Innocence Lost

by O. J. Lowe

  Nothing. Nothing on him and no alarm towards his pack. He picked it up off the belt, silently thanked the Divines above and carried on forward out of the immediate area. Reeves joined him seconds later, Brendan a minute after. None of them said anything to each other. Wilsin would have liked to think that was the hard part over. He was deluding himself if that was the case, he thought. The hard part was only just starting.

  Brendan knew where he was going, he took the lead and cut through the crowds with a sense of purpose, Wilsin and Reeves following in his wake. More than once, a hand snaked out towards them, determined to try and pick a pocket. One went for Wilsin, he grabbed it faster than they could pull away and yanked one of the fingers back hard. The snap felt painfully loud to him, had been drowned out by the sounds of the aeroport. What wasn’t drowned out was the yells of pain, nobody took any notice, nobody cared. Pickpockets were dealt with in harshest possible terms in aeroports, you did it at your own risk and took your lumps if you were caught.

  One went for Reeves, perhaps even less of a sensible idea. Like Wilsin had, he caught the hand, leaned in close to the thief and murmured something close to his ears. The thief’s eyes went strangely blank, he stepped backwards as if in a haze and wandered off, almost tripping over his own feet. Reeves gave Wilsin a rueful look. “He decided to rethink his life choices. Good for him.” After that, they didn’t have too much trouble. The key to surviving Vazara was not to look like prey. More than any other kingdom Wilsin had been in, the locals gave the impression they were sharks waiting for any bit of offal in the water. If you didn’t look like offal, they wouldn’t go for you.

  Outside, Brendan came to a halt, gave a wave to two men stood across the lounge. One was Vazaran, heavyset with glasses and a prominent scar on his neck. The other was taller and thinner, his skin paler and his hair lighter. Both wore clothes that suggested they were ready for an expedition, they looked painfully out of place here, Wilsin had to admit. They’d never have passed the Unisco test about blending into their surroundings.

  They met them halfway, Brendan exchanging handshakes and greetings all around. Wilsin looked at Reeves, shrugged. He shook the hands of both men, the Vazaran stank of sweat and goat meat. The other guy, from Canterage if his accent was anything to go by, grinned at them, his eyes half-closed and his words slurred. He sounded like he’d been drinking, his breath reinforced that notion. Wilsin had been in breweries that stank less of alcohol.

  “David Wilsin, Ben Reeves, these are Doctors Alex Fazarn and Shane Bryce. They’re both part of the expedition...”

  “In charge of,” Fazarn said snippily. He didn’t sound impressed with Brendan’s choice of words. “Discovering the secrets of the Green is perhaps the single most important task of our lifetime. This is a brave new world and we need to be at the forefront. We do this right; our names will go down in history. Yours. Mine. His.” He gestured at Price. “It’s a joint effort between the three of us to lead this thing. My academic reputation. Brendan’s professional reputation. Shane has a reputation as well, logistically. He’s the guy you want for this sort of thing. There’s nobody better, I assure you all.”

  “Hells yeah,” Bryce said. “Don’t worry about Alex. He’s wound a bit tight. We’re glad to have you all. Every hand makes it easier, right?” He clapped his hands together and yawned, clamping one of his hands up to cover his mouth. “Excuse me, long day. Got here not too long back myself. A bit of a circus here, no?”

  Wilsin wondered how long he’d been drinking if that was the case. He didn’t want to think about what that might mean for the mission if one of the planners was already inebriated out of his mind.

  “Anyway, we’ll hit our inn for the night, we’ll set off for the Green in the morning,” Bryce said. Another yawn. Wilsin wondered if he was being overtly critical. Maybe it was just a bad day. Maybe he didn’t like flying.

  There’d been enough bad days recently. What was one more?

  “I think we could all use some rest,” Brendan said, hefting his pack over his shoulder and rubbing his hands together in eagerness. “Lead us on then. We have jungle to explore and they won’t wait for us. The sooner we turn in, the sooner we can get this expedition underway.”

