by I. T. Eren
Mark was the first up for the test drive. Riding a velocycle was easy, but still, he drove slowly at first before picking up speed. Then he moved in different directions to see how the vehicle perceived the movements of his body. He passed through each door with ease, but he noticed only one velocycle could pass through these openings at a time. When he felt confident, he stopped.
Then it was Candidate Y’s turn. As far as Mark could see, the guy was faster and much more agile than Mark on the vehicle. Mark realized his job wouldn’t be easy. Candidate Y slowed down, then gained speed, entering the openings at the last moment. At the same time he tipped his velocycle, making it rise a few centimeters because of his high speed.
After Candidate Y was also done, they stood side by side before the start line. Mr. Mallhan walked toward them and said, “Candidates, you’ll be competing for a total of five minutes. At the end of five minutes, what matters will be not how far you are in front of the other but the number of doors you have passed through. Therefore, skipping doors might cause you to lose the game. As you know, the vehicles repulse each other when they get too close—physics laws hard at work. In other words, your speed and the angle you approach each other will determine your effect on the other vehicle. If you get close to the other to influence his route, we will not consider it an ill intention. I hope it’s a good competition for all.”
After having witnessed Candidate Y’s capacity, Mark knew that he would lose against the guy, unless he applied an unusual strategy. What could he do? Mr. Mallhan soon whistled, and the race began. Although they left the start line at the same time, Y’s velocycle accelerated and got in front of Mark’s, as if it were a better model. The first door was a little further toward the right. As Y slowed down when approaching the door, Mark past the first door and headed for the second one, which was toward the left. He passed through it easily. Y, who had passed through the first door, was now behind him. Mark was leading the game, although he had passed through one door less than Y. Y began to pressure him slowly. Thankfully, the magnetic field occurring between them caused Mark’s vehicle to speed up, preventing Y from passing him. For a few more doors, Mark was able to deal with this tag, but he had still passed through one door less.
Now he was better at riding and knew more about the capabilities of the magnetic field. He thought that he must make Y skip one door! As he neared the next door, he let Y get closer to his right. They would reach the door very soon, and Mark would be closer to the door. He tilted the vehicle to the left unexpectedly, leaving space for Y to pass. Now Y could reach and pass through the door. When there was very little distance left before they reached the door, Mark turned toward the right abruptly, approaching Y at full speed and at an angle of forty-five degrees. The magnetic field caused Y to go astray from his route and linger to the right of the door. With this last-minute move, Mark passed through the door without a problem while Y had to skip it and head for the next door.
This time Y had moved in front of Mark. Even though they had passed through the same number of doors now, Y could win the game anytime because he was leading. Mark chased him, and Y ran away. Mark was faster now. Although he pressed close to Y, he couldn’t pass him. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he glanced at the display—the chronometer said that they had entered the last forty-five seconds of the game.
Meanwhile, Y was about to enter the next door, and there was no way Mark could stop him from doing that. He had noticed a stick between the displays that adjusted the magnetic field of the vehicle. As he neared Y, he moved it to the highest position. He was pushing the lever so much that eventually it broke. The magnetic field of his velocycle was out of control now, causing the vehicle to jump up and down in the air. Just as Y was about to enter the opening, Mark gained on his opponent, and with the force of the magnetic field of Y’s vehicle, his velocycle went totally out of control and soared above Y’s vehicle. They passed through the door on top of each other, and as soon as they were on the other side, Mark’s velocycle fell with a huge crash. The magnetic field that had been pushed beyond its limits had broken the engine. Miraculously, they heard the whistle that signaled the end of the race. It was a tie.
Mr. Mallhan said, “I must confess that this has been a much different race than I had expected. I’m glad no one’s hurt, and no one has done anything that requires disqualification. You finished the race with a tie. Be ready in your rooms at ten o’clock tomorrow morning. Have a good rest!” Then he left the racetrack.
Mark couldn’t get rid of the effect of the race all day long. At the same time, he thought it was fun to ride those vehicles. At ten the next morning, he went to Room 102 again. Soon Mr. Mallhan appeared on the screen.
“Dear candidates,” the guy said, “today we’ll take you to an old harbor and ask you to find one of our men who has been taken hostage there. As part of a simulation, of course. Whoever reaches the hostage first will win.” After Mr. Mallhan finished speaking, a man on duty took Mark downstairs, where they got into the car for another trip.
Half an hour later, they arrived at the old harbor situated north of the city. It was a repulsive place surrounded by restrictive fences, inside of which many huge, ugly warehouses and containers were located. The colossal cranes made the place look even uglier. Mark reached the area shortly after Y. Mr. Mallhan arrived last.
“I’d like you to attach these laser sensors to your backs and these bracelets to your ankles,” Mr. Mallhan said. “As you move ahead to find the hostage, you must take care to defend yourself. You can use the laser guns I’ll give you to slow each other down. If either of you shoots the other in the back, the ankle bracelets of the one shot will react, preventing that contestant from moving for one minute. Also, our hostage might have left clues in different places. Keep your eyes open. Now I’ve told you everything. It’s time to start looking for the hostage.”
