The Covert Academy (6 page)

Joshua couldn’t see a thing. He gripped the side of the raft with both hands, his only reassurance against the pitch-black depths.

‘How far can this bucket take us?’ he asked.

‘Canada,’ Sarah responded matter-of-factly.

Joshua swallowed his next question, though he couldn’t help but keep his eyes glued to the shapely outline in front of him. She kept her back to him, concentrating on navigation, and Joshua didn’t mind in the least. The view was the best he’d had in years.

The trip continued in silence, the only sound was the gentle slap of the waves against the raft as it powered through the night. He wondered how they could move so fast without hearing so much as a purr from the engine. Another question to save for later.

He sighed. What had he got himself into? At least the smell out here was a huge improvement over the city, their sweaty stench mixing with the freshwater spray in the air.

The repetitive motion of the boat lulled him into a sleepy stupor. His first decent rest in what seemed like days.

All too soon, Joshua was awakened by a soft noise from out in the inky blackness. As it got closer he could make out a distinct
whump, whump, whump.

Sarah killed the engine and they drifted. Something
whooshed overhead, blocking the stars from view. The downward air pressure flattened Joshua to the bottom of the raft. The next moment they struck something solid and the raft came to a sudden stop. Sarah hopped out, her boots softly padding on solid ground.

‘Aren’t we in the middle of the lake any more?’ Joshua asked as he peeked over the edge of the raft. Softly glowing runway lights on a dull metal surface greeted him. He could reach out and brush them with his hand.

‘Come on, help me pull this up, lazy,’ Sarah said with a laugh.

Joshua jumped over the side and leant a hand, pulling the raft up a short ramp to level ground.

‘What is this?’ he asked, dumping the boat at the top.

Sarah just looked ahead as a light came on in a doorway and a man stepped through.

He wore a dull green flight suit, hanging loosely off a lanky frame and tanned skin. He had a baseball cap pushed over a mess of sandy hair, with a fringe peeking out the front down to his smiling green eyes.

‘Hey man, welcome aboard the Nyctalopia,’ he said and stretched out a hand to shake. ‘I’m Richard. Clever name eh? The ship’s I mean, not mine, ha ha! I call her
Nicky
for short. Bit easier than nik-tah-low-pee-yah! And you’re Joshua right?’ He didn’t wait for a confirmation. ‘Cool, well, lets get some food in ya, damn you look like you could use a good feed bro, ha ha! No worries... this way.’

He turned and walked back the way he had come, leaving Joshua staring after him.

‘Don’t mind him,’ said Sarah. ’He just likes to show off his boat. But I could go for some chow too.’ She walked after Richard, with Joshua hurrying to catch up.

They found him in what was clearly the galley. There was row upon row of plastic wrapped meals stacked on shelves, three microwave ovens, coffee and tea set out on a circular table in the middle, and a fridge filled with treasures Joshua could only imagine.

So this is what heaven is like
, he thought.

‘Help yourself mate,’ said Richard. ‘I’d go for the microwavable stuff, it’ll warm you up a bit.
Nicky
here zaps a good bowl of noodles, among other things, ha ha.’ He patted the wall. ‘But be quick eh, we’ve gotta lift off ASAP.’

Joshua looked at him. ‘Lift off? I thought you said this was a ship.’

Richard just grinned and raised his eyebrows while Sarah sat down at the table and strapped herself in. She sipped at a water bottle, and took a perfect kiwifruit out of her front pocket, all at ease. She began to peel away the skin with her sword.

‘Stop teasing the poor boy, Richard,’ she said.

‘Ahem. Boy?’ Joshua stood at his full height, which was well over what someone with his lack of nourishment would normally reach. He had always struggled to grow a beard, but he could use his boyish looks to his advantage on the streets. There were still good people with some small reserve of pity in them for the throngs of the needy. ‘You can’t be much more than me. How old are you two?’

