The Covert Academy

by Peter Laurent

  Sarah quickly dressed and made her way up to the cockpit.

  Richard was there as ever. When he heard her coming he quickly began flipping switches and pushing random buttons.

  Sarah chuckled. ‘Playing with the windscreen wipers?’

  She plopped down into the copilot’s chair, tucked her legs under her chin and grinned over at Richard.

  ‘I’ll have you know this baby would fall right out of the sky without me at the helm,’ Richard said, playing along. ‘You’re lucky to have me.’

  ‘Oh I feel blessed.’

  ‘Is that what you kids call it these days?’ Richard said.

  Sarah’s smile dropped into a horrified expression. ‘You didn’t... could you hear-?’

  ‘She’s a small ship, not much goes on without me knowing it,’ Richard clarified.

  ‘Crap.’

  ‘Hey don’t sweat it. I won’t tell anyone. You never know which mission will be your last eh?’

  Sarah huffed at that and got up to leave. ‘We must be almost there. Send all the data you’ve got on the Fletchers down to the galley. Might as well brief the troops.’

  Within minutes everyone aboard the Nyctalopia except Richard was crammed around the table in the ship’s galley. It made a decent mobile briefing room with the help of an overhead 3D projector that beamed down a holographic map of Hawaii from the ceiling.

  The younger kids milled together like a flock of lost sheep. Joshua and Ichiro were pacing around the map like caged animals, eager to strike a blow against Ryan’s comrades.

  Joshua caught Sarah’s eye while she fiddled with the hologram controls and winked at her. Sarah didn’t return the gesture and instead focussed on zooming the map in to their landing zone on O’ahu.

  Hopefully being with him wasn’t a huge mistake, thought Sarah, groaning inwardly. Joshua could act so childish sometimes, and right now he looked about seconds away from shouting his feelings from a mountaintop. Well, she thought, I’ve got just the thing for him.

  Sarah swept the projected view around so that the image soared up a mountain and along a plateau.

  ‘Our one and only piece of intel on this mission are the co-ordinates given to us under duress from Mr. Meyrick. So at best we can assume that the Fletchers’ base, situated here...’ Sarah indicated the centre of the plateau, ‘...is a well-fortified position.’

  A grumble went around the room at that – it wasn’t very encouraging.

  ‘At worst,’ Sarah continued, ‘it could be ringed with traps, and have an army of assassins waiting to blow us out of the sky. We can’t get a scan of their defences through the thick foliage, so we’ll be dropped off above the beach at the treeline and running up the mountain on foot.’

  The knot of young kids fell silent and shrank back into the wall at those words. Sarah could see Joshua looking between her and them with a look of annoyance. He shook his head at her.

  Well I’ll be damned if I’ll sugar-coat it for these kids, Sarah thought. They had to grow up fast. She looked over them, seeing as much potential in there as she had in Joshua.

  Their new recruits were a regular melting pot of various cultures. Elayne, the Scottish girl, was clinging to William, an English lad. They were both young and tiny but had a grim determination in their faces. Eddie, a gigantic farm-boy from Kansas, leaned on a bulkhead with his eyes closed, as if he was in prayer.

  Sarah knew he wasn’t despairing, only getting himself mentally prepared.

  The last three were Marcas from Brazil, Kayla from South Africa and Alara from Turkey. They all knew the stakes. They glanced at each other, remembering who and what they were fighting for: to give their friends back at the Academy time to escape the coming Confederate assault.

  Sarah cleared her throat as she walked around the hologram to address them more directly.

  ‘So,’ she nodded, ‘this is what you’ve been training for. Pack your gear, but we travel light. Leave all that can be spared behind. Our goal is simple... we wipe them all out.’

  The Nicky skimmed across the waves, coming in low to the beach of western O’ahu. The ship reached the shore and continued inland, keeping low to the ground.

  No sign of any defensive weaponry so far, Sarah thought, as they flew over a derelict highway. They must have no idea we’re coming.

  She hung out the open cargo bay ramp, one arm wrapped around a hydraulic beam for support. She hefted a small oddly shaped pistol in her other hand with a hologram projecting out from the barrel, scanning for enemy gun emplacements. The results came up empty.

