by Scott McEwen
“Next!”
Samples collected, the drone whizzed back from whence it came, and Avi gave his final instructions. “I will use this data to get you all processed in. Meanwhile, Wyatt will escort you to the main lodge, where you will join the rest of the staff for your first meeting.”
There was some grumbling and confusion among the newbies, but they all gathered their belongings—a single backpack each—and followed Wyatt down the steep hill toward the lodge. The hike was only a mile and a half, but the terrain was unforgiving, and the new campers moved slowly, sweating and complaining.
“Man, I’m hungry,” Rayo said. “Hey, Camp Boy, when do we eat?”
Wyatt stopped and turned quickly, taking a step toward Rayo.
“Whoa. What’s up?” Rayo raised his hands like he was going to punch. But Wyatt was too fast. In one move, Wyatt had Rayo on his knees, his finger twisted in a painful grip.
“You can put dirt in your mouth. Or food. I’ll let you choose. But if you speak one more impolite word to your staff or your fellow campers, I’ll make the choice for you.”
“Okay, okay … I swear I’ll be nice.”
“Wyatt, dude, let it go,” Cody said to his brother.
“Don’t talk to a senior camper like that,” Wyatt barked.
Cody shook his head, almost laughing in disbelief.
“You think I’m joking, Brewer?” Wyatt said. “Get down and do fifty push-ups.”
Cody just looked at him, confused, a little horrified.
“Now!”
Cody dropped and began pushing out.
“All of you, hit the deck and start pushing out,” Wyatt fumed. He let go and the boy collapsed at his feet. “You, Rayo, do a hundred or you’re getting right back on the plane.”
Rayo slid to his chest and followed instructions, his arms shaking before he even got to ten.
“I’ll take it from here,” a voice interrupted. They looked up and saw Eldon standing above them. “Wyatt, they need you at the beach for a swim test.”
CHAPTER 16
As Wyatt headed toward the water, he couldn’t help but remember his own first day, when he’d seen a fellow Group-C member, Hudson Decker, deftly handle an unruly camper. He’d been shocked by Hud’s effective use of violence, but he learned a valuable lesson. Bullying, in any form, can’t be tolerated. It must be dealt with swiftly and sometimes savagely. Still, he wondered if he’d been too hard on Cody and taken it too far.
Wyatt had just finished the last swim test for the new Group-Cs as a boatload of campers eased toward the dock. As the Sea Goat neared, Wyatt thought he saw a familiar face. He craned his neck, and there, squinting in the midday sun, was Mackenzie and four other passengers. One was a tall, Arab-looking kid wearing a white velvet jumpsuit and white Air Jordans. He leaned cockily against the pilothouse, his gold chain glinting in the sunlight.
“Swim buddy!” the dude shouted to Wyatt as the boat drifted in.
“Samy!” Wyatt grinned.
On board with him was a young girl with short, tousled hair, standing just over five feet. She might have been described by some as mousy, but anyone who spent ten minutes with her could see she was a lion on the inside.
“Rory,” Wyatt said, extending his hand to help her off, but she jumped to the dock and gave him a high five.
“Been pretty lonely, being the only member of my own team.” Wyatt smiled. There was a vast void in their team and all of them felt it: Dolly. The bittersweetness of their reunion must have been evident. And just as he felt a wave of excitement at seeing his old friends and comrades he felt a wave of guilt for having considered blowing the horn so he could work with Darsie on finding Encyte and avenging Dolly’s death.
“Don’t worry, dude.” Samy pulled Wyatt into a bro hug. “We can’t bring her back, but we can make Hallsy pay.”
“Damn straight,” Rory added.
“Yeah,” Wyatt said, fighting emotion. “Now please tell me,” he said, stepping back to take in Samy’s velour getup, “what the hell are you wearing?”
“Don’t pretend you ain’t jealous,” said Samy. “This is high fashion, man. Haute couture. Cost me three hundred fifty dollars.”
“It’s a onesie, bro. But you wear it well.”
