Project Alpha

by D. J. MacHale

  CRACK!

  Whatever was making the sound was moving closer.

  It was too late to turn and run. Carly and Dash pushed closer to one another and tensed up.

  CRACK!

  A footstep crunched the ice just beyond the turn.

  Dash raised the ice ax…

  …as a hand appeared from around the corner, waving a golden flag.

  “I’m afraid you are too late,” said a girl as she stepped around the corner.

  “Siena,” Dash said with a relieved gasp.

  Carly could breathe again.

  “There is a cavern at the end of the tunnel but there was only one flag,” Siena said. “Check for yourself but it would be a waste of time because if there was more than one, I would have taken it.”

  “Did you see a big guy lurking around?” Carly asked.

  “No, but nothing would surprise me. This is quite the elaborate challenge. My guess is they erected a climate-controlled enclosure to house this frigid environment. Now if you will excuse me”—she pushed past the others, headed for the mouth of the cave—“I have two more flags to find.”

  “You already found two?” Carly asked.

  Siena held up two flags as she disappeared around the icy bend.

  “Is it me or does she sound like a computer?” Carly whispered.

  Dash laughed and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

  They walked quickly back the way they had come and made it to the mouth of the cave with minimal slippage.

  Piper was waiting for them with a big smile. “Look,” she said, pointing higher up on the icy mound.

  Dash and Carly turned to see three golden flags on a ledge, thirty feet up.

  “I didn’t tell Siena,” Piper said with an innocent smile.

  “So close,” Dash said. “But there’s no way to get them.”

  Carly held up her ice ax. “No?”

  The shaft was metallic silver with a black rubber hand grip on one end and a nasty-looking point on the other.

  “They’re climbing tools,” he said.

  “You need two to climb, which means we both can’t do it,” Carly said.

  Dash looked up to the flags. He’d never used ice axes before.

  “I’ll try,” Dash said. “If I get ’em, we’ll each take a flag.”

  “You’d do that?” Piper asked.

  “Sure. You found ’em, Carly’s giving up her ax, and I’m climbing. That’s fair.”

  Carly handed over her ax and said, “Be careful.”

  Dash grasped both axes, wrapped the safety straps around his wrists, and faced the icy surface.

  “How hard could it be, right?” he asked, not sounding very confident.

  He raised the ax in his right hand and hammered it against the ice. It caught and stuck firmly. He did the same with his left hand, a little bit higher. With his foot on the surface, he pulled himself off the ground. The surface sloped away from him at enough of an angle that it wasn’t a difficult climb.

  “It’s easy,” Dash said. “If it were any steeper I’d be in trouble.”

  At that exact moment, his sneaker slipped off and his stomach smashed against the ice.

  “Ouch.”

  “You sure about that?” Carly asked.

  His answer was to find a better toe hold and then yank the right ax out of the ice. He reached up as high as he could and hammered it home again.

  “I got this,” Dash said.

  Looking up, he saw that the ledge was right below the top of the frozen mound. It only took another minute and three more whacks at the ice to reach it. He hoisted himself up, stood on the ledge so that his head cleared the top of the mound…

  …and came face to face with a weird white beast that was climbing up the other side. Its fiery red eyes glowed from deep sockets in a massive head.

  “Ahhh!” Dash screamed, and pushed away from the beast.

  He fell backward on the ledge but had the presence of mind to reach out with one of the axes to grab at the ice. It stopped him from sliding all the way to the ground but he hung there by one hand. With a surge of adrenaline, Dash slammed the other ax into the ice. He shifted his weight and repeated the process until he finished a controlled slide back to the ground.

  “What happened?” Piper asked anxiously.

  “I saw what was making the shadow,” Dash said, breathing hard. “It was a…a…monster. A big white monster thing. I fell back and…I didn’t get the flags. Sorry.”

  “This is getting too crazy,” Carly said. “Maybe we should just hang together and—”

  “Help!” came someone’s scream from somewhere off in the fog.

