by A. A LEVINE
Xander
We’ve taken it back to basics today. Running, running and more running. The body adapts quickly to any one training form and we do our best to keep it guessing. It’s the middle of November, and today’s run comes with something new. A bit of rock climbing in the winter cold. The run will get their blood pumping and warm them up, but the layers they’re wearing will weigh them down when we get to the rock wall. I watch as each person tries his or her best to make it to the top. The extra-insulated gloves they’re wearing are making it harder to grip the notches in the wall. One by one they pull them off and climb, their fingers freezing quickly making it harder to navigate the weather-beaten stone.
Holli is in the middle of the group on the run, but she’s lagging behind on the climb. This is just one more of those times I wish I could have prepared her for what’s coming. No matter what John says I don’t give her special treatment. She finds out what’s happening at the same time everyone else does. The perks of being my girlfriend? If I’m being honest, there really aren’t any. Not yet. Soon, I remind myself. Soon things will be easier and we can be together, like a real couple.
John’s harassing her like always. “Turtle, I didn’t think it was possible for you to get any slower at this stage of the game, but I was wrong. Feel free to jump down, since you’ve only traveled like four, maybe five feet.”
He’s almost gleeful in the way he taunts her. Or, maybe I’m extra sensitive to it because of her importance to me. “Knock it off John.”
“You motivate your way. I’ll motivate mine.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the recruits, and yells out a critique to another. “Besides, she has yet to do what I say, so at this point it’s just like me talking to that wall that she’s not conquering.”
Today's workout is all about physical strength and perserverance. I send encouraging thoughts her way, even though I know she can’t hear them. The S-chips are always on when we’re not engaged in a PSY-3 training exercise.
This is the last phase of training before the final endurance trial and winter break. The focus of the curriculum shifts in the spring and I was honest about prom. Things begin to mimic the normal high school experience when this semester ends.
Holli makes it to the top and I can see she’s proud of herself for not coming in last place on the climb. That position belongs to her friend Chloe, who she’s left behind, in more ways than one. Shane clasps Holli on the shoulder and congratulates her on her time.
She’s standing close to the edge looking down. I clear my throat as I approach so that I won’t startle her. “You should be careful.”
“I won’t stand much closer. I just wanted see it from here.” She lets out a happy sigh. “I love being up high. I always feel like things make so much more sense when I’m miles above the ground.”
“I wasn’t talking about the heights.”
She slowly backs away from the edge and follows my gaze. “You mean Shane and his crew? You think being on speaking terms with them is a mistake?”
“I don’t want you to lose focus. Phase three is without a doubt the most important block of training. There’s no room for mediocrity or mistakes.” She peeks at me over her shoulder and I can see she’s not sure she should listen to my warning. “Holli, trust me, there will be plenty of time for making new friends, later.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Holli
“I heard that they told another person that they can’t be a training officer here anymore because she told them she wants to have kids one day.”
“I don’t know why that should matter. Women have babies and work all the time. As long as she doesn’t get in the ring while she’s pregnant she should be fine.”
We’re at lunch comparing notes on the latest Orion Academy rumor. This time, the rumor is about a training officer, which is right up there with spotting a unicorn.
Leo squirms in his seat as if he knows something. “Spill.” Wes orders. This last round of shake-ups has appointed him team captain and Leo's one of the recruits on his team.
“I have a buddy who’s a few years older than us. He’s works in medical and he said that field agents have to sign an agreement and it’s binding.”
“What kind of agreement?”
“The kind that says they don’t plan to have babies.”
That’s crazy. Who would sign that? “What high school junior is signing that? We’re not even old enough to enter into a legally binding contract and my parents are baby crazy, they would never let me agree to something like that.” Chloe looks around the group and several other students agree their parents would feel the same.
Leo’s not bothered by their responses. “Maybe you sign on your eighteenth birthday or at your college graduation. I just know what I heard. They don’t want field agents focused on anything other than work. Hell, I’d sign. This is the coolest gig ever. It’s like our own black site special operations type deal here. What guy doesn’t dream of growing up and being a spy?”
“You don’t want kids one day?” Gwynn asks.
“Nah. I’m good. Let my brother have all the kids and I can be the cool uncle.”
That sounds like a lot of work. Being on birth control for the rest of your life. What if a woman forgets to take her pill or get her shot, or anything and winds up pregnant?
“This has to be a crazy rumor. One of the craziest I’ve ever heard.” This place is full of them, because no one talks about what to expect. I’m figuring out that you can’t get to the truth until you’re officially one of them. We all have years to go before that happens.
I see Xander rise from his table and I scramble to my feet to catch up with him. “I forgot something in my room. I’ll catch you guys in math class.” I follow him out the door but the path he should have taken is clear. “Where’s the fire recruit?” He asks stepping from behind a tree.
“I left something in my dorm room. I need to get it before my next class.”