“So, Wyatt,” Rory asked as they hoofed back to the lodge. “Now that your dad’s the new director, you wanna tell us what’s going to happen with Group-B, with it being only the three of us?”
“Don’t quote me yet, but I think they’re gonna move us up into A and create two teams, so we can train with them this summer.”
Rory and Sam looked at each other, then looked at Wyatt, huge smiles on their faces.
“Seriously, they’re pulling us up?” Samy asked.
“It’s not official till it’s official, but that’s the plan.”
“Upgraded.” Rory pumped her fist. “Much better than getting held back. Who’s joining us?”
“They escorted you over.” Wyatt nodded to the two other passengers on the boat.
“Those guys?” Samy asked. “I thought they were staff.”
“See the tan guy?” Wyatt said. “That’s Pierce. Mackenzie’s nephew.”
“Ahhh,” Rory said, staring at the good-looking Native American boy as he finished tying off the boat. “That makes sense. Mackenzie let him drive, and he never lets anyone drive.”
“And that’s our other teammate, Mary Alice.” Wyatt nodded at the towering blonde wearing an immaculate summer dress and a haughty grin. She looked nothing like she did on the Jet Ski that night.
“Is she wearing … heels?” Rory asked, her nose crinkled as much in confusion as disgust. “We’ll see how long she keeps that pretty dress clean.”
“Wait to judge till you see her operate,” said Wyatt, winking. He considered vouching for her effectiveness based on the mission he’d completed with her, but that information was need-to-know. For all Rory and Samy knew, Mary Alice was arriving at Camp Valor with them that day to start the summer.
“Dude.” Samy leaned in, gesturing to the pair in the boat. “We’re back in the big leagues.”
“Yup.” Wyatt turned and started up the hill. “Come on. Cass is waiting in the Caldera. Training starts now.”
CHAPTER 17
It was a typical Monday morning at LaGuardia. Flights from Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, West Palm—packed with tourists and morning commuters—maneuvered around one another in a coordinated airspace ballet. Next up for landing, the Embraer ERJ-190 returning from Toronto Pearson International. The captain was hand-flying the aircraft toward LGA’s runway some twelve hundred feet below when he saw something in the distance.
“Oh my god … birds,” he said, pulling the yoke to rise above what looked like a perfect V of geese.
“What’s going on?” the copilot asked, but then saw what the captain was talking about—the birds, also course-correcting, at least a dozen of them buzzing closer and closer to the jet’s twin engines.
“They’re not birds,” the captain responded with cool horror. “They’re drones.”
And in that instant, the hunks of carbon fiber began thudding into the fuselage.
“They’re targeting the engines,” the copilot said as the machines whirred themselves into the massive turbofans. The first engine going, followed by the next as it coughed and backfired.
“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” the copilot radioed in. “Air Canada 717 hit.”
“Gotta keep her out of a stall,” the captain said, still trying in vain to restart. “Dual-engine failure checklist.”
The copilot rattled off the protocol. “Uh … airspeed two hundred sixty-five knots minimum, Ram Air Turbine manual deploy lever-pull…” he said, voice cracking. He began reading from an electronic checklist display.
“We got more of them.” The captain looked out as a second mechanical V barreled into the smoking engines, the plane slowing and slowing. “We are in a nonrecoverable stall,” the copilot said, his last words into the radio as
the nose of the jet began torpedoing toward the river.
CHAPTER 18
After a hearty meal prepared by Mum and Fabian, the campers, candidates, and staff trickled from the Mess Hall into the lodge’s Great Room, where bearskin rugs dotted the floors.
Eldon stood in front of the fire that roared in the tall hearth and began his first formal address as director. “Welcome … well, to some of you I say welcome…” His eyes shifted from the fresh faces of new candidates to the cluster of Group-A and Bs. “And to others, I say welcome back. My name is Eldon Waanders, and I’m the new director. I can tell you, the shoes I’m expected to fill … it’s an impossible task. Many of you knew the Old Man. He was our fearless leader and champion. But not only was he the gold standard of Valorians, he was my mentor, my predecessor, and my friend. It’s my greatest hope to do his memory honor by living up to the example he set.”
