Initiates (The Book of Adam 3)

by Scott Gelowitz

  Mark nodded. “I’ll bet the tenth hole,” he said.

  “No, you can’t do that,” said Jimmy.

  “Why not?”

  “Because you know when you’re going to quit and you also know what holes we’ve picked. How about this; we’ll choose new holes by writing them on a piece of paper and if you quit at that hole, that person wins. If you quit on a hole that no-one chose, everyone gets their bet back. If you make it all the way, you win the pot,” said Jimmy.

  They all considered it for a moment and agreed.

  “What are we standing around here for,” said Mark, and he led the way to the gymnasium.

  ***

  Mark had ended up winning, but there had been many moments the group was sure he would have quit. It turned out that Derek had kept his first bet that Mark would finish the game, so the two of them would share the prize money of five dollars to be paid once they made it home. Adam had bet that Mark would quit on the 11th hole, and he nearly won. The 11th hole was incredibly difficult and took them nearly fifteen minutes to complete due to the accuracy needed. They had to send a golf ball down a spiral course with just enough momentum that it dropped out at the right spot. Too soon and it returned to the start and too late it did the same.

  Kevin and Jimmy had bet on the 13th and 14th hole because they knew Mark was now determined to win the money and so would try his hardest not to quit before the end, but they still assumed he would convince himself that Ms. Pacman was worth losing a dollar.

  The next morning they had all finished breakfast and ended up sitting in the classroom way before classes were about to start. They discussed the interviews they were about to have and assumed that they would be asked a lot of questions to sort them into their prospective careers.

  When Horton walked in five minutes late the conversation had moved on to a discussion about Linus, the head of security, and if he was named after the famous friend of the cartoon character Charlie Brown.

  “Yes. His parents loved the Peanuts characters and even named his older sister Lucy,” said Horton, putting an end to that conversation.

  “Did you have a good evening?” Horton asked.

  They all agreed that they did.

  “Great. So should we get the interviews over with right away and then figure out what to do this afternoon?”

  Again, they all agreed.

  “Can you guys say anything but yes?” he asked.

  Once more, they all said yes and laughed at the sheer silliness of the whole exchange.

  “Alright, then. It seems to me that you are getting on board with my sense of humor quite nicely. Right now, I actually have to put you to work, though. Take out your regular history text book and open it to page ten.”

  Horton outlined all of work they needed to complete before lunch. If they had the entire time to work without interruption, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but if their individual interview took more than half an hour they would be hard pressed to finish in time.

  “Let’s do this alphabetically today,” said Horton.

  Kevin stood to follow, but Horton added, “Alphabetically by first name.”

  Kevin sat down and it only took a moment for Adam to figure out that he was the first in line.

  He followed Horton to the back of the room where each morning Horton had appeared so far, and Horton led Adam into an office nearly hidden by some of the visual tricks Adam had come to expect from the Sentinel League. The office wasn’t hidden as much as it was minimized from view, easy to overlook. It was quite large and seemed as if Horton had just unpacked all of his things recently. It didn’t look like a place that Horton had been using for the past thirty years.

  “Take a seat,” said Horton, pointing to a funny looking blue chair on one side of the desk as he sat in the winged high-back chair on the opposite side.

  “Usually we have a whole page of questions that we ask to determine what area a person should end up studying, but I’ve narrowed them down quite a bit, even though others don’t agree with it totally. It’s still incredibly accurate. With you, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be easy based on what I’ve heard. Regardless, I should ask you what area of work you are interested in doing for a career. I’m pretty sure that you don’t want to be a politician or a doctor, so can you tell me what you think you’d like to do?”

  Adam smiled at the thought of himself as a politician or a doctor, because neither one appealed to him. Being a doctor interested him a small amount more than a politician, because a doctor basically troubleshoots a complex mechanical system – the human body.

  “I like to fix, build, and invent mechanical things,” replied Adam and paused there because he didn’t know how to expand on those facts.

  Horton was grinning. “Do you think you’d be happy working in some mechanical area for the rest of your life? I mean, do you actually have some fantasy about doing something else instead? This is between you and me and no-one else. If you told me you wanted to sew dresses, no-one would ever know it unless you started sewing dresses, OK?”

  Adam nodded. “It’s all I’ve ever been interested in.”

  “Any particular area of interest?” asked Horton.

  “Well, I’m not looking to be a carpenter or build houses, although knowing how would be a good thing. I’m more into metal and electrical mechanical systems. Gears and motors sort of stuff.”

  “Alright. That helps,” said Horton, scribbling down some notes.

  “I’ve heard that you can connect with mechanical objects like your dad,” he said, more as a question.

  “Yes,” replied Adam.

  “That is so great. You’re one of only a few people I’ve known that can do it. Of course, one of the others was your dad.”

  Horton paused.

  "You seem to be adjusting well to this new environment," said Horton. Have you met any new people?"

  "Not really," replied Adam and he watched Horton frown before quickly adding, "but I've made peace with Derek Gunderson."