We walk together and I slow my steps putting some space between the students in front of us. “So there’s this crazy rumor going around.”
“Holli, we’ve already had the rumor discussion. You shouldn’t listen to them and it’s just the other students trying to get in your head. Psychological warfare is the most dangerous tactic there is.” Lately, any time I start a conversation he dismisses what I’m saying. The weather, favorite movies, books, music, anything not related to Orion we can discuss. Anything of importance I’m getting the stay in your lane vibe.
“That’s not what this was. It was about having babies.”
He stumbles slightly and recovers. “Is one of the student’s pregnant?”
Now that would be interesting. How would they even have time? Never mind scratch that. “Not that I know of, but they’re saying one of the training officers is, and that she can’t work here anymore.”
“If it’s true, they’ll put her on modified duty. You know we get pretty physical around here. It would be for her safety and the baby’s.”
“They’re also saying that Orion field agents aren’t allowed to have kids, and I was wondering if-“
Alex jogs up to us, with John trailing slightly behind. “Xander. Geez your long legs move fast. There’s something we need to run by you.” Alex flicks her eyes at me and looks at her watch. “Don’t you have somewhere to be recruit?” John gives me his thousand-yard death glare seconding Alex’s blow off.
I really, can’t decide which one of the glacier twins I like less. Today, Alex is winning.
Mrs. Prices is once again testing my telepathic range. I’m trying to concentrate on the lesson but my mind keeps wandering back to what I overheard last night. I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but it was like I couldn’t fight the pull.
I don’t know how many times I have to warn you, that your relationship with this girl is dangerous. What would you have said if she’d have come right out and asked? We tell the recruits what they need to know, when they need to know it.
Holli�
�s mature for her age and she wouldn’t tell anyone what I said.
You don’t know that.
I trust her, John
She’s a sixteen-year-old kid, ruled by her teenage emotions. Think about it. If you tell her that she doesn’t get the white house and picket fence at the end, does she make an emotionally mature decision that she still wants to be with you?
You’re reading too much into this. Twenty-five is a long way off. Nobody’s thinking that far ahead.
Maybe not, but you have to consider the possibility. If by some stretch of the imagination she makes it through to the end, and she becomes an agent, somebody has to choose. Will it be her, or you? Because that’s what it’ll take for you to be together. Let’s say it’s easy for you to make that choice. Can she deal with it, and if she can’t can you deal with her moving on?
You’re getting ahead of yourself.
I’m being realistic. I’ve seen you date girls and you’ve never been this wrapped up in one before. One of you has stars in your eyes, and from where I’m sitting; it won’t end well.
What is this choice that John was talking about and why wouldn’t I want to be with Xander if both of us are field agents? What happens at twenty-five? Gah. Why did I let a rumor send me on a mission to look for more answers? Don’t I already have enough mysteries I’m trying to solve?
Xander’s right. Rumors around here are created to make us lose focus. Leo might have heard this one from someone trying to throw him off his game and it could probably be tracked back to a junior class way back when and has no bearing on anything happening today.
I don’t even know if the training officer from Team K is really pregnant. Okay. Enough messing around. If I don’t get my head in the game, Mrs. Price might scan me and know what I’ve been up to. I force myself to concentrate on the task at hand. I close my eyes searching for my target. I move past the conference rooms, reception area, and the stairwell that houses the guard and without warning my mind takes a detour to the health clinic. I see a piece of paper, and a pamphlet in someone’s lap. I see the black ink on the blue paper and the consent form. I bolt from my seat, sending the chair crashing against the wall behind me.
“Holli?” Mrs. Price rushes over to me. “What happened?”
“I’m. I’m sorry. I couldn’t. It was too many voices in my head. I couldn’t tune them out.”
She places a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Take a breath. Relax. That’s to be expected. This is the first time we’re searching this far away.” She walks to the other end of the room and pours me a glass of water. I sip it slowly trying to get my heart rate back under control. She slides the seat back over to me. “Sit. Let’s take a minute, and then we’ll try again.”
We try a few more times and I’m too shaken up to connect with the person on the other side for more than a few minutes. It’s like a cell phone connection when driving through a tunnel. Just static and noise and a lot of call drops. Mrs. Price ends our session early and tells me to go back to the doors to rest. I’m lost in my own head trying to make sense of what I saw and bump into John when we pass on the residence hall steps.
I have a flash of a conversation between him and Alex. The training officer is going to be out of commission after winter break. The director of operations is throwing her a twenty-fifth birthday party. The look on Alex’s face suggests that this isn’t a joyous event to be celebrated.
The memory ends abruptly like a wall slamming into place. “Head out of the clouds turtle.” He snaps.
The pamphlet I saw earlier comes back into view. What happens to the women at the age of twenty-five? Tubal ligation.
Xander
The knock on my door comes a little after eight at night. Holli’s standing in the hall, her hair in a long braid hanging over her shoulder. She’s clutching another one of those books to her chest and I know this isn’t just a social call. I offer her a bottle of water and invite her to sit on my bed while I take the chair next to it. “What have you got there?”
