by Nathan Pedde
“They left because they were persecuted for their social and religious beliefs, for economic reasons and…” Des said, “Um…”
“Wanderlust is the official term used by historians,” Mr. Mixon said, “Five hundred word essay on the importance of sleep. Due in a week.”
Des plopped back into his to the chair as Mr. Mixon started his lecture once more.
“The first space explorers had a yearning to see the stars. Most humans do. That’s why we explore. That’s why we traveled over the next hill, sailed across the seas, and blasted off into space. The persecution and the economic reasons were merely a catalyst for the first explorers to take the first leap out of the safety net and into the fire.”
The bell rang.
“We’ll leave it right there,” Mr. Mixon said, “Until next time.”
The teacher gathered up his stuff, and he left the classroom. The students put their books in their desks and headed to gym class.
Elsie walked over to Des and sat next to him in the now vacant chair.
“What’s wrong?” Elsie asked as the last of the students left the classroom.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Des replied.
Elsie gave Des a look, which he had seen before. Every time she knew he was telling a lie. She always knew, and she never let him get away with it.
“Okay Okay,” Des said, “It’s the new job.”
“The courier company?”
“Yeh,” Des said, “The bosses hate me, my co-workers hate me, and the work is hard.”
“Delivering messages is hard?”
“It’s the number of messages I have to do each day, the short time frame I have and the fact my homework is piling up.”
Des felt terrible for having to lie to her. He didn’t want to, but he felt like he had little choice. He didn't know how he could tell Elsie, one of his best friends, that he was a spy hunting a saboteur. Especially when anyone could be the culprit. For all he knew, she could be the saboteur.
“You don’t have to come to help me on Saturday if you don’t want to-” Elsie said.
“No,” Des said, “I’ll be there.”
“Okay,” Elsie said.
“Sorry for whining,” Des said, “I’ll handle everything. Eventually.”
“Listen, I’ve got to get to gym class. You should get going too.”
Des put away his book and followed Elsie out of the room.
Chapter 10
Des ran around the field. He was dressed in his gym clothes and ran laps because he was late for gym class. Elsie and the rest of the students practiced fencing drills.
“You busy,” the voice of Cryslis echoed in his head.
“Running laps in gym class,” Des said between breaths, “Elsie and I were late for class. I got laps. She didn’t. What’s up?”
“Don’t you love double standards,” Cryslis said, “Anyways, I’ve a lead I need you to look into.”
“Okay. What’s the lead?”
Des’s gym clothes clung to his sticky body from his exertion.
“Listen carefully,” Cryslis began, “Cooley has discovered some type of signal possibly originating from your school. It was only open for a couple seconds, so we don’t have much to go on.”
“How do we know it was from this school?”
“We don’t know for sure. It may have bounced around for a bit to make it harder to track.”
“How do I find the source?” Des asked, “Hold on, a classmate approaches.”
There was silence from Cryslis as Des passed the finish line. He stopped running and breathed deeply as he leaned on a bench.
“Tired are you?” Elsie asked as she came over holding an extra sword for him.
“What do you think?” Des replied.
“I’m supposed to be your sparring partner,” Elsie said.
“I guess teach didn’t want Alix to go crazy like last time?” Des said.
“Probably,” Elsie said, “Do you want to rest?”
“No,” Des said, still breathing like a windsock.
Des walked over to his padding and his mask. He put them on and turned to face Elsie.
She already had her mask and padding on and faced him with her sword out. Des’s sword was in her off hand. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it to Des.
Des caught it and flared the sword towards Elsie.
“Take it easy on me,” Elsie said through her mask, her voice was muffled, “I’m only a girl.”
They warmed up with a set of simple Kata moves. They each performed a specific set of steps. Des knew it was the tradition of fencers, dating back to when the first space explorers left the Earth. The explorers had turned to fencing and other martial arts to deal with the boredom of space exploration.
“Warmed up?” Elsie asked.
“Yes,” Des said, “What do you want to do? Three strikes?”
“Five,” Elsie said.
“Sounds good,” Des shrugged.
Des and Elsie started to spar. Their swords clashed with each other as they spared and moved across the field. After a couple minutes, other students stopped what they were doing to watch them fight.
He thought they were an even match. Des was surprised, he hadn’t really paid attention to Elsie and her fencing. He had no idea she was this good to keep up with him and he was at the top of the class.