  Sarah looked over at Ichiro, on the other side of the ramp, doing the same as her.

  ‘Anything over there?’ she yelled over to him.

  Ichiro shook his head in a negative.

  Sarah yelled over her shoulder at the crowd waiting up the ramp. ‘We’re all clear, let’s-’

  The projection from the pistol suddenly flashed red and made a long low beeping sound. Sarah snapped back to it and fiddled with the controls.

  The Nyctalopia was flying over a long abandoned holiday resort, the buildings collapsed and the walls crumbling into dirty fountains and ponds. A golf course just beyond the resort raced toward them. The rolling hills seemed to make the ship act like a surfer as it skimmed over the contour of the landscape.

  Joshua had tethered himself to the ship and walked down the ramp to stand at Sarah’s shoulder.

  ‘Are you okay? What was that?’ he asked, a strong note of concern tingeing his voice.

  Sarah rolled her eyes without letting him see it. Typical male. Was he going to get over-protective of her now that they had been intimate?

  She sure hoped not. As far as she was concerned, it had been a moment of weakness while she had been conflicted about her own morality, and Joshua happened to be there when she needed him. She scolded herself for not realising he would treat it more seriously than that. Though now was not the time for that discussion in a committee.

  Sarah pointed at the clubhouse of the golf course as it sped towards them. The roof had been replaced with a satellite array.

  ‘That’s what this peashooter picked up.’ Sarah pointed at the dishes and antennae poking out of the house. They looked as run-down as the rest of the island they had seen so far, with cables running haphazardly in every direction. The golf course itself was far from playable, it was almost as overgrown as the jungle that climbed up Mt. Ka’ala in the distance. It was incredible anything here still operated.

  As Sarah and Joshua watched, the nearest antenna swivelled and pointed straight at them like a homing beacon. Then the rest of the antennae turned as they came into range. The dishes revolved more slowly than the antennae, but there was no doubt they had been spotted now.

  ‘Fire an EMP burst,’ Joshua ordered.

  Sarah hesitated. She didn’t see the point in firing at the scanning equipment now that they had already been detected.

  I should be giving the orders here, she thought. I have the most experience... but no, she corrected herself, Joshua is here to keep me from losing my marbles and killing everyone I see.

  She shrugged off the implications of losing her command. It was Joshua’s call. Sarah fired an electromagnetic pulse burst from the brick shaped pistol. The blue ball of energy drove across the rolling hills of the golf course.

  ‘Fore!’ Joshua yelled. Ichiro chuckled but Sarah threw him a dirty look. This wasn’t the time for jokes.

  The energy pulse smacked into the clubhouse and dissipated around the surface area. The satellite dishes stopped rotating to follow them.

  Joshua gave Sarah a pat on the back. ‘Nice one, babe. But they probably know we’re here now anyway,’ he said.

  Sarah rolled her eyes again. No kidding. The chauvinistic remark didn’t help either.

  Overloaded sparks of electricity from the EMP burst flared on the exposed wires recklessly strewn about the clubhouse. One caught on a nearby patch of hot dry grass, which blossomed into flame. Within seconds, a tongue of fire
licked the walls of a barn. There must have been something volatile in there because in the next instant, a massive explosion ripped through the building and a fireball arced into the sky.

  Barrels from within the barn soared through the air, causing major secondary explosions, then the clubhouse itself exploded along with it.

  Sarah couldn’t help but let out a cheer along with the kids waiting up the Nyctalopia’s ramp. Ichiro grinned as more buildings around the resort blew up in a daisy chain reaction below. The entire area had to be some kind of explosives manufacturing plant hidden within the resort.

  Gigantic fireballs arced up into the sky. One sprang up too close to the ship. The wash of heat pushed the Nyctalopia’s jets off balance, throwing the ship into a spin. The cheers and smiles turned to cries of alarm as the horizon spun around them. Red and orange warning lights and a siren blared throughout the cargo hold.