Eldon paced in front of the group. “For those of you who are new, the next three months will be more challenging than you can possibly conceive. The staff and senior campers surrounding you are here to help. You’ll learn quickly what to do, when to do it, and how to make it through, but if there’s one rule you need to remember, it’s simply this—don’t quit.” Eldon walked over to a nearby table and lifted up a prop. “This, candidates, is the horn. Something you’ll get to know very well. Dorothy may have had her slippers, but here at Valor, there’s no clicking your way out … there is only the horn.” He held the horn out and gave it the gentlest sound.
Everyone jumped. Eyes wide, they listened as he continued. “On any day, during any activity, you have the freedom to take it. But you should know, the moment you sound this horn, you will be removed from the program and sent home. En route, you’ll be given medicine that will wipe your memory of this place and you’ll go back to where we found you, with Valor as nothing more than a vague dream you can’t seem to recall after a deep sleep.
“For those who don’t quit … glory and a new life await you.” Eldon gazed over at his son. Wyatt shifted, wondering if the others would notice that it seemed like his father was talking just to him. Was it possible that Eldon knew Wyatt had been approached by Darsie and that he was considering sounding the horn? For a brief moment, Wyatt despised himself for ever considering quitting.
“Eldon, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Avi said, coming in from the porch holding his iPad. He showed Eldon the screen and the two conferred for a minute.
“Something’s happened.” Eldon looked up, eyes grave. “I think everyone should see this.”
Avi held out the iPad as dozens of campers crowded around the tablet like kids would gather around a radio to hear a ballgame or to listen to news of WWII.
The video loaded slowly, and Wyatt pressed play. “We have breaking news,” the pale-faced reporter said. “At approximately 9:15 this morning there were a series of simultaneous drone attacks on major airports across the U.S. Some twenty-five airports have reported planes downed on landing and takeoff.”
Behind the reporter, a pop-up screen showed shots of dozens of crash sites, holes burning in the ground. “We do not have final estimates, but so far, we anticipate the death toll to exceed three thousand fatalities, which would make this attack the deadliest since 9/11. Based on a video posted to YouTube at 9:30 a.m., the terrorist known as Encyte has claimed credit. If confirmed, this will be his second attack. The video appears to contain images obtained by the drone during the crash. I warn you—this is difficult to watch.”
First was clouds then blue sky as the drone soared majestically through the air, almost floating. The camera tilted up, recording the plane as it flew straight toward it. The plane tried to veer, but the drone cut back, moving closer and closer to the whirring engine before it went black. Then, another shot from a second drone, targeting the same engine, which spewed fire and smoke. Text over the image read: Book of Encyte, Chapter G. 1:26.
The feed cut back to the reporter. “While we at CNN are not aware of a Book of Encyte, it seems the reference mocks the Book of Genesis: ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’”
The reporter stared into the camera. “Encyte, why are you doing this? Are you punishing us for having dominion? What is your intent? You have the world’s attention. We are listening.”
Avi paused the video.
Mum came in from the kitchen, tears streaming. She held a list and began to read from it. “Mark Lemont and LeQuan James, please come see me.”
Two young campers, one from Rovers and one from the Mounties, stood up.
“Is everything okay?” LeQuan asked. “My dad flies almost every week for his job.”
“My mom is a stewardess,” Mark joined in, his lips trembling.
“I don’t…” Mum swallowed. “You both need to go home. Please go into the kitchen and wait for me there.”
The campers stared as two of their own filed out. A buzz of concern went through the lodge.
Can I call home?
My parents fly every day for work.
My cousin’s a pilot.
Mum held her hands out, addressing all the questions at once. “I know we’re all worried. I want to assure everyone here that we are working with our government partners to check on the safety of your loved ones. For now, the two boys I have spoken to are the only ones who need to go home.”
