After allowing this to sink in for a moment, he turned to the one who had been leading one of the groups. “What was the last clue your group found.”
“It was a map.”
“Yes, it was a map that led directly to the finish. How long did it take you to follow the map to the finish?”
“I don’t know, longer than we would have liked.”
“Why did it take so long?”
“We couldn’t follow it. It didn’t have enough detail for us to know where we were, and which direction we needed to go. We needed to find one of the doors to gain our bearing first.”
“Everybody look up.”
At Donny’s command, the whole group began looking around at the ceiling. Nobody seemed to be catching on to Donny’s meaning.
“The ceiling above you will almost always be visible, and should be used to keep your bearings. Any ideas how this could be done?”
One hand shot up. “You can tell how far you are from the sides by how high the ceiling is.”
“Good, since the ceiling is a dome, it is highest in the center, so we can tell our distance from the sides by that. What else?”
Another first year student volunteered information. “The dent over there is slightly east of the center, so if that is visible you could use it to tell which way is east.”
Donny could not help but be a little sad at the thought of the dent, since it reminded him of Jay. He quickly shook the feeling off. “Good thought, but it is east from where we are standing. It is actually a little south of the center as well, so it needs to be kept in mind that it is not due east. Can anyone see another way to determine the directions?”
It was Zahrah who spoke up. Donny had not heard much from Zahrah or Michael at these practices, so even though they were both there, he sometimes forgot about them. “The catwalks. They run north to south, so by looking at them you can at least determine how to get to one of the doors.”
“Great! So now we have three ways of determining our location from the ceiling, and between the three we should have pretty good information. The catwalks show us north to south, the dent tells us which direction would be east, and from that we can figure out the four directions. Then the curvature tells us how far we are from the sides or the center.”
With directions settled, Donny decided it was time to move on. “Duke, is there anything you noticed that could be improved?”
“The team I was watching lost, so of course there are changes to be made. The big thing I have to add is that you guys need to communicate. You found two clues that would lead you to the map, and had you put them together you would have found it before the other team. The problem was that you didn’t check in with each other, so those two clues were never connected. A game plan should have been made with a strategy to get information to the rest of the team.”
“Can anyone think of a good way to do this?” Donny asked the group as a whole.
After a pause, one answer was tried. “What if we just yelled out what the clue was?”
Donny smiled at this. Not the best method, but at least it would have been better than nothing. “That would have gotten the information to those within earshot, but many of your own team would not have heard it, and many of the other team would have. Any other ideas?”
“If we were in groups, we could have a reader in each group, who could read the minds of the other groups,” A student suggested.
“Yes, this would have kept information flowing, but if our readers could see it, the readers from the other team could too. This also would have required us to stay in groups, limited by the number of available Prometheus.”
“What if the Hermes acted as runners, traveling around gathering and giving information to their team as they searched?” One student replied.
“Good, now we’re getting somewhere. Just because we need communication doesn’t mean we should use or Prometheus. We need to be able to have two way communication, and we need to keep it secret. For that, the Prometheus would not work. The Hermes sound like the best option at this point.”
With the game played, and a few improvements discussed, Donny was satisfied that they would have enough to think about until they met again the next day. He would have liked to continue the practice, but he was happy with the understanding the team was beginning to achieve. This practice had taught them that they need to think on their feet, and simple blind luck will not be enough. Afraid that continuing practice might ruin their current line of thinking, he dismissed them for the night.
DONNY AWOKE THE next morning to the sight of two official looking people, clearly part of the school’s administration, walking into his dorm room. They quickly noticed Donny, as his small stature caused him to stand out in a room full of Titans. They made no effort to hide the fact that they were there for him.
“Can I help you?”
Donny’s resident leader had stepped forward, intercepting the two men. He was shorter than they were, but clearly far stronger. The two administrators did not appear phased by his intimidating look.
“We need Donny for a few minutes. We need to ask him a few questions.”
“May I ask who you are, and on what authority you are taking my resident?”
“You would be failing as a resident leader if you did not. We are with the school, our job is to investigate the deaths or disappearances of students.” They showed their identification information, and were allowed to enter. Donny wondered what they would do if he refused to go with them, but thought better of it. I need to keep a clean slate. Now that I don’t serve a purpose here, I’m sure they would love a reason to throw me out of the school.
Donny walked with them in silence, all the way to the part of the school where the administrative offices were found. He had only been in this part of the Academy once before, when he was meeting with Captain Williams. They entered a room with a single long table, and Donny sat across the table from the two officials. He felt like he was there to be questioned for murder.
“Donny, did anything strange happen at your simulation games practice yesterday evening?”
