Justin smiled and nodded, looking much more relaxed. "Thanks."
"No worries, kid."
Our conversation stopped when we arrived at the mansion. Once Gus had parked around the back of the building we all got out. Justin and the officer made their way into the building much as Bradley and I had on my first day. I waved to him as he left.
"I have reports to write," Gus said, bringing my attention back to him, "so make it quick okay?"
I nodded. "The medicine used here is advanced stuff, no?" At his nod I continued. "When I spoke to the doctor, he told me that it was rare?"
Gus crossed his arms. "He designed it himself. You can't get it anywhere else but within our military. All the production is here, and we ship what we can to our facilities around the country, but the supply is short."
I frowned at his words. "You don't have better labs than this mansion for that kind of thing?"
Gus gave me a smug smile. "The facilities underneath this mansion are top tier. Nowhere else in the country can produce the things we make in this facility. What you've seen of it, in your box training, is only scratching the surface."
I stored that knowledge for later, but tried to get the conversation back on track. "You mentioned the supply being short. That's what I wanted to ask you about. Where do we get the supplies from?"
Gus gave me a small frown. "That's a little above your pay grade yet. It's operations business."
I nodded. "I understand. All I want to know is what I can do to help."
His eyes squinted at me for a few seconds. I met his gaze with my head held high and waited from him to come to a decision. He nodded.
"I can't tell you anything about the ops, but I can tell you this. If you want to get involved in the retrieval business, you will need to be in the top five percent for all grades. It's elite business. You got that?"
I smiled at him and nodded. "Sounds good to me."
He raised an eyebrow. "It won't be easy. You sure you're up for it?"
Sarah laughed from beside me. "Trust me, this one won't stop until she's top one percent."
I smiled my thanks at her and turned back to Sergeant Peterson. He looked at me for a few more seconds before shrugging and turning to make his way toward the mansion.
"If you want a head start, do your research on infiltration tactics. The places we get the stuff aren't dairy farms, understand?"
I saluted. "Sir, yes, sir."
He paused and turned to look over his shoulder. "And perhaps stay away from the table tennis."
I grinned at him as he turned back toward the mansion, and then turned myself and started toward the training grounds.
Sarah grabbed my shoulder. "What do you think you're doing?"
"It's like you said: I've been in bed for a few days. Time to catch up on my training."
Sarah opened her mouth to respond, but just shook her head and started walking along side me.
"If you die I'm taking my bunk back."
***
Bradley cleared his throat from the doorway of the doctors office. "Are you ready to talk to me yet?"
I was getting my scans to make sure it was safe to take off my ankle brace today. I could have pushed my way past him into the room, but instead I sighed, nodded, and sat down on one of the chairs outside the office.
I looked up at him when we sat. "How's the training been?"
Bradley gave a shrug. "Pretty much the same as normal."
I had heard from Sarah that he had been in much more of a punishing mood than usual for the past few weeks.
Bradley cleared his throat. "I hear you've been holding your own though."
I nodded. The general had modified my training schedule to accommodate my ankle, but that had only gotten me to put more effort in than normal. The first week had been a nightmare with my headaches, but they had lessened to the point where I was almost unable to feel it any more. I still had spells where it would come back hard for a few minutes, but I hadn't had an episode like that for days now. I was beyond the worst of it.
I took a breath to collect my thoughts. "I've been avoiding you." He frowned, but nodded, so I continued. "It's not that I don't want to see you. It's just that I needed to sort everything out. I needed to make sure that I could trust you."
Bradley opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off.
"You knew the trust issues I had with people, and yet you still chose to lie to me. It was a lie of omission, of course, but a lie nonetheless."
Bradley gave a sigh. "I know. I can't take that back, but I just want you to know that I only did it because I didn't think it mattered. I didn't think it would be an issue."
I shook my head. "You did it because you were uncomfortable about it. I understand that, by the way, but it just makes you come off as selfish. You should have been honest with me."
Bradley nodded. "I know, and if I were ever given another chance I wouldn't make that same mistake again."
I frowned up at him. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"You can't for sure, but if you are willing to give me the chance I'd like to show you that I can be trustworthy. I've made mistakes in the past, but this is the first time I have ever regretted making them. I can learn to be a better person—the person you deserve me to be."
I sighed and looked over to him. I had spent a long time thinking about it, and had been flicking back and forth between the two options. I was leaning toward just being alone again, but seeing him here so earnest and open made the choice seem simpler.
"Okay." His eyes flicked up to mine, but I held up a hand. "But it will take some for me to get used to it."
He smiled and reached over toward me, pausing before taking my hand. I lifted my hand to his and smiled as he wrapped both of his around it. The warmth and comfort were still there, just as they were on that first day. I just hoped that he could live up to his end of the deal.
TWENTY-SIX
It had been two months since the doctor had removed my brace, and I had redoubled my efforts to get back to the level of fitness I was at before. I felt like I was there, but if I knew anything about this kind of thing it was that there was always room for improvement. I just hoped I had improved enough.
