The Covert Academy
Page 21
‘You know,’ said Will, ‘the computer was able to, sort of, “read” Marcas’ iPC before running the repairs.’
Joshua looked up, catching on. ‘I got the General’s iPC from Casey.’
Will looked sad at Casey’s name, but couldn’t hide his excitement.
Joshua looked to Sarah. ‘May I?’ He held a hand out. She gave him the iPC.
‘Better if you hold this anyway,’ Sarah said. ‘I don’t want to end up like Marcas eh? Ha ha!’ She gave him a jab in the ribs.
‘Hey! What?’ Marcas complained. ‘I don’t remember a thing, honest.’
‘Lucky you,’ said Kayla. She turned to Sarah. ‘Alara still needs medical treatment.’
‘I know a place,’ Sarah replied. ‘We’ll head there as soon as we can...’
While they talked amongst themselves, Joshua went over to the computer with William. He handed him General Withers’ iPC.
‘Don’t look into it directly,’ Joshua warned. ‘We don’t know who else may be watching.’
Will nodded and held it in front of the jet-engine shaped device that tapered down to a precision laser. He’d saved that along with the computer too. He tapped a button on the computer and the eyeball came to life.
Everyone fell silent.
‘Oh what is that?’ Kayla asked.
A beam of light poured out from the device, through the iPC eyeball that William held out, and projected a live-streaming video image on the wall of the Nyctalopia’s burnt out galley.
Joshua stared up at the wall and walked towards the images, perplexed. “Don’t lose what’s inside,” Casey had said. But inside what-? A notion occured to him, and he whipped out Casey’s sword.
Everyone took a step back.
He examined the sword closely, turning it over.
‘What is it?’ Sarah whispered.
Joshua turned the pommel, and it came right off in his hand. He lifted it up and a crumpled piece of paper fell out. He unfolded it against the wall, pressing it flat. It was the same photo of the High Council members they had found in Meyrick’s office. Casey must have rescued it for them after they’d left it in Meyrick’s interrogation room.
‘Casey installed the General’s iPC in himself,’ Joshua whispered to himself. ‘Then he got the photo from Meyrick. Casey would have used it on him...’
On the back of the photo, Casey had written a simple note.
It read: “Do not trust your sister. Meyrick knows the High Council are pawns. Go through them to get to the King. Find the Sanctuary before they do.”
Joshua gave up on the confusing note and turned the photo back over. He looked up and brushed his hand over the images on the wall. He suddenly recognised a face from the photo.
These were first-person views of the seventeen other members of the Confederate High Council. The General had seen them all together, and his iPC had stored their bio-IDs in its memory, logging their every movement should he wish to keep track of them. Just as Dr. Prewett had intended when he designed it.
Joshua grinned to himself.
This was how they would find the last of the High Council members. No matter how long it took, he’d hunt them down. And the Confederacy, that infernal organisation that had ruined so many lives, would be finished, once and for all.
His smile widened.
He would find these people.
Then he would kill them.
Epilogue
The leviathan transport cruiser rained down on the ocean in droplets of twisted metal. Larger chunks bobbed up for several minutes until the air bubbles were forced out, then they too sank beneath the waves. Sunrays broke through the surface of the water and bounced merrily off the plunging rubble.
The light became obscured as the murky silhouettes of a hundred bodies plummeted in search of their watery graves. Men and women who were gifted enough to be chosen over their destitute peers for a life of security and servitude, but too weak to defy their master’s wicked ways. This was the price for their lack of conviction.
Yet their master fell with them, his machinations of intimidation and control turned against him, bringing about his downfall by his own hand. Simeon Warner’s body was enveloped by the crushing weight of the ocean, disappearing into the history books as simply another over confident power-hungry despot, an oligarch, whose reach had exceeded his grasp.
But the Confederacy lived on without him. With Simeon and General Withers dead, a power vacuum was left in their place. The remaining members of the High Council would play their mind games on each other, build their military forces, research new technologies and salvage what they could from the now-empty Colonnade.
These seventeen men and women of exceptional ability, who had brought themselves together in the name of peace, would now fight each other to the death. Anyone in their path would be crushed like ants.
They would do whatever it took to claim their reward - the world, and everything in it.
As the sun rose high once more over the ruined island where the Academy once lay hidden, Lucia’s tiny raft bumped into the sandy shore.