Donny was thrown off by the question. Yesterday evening? What does that have anything to do with Jay’s supposed death? For a moment Donny dreaded the possibility that his informant had been caught. He wondered if the informant had been waiting at the practice to tell Donny something, and was discovered. Donny made sure to push these thoughts as far into the back of his head as he could manage. If the informant had not been caught, reading these thoughts would make it inevitable that he soon would be.
“No, I can’t recall anything unusual happening at practice. Why? What does yesterday’s practice have to do with my brother’s death?”
“We are not here to investigate your brother’s death, that case is closed. When is the last time you saw the student known as Snake?”
Donny’s stomach sank. They aren’t here for Jay, they are here for Michael. Donny assumed the school had done something to him too. Maybe he had figured something out about Jay’s disappearance, and the school did him in. No, that can’t be it. They wouldn’t be investigating if they had done it themselves. “The last time I saw him was shortly before practice ended. We were all together talking over strategy, and then I dismissed the team. I saw him in the group at that point, but then I got to talking with some other students, and when I turned to leave, he had already gone. What happened to him?”
“That is what we are trying to find out. He went missing last night, and apparently the last time he was seen was shortly after your practice. One student reported seeing him putting food and water in a backpack in the dining hall before walking out. That was the last reported sighting.”
Donny knew what this meant. The last time he had seen Michael with a backpack was when Michael had decided to go out looking for Jay. Donny new this had to be the case again. Donny knew a one man trip into the desert could not end well.
“You know where he’s going,” Donny blurted out. “Why aren’t yo
u out looking for him?”
The interrogators looked questioningly at Donny. “And where, may we ask, is he going?”
“He’s going into the desert. It’s the only reason for him to pack food and water, and it’s the only place he could go since the school is surrounded by desert. He took Jay’s death really hard. You need to find him.” Donny did not want to betray Michael, but a trip into the desert was suicide. If he had to turn to the school for help getting him back, he would.
“We are searching the desert already. Do you have any other information that could help in this investigation? A place he might be trying to go, or a reason for him to leave?”
I just told you! He’s looking for Jay! Donny wanted to exclaim, but he kept silent. Unable to think of a response, he simply answered, “No. I have no information that could help here.”
DONNY KNEW THERE was nothing he could do to help Michael, so he left his fate in the hands of those from the school that were searching for him. With the simulation games fast approaching, he could not afford to take any more days off, nor did he think it a good idea to call off practice in honor of Michael’s disappearance, as that would just draw unnecessary attention and worry to the situation.
He held practice that evening at its usual time, but when it came time to begin, Zahrah was nowhere to be found. Donny was watching for her, as he silently hoped that Michael would walk in with her, as he always had before. When the time for practice to start arrived, and neither Michael nor Zahrah showed up, Donny began to fear that Zahrah had gone with Michael, or gone out after him. His fears were calmed when Duke came over with a message.
“Zahrah is not feeling up to practice today. I hope you don’t mind, I told her it would be alright if she took the day off. I’ll get her up to speed later with what she misses.”
Donny wished he had known about this just a few moments earlier, but he was too relieved to be angry. “Yeah, that’s perfectly understandable. She’s a fast learner; she’ll be able to catch up.”
Donny and Duke ran another simulation, splitting the teams up in different combinations. Donny wanted the small research groups to get used to playing together, but he wanted them to be flexible with who else would accompany them on a team, so he varied the team compositions by moving around the small groups. Today’s simulation ran much smoother, however many mistakes were still made, and a long discussion was needed to review what could have been done differently.
Practices continued in this manner for the next few weeks. Zahrah rejoined the team the following day, and never took another day to herself. Her heart was not in it at first, but then her sadness turned to anger, and Donny found himself having to ask her to tone down a little, to make sure she did not harm herself or her teammates.
Michael was never found. Donny was unsure how long the school spent looking for him, but if they found any evidence of his whereabouts, the student body was never told. Rumors flew around, some saying he went off to hunt down the villains, some saying he had given up being a hero and was trying to get home, and still others were under the impression that he had gone crazy over the loss of his friend, and ran off into the desert to die. Donny hated to hear any of these rumors, and would tell anyone who repeated one in his earshot to shut their mouths. The other students quickly learned to keep their opinions on the subject away from Donny.
With Donny spending every waking hour engrossed in planning for the simulation games or in studying up on his classes or other topics he deemed useful, and spending the little time he slept dreaming about such things, the last week before the simulation games quickly arrived. Donny soon found himself studying the matchup sheet, with just four days until the start of the games.