  “Oh man, now what?” Piper said.

  “Help me!” the desperate voice called out again.

  “C’mon!” Dash said, and moved quickly into the fog, headed in the direction of the sound. Between zero visibility and the icy surface, it was slow going.

  “I’ve got traction,” Piper said, and zoomed ahead.

  They soon heard the sound of splashing, thrashing water.

  “I can’t breathe,” the voice yelled.

  “Be careful,” Carly said to Piper. “You’re headed toward—”

  Dash leapt forward and grabbed the back of Piper’s wheelchair, stopping her from rolling off the edge of the ice and into a frothing pool.

  “—water.”

  “Oops,” Piper said, breathless. “Thanks.”

  “Who’s out there?” Carly called.

  “It’s Niko!” came the desperate shout. “The ice broke and…and…it’s so cold I can’t catch my breath!”

  “Here,” Carly said, grabbing the rope and uncoiling it.

  “We’re throwing you a lifeline,” Dash yelled.

  “Hurry!” Niko pleaded.

  “Tie the end to your chair,” Dash said to Piper.

  While Piper looped the end around the arm of her wheelchair, Dash took the rest of the rope and slid closer to the edge.

  “Where are you?” he called out.

  “Here!” Niko responded.

  The fog was so dense, Dash couldn’t see him.

  “Ready!” Piper called out.

  “Here it comes!” Dash hurled the rope in the direction of Niko’s voice. There was a splash and then…

  “I got it!” Niko cried with relief.

  “Hang on, we’ll pull you out!” Dash yelled.

  He immediately started pulling but the surface was too slippery and his feet went out from under him. He sat down and tried yanking the rope again but only ended up pulling himself closer to the edge.

  “I can’t get traction,” he called to the others with growing panic.

  “I can,” Piper said. “Let it go.”

  Dash released the rope and Piper pulled it all the way in.

  “I can’t hold on!” Niko called.

  “Help me,” Piper shouted to Carly. “Stand on the back and hang on to the rope.”

  Carly grabbed the rope with one hand and stood on the back of the chair. Piper took hold of the controls. She jammed the vehicle into reverse and eased open the throttle. Slowly, the chair moved backward.

  “Hang on, Niko!” Dash yelled.

  The wheels dug into the ice and kept moving as they gradually pulled Niko closer.

  “There he is!” Dash called out.

  The four other candidates skidded up out of the fog, watching in wonder as Niko was towed to the edge of the ice. Dash grabbed him and pulled him up onto the slick surface. Niko was breathing hard and shivering.

  Piper pulled off her jacket and threw it to Dash.

  “Wrap him up,” she commanded. “If we don’t get his body temperature up, it could hurt his heart.”

  Dash pulled off his own jacket as well and put both jackets on Niko.

  “Rub his back to get his blood moving faster,” Piper added.

  Dash followed orders and rubbed Niko’s back.

  “I’m okay,” Niko said through chattering teeth. “Thanks.”

&nb
sp; Piper and Carly exchanged high fives.

  “I saw a flag and went for it,” Niko said. “But the ice gave way.”

  “Did you get the flag?” Anna asked.

  Niko shook his head.

  “Well, I got three,” Anna announced. “The game’s still on.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Piper announced, and handed her flag to Anna.

  “Seriously?” Anna said with surprise.

  “Congratulations.”

  A loud horn sounded as bright lights kicked on, bathing the group in warm white light. The whirring sound of giant fans filled the arena as the fog was blown away. Within seconds, the entire area was revealed.

  “Exactly as I suspected,” Siena said with a smug smile.

  They were in a giant white tent that was large enough to house a twelve-ring circus. Ice covered the entire floor like a giant hockey rink. Five different ice mounds like the one Dash had climbed were scattered about. The water that Niko had fallen into was a moat that surrounded an island with the largest mound.

