus do but directs its impact to the individual wearer, making them safe for transport.”
My favorite Canadian’s hand shoots up. “We only use those for the reds. Right?”