Raft was an overstatement. She wore the suit all Fletchers were supplied with by their benefactor. It was similar in design to the ones the Academy had developed.
When she had jumped from the crashing dropship, Lucia had inflated her suit around her, providing a cushioning impact on the concrete-like ocean. She had floated over the waves until she saw Simeon’s cruiser bearing down on the island in the distance. Assuming things would get messy, she had deflated her suit and switched it to strength mode.
On her suit this didn’t just enhance her muscles and add weight. It also hardened around her body in a thick impenetrable shell, protecting her from the crushing weight of the ocean as she sank to avoid the inevitable explosion from Simeon’s cruiser.
When debris and bodies sank down to her depth, she carefully adjusted her suit’s weight and brought herself slowly back to the surface. There was nothing to do after that but wait for the current to wash her in to the island.
Once she finally hit the beach, she turned her suit back to its normal state and staggered out of the water.
Wake Island had been devastated in the attack. The lush foliage had all been burned away to ash, much of it still smouldered. Thin wisps of smoke trailed high into the air. There were hunks of twisted metal strewn about, some of it even melted from the explosion.
Lucia wandered over the beach and up a small hill. If there were any bodies here, they had been turned to dust. The occasional black and crispy Academy jumpsuit caught her attention, but she ignored the mangled remnants of the students.
She gazed at the crater in the middle of the island where the lagoon had been. Water dripped down into the gaping chasm, extending hundreds of metres into the Earth. If anyone had been down there, they had suffered a quick death.
In her bedraggled state, Lucia didn’t notice the five ghostly forms advancing on her. They converged on her location in a sweeping delta pattern, until they stood hovering only a few metres away. One by one they deactivated their suit’s camouflage. The men standing in front of her became visible in their inky black suits.
They lowered their weapons and stood at attention.
Lucia straightened her back. ‘They got out?’ she asked.
‘No ma’am,’ one of the Fletchers said. They kept their faces covered with hoods and goggles. None of the Fletchers would ever use iPCs from now on.
Lucia had seen first-hand the effect the smuggled super computer had on the maintenance men on O’ahu.
‘We’ve done a thorough forensic scan,’ the Fletcher said. ‘No sign of them on the island.’
Lucia pointed down the chasm to where the Academy had once housed hundreds of eager students. ‘You checked there?’
‘Yes, ma’am. No one could have survived that.’
Lucia nodded. ‘He’s dead then-’
One last Fletcher hurried up from the beach to them, panting hard. He pulled up in front of Lucia a
nd held out his hand. In it was a well-balanced hunting knife with heavy signs of repair on the handle. A handle she herself had once repaired, long ago. Joshua’s knife.
‘I found it off the coast,’ the new Fletcher reported. ‘In a raft of salvaged dropship parts.’
‘So my brother escaped,’ Lucia snatched the knife away. ‘He’s going to go after the other Council members.’
She marched off and the assassins fell in line behind her, forming a protective detail. On the far side of the island their stealth aircraft, an ancient but reliable variant on the classic Osprey design of rotating propeller engines, prepared for vertical take-off. It fired up its engines as silent and deadly as a knife in the dark.
Lucia jumped on board and turned back to the Fletcher assassins. Her Fletcher assassins.
They stood at attention, wary of her gaze, waiting for her orders.
‘Find him,’ she said. ‘Before it’s too late.’
To be continued...
Note from the Author
Thank you dear reader for investing your time into reading my work! The Covert Academy has been a labour of love for me in 2012 and during summer 2013 in New Zealand. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I plan to continue the story of Joshua, Sarah and all the others, in a trilogy of novels, through to its final epic conclusion.
Feel free to contact me on the Twitter machine or Goodreads, and if you enjoyed The Covert Academy please do leave an honest review on the Amazon store page.
Thank you!
-Petes
About the Author
Peter Laurent was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. He studied 3D animation in Auckland then worked full-time in Mount Maunganui. Peter then formed his own company, Indiana Games Limited, and has been freelancing art and animation back in Auckland ever since.
The Covert Academy is his first novel, borne of a passion for creative storytelling. It is the first in a planned, prospective trilogy.
Connect with the Author
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/petes117
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/petes117
Blog: http://www.indianagames.co.nz
Table of Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
Note from the Author
About the Author