  Wilsin wasn’t used to seeing this level of enthusiasm from his boss, he suppressed a smile and folded his arms. “I can agree with that,” he said. “Lead on, doctors.”

  Chapter Ten. Process of Elimination.

  “For as long as I can remember, this academy has been a place where the training has only been second to actual field experience by the tightest of margins. Training should be a prelude to an experience, not the experience itself. A grounding, if you like. I want it to be as realistic as possible. Within reason, push them to their limits and see what they’ve got. This isn’t a summer camp, I want the training intensified and hard. It is only through fire that the glass is formed from sand.”

  Message from Tod Brumley to Kinpatso Takamishi and Nandahar Konda at the Iaku Academy, RE the training of fresh cadets.

  Three months ago.

  They’d dragged them out of bed early in the morning, four am and Pete hadn’t been expecting it. It wasn’t a figure of speech, the doors to the dormitory had been kicked in and they’d been forcibly removed from their beds, faces forced into the cold floor. He’d yelped as his face hit the stone, felt the knee in his back holding him down, his arms yanked behind his back as they secured his wrists together with cuffs. Around him, they were doing the same thing, he heard Theo swearing forcefully and trying to fight back. He was making a good go of it as well, he could see four of them trying to hold him down, fists and feet flying everywhere in clumsy fashion. He knew the moves, he hadn’t entirely mastered them yet. None of them had. The four around him were practiced, they ducked and weaved away without getting hit and Theo had to be tiring. He couldn’t keep that up forever. Pete was subsequently proved right, a fist came from his blindside and caught him across the jaw, he hit the ground in an undignified manner and didn’t move. In moments, he was restrained in the same manner as the rest of them.

  A trickle of blood dribbled down his face, he could taste its coppery tang in his mouth, mixing with his saliva. It made him want to spit. What the hells had happened here? He wasn’t sure he knew what was going on. These people, who were they? This place was a Unisco academy, it was supposed to be a heavily protected secret. To get the forces together to storm it… He’d heard the stories about what the Coppingers had in their arsenal, what they’d do to try and overthrow the kingdoms. He’d heard too much about the riots in Burykia and Premesoir, how they’d incited people to public disorder in deadly fashion. To hit the Iaku academy though… That was something else.

  Eventually any sounds of resistance died away, those who continued to make them were beaten, one blow to force the fight out of them. Pete tried to look around, didn’t see anything that made him think his choice was the right one. The dormitory had become chaos, it looked like an explosion had hit it. He tried to crane his neck to look at the faces of those who’d attacked, felt the presence of someone stood next to him clearing their throat.

  “I wouldn’t, boy. You see our faces, it won’t end well for you. You’re on thin ice already. Don’t give us excuses.” The voice was distorted, almost mechanical in its lack of emotion.

  He let his face sag into the stone, felt the sharp sigh of frustration slip out of him. He heard the figure above him chuckle. He was glad someone found it funny. He didn’t. He wasn’t laughing right now. Wasn’t sure he’d be laughing again for a while.

  “Okay, freeze it up.”

  That voice he recognised, the silence was cut in an instant and the voice of the academy administrator spoke up once again. “You might be wondering what has happened here,” Kinpatso Takamishi said, striding through the maze of fallen cadets as if they were his property. “Here is your lesson for the morning. You never know when the enemy will attack you, it is when you feel most secure that you are always at your mos
t vulnerable. It is a time of war and safety is a sense of luxury that none of us can afford to feel. You all need to learn that more than most. If you are lucky enough to graduate this fine institution, you put a target on your back. There are always people out there who will have wished for the death of Unisco agents. Thanks to Claudia Coppinger and her band of dissidents, that number is only going to increase over the coming months.”

  He paused. “We’re not going to let you out, you know. Just think on that. You’re going to get yourselves out, no matter how long it takes. Pain, discomfort, hunger, humiliation, these are all fine motivators we have found over the years. Once you go out into the field, this could happen to you. It has happened to more agents over the years than we can count. Being able to master your environment when you are confined is a skill that will be amongst your most valuable.”