After putting on his equipment, Mark entered the street while keeping an eye on Y. Y also entered another street, walking sideways like a crab. The harbor looked like a huge labyrinth because of the warehouses and the lined-up containers. Mark wondered hopelessly how anyone who was hiding here could be found. As he walked along the street, he suddenly felt the bracelets around his ankles lock. He immediately lost his balance and fell down. When he looked behind him, he saw that Y had turned around and shot Mark in the back right after they separated.
“Why the hell does this guy start fussing with me when I haven’t even got close to the hostage?” Mark muttered. When he found he could finally move one foot, the other one followed it, as if there was a chunk of metal between his two ankles. He stood up carefully so he wouldn’t have to wait the full minute for the ankle bracelets unlock and started hopping like a kangaroo. Just when he started moving faster and thought he was recovering quickly, he found himself rolling on the ground again.
A minute passed, and then he finally got up. Trying his best to regain the time he had lost, he started running toward the end of the road. When he came to a crossroads, he had to decide which direction to take. He thought he saw a piece of clothing on the ground on one of the streets. Could that be a clue? He ran toward the object while making sure Y wasn’t behind him. It was a pullover that had the emblem of the Security Headquarters. Certain that he was on the right track, Mark took that road. After a while, he turned around and put the pullover at the beginning of another street, hoping to confuse Y. When he moved a little further, he saw Y walking between the containers. So he had reached them before Mark. Apparently, his trick on Y wouldn’t work.
Y wasn’t aware of Mark. Feeling the urge to take revenge, Mark aimed his gun on the circular laser spot on Y’s back. Since the gun did not make any noise, he didn’t realize he had already fired. But he saw Y fall on the ground. Now it was Y’s turn to wiggle around, unable to stand up and move. Mark had to run past Y, and even though his mask covered his face, he made a point to turn around and smile. He had to use this single minute very smartly. When he moved a little further,
he saw an emblem consisting of a pelican and three stars on the door of a warehouse. He was sure he had seen it before. Without much thought, he continued to run. After a while, he suddenly screamed, “Special Forces!” and turned around abruptly. The emblem he had just seen belonged to the secret special forces of the government, which he had learned about during training. The existence of this emblem here had to be a clue.
When he returned to the door, he realized that the emblem on it seemed to be freshly painted. Also the latch was not closed. He immediately opened the door, entered the building, and closed the door again so that Y would not follow him. The light oozing through the small windows near the ceiling barely illuminated the interior. After his eyes adjusted, he could see that this was a two-story warehouse with hanging stairs. After quickly pacing back and forth on the entrance floor, Mark realized that there was a basement too. If someone was hiding in this building, he could probably be there.
The basement was almost completely dark. With the help of his flashlight, he tried to see as much as possible. The place was packed with bales of wool and rolls of fabric, but there was no sight of the hostage. Suddenly he heard a door shut upstairs. The trace of a red laser light moved on the walls soon followed the sound. Apparently, Y had also discovered this warehouse but had probably not realized that Mark was there yet.
When he carefully looked, Mark saw that Y was also exploring the surroundings. Mark turned on his laser gun, as he got ready to run to the stairs. He could see Y’s back now. He aimed and shot him. Swearing loudly, Y fell down once again and was unable to move for another minute. Mark raced upstairs as fast as he could, thinking that he could start searching the top floor and then come down. There was nothing on the top floor, however—no bales and no furniture. It was totally vacant. Upon seeing a door that opened to a terrace, he couldn’t decide whether he should get on the terrace or search downstairs. Eventually, he decided to look at the terrace first.
It was empty. Just as he was about to head back for the door, thinking he had made a big mistake, he saw a white flag hanging out the window of the building across the way. The flag was not attached anywhere to the building; someone inside was waving it out the window. Mark studied the window carefully but couldn’t catch a glimpse of the person holding the flag. He immediately went inside to run downstairs so that he could go to the building across. Downstairs he saw Y searching around the place. He tiptoed to the door without attracting the man’s attention.
Once outside, he ran to the other building and climbed the stairs. This place looked like a boarding house with many rooms. He opened all the doors on the top floor, one by one, but started to feel worried when he discovered they were all empty. The hostage had to be in the last room. When he opened the door to that room slowly, a chill ran down his back. This room was also empty. He ran to the window. He saw Y in the terrace of the other building, which he had left before coming here. The guy was looking at something. Mark turned around to his left and looked where the man was gazing. The white flag was visible at the window of the adjacent building.
“Silly me!” Mark exclaimed. He had come to the wrong building. Y started running down the stairs. Mark knew he had to get there before Y. So he started running like a mad man. He was closer to the hostage than Y was. He quickly reached the side entrance of the building. Y appeared a little farther behind, and he was also running. Mark walked into the building backwards to make sure he didn’t turn his back to Y. He didn’t want to be shot again. Y had almost reached Mark. They started running up the stairs, almost side by side. Y stopped suddenly, but Mark didn’t notice. When Mark passed him by, Y shot him in the back, causing him to fall down. This time, it was Y’s turn to run like crazy. But as he was passing Mark by, Mark grabbed his feet and made him tumble. Nowhere in the rules it said that such a move was not allowed. As Y tried to get up, he forgot to protect himself, and Mark managed to shoot him in the back. Now both of them lay on the ground unable to stand up.