Richard answered for Sarah, ‘We’re both twenty, which my guess is the same as you mate.’ Joshua threw him a look. ‘Jeez don’t fret, she was just joshin’ ya, Joshua. We were even in the same class for a while, until...’

‘I think we should let Case explain the details, Richard,’ Sarah cut in, popping half the kiwifruit in her mouth.

‘Right. Well, y
ou two strap yourselves down, I’ll go get
Nicky
’s engine running.’ He winked and walked out, disappearing up a ladder in the hallway.

Joshua walked over to the shelf and picked an item with densely packed sugar content. He poured it into a bowl.

‘I could defin
itely get tired of dry rat meat,’ he said aloud, then remembered Sarah was still there. He put his hand over his mouth. ‘Oh sh-’

‘Forget it,’ said Sarah. ‘You did what you had to in order to survive. Most people in your position wouldn’t have made it a day. The last twenty years have proven that if nothing else.’

Joshua let out a breath. ‘Thanks.’ He turned away, blushing again, his bowl of dessert forgotten. ‘So will you answer my questions now?’

‘I thought I had.’ Sarah looked blank.

‘No. You dodged the questions faster than you dodged those soldiers. You killed them. You didn't have to do that.’

‘I was saving your ass. What else do you need to know?’

‘You can’t be dragging me along on this secret spy tour just so I can sell my little eye to your boss. The way you overpowered the soldiers...’ Joshua shook his head remembering. ‘You could have just taken it from me. So why bring me along instead?’

Sarah nodded slowly. ‘Fair question.’

‘...And where are we going?’ Joshua continued, then as if on cue, the bottom of his stomach dropped away. His ears popped. So “
Nicky
” was airborne now. ‘And what is this thing we’re on? And just who
are
you?’

Sarah sighed patiently. ‘My name is Sarah Jensen. I’m taking you to
the head trainer of the Academy in the Pacific Ocean. We’re on a heavily modified SWATCH-20. That means “Space Water Air Terrain Carrier Hybrid” by the way. Which, in about fifteen minutes, will pass out of the Earth’s atmosphere at 40 kilometres or so straight up. The trip to the base will take just under an hour and a half.’

She paused while Joshua stood there gaping. ‘The Academy is real. It was founded first in Japan during the early days of World War Three. They struggled to maintain secrecy so they moved out into the Pacific.’ She chuckled, ‘Heh heh... Japan was apparently a crowded place back then.’ Serious again, Sarah continued. ‘Since day one we’ve been dedicated to disrupting production and, eventually,
the destruction of all drones through guerrilla warfare,’ she smiled. ‘It’s a slow process.’

Joshua nodded, ‘And the General’s eye?’

‘Yes, we want to tear apart that prize iPC device you found,’ Sarah admitted. ‘But more than that, I saw how you did against those Confederates today. You were quick, creative, and even merciful. Qualities I’m sorry to say we lack,’ she paused for the big finale. ‘I’m planning to fast track your application to join us.’

Joshua sat down, head in hands, too awestruck to speak. Sarah gave him time to think. Slowly, he looked up into Sarah’s eyes.

‘I don’t want to join your little club,’ he said. ‘I’m not in this for you, I just want to get paid for my trouble and get back to my life.’ Sarah’s eyes lost focus for a few moments.

Someone else
is talking to her again... that or she really is nuts
, thought Joshua. She seemed to snap out of it and said in an entirely non-confidential tone, ‘Not much of a life you’ve got there, Josh.’

‘Joshua,
’ he corrected her.

Sarah pushed ahead. ‘Your father died in a food riot in Milwaukee, your uncles and aunts gunned down by the imploding U.S. Army during the war, your mother starved to death shortly after the economy collapsed,’ she paused after each one while someone fed her the lines. She looked only as sympathetic as was possible from having heard similar stories like this many times before. ‘And... a sister. You have a sister. Had. Taken to the Colonnade, six years ago.’

She stopped and a genuine look of pity came over her face. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘That’s why you were there today.’