  Pete tried shifting into a better position, felt a foot press against his back in warning and thought better of it. He didn’t want the shit kicked out of him just yet. They gave the impression they’d do it. Unisco training wasn’t for the weak, they didn’t do things by halves. He’d worked that out months back, in his first week here. Hells, he’d worked it out that first day when they’d thrown him out the aeroship. There’d been a few who hadn’t made it as far as the academy there. They’d been sent out to clean up the bodies. Horrible, it had been. He hadn’t known what a human body looked like when it hit the ground from a couple thousand feet before, but he did now, and he could have done without earning that image. Saying it made a mess didn’t even come close to describing it. The words were inadequate. He could still remember what they’d said to the cadets after it had happened, and they’d been brought there.

  “In this line of work, you are going to see some truly messed up things. Enjoy.” Those short words and they’d been left to work the day away with nothing more than a single pair of gloves and a strong black disposal bag each. He could remember the heat that day, the buzzing of the flies and the smell of vomit. He hadn’t thrown up. He’d wanted to. He doubted he'd been alone in that urge, a thought proven when several others had relieved themselves of their stomach contents.

  “You see,” Takamishi said. “Not too long back, we went through a phase where we tried to do it as nicely-nice as we could for you guys. We didn’t want you to suffer unnecessarily. After all, this is a training camp, not a torture centre.”

  “Then y’all started to die in the line of duty. And we decided to kick your training up a notch or two.” That had to be Bruno Hans. He put that accent on when he was trying to be taken seriously. His accent was normally heavy with inflections from the west of Serran, quite emotionless in his delivery. The change to laidback Premesoir cowherder was a shock to the system. Especially since Pete wasn’t sure he had a sense of humour. He quickly went back to his normal accent. “Yes, you all didn’t pass the muster and as a result, our future cadets have to be regarded as the best yet, yes?”

  “Anyway, have fun,” Takamishi said. “There are ten of you in here. Ten ways of getting out of your cuffs. One for each of you. Five are obvious. Five are harder to discover. When you get free, do not stop to help your fellow cadets. You are all being scored out of one hundred by myself, Instructors Hans, Khazeer and Christophe as well as Professor Melane. We will judge you on your attitude, your creativity, your speed, your technique and your composure and commitment. The highest three scorers will be rewarded.” He sounded like he was grinning. “They won’t have to clean this room up after the last of you end up shitting yourselves.”

  Pete kept his face clear. It didn’t do to show too much emotion. Instructor Christophe had told them that. He looked like he couldn’t raise an emotion if his life depended on it. Learning all the Unisco directives was the driest part of the learning experience, he found it a little dull but had to admit that it was essential. You couldn’t do the job if you didn’t know the rules. Christophe’s frequent tests made sure they were all up to speed. Repeated failure was not tolerated, he’d seen someone thrown out of the academy for not being able to give the correct answers in time. Regardless, the point had been made. If people didn’t know what you were thinking, then you were at an advantage.

  “Enjoy,” Instructor Hans said. Before Pete knew it, the doors were opened and closed above him, the extra sounds of breathing gone from the room. Just the ten of them remained, ten of them all tied up and unable to really move. But they had to be able to move a little. It wasn’t going to be easy, they wouldn’t have made it that way. He’d expected them to start off slowly and gradually increase the trickiness of the tests but once they’d had their initial training, they’d been thrown in at the deep end more than once. They’d always said they found recruits learned more through failure than they did through success.

  That was a very spirit caller attitude to the process and Pete had to appreciate that. The irony of it was that his skills in that respect hadn’t really been tested since he’d come here. He’d been at the Quin-C though and so had Dan Roberts. Theo had gotten to the final and could well have won it if it hadn’t been for circumstances beyond his control. He certainly couldn’t say that he’d lost it, given the official result had been declared as a draw. Rumour had it they’d offered to split the prize purse between the two finalists, but Theo had declined it. They’d given Scott the full pot and Pete knew his best friend had had no qualms about accepting it. He’d have been more surprised if he’d turned it down.

