by Nick Cook
I’d been out among the teams during an intense day of training, but everyone had risen to the challenge. Yet it wasn’t without significant cost. A lot of younger Awoken, including George – who I’d seen training in Chloe’s animal mind-control class – already looked shattered. And this was just the first day of the new intensive training regime. I knew that if we carried on like this, a lot of people would burn out. But what other choice did we have? The stakes were too high to treat this place as some sort of summer camp.
Gem and her Panda squad would soon teleport to the Culham Fusion Centre to join Dad and Claire. If everything went to plan, our aim would then be to get as many squads and their allocated Waveriders to as many cities around the world as quickly as possible. But that could take several months, because we had to wait until the Waveriders were ready. And I wouldn’t relax until every squad had been deployed. The stress wasn’t going to get any lighter. But there were a couple of things I could do right now to notch that down a fraction, and the first step was having a heart-to-heart with Daniel.
I headed down an avenue between two rows of tents – where I knew Daniel and his Mongoose squad regularly practised.
Sure enough, above a run-down old shed in an otherwise clear blue sky, a cluster of clouds boiled and rolled. It had all the fingerprints of Daniel’s particular gift.
I rounded a mess tent and spotted him with his back to me. His squad had gathered around him and he was talking to a young woman with dreadlocks who had her eyes closed. Around her six fist-sized stones hung floating in a circle. Levitating stones like this took me back to when I’d first started my own training.
Daniel held another stone in his hand. ‘So let’s see if you can manage to levitate a seventh stone, Shelley.’ He released the stone and it started to drop.
Shelley scrunched her eyes up and grimaced, but then she smiled as the stone slowed to a stop just above the ground. It rose gently until it was the same height as the other pebbles. The rest of her squad applauded, Daniel the loudest of all.
I’d thought talking to thirty thousand people had been stressful, but now my stomach felt as if it were ready to burst out of my gut, Alien style, as I cleared my throat. ‘Daniel, can I have a quick word?’
His reaction was instantaneous. He spun round, his smile wiped away and the hard stare back in place. ‘There is nothing I want to hear coming out of your mouth, Stevens,’ he said. ‘As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead to me.’
His squad stared at Daniel and then me, with widening expressions.
‘Can you give us a moment, everyone?’ I said, trying to keep the tightness out of my voice.
They started to amble away as I met Daniel’s hostile look head on. ‘Look, I know how much you must hate me at the moment, but if I could go back and take Melissa’s place I would do it in a heartbeat. I will always feel that she should be the one standing here and not me.’
Daniel said nothing, but shifted his piercing stare to somewhere over my left shoulder.
‘Melissa was an incredible person and she didn’t deserve to die,’ I added.
Daniel clenched and unclenched his hands as rain started to pour down from the thunderclouds over our heads and slapped into the parched grass. Within moments, we were both soaked through in the sudden, localised monsoon. But I barely noticed as I tried to get through to the guy.
‘Look, I know there is nothing I can say that will make this any easier, but I intend to do everything to avenge her death,’ I said.
His eyes burned into mine and he gave me a slow handclap. ‘Are you done now, Stevens?’
‘I’m just trying to say—’
‘Oh, I know exactly what you’re trying to say. You want me to tell you it’s all fine and that I forgive you. Well, you know what, I don’t care how devastated you’re feeling because you’ve got nothing on me. If you were a properly strong leader, you would have stood up to our government and set the agenda, not the other way round. If you had done what you should have done in the first place, you would have stopped this from happening. Instead, you let them tell us what to do and jumped every time they clicked their fingers. So excuse me if I don’t get the marching band out for your bleeding heart.’ He gestured towards the nearby cliff edge. ‘Why don’t you do us all a favour and go jump off that? No one’s going to miss you and maybe it’d save a few more lives. Then we can start to take control of our own destiny rather than being told what to do by Normals.’
Was Daniel one of the Awoken Kelly had been talking about? Someone who’d been stirring things up? ‘Daniel, this isn’t you.’ I started to raise a hand to place it on his shoulder.
He clenched his fist harder. At once the falling rain became spears of ice that whistled through the air like a storm of arrows towards me.
I just had time to throw myself down as they thudded past where I’d been standing, the thin slithers of glass-like shards burying into the ground behind where I sprawled.
Daniel towered over me, his knuckles white, as other Awoken ran towards us along the tent avenue.
I stared up at Daniel. ‘I am so sorry for what happened to your sister. Do what you want to me. I won’t stop you.’
Daniel rocked on his feet like a tree in a gale as the rushing Awoken gathered round us in a circle. Then he just shook his head, turned and strode away.
‘Jake, are you OK?’ Chloe said, pushing through to the front with Ethan.
‘No, not really.’
‘What the hell was that all about?’ Ethan asked.
‘An apology that didn’t quite work out as planned.’
‘Oh hell…’
When I looked up into my friends’ eyes, I didn’t see what I’d expected – a you had it coming look – but instead real concern in their faces. A lump filled my throat as Ethan pulled me up. Kelly was right. I needed to sort things out with them.