  Sarah activated her suit’s strength mode and clamped her hand down like a vice on to the ramp’s hydraulic arm. She swung out into the open air as the Nyctalopia spiralled out of control. On the opposite side, Ichiro wasn’t quite as fast. He was flicked out of the ship mid air and disappeared.

  Joshua was bounced violently on the end of his cable that tethered him to the ship. He was flung around the ramp onto the outside of the ship. All that Sarah could see of him was the cable tightly wrapped around the open ramp door.

  She dragged her eyes away up to the inside of the hold. The seven young students had formed a human chain, and were swaying in her direction. She grabbed hold of little Elayne’s outstretched arm, and was pulled back inside. They clutched at the handholds around the cargo bay, while G-forces tried to pull them back outside through the gaping maw. Without warning they slumped against the wall. The blaring noise of the sirens still drowned everything out, until Richard’s voice came over the comm.

  ‘Hold on to something!’ he yelled.

  Sarah tightened her grip on the handhold, as she saw Joshua climbing over the lip of the ramp, back into the ship.

  Then the Nyctalopia pitched head first into the dirt, throwing everyone against the walls. Something solid hit Sarah over the head, and she fell into darkness.

  Chapter 31

  Joshua blinked and everything slowly came into focus. He was looking up the boarding ramp. A tree’s branches swayed in the wind outside. The top of the tree. He was looking up at the sky out of the ship, which meant the Nyctalopia must have buried itself face first in the dirt.

  A movement slightly above him caught his attention. It was big Eddie from the Midwest, hauling Kayla over his shoulder. She wasn’t a lightweight herself, having made regular use of the boxing ring at the Academy. Yet Eddie was carrying her and climbing one-handed up the side of the ship to daylight. The added strength of his suit would have helped, but Joshua was impressed nonetheless.

  He looked around. Only Sarah was still here. He had his legs draped over her and she was unconscious.

  ‘Where are the others?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve got them outside already,’ Eddie managed between grunts of exertion.

  ‘And Richard?’

  Eddie paused at the top, one leg on either side as he shifted Kayla’s weight over. ‘You’d better see for yourself.’

  Joshua rolled off Sarah and edged up to her. He gently tapped her cheek with the back of one hand. She didn’t budge, but Joshua could feel her breath on his hand. She should snap out of it soon enough with her jumpsuit pumping her full of meds. He scooped her up, activated his suit’s strength, and climbed up after Eddie.

  The other students were stretched out on the grass. Eddie had done well to get them all out of the ship, though they weren’t in as much danger from blunt impacts with their jumpsuits on. The auto-meds would be firing through their systems even now.

  Joshua clambered over the ramp of the ship and dropped down to the ground.

  ‘Hey let me down!’ Sarah said from over his shoulder.

  ‘I knew you wouldn’t leave me so soon.’ Joshua smiled and placed her gently on her feet. Sarah brushed her hair back out of her face and looked him in the face.

  ‘Yeah about that...’ Sarah began.

  He stared back into her eyes like a lovesick puppy.

  Sarah glanced around at the others. One by one they began to sit up and shake their heads. Eddie just stood there, his earlier initiative seemingly evaporated. They needed someone to lead them, quick.

  Sarah pulled in close to Joshua. His grin widened at first but dropped when Sarah whispered fiercely in his ear. ‘These kids need instructions. Look at them,’ Sarah waved a hand around behind her. ‘Did you see what happened to Ichiro? That’s on you. So get your mind off me and on task!’

  Her voice had risen to a yell. Sarah turned around to see the kids watching her. She blushed, pushed her hair back, and left them staring in her wake as she stomped off to the front section of the buried ship.

  Joshua didn’t know whether to cough or gulp. He knew she was right, he had got distracted, made a bad call. He surveyed the smoking wreck of the Nyctalopia. A disastrous call.

  He went around each of the kids to check on how they had handled the crash landing. Eddie was waiting, with the eternal patience of a farmhand, for a new chore. Elayne and William were still out cold, but their eyes flickered as though they were dreaming. It wouldn’t be long before they woke up. Marcas was rubbing a bump on his head and muttering in Portuguese. Kayla was talking animatedly in her high-pitched voice to Alara, stoically taking the aural assault.

