“How is it so safe?” asked Adam.
“You’ll find that out when you get there,” she said.
Adam just shrugged.
“We’re supposed to have a meeting with Elianora tomorrow and ask her questions. Will she answer anything you haven’t?” asked Adam.
“Depends what you ask her,” replied Mary.
Adam was getting frustrated at the lack of answers, so he decided to ask a few of the other questions he had been thinking about.
“You met dad there, right?” he asked.
Mary nodded and her eyes showed that her thoughts had drifted into memories.
“What can you tell me about that? How long were you there?”
Mary sighed as her mind drifted back to the present out of some memory she didn’t want to leave.
“Yes, that is where we met. I thought he was interesting right away, but he chased me from the moment he saw me. Supposedly he had never chased any other girls the way he chased after me – at least that’s what he kept telling me.”
Adam found the thought that his dad had possibly pursued other girls than his mom a touch disturbing, although logically it only made sense.
“You’ll find this out tomorrow, but you usually only stay for one school year – about eight months. After that, you will be sent home with your new assignments. You’ll learn more about that later. Anyway, because I had left home some time before I went for training, I had nowhere to return to afterward. Your father, on the other hand, had a home to return to but didn’t want to go back. Because he was so talented mechanically, he stayed on to help fix things at the school since the previous caretaker left at the end of Ed’s training. I took any job I could get there, and did a little of everything, but your dad was so good at his job that eventually he began to teach the mechanical students. Everybody loved him, and because of that, he was given the opportunity to get higher up within the League by moving to Grayson. By that time, we had been dating for a while and were getting married. I think we were there together for six years.”
Adam tried to think of all the other questions he had thought of over the years, since Mary had never talked that openly before, but he drew a blank. The surprise of hearing anything about their lives before being in Grayson cleared out those questions.
“When do we go?” asked Adam after some thinking.
“Usually a couple of days before regular school starts, which is the day before they’ll start too. They don’t give you much time to get accustomed to everything. The only things you need to take are your clothes and shoes. Everything else is provided.”
Adam nodded.
“Which reminds me, you will need some new clothes for school, so I will order you some. When they show up you’ll have to try them on and let me know what you like.”
That was another surprise for Adam. New clothes were rare, since most of his life he had only received hand-me-down clothes from older boys in town. Most of what he currently wore had been Trevor Jones’ clothes, except Trevor wore them back when they were in style.
“Are you sure you can afford that?” asked Adam.
Mary waved the comment away. “Don’t you worry about that. I’ll live.”
Adam gave her a small smile and nodded. He had to hold in his excitement at the prospect of new clothes.
“Can I pick out some of them?” he asked, but thought he was possibly pushing his luck.
Mary considered it and nodded. “I think that’s a good idea. That way I won’t be sending too much back if you don’t like it. How about we look through the catalog after I eat?”
Adam couldn’t believe it. Not only was he going to get some new clothes, he was going to be able to choose them. Around Grayson was one thing, but to be in a new place with the old faded things he usually wore would be embarrassing. With new clothes, he’d be able to blend in with others that didn’t know he was poor. His friends handled it well, but Adam always knew they would do their best not to bring up the subject of money around him.
Mary ate and brought out the catalogs. After Adam had picked out the first shirt, Mary took out an old sewing tape measure and found all of his measurements to make sure they wouldn’t order the wrong sizes. Soon, there was a long list of new items in front of them – everything from socks and underwear to shirts, pants, and even a belt. Adam noticed that all of the shirts were short-sleeved, so he hoped that the training facility was someplace warm and tropical.
Hawaii always sounded nice…
CHAPTER FIVE
The sun came out early the next morning, and Adam was awake soon after the strong light shone in through his window. It was so calm and warm outside that he decided to take a ride on his bike before most of the townspeople even woke up. When he arrived back at home, Mary was awake so he didn’t have to keep quiet as he made breakfast.
The rest of the morning was filled with nothing in particular until around 10:30. That was when he remembered the meeting they had with Elianora after lunch. Questions popped into his head and he hoped that she would answer some of them. Where were they going, how long did it take to get there, how many others would be there – the questions kept coming.
He hoped that his suspicions were correct and they would end up someplace warm for the winter, far away from the Canadian prairie and it’s inhumane January through March lack of temperature. But really, he would be happy going anywhere at all, because he had never really gone anywhere. The furthest he had been was Yorkton, and that was only because Kevin had his birthday party at their indoor pool. Kevin’s parents drove them straight there and straight back when they were done, so he had never even walked through the shopping mall he had heard so much about in school.
As long as it was further away than the sixty miles he had traveled so far, that was fine with him.