‘Guys, Daniel wasn’t the one I needed to apologise to the most. I owe that to you two. But right now I’m too wrung out. Just give me some time and I’ll find you for a proper heart-to-heart later.’
As more Awoken crowded in round us, Ethan exchanged a look with Chloe. ‘OK…’
I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything in case I lost it in front of everybody. With my throat so tight I could barely breathe, I headed off in the opposite direction to Daniel – towards Allan’s bench overlooking the sea, where I could try to pick up the pieces of my mind.
Chapter Eleven
As the days rolled past the on-going intense training resulted in a number of pulled ligaments and psi-related injuries, such as fractured bones when a trainee had lost control of a heavy object they were levitating. The medical tent was becoming crowded with Awoken waiting for their self-healing abilities to cure their problems, or, in a few worse cases that John couldn’t deal with, for one of Gem’s healers to tackle. But despite the injuries, the training was progressing rapidly – faster than I could have hoped for. I still felt guilty for pushing everyone so hard, but at least there was something to celebrate. Plus Gem’s squad had completed their accelerated final training programme and were now ready to deploy to Culham to test the very first completed L3 fusion-powered Waverider.
I headed to one of the mess tents where Gem and her Panda squad were having a last Eaglehurst breakfast: either a full English or French toast stacked high with fruit.
The sound of laughter filled the tent, something that wasn’t heard so often these days, and I spotted Gem surrounded by people. Another Awoken leader had just handed her a stuffed toy panda and she was laughing like a mad thing. God she looked beautiful when her face lit up like that.
Gem held the panda in the air. ‘And as you can see, everyone, we’ve even got our own mascot now. How cool is that?’
People whooped and cheered.
I pushed through the crowd to reach her.
She turned and smiled at me as I approached. ‘Come to see us off, Jake?’
I nodded. ‘I wanted to wish you and your team good luck wi
th the first full L3 test run. Not that you’ll need it. Sentinel tells me your team have maxed out on both psionic and combat testing.’
‘That’s because the Pandas are the greatest!’ one of her team shouted.
Laughter and heckles erupted from the others gathered around.
‘Maybe we should get you guys some panda onesies to go with your new mascot,’ Adam said.
More laughter came, and I joined in this time.
‘Can you imagine the Shade coming up against a group of Awoken dressed as pandas? It would be worth it just to see the looks on their faces,’ Adam continued.
Gem snorted. ‘Don’t tempt me.’
I stuck my hands into my pockets and cleared my throat.
Gem waved her arms in the air to get everyone’s attention. ‘I think our illustrious leader would like to say something.’ She fixed me with a smile and my heart missed a beat or three. ‘Am I right?’
‘You are so the mind reader.’
‘Aren’t I just?’ She patted a chair and I stepped up onto it.
I gazed out at all the faces, feeling a lot more relaxed than when I’d addressed the whole camp a week ago. ‘Right now we have no idea what the Shade are up to. And that would normally make me as nervous as hell. But despite that, the thing that gives me real confidence that we will win this –’ I raised my voice to make sure my words reached the back of the tent, eBuds or not – ‘are the incredible people here – and all the other Awoken. And, at the risk of embarrassing Gem here, she’s an exceptional leader who has helped her team to realise the best of themselves.’
Gem waved her hand at me. ‘Oh, you can flatter me and my team as much as you like.’
More laughter and cheers resounded in the tent.
‘And so I will. The Pandas are a fantastic example of what we have been striving to achieve at Eaglehurst. They are an amazing team who will defend this planet until we beat the Shade for good.’
There was riotous applause – with a lot of air pumping thrown in.
But among the smiles in the crowd, I spotted Daniel and his Mongoose team right at the back, once again not joining in and staring at me like I was a piece of dog shit they’d just stepped in. It was hard to miss the cold fury in Daniel’s marble eyes. He shook his head and turned to mutter something to his squad. They all shook their heads…all except one: Jess, the American recruit with all the attitude. Despite my initial scepticism, she had stuck around. She shook her head at Daniel and didn’t look at all happy. What was that about?
I returned my attention to Gem. ‘So enough with the talking. We’d better let you get back to breakfast.’
‘Hear, hear!’ Adam called out.
Gem gave a double thumbs up.
I jumped off the bench as conversation buzzed through the tent again. As I stepped out into the sunshine, someone grabbed my arm. I turned to see Jess winding her blonde hair round her fingers.
‘Jake, can I have a quick word?’ she asked.
So I had been right after all. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d had a conversation with someone who couldn’t cut it here.
‘Yeah, sure – follow me,’ I said.
We headed along an avenue between the tents towards the house. I gave Jess a sideways glance as she walked with me. ‘So how’s it going, Jess?’
She tucked her chin in. ‘You remembered my name then.’
I gave her a straight look. ‘You’re hard to forget.’
She tilted her head to one side. ‘I’m not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a criticism.’
‘Maybe a bit of both… Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about…?’ I mentally braced myself for the I can’t do this any more speech.
Instead, Jess glanced back over her shoulder as if she were worried we were being watched.