  Joshua suddenly realised this was the first real action they had seen outside of the Academy training grounds and whatever trials they had endured before being recruited. They must have stories as affecting as Joshua’s own sordid tale, and as diverse as each of their lineages. He would make sure to get know them one day, but for now he would be content with just keeping them alive.

  ‘Eddie, you seem to have a knack for climbing,’ Joshua said. ‘Get back up to the ramp and keep a lookout. If there’s anyone left on the island, they know we’re here.’

  Eddie bounded into action, and took up a perch on highest point of the Nyctalopia.

  ‘Kayla,’ Joshua said. She was explaining the finer points of the bio-ID’s mind-reading ability to Alara, who still wasn’t quite sure how it worked. ‘Kayla, quit your yakkin’. You spent the most time in the Academy infirmary yes?’

  ‘Oh yea, I was there all time, Dr. Edwards used to tell me-’

  ‘Never mind that,’ Joshua cut her off. ‘You’re our medic. See to Elayne and Will please.’

  Kayla stared back dumbly.

  ‘Now!’ Joshua finished.

  She snapped out of it and went over to check on the two youngest kids’ jumpsuit med settings. That just left Marcas and Alara. They were very nearly standing at attention as if they were on a parade ground.

  ‘Alara, see if you can find water. There might be some fresh-water springs nearby, we’ll need it. Tell Eddie which way you’re going, but don’t wander far.’

  Alara nodded, fixed on her task. Marcas winced though, he knew that instruction meant they were in for a hike through the jungle.

  Joshua pointed at him. ‘You, find any weapons you can.’

  Marcas nodded and trotted off with a “se desejar”. The wide stride of his muscled Latin-American frame pushed the foliage aside with ease. Now that everyone was finally busy, Joshua went to find Sarah.

  The sound of frantic digging caught his attention as he made his way round the buried ship. He could hear Sarah’s voice.

  ‘But you have no idea what damage has been done!’ she was saying.

  Joshua popped his head around the corner. ‘You’re not talking about us, I hope,’ meaning their relationship.

  ‘Oh grow up, you’re the last thing on my mind right now,’ Sarah shot back.

  Joshua was taken aback for a second, but was saved from having to think of a witty response by the distraction Richard was providing. He had found a shovel and was digging arou
nd one of the Nyctalopia’s buried jet intakes. It looked about as fruitless as the notion of the ship ever flying again.

  Richard was manic. ‘I can do it! I won’t leave my ship behind. There are more shovels, lend a hand. If we all-’

  ‘That’s enough Richie.’ Joshua grabbed the shovel. Richard seemed to deflate, but he let Joshua take the shovel. ‘Get Casey on the line.’

  ‘Yeah... yeah okay I can do that.’

  ‘Good, now Sarah-’ Joshua began.

  ‘Wait a tick,’ Richard cut in. ‘Why don’t you just call him? Have you still not got an iPC?’

  ‘Yeah. I mean no, I haven’t got one.’

  Richard gawked. ‘Mate, how can you even see anything without one?’

  ‘Call me crazy,’ Joshua said, ‘but the thought of one of those things inside me just-’

  Before he could finish his sentence, Alara’s youthful girlish scream came pouring through the jungle growth. They didn’t need a computer to tell that she was in trouble.

  Chapter 32

  ‘Stay with the ship!’ Joshua bellowed up at Eddie. Up on the aircraft’s tail, Eddie gave a smart salute, then pointed into the brush.

  ‘Allie went that way!’ he called back down. Joshua veered off in the direction he indicated, Richard and Sarah right behind him.

  ‘No you two stay here as well,’ Joshua said. ‘It’s the best position to defend. Besides if we fail you’ll have to blow it up.’

  Richard almost fainted.

  Sarah stopped short and put a hand on Richard’s shoulder. ‘He’s right, we can’t let the Fletchers get their hands on the Nicky. Come on, they can handle it.’

  As she led Richard back, Joshua pointed at Will and Elayne. They were still groggy from the fall.

  ‘You two stay as well, back them up,’ he ordered. To Kayla and Marcas he said, ‘You two, with me. Let’s go!’