  A metal catwalk ringed the tent high above them. Hanging below it were multiple high-intensity lights. The air temperature rose quickly to a more desertlike norm.

  “Well done!” Commander Phillips exclaimed as he strode toward them. “We have a winner of the Tundra Event.”

  Anna held up the four flags triumphantly.

  “What is this place?” Gabriel asked. “It’s like some fun-house arctic weirdness.”

  “This is the arena where many of your challenges will take place,” Phillips replied. “In here, we can create any kind of environment and situation. Niko, you were never in danger.”

  He pointed to the moat where several frogmen had surfaced and gave a thumbs-up.

  “I just hope I don’t die of pneumonia,” Niko replied.

  “What about the monster?” Dash asked. “What was that about?”

  “Just another element of surprise,” Phillips explained. “We need to see how each of you will react under different forms of stress.”

  “How did we do?” Carly asked.

  Phillips smiled and said, “That’s for me to discuss with the rest of the Project Alpha team. Now, everyone back into the hangar where you’ll be taken to your quarters. It’s been a long day. Anna, you’ll be shown to your private room.”

  “Yes!” Anna exclaimed, and hurried off.

  Phillips stepped up to Niko and helped him to his feet.

  “How do you feel?” Phillips asked.

  “Cold and wet,” Niko replied. “But ready for the next contest.”

  “That’s what I like to hear. Go get dried off.”

  Niko headed for the hangar, followed by Siena, Ravi, and Gabriel.

  Dash stood up and went to Carly and Piper. The three exchanged high fives.

  “Not bad,” Dash said.

  “Tell me,” Phillips said to Piper, “why did you give up your flag?”

  “I wanted the contest to be over,” she said. “Besides, I didn’t want the prize.”

  “You didn’t want a private room?” Phillips asked, surprised.

  “Nope,” Piper said. “I didn’t come here to be alone.”

  “I see,” Phillips said with no emotion. “Go join the others.”

  The three headed off, leaving Phillips in the middle of the arena. He surveyed the scene with satisfaction as the ice melted around him.

  He then looked up to the catwalk.

  Looking down was a single observer wearing a blue jumpsuit similar to the one Phillips wore. It was a teenager with short blond hair who stood leaning on the guardrail. At his feet sat a golden retriever.

  “Thoughts?” Phillips called up.

  “Eight solid candidates,” the young man called back. “Let’s hope they can handle it when things really get rough.”

  Four hundred miles to the southwest of Base Ten, a small group of men and women sat huddled over consoles in a high-tech control room that was buried deep within the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Twenty different computer monitors covered the front wall, each showing a different live view of Base Ten.

  The large monitor in the center showed footage of the Project Alpha candidates working through the Tundra Event. Dash climbed the ice mound; Niko fell through the ice; Piper and Carly pulled him out using the rope and the wheelchair; Anna raised the golden flags triumphantly.

  In the center of the room, intently scrutinizing the action, was a man standing ramrod-straight. He had a shock of silver-gray hair and intense dark eyes that didn’t miss a single detail.

  “We’ve downloaded all footage from the event, sir,” announced a young woman who sat at one console.

  “Understood,” the man replied. “Continue uploading the feed from the arena until it goes dark.”

  “Yes sir,” the woman replied with a hint of concern. She turned around. “But is that—?” She stopped herself.

  The gray-haired man tore his gaze from the monitor and shot a look at her.

  “Is that what?” he asked curtly.

  The other technicians kept their eyes on their monitors. They didn’t want any part of this conversation.

  “Nothing, sir,” the woman said quickly. She turned back to her monitor.

  “Is that what?” the man repeated impatiently.

  The woman didn’t want to answer but had no choice.

  “Is that pushing our luck?” she finally blurted out. “The more time we’re tied into their system, the more chance there is of being discovered.”

  The woman felt the heat of his steady glare on the back of her head.

  “O’Mara!” the man yelled abruptly, startling everyone.

