The Cupel Recruits (3 page)

As the crowd finished cheering and disbanded, small groups sprinkled the grassy area between the seating area and the line of buses. The vehicles had now pulled around to be lined up at the base of the hill path about 150 yards away. No one rushed, since they knew the core project teams would be boarding first and proceed before they could follow to the grand unveiling of the command center. They chatted about current events, caught up with colleagues and gathered food and drink from the small kiosks standing around the area.

Lela thought to herself how hungry she was, but brushed off the thought as an impossibility. ‘I’ll have to sneak away after the ribbon cutting’ she thought realistically. Bus numbers had been pre-assigned to the core team to speed the transition and each member was now making their way to their own bus number.

Lela stopped next to Bus #1, holding the core team members, and took a mental inventory of The Governor, Madame, the science team, including her Dad, Brother, Mr. Enam Bamidele and her mother, traveling up as a visitor with Mr. Aquila and Gabriel. Lela also spotted the small team from the United Nations, most of who were speaking to the Bus 1 African visitors, except Jasmine Free who had eyes for Gabriel throughout the entire project. Lela admired her brother’s ability to deftly deal with her advances without hurting her feelings. Lela’s handling of this situation usually amounted to something like “no thanks, creep” so her brother’s soft touch was an example to be emulated in Lela’s eyes. As they were boarding the bus, Madame pulled Lela aside,

“Lela, Captain Willingham is waving from across the field. It doesn’t seem urgent or he’d have a runner sent, but we should see what he wants.” Lela’s heart sank as she immediately knew “we” meant her. Seeing her face drop a bit and not appreciating the fact that a small moment of victory on the triumphant ride up the hill would be missed, Madame posited her solution in annoyance, “Oh, don’t worry, you can just follow in bus 3 or 4. You won’t miss the ribbon-cutting or anything.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Lela advised without intonation. Madame turned and boarded the bus, thinking no further of it. Lela began walking back toward the seating area as Bus #1 pulled away for its victory lap without her. As she reached the edge of the row of chairs holding a few stragglers still seated, she glanced longingly back over her shoulder at the bus pulling up the hill like the little engine that could toward the beautiful white and glass building at the top. When it was about 1/3 of the way up, Bus #2 began to pull away. She was halfway through the seating area at this point and quickened her step toward Captain Willingham who was still about 50 feet away so she’d be sure to make one of the remaining core buses. It was bad enough she’d been ousted from her coveted position, she didn’t want to have to ride with the general event attendants.

Passing by the still-seated gentleman with the leather portfolio, he looked up and locked eyes with Lela. His eyes were as green as grass, a fact that escaped Lela’s attention earlier since he was continually looking down to write. As he held her gaze, Lela heard a loud noise behind her. Startled, she glanced back to see Bus 1 a little more than halfway up the hill now, with Bus 2 still lagging behind it, hitting into the interior side of the mountain with a loud crashing of metal. She had no time to process or even to think before the bus turned sharply away from the interior collision and instead cut to the left. Lela watched in horror as the bus barreled straight through the guardrail and off the side of the mountain. She cried out to the heavens, or no one, and fell to the ground, knocking several chairs around her over as her legs gave out beneath her. She didn’t register the arms around her shoulders, or Captain Willingham running by with a batch of soldiers, or the media outside the barricades who had caught all this on camera because of their better angle from the distance, as they pushed forward and ran up the hill to not miss a moment of the tragedy recorded on film, or even her own hysterical sobs. Lela registered none of this. She was in shock.

Wood and Stone happily ended their surveillance shift, handing off to Kennedy and King. After executing handoff procedures precisely and double checking the status list as per protocol, they practically ran from the room.

“I like surveillance because we get to learn so much, but I’m also glad when it’s over,” Wood said, rubbing the back of his neck. Stone nodded in assent as they walked down the long corridor. Halfway down the hallway, they passed a display screen about 3 feet high by 5 feet long, set at eye level, embedded in the wall and bordered in a steel-colored material. Usually, the hall display board would contain a list of briefing locations for the day, any bullet points authorized for mass distribution and major upcoming project milestone dates. As they passed, they noticed it listed only one item in giant characters that filled the screen : “95.3%” and the border was ringed in amber light. Both shot each other a glance and faint attempt at a smile.

“So that’s what an alert looks like,” Stone mumbled under his breath.

“Guess so,” responded Wood. Since neither of them had seen a live one before, their gaze lingered a few moments longer than necessary, as if absorbing the image. “We must’ve passed 95% just after we started our shift.” They turned into the common eating area, pausing for only a few moments to refuel before continuing on to the training room. As it would be a long day, both should have been eating extra heavy since they may not have another opportunity for 8 hours or more, but this turned out to be a challenge for Wood, who grabbed a small muffin, a banana and a juice, hardly a meal for a long day. Stone observed his friend’s light meal and banged with a fist dramatically on his own abdominals.

“Steel, I tell you,” he smiled, trying to alleviate his friends anxiety, “I even ate on day 1 here!” he boasted.

“You were the only one in your training team who did,” Wood affirmed.