I stepped up to the top of the platform to begin my run through the custom course that had been set up the week prior. Once a year initiates ran tests on their ability in various areas. The result was a ranking that determined how much choice they would have in their placements. The higher the score, the more freedom you had to go where you wished.
As I hadn't been here for a year yet I wasn't required to take the tests, but I volunteered for them. If my results were good enough I could get on the advanced track early. Gus had told me to study infiltration, but the books in the library about that kind of thing were officer level and out of my reach. Bradley was a stickler for rules, so I wasn't getting any help from that avenue.
All I needed now was the get a high enough score to qualify myself for the courses I wanted. If successful I'd have more avenues open to me, and more knowledge to direct myself to taking the right path.
The man to my right cleared his throat. "Are you ready to begin, Private Murray?"
Those who had designed the course had done so in secret so that no-one could get an advantage over anyone else. Large temporary walls were in place to keep out prying eyes while they built the place.
I turned to the test conductor and nodded. He lifted a starter pistol above his head, so I turned back to look down the tunnel and waited.
The gun went off.
I tore from the starting line and plunged into the tunnel, slowing only enough for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I reached the first corner and swung myself around it to find myself face to face with a firing squad. As the rifles in the hands of the puppets exploded with fire I reached inside myself and pressed hard, activating my pulse. The wave swept out from my body, and I ducked under the now immobile bullets and ran off the the side and behind the puppets. As time
returned I glanced at the wall behind me where I was standing to see paint exploding against the steel and breathed a sigh of relief.
At least they weren't trying to kill me.
The puppets continued to fire long after I wasn't there any more. They must have been on a trigger switch. I stepped forward when the clips clicked empty and ran to the nearest puppet. With a leaping kick I took the first one down and within moments had the other two disarmed as well.
I turned away from the neutralized threat and made my way down the hallway at a slower pace. I was looking around for the next obstacle when it came down and slammed me in the chest. The wooden pole shattered against me and blew the wind from my lungs. I managed to keep my feet and turned away from the next one that came down for me, missing my head by inches. I ducked and weaved through the poles as they came out of holes I hadn't seen in my earlier haste, and after about twenty feet cleared the area.
The next room I came across was a shock. It was a small room that was lit well with a large table in the middle. I could see three logic puzzles sitting in the center of the table, but looked passed them to the door. There was no handle on the door, nor any visible way to open them. I cursed and looked back at the puzzles. I was going to have to solve them. I started to sweat and I reached for the first one. I wasn't the best at these kind of things. My scores in spatial intelligence and problem solving weren't the best. My area was more in action, not in the mind. I lifted the first device and began to spin it in my hands anyway. I needed to sort them out.
The first was a simple maze ball and took about five minutes to complete. I was just starting on the second, a cube based rotation puzzle, when an electric jolt ran through the thing and into my hands. I jumped from the shock and dropped the device. As it came in contact with the table it jumbled again. I swore under my breath and picked it up to start from scratch.
Ten minutes and a lot of swearing later, I clicked the last row into place on the device. I was shaking from the electric jolts, and it felt like someone had driven a nail behind my eyes. I shook my head to clear it and dropped the puzzle down onto the table. The moment it made contact with the steel the door in front of me slid up to open the path to the next obstacle. I looked down at the third puzzle and shrugged. Must have only needed to do two of them.
I scrambled around the table and made my way through to the next section of the test, pausing when I reached an intersection. I didn't have time to question so I picked the left and started running as fast as I could. When I got to another intersection, I took the left again. At the third intersection I turned left still, but cried out in shock as I almost collided head first with a wall.
I spun on my feet and looked back the way I had came, realizing what this was. I was in a maze. I cursed and tried to think back what Sarah had taught me about path prediction in our math classes. I gave up on the more complicated theory and did the first thing that came to mind—kept turning left. I figured if I followed one wall I would get out of here in no time.
What was a lot more than no time later I stepped out of the maze and into a large section that looked much like the obstacle course I had trained on. I grinned and started running hard, making my way through it with practiced ease. Although the course wasn't the same as outs, it was similar enough that I had no issues at all with the navigation. After a few minutes I was through with my breathing only a little labored.
I stepped through the next doorway and found myself in a large empty room, with nothing but a small table in front of me. Laid out on the table was a variety of weapons. I grinned as I stepped forward and picked up a belt with two holstered pistols and wrapped it around my body.
I turned and stepped over a green line on the floor and the lights around me went dim. A sound to my left caused me to dive forward. As I came back up I could see out of the corner of my eye a mechanical puppet that attached to a groove in the ceiling. The grooves ran everywhere, so there was no predictable path for it to follow, and it spun back to launch itself at me again.