Joshua swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. ‘I’ll find her,’ he said.

‘Even after six years in the Colonnade?’ she put the question to him as delicately as possible. She knew his sister was better off dead.

He didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer
that
question if he tried. The silence stretched on and the room became awkward. ‘I think I’d like that pudding now,’ he said.

Sarah chuckled. ‘Oh wait, you might want to...’

As Joshua stood to retrieve his bowl, the ship’s engines cut out, and Joshua floated up to the ceiling with the sticky pudding splattering on his face. He looked down at Sarah pathetically, then his face broke into a huge messy, sugary grin.

Sarah let loose and laughed out loud. ‘
Okay, let’s get you cleaned up and somewhere to rest that isn’t on the roof.’

Having shown Joshua to the shower and a spare cabin, Sarah climbed up the last rung of the ladder to the cockpit. She slumped into the copilot’s chair.

‘Hey, you holding up over there?’ Richard glanced over.

‘Hmm?’ she sleepily replied.

‘I mean, can you hold that up for me? That panel there, yeah. It keeps falling on that secondary comm button.’

Sarah swivelled around, gazing over the banks of lights and panels. She propped up her arm to hold the offending item. Wit
h the other hand she pulled another kiwifruit from her pocket, perfectly undamaged, and held it out for Richard. He grinned. ‘Cheers. So how’s our passenger? Or should I call him recruit?’

‘He won’t decide that easily, it’ll take more than the promise of three hots and a cot,’ said Sarah.

Richard remained buoyant between munches on the fruit, ‘Well, give him some time, seems like he could-’

The
ship’s communicator hissed throughout the cramped room. Richard flipped a few switches over his shoulder, all business.

A voice came over the comm.
‘Come in aircraft Nyctalopia... this is Ground One Oh Two Oh, we have you on our screens. Requesting transmission security clearance code, over.’

‘We passed through the blackout b
arrier already?’ Sarah asked.

Richard smiled at Sarah in confirmation and touched his headset mic. ‘Itchy! Is that you? They got you on ATC duty now? Pulled the short straw this week eh, ha ha!’

The voice came back short and terse. ‘That is Hashi Ichiro to you. Just give me the
imaimashī kami
code.’ Richard chuckled at that, while the voice continued. ’...And say “over” when you have finished speaking on the communication system. Over.’

Richard covered his mic with his hand and lea
ned over to Sarah. ‘I guess he's a bit sore at being left minding the shop on this mission. No honour in that or some such most likely.’

‘You better give him the code,’ Sarah
chided. ‘May I remind you that the Air Traffic Control also has access to the SAMs?’

Richard at least had the decency to wipe the grin off his face. ‘Hey
Itchy and me are bros. He wouldn’t fire a missile at us.’

Sarah just looked at him, unblinking. Richard uncovered his mic. ‘
Okay mate, keep your skirt on. Here we go, commencing transmission.’ Sarah cleared her throat. ‘...Over.’ Richard finished, the grin back in place.

He turned on the autopilot, got up, and took a step over to a nearby panel shaped like a synth keyboard. The relic had to be at least 50 years old. It looked very tacked on and out of place on the sleek profile of the aircraft. He hit a series of thirteen notes, the opening riff from one of Casey’s favourite classic rock songs.

Never gets old
, Sarah thought, very nearly letting herself nod her head in time with the tune.

The comm hissed again.
‘Nyctalopia is cleared for landing,
orokana pairotto
.
Naze watashi wa kore o gaman shinakereba narimasen
...
Over.’ The channel closed.

‘Do you think he was talking about me?’ Richard flopped back down into the pilot’s chair.

‘Oh, Ichiro-san only speaks Japanese when he doesn’t want you to know when he’s talking about you,’ Sarah said with mock severity. ‘I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you too.’

Richard lightly punched her shoulder. ‘Yer all right Jensen... fer a civilian,’ he said, putting on a strong Texan accent in a half decent imitation of Master Casey. Sarah gave a small chuckle.