At that moment, Saraceni walked in, falling in behind Wood and Stone at the food area. He was well advanced in rank from them, Circle 13, and a quiet, contemplative man by nature. Most would think someone with a more open nature might have been a natural choice to receive the assignment as trainer to “the critical class” as the junior staff had started referring to that day’s arrivals, but Saraceni’s outstanding knowledge, dogmatic execution and legendary stoicism had won out. A few senior leaders in Circles 16-20 questioned the choice, but in the end they agreed that though he wasn’t as advanced as the higher circle staff, or as adept at the long-range planning and development associated with those circles, he was a better trainer for a short-term assignment such as this. Saraceni had a way of making things equally clear to an audience of varied backgrounds and education levels. Senior leaders did not usually have to encounter brand new recruits, but for an occasional few moments. They were used to a much more advanced team by the time a team member would advance enough to be trained by a level 16-20. They could do it, but not as well as Saraceni, who frequently indoctrinated new recruits. Of course, certain subjects were taught by the masters of each subject area. No one, not even Saraceni with his rapid learning, could know every topic of the complex infrastructure well enough to be the best choice to teach it.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Saraceni addressed Wood and Stone, “Will you be performing the final check on my training room this morning?”

“Yes, sir,” they replied in unison.

“Excellent,” Saraceni responded, “If you wouldn’t mind, could you please each try out the sensory awareness platform yourselves? It seemed to be underperforming yesterday and I would like to be sure it’s running clean. We’re going to have a tight enough schedule on this one; we can’t afford any technical delays that could have been avoided.”

“Certainly, sir,” they responded. Saraceni still felt uncomfortable with all the “sirs” from the junior staff, but Ruth Fielding had explained that certain customs are really more for the benefit of the recruits at the lower levels than for the senior staff themselves. She had explained that a sense of familiarity helped people adjust until they passed level 5, after which some of these unnecessary elements were halted. So, Saraceni endured despite his own personal preferences. He reflected on Wood and Stone and remembered how he himself had felt at Circle 2: Somewhat confused, somewhat excited, eager to contribute and slightly fearful of failure.

“Would you like to listen in on the briefing today?” Saraceni asked. Wood and Stone both brightened noticeably and looked at each other to confirm their good fortune.

“Yes, sir,” they replied, but this time with noticeable enthusiasm. Though Circle 2’s were not usually included, Saraceni felt a desire to motivate these two young men that reminded him so much of an earlier self. In addition, he thought the move was strategic since he would rely on Wood and Stone heavily for administrative and technical support in the coming weeks. Due to the accelerated pace, he would have to delegate some tasks that he would normally perform himself, and their improved understanding could only help.

“Needless to say, if I allow you to participate, the details cannot be discussed outside of the core project team. We wouldn’t want to distract any of the parallel operational teams from their subtasks as we will rely on them to be complete in our final week.”

“Of course,” Wood acknowledged quickly and Stone nodded.

“Excellent, I’ll pick you up on my way to the briefing,” Saraceni advised and abruptly departed, glancing at his watch. Energized by their enthusiasm, Wood and Stone practically raced to the training room to complete the final check so they would be sure no unfinished task would interfere with their ability to listen in on the briefing. Surveying the training room, clipboard in hand, Wood noted the setup of the room was set to “Configuration 1”: A traditional configuration, this, too echoed the comfort of past experiences for the recruits, though it was not the most efficient. The room consisted of one large table at the front of the room, a display module with an array of controls, and 6 tables arranged 3 on the left and 3 on the right with 2 chairs at each. Training teams generally consisted of 12 recruits. Arranged in semicircles on the right and left sides of theses tables, on the outer perimeter of the room, stood multiple platforms set to meet a variety of requirements. The sensory awareness platform resided at the front left position. Setting the clipboard down, Wood removed the 2 chairs from the back right table and stored them in the adjoining anteroom.

“What are you doing?” queried Stone. Wood walked to him, picking up the clipboard on the way, and tipped it casually in Stone’s direction so he could see the instruction as listed.

“It says to remove those 2 chairs. This class will have only 10,” Wood commented, shrugging his shoulders with a half-raised eyebrow.

“I hate that eyebrow thing,” Stone informed.

“I know,” Wood grinned. “Have you ever heard of a class of 10?”

“No, but I’m sure it’s one more thing they did ‘before our time’,” Stone mused dismissively. Since the checklist was complete, he walked stridently to the sensory awareness platform and turned it on. “I hate this thing. You first.” In response, Wood jumped up onto the platform, turned to face his partner and did a little tap dance. Stone sighed quietly. Usually he enjoyed Wood’s jovial nature, but found it difficult when he was battling his own anxiety as he had been all day.

“Ready?” Stone prompted.

“Yeah,” Wood answered, his jokester tone leveling out to denote the nature

of the task. Stone selected “arrival intro test 1” on the monitor and pressed ‘run’. Wood immediately felt a sensation of flying and reported. Next he felt a sensation of walking and reported. Next he saw a blue bird flying through the room. “Blue bird,” he informed Stone, who marked down each response diligently. “Bell ringing” he continued. The test continued for approximately 20 minutes through cold, heat, pain, nausea, hunger, satiety,
etc.
as well as a series of visual images and sounds. As the test ended, Wood stepped off the platform and sat down in the closest chair, feeling a little dizzy and disoriented.