I twisted myself around the bot, but this time instead of jumping away I reached around and pulled the head of the thing backwards. A crunching sound emitted from the machine and it fell to the ground. I was halfway through wiping the sweat off my forehead when another two dropped down either side. I leapt forward into a roll and as I came back up into a kneeling position I pulled out the two pistols and fired.
The first took the shots to the face, collapsing right away, but the second dodged away from my bullets and came at me again. A step to the side and a spinning kick with my heel caused electrical sparks to fly from the machine. It drooped along with the others.
I turned to face the next threat and saw another robot standing a few feet from me. The difference in this one was that it wasn't attached to any track, and seemed to be floating in the air. I stared at the things as it hovered, wondering what could have caused it to be able to sustain itself like that. I stopped pondering the source of its power as it launched itself at me.
I lifted my guns but the thing was too fast, knocking the guns from me hand and slamming one of its appendages into my head. I stumbled from the blow, but turned away from its follow up and out of reach of its next attack. I used its momentum from the miss to latch onto its arm and spun it around me, lifting it up to slam it into the ground.
The thing landed with a thump, but the satisfying crunch I had heard from the earlier three wasn't there. The thing stood up again and launched itself at me. It wasn't as stupid this time, and when I went to counter it the machine blocked me and twisted my arm around the back of my body. The damn thing could learn! It pushed me forward before I could react and used another of its limbs to take out my legs. I cried out in pain as my head slammed hard into the ground.
I blinked the stars out of my eyes and shook my head. Something was wrong. I could taste snow. It didn't make any sense—I was in the test arena. Or was I by the lake? I turned up to look at the thing that held me, but it wasn't a thing any more.
It was Jane.
Jane was standing above me and beating my head into the ground. It was like I was outside of my body, but unable to move. I could see her drag my still form forward and push my head under the water. I could see my body struggle, but there was no leverage to get her off me. No way out.
This was me dying.
Benny stepped up beside Jane and grabbed her, pulling her hard off me and throwing her to the ground, and then pulled me out of the water.
"What!" Jane screamed at him.
"You're going to kill her."
Jane's eye widened. She looked down at my body, as if seeing me for the first time. "Oh god." She jumped forward and pulled me out of the pond. She pressed her ear up against my mouth. "She's breathing."
Benny stepped forward and pulled Jane back from me. "We need to get out of here."
Jane tried to fight against him, but she looked like she was in shock. "I… I didn't… I…" He dragged her away and out of the clearing.
The scene faded I came back to my body and realized the metal robot was no longer above me. It was below me and I was punching it. The thing wasn't moving, so I pushed myself off it and crawled backward on my hands and feet away from it. The blood from my torn apart hands left stains on the floor as I scrambled backward. I realized then that tears were streaming down my face.
I wiped my eyes clear and shook my head to rid it of the memories that now filled it. When I turned to look at the doorway I saw a test conductor standing with his mouth wide. I swallowed hard and stood to make my way over to him.
"Is that the end of the test?" I wiped the blood from my hands onto my shirt.
The man nodded, still staring at me with his mouth open wide.
"Permission to leave, sir?"
He nodded again, and I turned from him and make my way out of the last doorway. Sarah was waiting at the end of the course with a big grin on her face, but that died the moment she saw the condition I was in.
"What happened?"<
br />
I blinked a few times to stop the world from going blurry. "Can we go back to the barracks? I think I need to lie down for a while."
Sarah looked from me to the test conductor who had made his way out of the room and was in heated discussion with a group of other people. From where I sat I thought I could see the General to one side of the group, but I couldn't be sure of it.
Sarah put her arm under mine and took some of my weight. "Let's go."
I let her help carry me back to our room in the barracks.
We had only been there five minutes before the door flew open and Bradley stormed into our room. "What the hell happened in there?"
I winced as a shock of pain went through my head. "Can you keep it down?"
He grimaced as he looked down to see me lying on my bed holding an ice pack on my head. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Sorry." He walked over an sat on the side of the bed, taking my free hand into his. "They won't tell me anything. The only thing I know is what I overheard before they realized I was standing there."
Sarah raised an eyebrow from the foot of the bed. "What did they say?"
Bradley turned to look at her. "That the robot kept slamming her head into the ground, but she wouldn't pass out." He turned back to me. "The instructor rushed in there to stop it before it killed you, but I didn't hear any more. Care to fill me in?"
I sighed and looked at the wall. "I remember."
"Remember what?"
"Remember what happened in the clearing."
The two of them gasped. It would have been comical if I wasn't still trying to process it all.
Bradley looked down at me. "You got your memories back?"
"Yes. I think it was when the robot was hitting me. It… triggered something I guess?"
He was quiet for a few seconds. "Shit."
Sarah frowned. "That's not the reaction I would have expected. What's going on?"
"I shouldn't be telling you this," he said with a grimace, "but Jane's power. It's memory suppression."
Sarah stood from the bed. "And you didn't think this would be pertinent news after Alex was almost killed?"
The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse Page 17