As the group processed this collective tragedy, Eldon cleared his throat. “For many, this is the first time we stand as citizens, united in grief, for people we do not know. And for those we do know, we are but a few degrees separated from the gravest tragedy. Some of us lost more than others, but today we have all lost. Let’s take a moment to pray.” Eldon lowered his head. The children, teenagers, and staff followed. “God, take care of our souls, our nation, and soothe the wounds inflicted today. Amen.”
Tears flowed. Wyatt felt Cody’s arm wrap around him. Wyatt hugged him, and then a voice cut through the sound of mourning.
“Let’s go find this bastard and get him!” Samy slammed the table.
“Hell yeah!” Pierce said, rising to his feet. Rayo behind him.
Eldon stood, arms crossed, his hand holding his chin. “This right here.” He pointed at the screen, the replay of the plane in its speeding, helpless dive toward the dingy water. “This is why we exist. To protect our own against evil. To defend the defenseless. But … we wait until called.”
The campers began to sit.
“Our time will come.” Eldon clapped Pierce on the back. “For now, we train … so we’ll be ready. Avi, Cass, meet me in the Cave Complex. The rest of you, stay here with Viktoria.”
The campers solemnly nodded, unable to break away from the carnage as Eldon and Avi slipped out the door, likely going to call Mr. Yellow.
“This is your 9/11,” Viktoria said to the young faces. She shook her head. “You will remember where you were at this moment for the rest of your life.”
CHAPTER 19
Activities were canceled for the afternoon and the campers slipped off to their cabins, their minds still replaying the footage of fire and smoke. Contact with home was strictly forbidden at Valor, but in the wake of this crash a few exceptions were made; parents could call kids or vice versa. Still, those at Valor strictly adhered to the fiction that they were at a summer work program, or in some cases, that they were still in juvenile facilities hundreds of miles away. The cage around Valor’s collective consciousness had been rattled, and Wyatt knew who would be affected by this more than anyone else: Jalen. So before going down to the Cave Complex, he cut across campus toward the Rovers.
He found Cody sitting on the porch stairs, shoulders slumped. In his hands, a rifle that he polished with an oily cloth.
“Dad know you took that off the range?” Wyatt asked as he climbed the steps. “Rovers aren’t supposed to h
ave weapons yet.”
“No,” Cody said. “Isn’t loaded.” He dismantled the weapon in a smooth series of clicks. “Seeing how fast I can take it apart, then put it back together … I can even do it with my eyes closed.”
“Well, you should let Dad know you have that.”
“You gonna tattle?”
Wyatt sighed. “You okay? I mean, about the plane crash and all?”
“I’m fine. It’s scary.” He looked out toward the beach. “I’m just ready to do something.”
“Me too. Where’s Jalen?”
“Inside lying on his bunk.”
“Okay, need to talk to him a minute.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Probably better if I go alone.” Wyatt motioned his brother to stay seated.
Cody rolled his eyes.
Wyatt found Jalen alone in the cabin lying in a heap, hugging a pillow like a doll. “Hey, dude.” Wyatt tried to be normal, taking a seat on the opposite bunk. “Just checking in. Wanted to make sure you’re good.”
Jalen said nothing, his eyes locked forward, tears gathering in the corners of them.
“So you’re good?” Wyatt asked again, hesitantly.
“Good?” Jalen sat up. “No, man. I’m not good.” Wyatt watched as the tears Jalen had been pushing back rolled out.
“I mean, I was … I was getting better,” Jalen said. “I like it here. I learned how to forage yesterday, Day One of survival training. I ate ramps and blueberries. It’s been ten days since I’ve played a video game—maybe the longest I’ve ever gone in my life—and I don’t even miss it. It’s like this was my escape, no one knew me here. No one knew what I’d done except you and the staff, I guess. But now this nightmare has followed me.”
“Has anyone said anything to you or asked about your connection to Austin?”
“No. And I can only imagine what would happen if Rayo found out. How he’d use that against me.”
“You gotta look past the Rayos of this world. If he doesn’t change, he’ll wash out of this program and out of your life. This is a new start for you. Eventually, no one will know what you were before Valor.”