“Another book on telepaths.”
“You realize that I’m a kinetic, right? I don’t have telepathic abilities, so the person you should probably be asking these type of questions, is John.”
“That’s just it. I can’t ask him, because the questions I have, are about him.”
Her body is stiff, and she looks nervous, so I sit patiently, giving her time to gather her thoughts. I know she’s working with John in the operations building. If he’s done something to her, I’ll march across the hall and smash his face in.
“Holli, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
The words tumble out on one breath. “I think he’s one of those telepaths that can push.”
I’m careful not to react. “I gotta say, there’s an accusation you don’t hear every day and one that shouldn’t be madelightly.” If she were accusing another recruit it, operations would waste no time subject them both to endless amounts of evaluation and testing.
“I’m assuming you came to that conclusion based on one or more of those books you’ve been reading?”
She nods and chews thoughtfully on her bottom lip. “Think about it. None of us can read his mind. There are some pretty strong telepaths in our class, so why can’t any of them reach him telepathically? What if it’s because he’s pushing us out of his head?”
I need to shut this down immediately. This is a line of reasoning that won’t end well for her. “I’ve known John a long time. Admittedly, he’s better than most at guarding his thoughts, but he doesn’t posses the ability to push anyone.” I get up from my chair and sit on the bed beside her. “We’ve talked about this before. Next year, you’ll start learning everything you need to know about the origin and history of our species. But, if you want the cliffs notes version, you can probably add the ability to push to the list of powers that don’t show up anymore, like teleportation.”
She doesn’t seem convinced and I interrupt before she tries to offer more proof to support her theory. “Holli, I know John is hard on you, but I hope you’re not looking for reasons to get him removed from your assignment. There’s a lot he could teach you, starting with how to keep people from reading your thoughts. It’s a great defensive maneuver.”
She worries her bottom lip and slowly comes around. “Okay, I guess I am reading too much into it.”
“Yes, you are.” I tilt her chin so her eyes meet mine. “I mean think about it. Don’t you think Orion would know if something like that was going on under their noses?” She gives a small nod and smile.
I pull her to me pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Now enough John talk.” Her eyes flutter close when I brush my lips across her cheek.
“Okay.” Her voice is soft and sweet. “What should we talk about?”
I slip my arms around her waist pulling her against me and place my lips against hers testing the contours of her mouth. She sighs against my mouth and I push her back against the bed, stretching out beside her, deepening the kiss. Her hands float over my shoulders and I toy with the edges of her shirt. There’s a loud banging sound in the hall and we both bolt off the bed.
I open the door in time to see two Orion agents escorting another student out of the building. I follow them as far as their car, trying to get information on the charges. I’ll probably be the one submitting the transfer orders and I need to know what type of infractions I’m dealing with.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Holli
A stolen wallet? Now I’ve heard everything. Nobody’s carrying loads of cash or credit cards around here. We can’t leave campus and other than a few essentials, there’s nothing in the school store worth buying.
Still, someone got carted off for stealing a wallet. This latest student’s psychic signature stays with me. It’s like I can still feel him close by and it’s everywhere all at once. The pull is heaviest on the east side of the operations building and west side of the administration building. The north side of the dorms and the south side of the gym.
My telepathic side effects are getting weirder and weirder. Hopefully, I can find some information about this latest quirk when I dive into my latest book.
To add to weird events, I received my second invite to game night, and I ditched the masses just like before. This time, I walked around checking out the other unmonitored parts of the building. I found blueprints of the building in the architecture section of the library. There are access points and security doors blocking stairs and elevators to sublevels, where there should be walls. Things got out of control at game night and everyone had to make a run for it. I was already on my way back to the dorm when Chloe caught up to me.
That was two days ago, and things have been quiet around campus. I’m worried the party getting busted up means I won’t have another chance to get back in that building after hours. Chloe’s stretched across my bed explaining how she caught Wes and a senior in the back end of the science building preparing to rip each other’s clothes off. I “wow” and “for real” in the right places; uninterested in the latest team drama. Then she mentions a corridor that’s a blackout area, meaning no cameras, very little lighting and limited traffic. The kids use it as a hookup spot between classes. “Wait, Chloe, isn’t the science building directly behind Orion Headquarters?”
“Yup. You know I heard there’s a secret tunnel between the two buildings that they used for emergency evacuations, but nobody’s supposed to be down there. It’s all boarded up, like a safety hazard or something.”
This has to be the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Maybe another side effect of increasing the range of my telepathy is I’m losing a grip on reality. I’m standing above the spot where Chloe says the tunnel would be. I spin slowly, taking in the buildings in all four directions. I move to stand in the middle of the Quad and study the layout of the buildings, dissecting the height and dimensions, like I would a math problem. “It’s more than one tunnel.” I whisper to myself.