  “Yes sir,” another technician, O’Mara, replied obediently.

  “Relieve her,” the man said, and turned his attention back to the center monitor.

  The woman stared at the man, her mouth open in shock.

  “But it was just a question,” she said.

  “You have doubts,” the man said without looking at her. “I have no patience for doubt.”

  She couldn’t find the words to argue, so she stood and left the control room quickly with her head down while O’Mara took her place.

  “Upload continuing,” he declared. “We’re still tied into Base Ten.”

  “Thank you,” the man said. “It’s a joy to see all the hard work they’re doing…to ensure the success of our mission.”

  The man turned on his heel and strode for the door.

  “Alert me the moment they begin the next challenge,” he declared as he left the control room.

  When the door closed behind him, every last person in the room breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  The eight candidates were brought to the dormitory building by a military aide who showed them the girls’ dorm on the ground floor and the boys’ on the second. Anna’s private room was on the third floor.

  “Penthouse, baby!” Anna said as she left the others with a quick wave.

  “Nice work today, guys,” the military aide told them. “Welcome aboard.”

  With quick good-byes, the boys and girls separated and went to the rooms that would be their homes during the competition.

  The boys’ dorm was one large room with two bunk beds along opposite walls. There were four desks with chairs and a laptop on each. On the beds were their backpacks. They were allowed to bring items from home, but told not to bring clothes because they would be given uniforms. As promised, the uniforms were laid out next to the backpacks. Each bunk held a pair of light gray running pants along with a long-sleeved workout top. The right half and sleeve were navy blue; the left was brilliant orange. There were also low black cross-trainers, orange socks, and orange boxer shorts.

  Ravi picked up the shirt and said, “Are we going to space or the circus?”

  “I need to meditate,” Niko said.

  “Uh, what?” Gabriel asked.

  Niko climbed up onto an upper bunk and sat cross-legged in the center. He closed his eyes, rested his hands on his knees, and
took several slow deep breaths.

  The other three boys exchanged confused looks.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Niko said without opening his eyes. “I just had a near-death experience and my core body temperature dropped. I need to get realigned.”

  “Or you could just take a hot shower,” Ravi said.

  “Meditation taps into the deeper powers of the mind to heal the body,” Niko said. “You would be amazed at what the power of proper meditation can do.”

  “If it’s that powerful,” Ravi said, “meditate me up a spot in the final four.”

  Niko ignored him and slipped deeper into his meditative state. Ravi looked at the others and spun his finger next to his head in the universal “crazy” gesture.

  Dash and Gabriel took the other bunk beds. Dash below, Gabriel above. They both went right to their packs and began emptying them.

  “Where are you from?” Dash asked.

  “Outside Chicago. We got a big old house for a big old family. Two sisters and two brothers. I’m square in the middle. Add in my parents and grandparents and it gets pretty crazy. What about you?”

  “It’s just my mom and little sister. We live in Orlando.”

  “Really? You got Mickey Mouse for a neighbor?”

  “Yeah,” Dash said with a laugh. “We hang out all the time.”

  Gabriel laughed too. “Hey, if I lived there, I’d be going to Disney World every day.”

  Dash shrugged. “That would get expensive.”

  “Ten million bucks would fix that real quick,”

  Gabriel said. Gabriel pulled a few items from his pack: a small tool kit, books, and a stuffed koala bear that he quickly hid under his pillow.

  “Is that why you’re doing this?” Dash asked. “The money?”

  “Absolutely,” Gabriel replied. “That kind of cash could set up my family forever.”

  “And solve the world’s energy crises,” Dash added as he climbed up onto his bunk.

  “Yeah, that too. I wouldn’t mind being a hero. What about you? Don’t you care about the money?”

  “Well, sure,” Dash said. “It would be great if Mom didn’t have to worry about money anymore, but mostly I’m doing it because I’m scared.”

  “What?” Gabriel exclaimed.

  Ravi had been listening and leaned a little closer.