“Want some water?” Stone offered.

“Yeah,” Wood answered, resting his heard downward in his hands on the desk for a moment in an effort to not take in any additional visual stimuli. Once a few moments of recovery had passed, Wood’s head emerged from its shelter as tentatively as a turtle head pushing out for a view.

“My turn,” Stone announced, setting the clipboard on the table to the right of Wood. Knowing his friend had even a worse reaction to the test than his own, Wood suggested that one test was enough. The platform had performed adequately.

“No, Saraceni said for each of us to test it,” Stone deflected the shirking of duty, “Thanks, though.” With that, the pair repeated the test and recorded the results. Following his test, as Stone sat sipping water, he looked around the room observing the additional oddities of the training environment. In the right rear corner of the room stood a large orb perched on a pedestal, glowing the same amber color as the border to the hallway display. Customarily, the orb glowed a light iridescent blue, so the change did capture his attention. Lining the back wall were seven paintings arranged in a progression according to when they were painted. The earliest was an early cave drawing and the last was a 20
th
century modern piece. The most notable was the middle painting, which Stone guessed was from a middle era and clearly European. The vibrant colors and elaborate detail matched the gold gilded Louis XIV-style frame that encircled it. The frame complemented the gold, blues and red tones of the painting. The detail was amazingly accurate to what Stone now knew of the nature of the universe-impressive considering the time from which it came. Saraceni’s head appeared in the swiftly opened door and alerted:

“It’s time.” Wood and Stone fell in swiftly and silently behind him and the three made their way down the corridor to the adjacent wing where the briefing was to be held. Turning into the room, Saraceni pointed to two chairs against the back wall in the corner and his gaze directed Wood and Stone to sit as part of that linear row, which they did. Saraceni took a chair as part of the 8-circled concentric configuration around the center podium. Once the remaining seats were filled and the briefing start time arrived, all grew silent and directed their attention forward without any instruction.

“Good morning, colleagues,” Ruth Fielding began when all had arrived, “for the minutes, this is briefing 12873, subject matter: status update on training class titled ‘Molior’. Instructor, project manager, senior project manager and project Champion all present. She looked pointedly at each: Saraceni, Kuminsky, and Hallowell respectively. She was, of course, the Champion herself. Wood and Stone looked at one another with the naming of the training class. ‘Did they name all training classes?’ they wondered. Perhaps it was one of the behind-the-scenes items reserved to senior leaders.

“Agenda item number 1: reduction of class training time. Saraceni?” Ruth looked expectantly at Saraceni.

Saraceni cleared his throat and commenced, “Gap analysis is complete. Revised training times by objective are listed in exhibit 128.” Saraceni moved his hand along the flat surface of his table, tapping accordingly where necessary so the exhibit appeared on each surface of the octagonal display at the center of the room. All could see regardless of vantage point, but also transparent so a view of the opposing side of the room was not obscured. He highlighted each training objective down the page as he spoke, “As you can see, each objective’s target time has been reduced as much as possible within the limits of our resources and preserving the minimal amount of sleep needed by the recruits. I have inserted three somewhat longer staging periods to promote absorption at equal intervals throughout the process, the last one being 2 days before the final mission to ensure maximum alertness and energy for final task execution. With this revised schedule, the training may be completed in 4.5 weeks as opposed to 8, with some compromise of quality acknowledged on items 4, 12, and 16.”

“That’s the shortest we can get it to?” Ruth asked seriously.

“To be sure they can actually achieve the mission, yes.” Saraceni confirmed, aware this was not welcome news to his colleagues. He had reworked the training objectives and training agenda three times just to get it down to this, so he knew there was nowhere else from which to shave time. Ruth stared at exhibit 128 pensively, fairly certain of the answer to her following question.

“Hallowell, as senior project manager, can you advise when we will reach 100%?” Ruth asked.

“Since we have multiple moving parts: a progressive algorithm, a new scenario that has never been run even in the test environment and the beginning effects of decoherence which can only be approximated, we can only estimate with a 92% degree of confidence, but we put it at five weeks, “ Elizabeth Hallowell responded. Seeing the tepid response from her colleagues, she nervously tucked both pieces of hair, which dangled, framing her face, behind her ears and continued, “Of course, we will be looking for every possible opportunity between now and then to delay the progression and increase our certainty in the estimate. We will be reprojecting every 38 hours until the mission is complete, providing real-time updates to this team via alerts,” she concluded.

“Okay.” Ruth Fielding acquiesced, “We’ll add the projected time to the master monitoring display and keep it current so all eyes are on the prize. End of the day, though, Elizabeth, we need more time, so finding some countermeasures would really be helpful.” Elizabeth nodded and made some notes as if she were adding something of this well-known fact to her report. Wood and Stone perceived a seriousness they had never encountered in their senior leaders and fidgeted accordingly while remaining riveted on the briefing.