That thought brought up deeper thoughts as he sat in Mary’s living room chair. Would they be traveling by car, by bus or by air? Any one of those would be fine by Adam, but the possibility of flying in an airplane intrigued him the most. They would have to drive to the city of Regina – almost two hours away – in order to get on any commercial flights, but the League probably had it’s own private jets and maybe they landed nearby. From what he had learned about the League already, it must have started in Europe or northern Africa somewhere, so there still must be League members over there. They wouldn’t all have come overseas at the same time, would they? he wondered. Who knows, he thought. But the idea stuck in his head. He knew that Larix had been to Pompeii nearly two-thousand years ago, but did that mean that’s where the League started?
He realized that he was getting off track. He remembered that he was thinking about airplanes and possibly flying in one. If he did get to fly in a private jet owned by the Sentinel League, he wondered if he would be able to question the pilot about how everything in the airplane worked – as long as the pilot would be willing to talk.
Thoughts kept circling through his mind until he heard the familiar crunch of gravel in his driveway. He shook the drowsy thoughts from his head, stood, and headed for the door. He opened it just as Kevin was about to knock, which surprised Kevin, by the look on his face.
“Hey,” said Kevin, “you ready?”
Adam nodded. “I think so. I’ve been up since a little after six this morning.”
Kevin waved his hand, dismissing Adam’s comment. “That’s nothing. When my dad was fourteen, he had milked 40 cows, collected eggs, slaughtered a pig and used it all to make breakfast before the sun came up – or at least that’s the story I got this morning when I didn’t get out of bed as fast as he wanted me to.”
Adam laughed. “Is that really what he said?”
Kevin smiled and shook his head. “Something like that. I wasn’t really listening.”
Kevin’s humor put Adam in a really good mood, on top of the excitement he felt about leaving for training soon.
“Shall we?” asked Kevin as he moved his open hand in the direction of Town Hall.
&n
bsp; “We shall,” said Adam in reply. It felt like the proper response.
Adam sauntered over to his garage to get his bike and soon they were on their way. They rode south to Assiniboia Avenue and turned right, seeing Town Hall a few blocks ahead. Adam looked at his watch and saw that it was only 12:45 p.m., so they would arrive in plenty of time.
As they approached Young Street, Jimmy sauntered into view. He caught sight of the others and stopped to wait for them.
After pretending they both had no brakes and nearly running into Jimmy, the two laughed and said, “Hey.”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” cried Jimmy as he jumped back to avoid being hit.
“Come on. We’ll meet you at Town Hall,” said Kevin. He kicked off and pedaled hard with Adam foll0wing close behind.
Jimmy jogged to catch up, and by the time Kevin and Adam had leaned their bikes against the side of Town Hall, Jimmy had caught up and they walked to the front door together. Jimmy jiggled the handle but it was locked, so he looked at Adam.
Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out the key. He usually didn’t carry it with him, but that day he had a feeling he should. Within a few seconds they were inside.
None of the lights were on, but natural light flooded the front area. Only the hallway ahead appeared dark, since the boardroom door and Jeff’s office door were closed, blocking the light.
“Should we head to the boardroom?” asked Kevin after Adam shut off the alarm system.
Adam shrugged. “Might as well. At least we can sit down while we wait.”
He led the others ahead, and as soon as he opened the door, sunlight burst into the dark hallway. It was almost too intense, since the early afternoon sun had just began to flood through the west-facing windows of the boardroom. They each took seats out of the direct sun but facing the door as much as possible.
After a minute of waiting, Elianora seemed to appear out of nowhere, striding in through the doorway and startling the boys.
“Looks like we’re just waiting for Mark,” she said as she swept into the room. “I’ll bet you’re full of questions,” she continued. “I’m a little early, so we’ll wait a few more minutes before we begin.”
They had left a chair at the head of the table open for her and she seemed to know it immediately. After taking a seat, she put her elbows on the table, placed her fingertips together as if she were a cartoon villain planning her next move, and then she looked at each of the boys.
“I’ll bet you’re all getting excited,” she said, breaking the silence. She had a big grin on her face.
Each boy nodded, but none matched her grin.
“Any big plans for the rest of the day?” she asked.
Jimmy and Kevin shrugged.
“I guess it depends on how long this takes,” said Adam.
“This won’t take very long. Never does. Most people think they have a lot of questions, but when it comes down to it there aren’t really many. As long as Mark gets here soon we’ll be done within the hour.”
As if he had heard his name being mentioned, the sound of the front door opening and closing echoed down the hallway.
“Guys?” asked Mark’s hollow voice.
“In the boardroom,” yelled Jimmy after a moment of everyone looking at each other but no-one saying anything.
After listening to his slow footsteps approach, they watched Mark carefully stick his head around the door frame. When he saw them seated around the table, his face brightened and he stepped into the room. Then he looked to Elianora and his face changed again.
“Sorry I’m a bit late,” he said to her.
She simply nodded and indicated for Mark to sit down next to her, which he did with caution.
“I don’t bite, I promise,” Elianora joked.
Mark smiled with a forced grin, but said nothing more.