‘I need to tell you about Daniel,’ she said.
‘He’s been pushing you too hard?’
‘He has, but that’s not the issue. It’s what he’s been saying to the others that you really need to know about.’
I felt a flutter in my chest – and not the romantic sort. ‘Go on…’
‘He says that you’ve failed us as a leader and you need to be replaced.’
Heat rose to my face. ‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously, and he’s been getting a lot of people worked up over it. I’m not just talking about the Mongoose squad. Daniel’s been talking to anyone who’ll listen, laying his sister’s death squarely on your shoulders and saying you’ve been too weak to lead us effectively.’
That stung more than anything else – because it was too close to the truth. ‘He’s just sounding off. I don’t have time to worry about it.’
‘No, you don’t understand, Jake. He’s deadly serious. He’s plotting to overthrow you. And he’s got support as well, more than he should have. Daniel’s been telling people that the Awoken are the chosen ones and need to seize the initiative. A lot of people – who should know better – have fallen for his crap. He says we can defend this world without any help from Normals – that they are just holding us back.’
So Kelly had been right.
‘And you should also know that the people loyal to him have removed their eBuds.’
‘But why would they do that?’
‘So that Sentinel has no way of overhearing what’s being plotted right under your nose.’
‘What about your own eBud, Jess?’
‘I had to remove them so I didn’t get singled out by my squad. Jake, I believe that the vast majority of Awoken here are still loyal to you, but there are a core group who aren’t. I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but those numbers could grow unless you act quickly to stop this cancer before it spreads.’
I pressed my hands on the top of my head. How could things be unravelling beneath my fingers like this? This shouldn’t be happening, but somehow it was and that had to be down to how I’d handled the situation. I needed a second opinion and fast.
‘Sentinel, are you getting all of this?’ I asked.
‘Yes, I heard everything. I’ve just run a scan and it seems Jess is right about the deactivated eBuds. At least a hundred have been switched off in the last few hours. At first I thought it was glitch, but now I know it was intentional.’
So a hundred out of thirty thousand people were against me. It was a tiny minority but still an uncomfortably large number for my liking.
‘I suggest you get back to the tower and we’ll discuss how best to deal with this,’ Sentinel said.
I nodded to Jess, who without her own eBud hadn’t heard what Sentinel had just said. ‘I’m heading off to work out what to do. But I owe you an apology, Jess. I’m sorry. I was too quick to judge you before.’
‘Yeah, I get that a lot. My therapist tells me I need to work on my people skills.’
‘Nah, you’re all right – at least once someone has a chance to get to know you. I will always be grateful to you for this. Leave it with me to sort out. In the meantime, just play along with Daniel and try not to raise his suspicions.’
She snapped me a salute. ‘No problem.’ She turned, but paused, then looked back at me. ‘I want you to know that I’m one of the thousands who truly believe in you and what you’re trying to do here, Jake. But if I were in your shoes, I’d be drawing my friends as close as possible right now.’
Before I could reply, she turned and headed back towards the mess tent.
I could only assume that my falling-out with Chloe and Ethan was very much public knowledge by now, something made worse by the fact I still hadn’t gathered the courage to talk to them. And the most stupid thing about all of this – the fight with them and the way Daniel was acting out – was that it had everything to do with my own behaviour.
With my steps feeling even heavier than usual, I headed back to Eaglehurst.
Chapter Twelve
I lay on one of the couches in the tower stroking Midnight. The cat had crashed out on me, his purrs vibrating through my chest. I stared
up at the stained-glass ceiling and tried to order my thoughts. Through the coloured glass I watched the ball of the sun climbing towards midday.
‘OK, Sentinel, tell me what you think I should do. I’m open to all ideas here.’
His avatar peered down at me with his usual Zen-like calm. ‘To start with, Jake, yes, you have made some mistakes by letting your emotions get in the way, but you also need to believe in yourself.’
‘But hasn’t Daniel got a point? I’m obviously doing a crap job of running things.’
‘Would you like to hear my honest opinion about that?’ the AI replied.
‘Go on, hit me with it.’ I tensed as I braced myself for the critical punch coming my way.
‘For far too long now you have tried to take all the responsibility for what we should do on your own shoulders. And as talented as you are, Jake, everybody has blind spots, even you.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that – it’s more than obvious at the moment.’
‘Which is because this is far too much for any one person to deal with by themselves.’
‘You mean I should share the pain around more than I do.’
‘Precisely – and also surround yourself with people who can help you.’
‘So should I promote Daniel to a more senior role?’
‘Absolutely not. That would be like, to use a human expression, giving the keys to the henhouse to the fox. No, Daniel is obviously someone who craves power, and those so inclined should rarely be given it – certainly not without close supervision.’
‘So you’re saying I need people like Chloe and Ethan by my side right now?’
‘Especially Chloe and Ethan,’ Sentinel replied. ‘I would have also said Gem, but you have engineered a way to get her as far from here as possible.’
I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it again. I might not have admitted it, but maybe Sentinel had a point. Yes, her team had maxed their scores, but other teams were also ready to deploy.