  Upon hearing this, Horton's smile returned. "Good, good. We interviewed him before we agreed that he could come here and found him to be nothing like his father. We were pretty sure you would at least tolerate each other. I would still encourage you to meet some of the others here, but I won't force you. It will happen naturally since you are all sharing one space for the year."

  Horton took the lid off of an old tin can and offered it to Adam. “Would you like to try some special candy?” he asked.

  Hearing those words from anyone else, anywhere else, Adam was pretty sure he would have run away yelling “Stranger Danger,” and Horton picked up on that.

  “Yeah, I know that sounded terrible. There’s nothing wrong with it, see?” He took a piece of the caramel colored candy that was about the size of a dime.

  “It tastes like buttered popcorn. Really buttery and salty, just the way I like it. It lasts a good hour. One more of the inventions that have come out of this place in the past.”

  Adam obliged and took a piece. He enjoyed popcorn every time he had tried it, so that motivated him. The second it hit his tongue his taste buds danced in pleasure.

  “Oh, wow! This is fantastic!” said Adam.

  “I know. And the best part is that there aren’t many calories or actual butter in it, so I can have them all the time without worrying about clogging up the old blood pump.”

  Adam chuckled.

  “Anyway, back to the present. I’m going to be initially recommending that you move into Mechanical sciences, and we will narrow down your specialties in time. I’m pretty excited to see what we can teach you. How does that sound?”

  “Great. I can’t wait,” replied Adam.

  “Alright, then. For your information, you will be taking some introductory classes in all of the other disciplines so we make sure you aren’t missing out on an area you might enjoy. Those will start as soon as we can schedule them. If you end up wanting to pursue one of those areas rather than mechanical, just let me kno
w. You are allowed to pursue one major and two minor areas at the same time, but more than that would take more hours than you have in a day. Other than that we are pretty much done here. We will have an interview day each month where we evaluate your progress and decide if you’ll continue on with what you are learning, or continue on at all. We are pretty good at figuring out who will be going home in the first days. It’s usually obvious.”

  Adam couldn’t resist the question. “Am I in danger of going home?”

  Horton shook his head. “Absolutely not. I’d give up these things altogether if you were sent home.” He pointed at the tin of candy.

  That made Adam feel better, but still uneasy. Horton’s easy manner prompted Adam to ask the next obvious question. “What about my friends?”

  Horton’s smile faded. “If I tell you, you’ll have to keep it a secret,” he said in a low voice.

  “I will,” said Adam in an equally low voice.

  “I can’t tell you who, but one of your friends is going home, and another one is close, in my opinion. Of course, we’ll see what the results of their interviews are before we make any final decisions.”

  Those words struck Adam harder than he could have imagined. The thought that any one of his friends could be sent back to Grayson saddened him until he thought of something else.

  “Since all of Grayson knows about the League, you don’t have to wipe their memories, right? You’ll just send them home?”

  Horton’s face looked grave. He paused in thought before giving an answer. “This is where the problem comes in. We’ve had intense discussions about this. In the end, if any of you get rejected by the League, you won’t be going back to Grayson. You will have your memories wiped and be placed somewhere else. That’s all I can tell you. You may never see whoever is rejected again, and if you do they won’t have any idea who you are anyway.”

  Adam’s heart sank in his chest.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  When the news hit him that he could possibly lose not just one but two of his best friends forever, it hit him hard. Up until that point, Area 51 seemed like a private boarding school where they had been sent for protection most of all. But losing his friends forever wasn’t part of what he thought could happen. They had been told time and again that once you were invited to join the League as an Initiate you rarely failed to become a full member. So many thoughts churned in his mind that he began to confuse himself.

  “I know it’s hard to imagine,” said Horton, “but I’ve been wrong before. There’s nothing you can do about it either because the reasons the League would send someone home has to do with things I can’t discuss with you until after you are a full member, and even then, I’m not sure you’d want to know why your friends were excluded.”

  “You’re saying there’s no way to help my friends at all?” asked Adam, his voice almost panicked.

  “Don’t worry about it. They will be here for quite a while yet, and things may change. I shouldn’t have said anything to you anyway, but I promise that I will keep you updated when you have your interviews. All I ask is that you do not tell any of them what we’ve discussed because the best chance they have at staying is by acting normal and letting us see who they really are.”

  “Please tell me that Kevin isn’t one of the ones in trouble,” said Adam.

  Horton frowned again. “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you either way. It will change how you treat them. What I can tell you is that I will try and influence your friends in ways that will help. I am an instructor after all, and that’s what I do. That’s also part of the purpose of these interviews.”

  They both sat in their chairs for a while without speaking, but Adam’s mind was racing. Horton seemed to know this and was letting Adam’s thoughts play out for a while. When he did finally speak, it was with a soothing voice.

  “Do you think you can keep this secret?” he asked. “I shouldn’t say this, but this is the kind of thing that determines your fit in the Sentinel League.”

  Adam thought about it and agreed, although he wasn’t positive that he could. It was going to be tough to see his friends face to face since he knew that particular bit of news.