“I just asked your friends if they were getting excited about going away for training. How about you?” she asked.
Mark looked to the others before answering, but they didn’t give anything back in their expressions.
“Yes and no,” he replied. “I think it’s going to be cool to go somewhere new and get this training, but I’m probably going to miss my family a lot. I haven’t been away from them for more than a couple of days at a time.”
“When you went to Camp,” said Elianora, to which Mark nodded.
“Well, this will be a little like that – but without the canoeing,” she continued.
Mark smiled.
“Don’t get too excited. I don’t think she means that there will be no physical activity,” said Kevin.
Mark stuck his tongue out at Kevin.
“So, if you’re ready, I’ll tell you some details.” Again she looked to each of the boys and they nodded back at her.
“As you’ve learned in the past, the Sentinel League was formed to be the eyes and ears for the Teneo and help protect our secrets throughout the ages. Of course you know that the biggest secret we’ve tried to keep is the location of the Heartstone because in Larix’s hands it brings death not only to your kind but my kind as well. On top of that, you know that once you’ve reached a certain age or level of maturity, we inform you about the League and send you away for training. The training serves a few purposes. First, it will teach you about the League and its history more in-depth, although you’ve learned a lot of that already. That is the part most students find pretty boring, although some of the stories are pretty funny.” She drifted off in her thoughts for a moment before reigning herself in.
“Sorry,” she continued. “When you get old like me, memories like to drag you out of the moment. So, second, we will figure out fairly quickly what type of skills you have and steer you in that direction for jobs within the League. There are many options, so we take into account what you are good at and what you prefer to do. Most people have multiple skills, so we try to cultivate what makes people happy and satisfied.”
“Mark wants to know if you have a couch-testing department,” said Jimmy with a straight face, “or a movie rating department would be good too.”
“Well, I hope they don’t make you take an IQ test because the results will be negative,” Mark fired back.
Adam and Kevin tried to contain their laughter, and a moment later Jimmy and Mark were laughing too. Even Elianora had a smile on her face.
“A sense of humor is a wonderful thing,” she said once the group settled down. “It is a treasure beyond measure. When things seem their worst, I’ve seen humor get many people through the most terrible things imaginable. Always remember that.”
After a pause she continued. “So, where were we? Oh yes. Third. The third thing you’ll find out is that while you are being trained you will be tested in many ways. The most important thing you will be tested for is how well you can keep a secret. Every year we have a few that fail, and those ones have their memories wiped and are sent home right away.”
The thought drained the remaining joy from the room.
“But I don’t think you boys have to worry. With all that you’ve been through, we have full confidence in your abilities. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be sending you at your age.”
“Is it going to be strange for us?” asked Adam. “You know, because we’ll be the youngest initiates, we’ll stick out compared to everyone else?”
“I don’t think your age will set you apart as much as your history in the League will,” replied Elianora.
Adam was confused. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean, all the others you will be training with will have just learned about the League recently, so everything will be new to them. In the first or second lesson about the League, they will get a brief description of your adventures over the last year. That will probably set you apart more than anything, especially since you’re the first League members in nearly a generation that have met Larix face to face and lived to tell the story.”
Adam hadn’t thought about that. In his mind the image of people whis
pering and pointing at him made him want to hide under the table.
“Don’t worry about it, though. The instructors are great and they will make sure you are treated well. Any questions?”
“I know we leave around September first, but where are we going? What do we need to pack? How are we getting there?” asked Jimmy.
Elianora smiled. “Those are the questions I’ve been waiting for. How you are getting there? I’m not going to ruin the surprise. Where are you going? You may have heard the name of our training facility before. It’s called Area 51.”
Mark made a choking noise before he sputtered out, “The Area 51? Like, in Nevada?”
“Well, yes and no. To me, ours is The Area 51, but you’re not going to the one you’ve heard about in Nevada. That one is a decoy. It really is a Military base and they really do have top secret military things going on there. A long time ago we put out the rumors of that Area 51 in order to keep attention away from our Area 51. What better place to misdirect people than to a military base that is one of the most heavily guarded places on the planet. Our Area 51 isn’t anywhere near that one. Ours is well hidden. How are you getting there? That’s still being arranged. What do you need to take? Only your daily clothes and a couple of pairs of good shoes. The rest will be provided for you.”
“Can I take my phone and some video games?” asked Mark.
“You can, but your phone won’t work and there are plenty of games in Area 51, so you don’t really need to bring any.”
Silence filled the room as everyone was lost in thought.
“Any more questions?” Elianora asked.
Adam remembered something he had wondered about. “How many initiates are going to be there?”
Elianora considered the question for a short time. “It isn’t final quite yet, and it always varies by a few on the first day, but there should be just under 200 this time.”
Adam wasn’t sure if that was a lot or not. The answer brought up another question.
“So how many people are in the League?” he asked.
Initiates (The Book of Adam 3) Page 5