  That wasn’t important right now. Getting out was.

  Pete rocked himself side to side, trying to see how much of his body he could move. His legs weren’t secured, he wondered if they’d done that deliberately. Trying to second-guess the instructors made his head hurt. He didn’t know what they had or hadn’t done, wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to work them out. Again, not important. He wondered if this was what the attitude part of the test was about. Seeing how they adapted to circumstances out of their control and reacted to them. That could have covered composure as well. If he were to dwell on what it meant to succeed, he’d probably end up failing.

  He continued to rock, lifted his head to try and get a better view of the surrounding area. If five means of escape were obvious and five not so, then he’d wanted to find one of the easy ones. He couldn’t move his arms, not easily anyway and he had to grimace as he stared around the room, his neck muscles on fire. All he could see was the shadows under his bed. No joy there, not unless his eyes adjusted to the dark and soon. It wasn’t impossible that something could have been hidden under there but short of jerking himself under there in some sort of clumsy roll, he wasn’t about to find out. He certainly couldn’t reach under and have a good root around, no matter how easier that would have made things.

  “Pete? Theo?” That was Dan Roberts and he sounded a little thick in his words, like he’d taken a punch to the mouth. “You guys okay?”

  “Clearly,” Theo said. He hadn’t lost the sarcastic touch, even despite the kicking that he’d taken earlier. Pete had been hoping that being beaten up would have calmed him a little. He’d been hoping that for the best part of the last few months. If anything, it had made him more obnoxious. He clearly wasn’t someone who took hints about his attitude. Divines alone knew what he’d be like when he was fully minted as an agent and had the skillset to back up his mouth. “We’re all just peachy pie over here. Wonderful, even.”

  “What he means to say, I’m sure,” Pete said. “Is that they’ve not punched the sarcasm out of him yet. Doctors remain hopeful, but the verdict is that it’s unlikely at this point. He’s terminal. No hope for him.”

  “Are you still beating your gums, Jacobs?” Theo asked. “Or are you looking for the way out of here?”

  “Ways,” Dan offered. “He said there were more than one. Ten, yeah?”

  “Here’s hoping that there’s not an unpleasant one like breaking your own thumb to get out of it or cutting your hand off,” Theo said, a little unhelpfully Pete thought. He doubted they’d leave
some sort of cutting implement about for that purpose. Training for the real thing would only get you so far. Having your cadets maim themselves in an exercise like this would be futile. “Mind you…”

  Theo tailed off, Pete heard the crack followed by a high-pitched yelp an instant later, a sound he thought he’d never have heard Theo make. Seconds later, he saw a wincing Theo stand, clutching his hand to his chest. He didn’t look badly hurt, more pained than anything else, his face pale and his breathing heavy but he was free and moving.

  “Seriously?” Dan asked. “Did you just break your own thumb? Hard core, man!”

  “Which one of us just got out first?” Theo asked, heading for the door. He paused to blow the two of them a kiss. “See you in a few days when you work it out. Top score all the way.”

  Silence reigned as the door slammed behind him, Pete had to fight to roll his eyes. It wouldn’t have done much good for anyone. Theo wasn’t going to see it, he decided to try and roll onto his other side, get a better view of his environment around there. He rocked his body back and forth, winced as he trapped his arm underneath him, managed to drag his full weight off it and look around. He could see Roberts’ foot almost in his face.

  “What’re you doing?” Dan asked. “You trying to wriggle free?”

  The door opened again, a voice came in from outside. “One more thing. Anyone else who tries escaping by breaking their own thumb is immediately dropped to the bottom of the pile. That was one of the hidden ways, just so you know. It’s crude but effective in the right set of circumstances. Some more recent models got adapted so that they couldn’t be broken out of that way. We gave you an old model. Because we’re kind like that.”

  If that was kind, he wasn’t sure what their cruelty looked like.