  “Good,” said Horton before he offered the tin of candy to Adam again. Adam took one and Horton gestured for him to take more. He pocketed them both since he still had the first one in his mouth.

  “That’s it. That’s the whole interview. I knew yours would be short and sweet. I guess it’s time for me to take the next student on the list. Of course, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t discuss your interview with anyone, other than telling them what area you might be headed for, and only if you want to tell them.”

  Horton stood up and walked toward the door with Adam close behind. “Jimmy,” he called into the classroom.

  Jimmy stood and passed Adam, staring at him trying to read his face for any clues about what to expect, but there were none.

  Adam sat back down at his desk and the other two were immediately on him.

  “Spill it,” said Mark.

  Kevin didn’t say anything but he shuffled closer and leaned in to hear.

  “It’s nothing, really. We just talked about what I’d like to do as a career and what classes I should take to help get me going in that direction. It’s not like it’s any surprise to anyone that I’m going to be working in the Mechanical Sciences lab a lot.”

  “That’s all?” asked Kevin. “I thought there would be more to it.”

  “That’s it,” said Adam. “Oh, I almost forgot. We have to take introductory courses in other areas too, just to make sure we don’t miss out on something we would have loved to do.”

  Adam opened his textbook and began working, ignoring the looks from the others. His thoughts returned to the things Horton had said, and he began to wonder how he would feel if Mark and Jimmy were the ones to go. Sure, he’d prefer either of them to go instead of Kevin, but he really didn’t want any of them to go, no matter how much they all complained about each other.

  He was lost in thought so deep that time passed fast, Soon Jimmy was back and Kevin had gone in next. Jimmy looked like someone who just found out that their dog died.

  “Was it that rough?” asked Mark.

  Jimmy immediately perked up. “No, not bad. I’m just not sure what area I want to go into, so we discussed options.”

  “I think that’s the problem I’m going to have,” said Mark.

  “Too bad they don’t have a class on doing nothing, because that’s what you love to do most of all,” said Jimmy, a smile returning to his face.

  “And if they had a class called ‘How not to talk to girls’ you’d be the instructor,” Mark replied.

  Even though they were being quite funny, Adam felt sad because that was what he enjoyed the most about hanging out with the pair.

  When Kevin came back out again, it didn’t seem like anything in the interview had bothered him at all.

  “How did it go?” asked Jimmy.

  “It was fine,” replied Kevin. “Natural Sciences. Where else would you expect?”

  “I dunno. Maybe Astronomy. You seem out in space sometimes,” said Jimmy.

  Kevin chuckled. “What about you?” he asked Jimmy.

  “To be determined,” Jimmy replied.

  “Ah, yes. Doesn’t that mean that you’ll be the first one sent home?” said Kevin.

  Kevin’s blunt answer surprised Adam. He watched Kevin’s face to see if he showed knowledge that any of them were in danger of leaving, but it seemed that he had only said that comment to tease.

  “Maybe,” said Jimmy with a smile, “but I highly doubt it. They just need to figure out exactly where to put me. I’ve got a lot to offer, according to Horton. I’d be more worried about the man in there at the moment.” He pointed to the office.

  “His dad won’t let that happen too easily,” said Kevin.

  Adam hadn’t thought about that. It would be tough for the League to get rid of Mark. They’d probably do
everything they could to keep him just because of Gurpreet, which meant that Kevin and Jimmy were the two most likely in trouble. But Horton had told Jimmy that he had a lot to offer. The more he thought about it all, the more confused he became.

  “True,” said Jimmy. “But let’s get this work done and then maybe Horton will take us to do something fun this afternoon.”

  Soon, Mark and Horton appeared, startling Adam because he had been concentrating on his textbook so hard.

  Mark didn’t look worried. He actually looked happy.

  “Are you almost done?” Horton asked the group.

  Jimmy closed his textbook and said, “Finished.”

  Kevin said, “Almost.”

  “I finished just before my interview,” replied Mark.

  “One more page,” said Adam. If he hadn’t wasted so much time worrying about who was going to be leaving, he would have been done already.

  “Good. It’s nearly lunchtime and I don’t want to come back here unless we have to, so finish up and let me know when you’re done. You two,” Horton pointed at Jimmy and Mark, “can just sit there quietly until they finish. Of course, you could always read ahead in any of the textbooks if you would like.”

  Both boys gave a chuckle that clearly meant, “Yeah, right,” at which Horton smiled wide.

  “Boys never change,” he said as he sat behind his desk.

  As soon as Adam and Kevin were finished, Horton closed the book he was reading, stood, and approached their desks.

  “Alright. We’ll go get some food right away, since it is almost 11:30, and after you finish, meet me in the gymnasium - let’s say around 1:00 p.m. Before I forget, though, tonight you have your first self defense lesson. Because you are such a small group, you will be included with one of the Grade 11 classes. It will be in the gymnasium starting at 6 p.m. I think that’s all I need to tell you, so off we go.”

  The boys followed Horton to the cafeteria without speaking, and as soon as Horton had left with his food they sat and began to talk.

  “How did your interview go?” Adam asked Mark, curious.

  Mark shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”