He could not decide if they had made out well or not in their placement on the bracket. They had received a bye in the first round, which meant that they would not play on the first day, and would therefore only need to worry about one team that first weekend. The first and third ranked teams were also on the opposite side of the bracket, meaning that they could not face either of those teams any earlier than the finals. It would not be an easy climb however. Their first match would be against either the brown team or the white team, depending on which of them won their first game against each other. They are ranked fourth and fifth respectively. If they win, they will face either the yellow team, which is ranked second, or the gold team, which is ranked ninth. If they won that as well, they would be in the finals, most likely against either the blue team, ranked first, or the orange team, ranked third. As expected, Donny’s team was ranked last, which meant that he needed to be ready for any of them.
Donny decided to divide his remaining practices up in order to focus on defeating the brown team for two of them, and on defeating the white team for the other two. He had already contacted the group who had been studying the brown team and told them to be ready to lead the practice that evening, so that would be where he would start. Donny felt like his team had improved tremendously, and despite being comprised mostly of younger students, they were working as a team now, and had many tricks waiting. Despite their progress, he still saw many flaws. They were ready for the games, but he knew the other teams would be ready as well. It would come down to who could think on their feet, and use their resources most effectively. In short, it would come down to Donny himself.
CHAPTER 10
“ALRIGHT, YOU’VE BEEN studying the brown team for weeks, what can we expect if we find ourselves facing them?”
Donny was not kidding when he said the group researching the brown team would lead that evening’s practice. Donny had called the team together, then immediately handed the reigns over to the small group. After a staggering start, Donny realized he needed to ask them questions in order to get the discussions flowing.
“The brown team focuses mainly on Prometheus and Hermes power. They’re three best players are all Prometheus, so we think they will try to make this as much a mental game as possible.”
“What do you mean by a mental game?”
“I guess we were thinking they would try to get readings on us as soon as they could, and try to stay one step ahead of us. Maybe use our own plans against us.”
“Ok, you said it focuses on Prometheus and Hermes power, where do the Hermes come in?”
“Their strongest players are Prometheus, but looking at the composition of the team as a whole, they are about even between Prometheus and Hermes. They actually only have 2 Titans on the team, while they have 10 Prometheus and 9 Hermes. We expect that they would try to read our minds, and then do whatever needs to be done faster than we could with their Hermes.”
“What if the game required strength in some way?”
“We suspect that’s why the two Titans were put on the team, in order to have some strength if it’s needed. That leads to the first strategy we thought of, that if the game required strength, we should find a way to immobilize their Titans.”
“That sounds like a good starting point; we would just need to think of ways to do that. What if the game did not require strength?”
“If no strength is needed, the advantage would be theirs. We would need to find a way of keeping them out of our heads.”
“Ok, how many here have decent training in mental distortion or blocks?”
As Donny expected, very few of his team members raised their hands. Here’s one big disadvantage with having such a young team, their training on special techniques is limited. Donny thought. “It looks like keeping them out of our heads won’t work. What other possibilities do we have?”
The small group looked at each other. One of them decided to hazard an answer. “I guess we’ll just have to implement our plans quicker than them. We have some quick Hermes on our team too.”
Donny was hoping for a stronger plan of action than that, but they would begin there. They spent most of the practice working on quick communication and execution. Donny quickly realized that Zahrah was a strong player to have at this point – she was not ju
st the fastest Hermes around, she was also quick with understanding directions, and could think well on her feet. Donny felt confident that they had the advantage if it did come down to a single Hermes footrace. Nevertheless, he would have to think of a way to avoid it getting that far.
“YOU WANTED TO see us sir?”
“Yes. You have not checked in for quite some time, I take it all is under control?”
“Yes sir. The older brother crumbled even better than we expected, and the younger brother is showing no suspicious signs.”
“I have been watching some of the videos myself; I hardly agree that there have been no suspicious signs. Tell me, how long would you say little Donny mourned his brother’s death before being able to move on?”
“Well…not very long at all, sir.”
“Not very long indeed. From the first videos, he seemed already over what had happened. When exactly would you say he decided it was alright?”
“It took maybe a day sir. He was mostly angry after hearing the news, and remained angry for a few weeks, but after the first day his stray emotions were mostly gone.”
“And that is not suspicious? His older brother was his idol, and he was informed that his brother and idol was just killed by a group of villains, and it took less than a day for him to get over it?”
“He was not over it. He is still not over it; he just accepted it after a day.”
“Must be quite the kid. And what about the day he rested on the arena floor, before suddenly getting the idea to search through old war videos? What happened then?”
“Nothing happened then, sir. He must have been thinking about the simulation games, and decided it would be beneficial to find information on real battles.”
The Games Villains Play (The Academy Trilogy) Page 10