Mark’s ankle bracelets would unlock about fifteen seconds before Y’s, and this would give him an advantage. Y, who was aware of this, hardly stood up on the stairs and started hopping strangely, lifting both of his feet. After a few jumps, he sprained his ankle badly and screamed in pain.
Without attempting any heroic acts, Mark waited for the minute to end so that his ankle bracelets would unlock. And when that happened, he quickly climbed the stairs and opened the only door he found there. There he was—the man who was waving the white flag.
“Yes, I am the hostage,” the man said, smiling.
Mark had completed this round with success, although it had been difficult. As he walked downstairs, he saw that some men had come to help Y, who was hopping to a car with the assistance of a crutch. Even though he was an opponent, Mark still felt a bit bad about what Y had gone through.
He was in Mr. Mallhan’s room two hours later. “Congratulations Mr. Spinner. You finished this round with an advantage. We won’t be having any more competitions because Candidate Y will have to depend on a crutch. You’re lucky that it was not you who injured his ankle. Otherwise, we would have to disqualify you for harming an opponent. In fact, your opponent told us that it was you who caused him to sprain his ankle, but we had a long-distance surveillance system that enabled us to watch and record everything from the center. I guess he forgot about that for a moment.”
Mark couldn’t believe his ears. What Mr. Mallhan said made him hate Y. And he wondered why they didn’t eliminate Y directly upon finding out that he lied.
Mark felt even happier when Mr. Mallhan told him that he needed some rest and could take a weeklong vacation. He and Ally made plans right away.
Ally said, “Let’s have a holiday full of action. Would you like to go on an adventurous journey with me?”
Unexpectedly, Mark replied by saying, “No, please.”
Then he added, “Let’s just rest and move as little as possible. Let our biggest adventure be about selecting which books to read.” The adrenalin he experienced during the project had been more than enough for him.
Ally, who was a calm, quiet person, accepted Mark’s wish without protest. They went to a mountain hotel where they could enjoy the fresh air and walk through the green valleys together. When there wasn’t much he could do except rest, Mark had time to dwell on his thoughts. He pondered about what had happened and what was to come. He had taken this job seriously—maybe because of its mystery, its contribution to society, or perhaps because the government considered it important. He started thinking that he’d feel really disappointed if he weren’t chosen. Also, not knowing how his life would continue if he weren’t selected disturbed him a lot. He would probably not be able to return to his old job because a new person had already been hired for his position. But then they had told him that he would not have to worry, once he passed this stage. As far as he understood, they would not leave him flat. But on the other hand, nothing was completely clear, and this made Mark very nervous.
Although Ally tried, all through their holiday, to get information from Mark about what he was going through, Mark refrained from leaking information. He told her instead, “Let’s totally be away from the city. Let’s not spend time thinking about those things.”
Instead, they mostly talked about their future and dreams of creating a family, during the romantic walks they enjoyed together.
CHAPTER 10
The practical section of the test began with a classic after a week of rest. Once again¸ he found himself waiting for the same councilor in the same room of the same building. As usual, the man arrived ten minutes late and dove into the subject without even asking how Mark was doing.
“Mr. Spinner, you’re about to come to a fork in the road. My colleagues have informed me that your performance so far has been pleasing. In this last section, you’re going to go though something that only a few people have ever experienced. You and our other candidate are going to be the fourteenth and fifteenth human beings to ever travel into t
he past.”
Mark felt angry again to hear that Candidate Y still had the chance of becoming a detective, despite the lie he told at the end of the previous competition. Why did these guys keep working with someone they knew they couldn’t trust? Didn’t they know how dangerous that was? He thought what probably mattered to them was the investment they had made in the other guy.
The councilor continued speaking, “Most probably, in the coming months, we are going to make some decisions to limit the number of new detectives we employ.”
Mark was intrigued. “What kind of decisions, Councilor?”
“First of all, we are in the process of finalizing the decision that only three detectives will exist at all. However, this will not affect your candidacy. At the moment, no one would want the investment in you to be wasted. Still, no new detectives will be employed in the coming years. At the same time, we are also discussing the possibility that the selection process should entail, not two candidates but just one, due to issues related to covertness. That means if one candidate is not successful, then the process has to start all over again.”
Mark couldn’t help asking, “But wouldn’t the selection process be too slow then?”
“Enabling confidentiality is much higher on our list of priorities these days. I have no problem telling you that at the moment we are going through problems because of one of our retired detectives. We don’t know how long he’ll keep quiet. As you know, another detective is also about to retire. In this case, the more careful and discreet we are from day one, the better for us.”
What he heard worried Mark a little. He felt upset that this institution that he previously thought was outstanding suffered the same, common problems that any organization had. On the other hand, he couldn’t help wonder whether they would consider eliminating people who caused security issues. And he had already been a part of this. Perhaps it was better not to imagine things that disturbed him. Surely no such thing would happen.