Des’s sword sunk inside Elsie’s guard and the tip of his sword taped against her padding.
Elsie recoiled in surprise.
“That hurt,” Elsie said, “you hit me.”
“That’s the idea,” Des said, “but I’m sorry if it hurt.”
“You’re sorry now,” Elsie said, “Just wait.”
Des gave Elsie with a questioning look on his face.
“What are you…” Des didn’t finish the sentence.
Elsie launched into a fast and ferocious attack. The tip of her slender sword sliced through the air faster than Des could follow. He tried to block, but the sword rapped against his padding, the sound seemed to echo in the gym.
Surprise spread across his face as Elsie recovered and struck forward again and again. Each strike, each attack landed another blow against Des.
“Three…” the Students yelled as another strike hit, “Four… Five…”
“Holy Jupiter,” Des said, “That was fast. When did you get this fast?”
“Whatever are you talking about?” Elsie said as she walked away.
The school bell rang.
“That’s class,” Mr. Goldhat yelled, “See you, next class.”
Mr. Goldhat walked past Elsie on his way to Des, “Good form Elsie. Keep it up.”
He approached Des and made eye contact with him.
“What were you sleeping?” He asked him.
“I was…” Des stammered.
“Shut up. You’re faster and better than that. I’ve seen it. You’re slipping.”
“Sorry, sir,” Des replied.
“You seem distracted. If you need a confidential ear, please feel free to talk to me.”
“If I need one, sir, I’ll ask.”
Des walked from the field to the change rooms and the showers beyond.
“Are you able to talk now,” Cryslis’s voice bounced around his head.
“Yes,” Des said under his breath, “Kinda.”
“Listen,” Cryslis said, “The signal happened again. During your match.”
“During…”
“From the school field.”
“What… School field…”
“Yes,” Cryslis said, “Who was missing from your class during the match?”
“I don’t know,” Des said, “I was focused on not getting hit by a…”
“By a girl?” Cryslis finished.
“By a sword,” Des said.
Des went through his memory, he wasn’t paying attention to the other students in the room, just Elsie.
“Go get changed,” Cryslis said, “I’ll see if there was a camera or something in the
gym. See if we can get some information that way.”
“Roger that,” Des said, “Sorry.”
Des wasn’t development into a very good spy. He was missing information he should be remembering. Cryslis was silent as he entered the changing room, showered, changed into his school uniform. He left the change room and headed for his final class of the day.
“There is no camera’s in the gym,” Cryslis said, “Who was missing?”
“I’ve no idea,” Des said, “I should have set up a camera.”
“Listen,” Cryslis said, “You have a new objective. Figure out who’s sending the signal. Cooley and I will keep an eye on when and where it appears, you get there and find out who it is.”
“On it,” Des said as he reached his locker.
“I’ve placed your Courier One uniform into the locker, and your scooter is waiting in the parking lot,” Cryslis said.
“How did you get into my locker?” Des muttered.
“Do I need to answer…”
Des pondered the subject and thought back to the match. Who was there watching my spar with Elsie? Who left the arena?
He wasn’t sure. He was paying too much attention to the fight and not to who was watching him or not.
Some spy I am, Des thought.
***
The last class went by as fast as always. Des had paid attention the best he could, his mind was in other places.
Once the class was done, Des walked down the hallway lost in thought. He wasn’t sure what to do or what he should be doing.
He bumped into a student in the hall.
“Hey,” the Student said.
Des looked up and saw it was Alix.
“Oh. Sorry, Alix,” Des said, “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“That’s okay buddy,” Alix said, “You look lost. Is everything okay?”
Alix, in his school uniform, was standing in front of his locker with it open.
“Is that your locker?” Des asked.
“What of it?” Alix asked.
The lockers stood from floor to almost to the ceiling, as wide as a person’s side. Des was sure most of the kids in his grade could still fit into the lockers. Alix’s was filled from the floor to his gut with random pieces of junk. Des could see old food containers mixed in with old un-washed gym clothes. Pieces of metal floated around in a sea of debris along with a baseball.
“How did your locker end up like that?” Des said.
Alix shut the locker door.
“The state of my locker is none of your business.”
“Wow,” Des said, “I was just razzing you.”
Alix took a deep breath.
“Sorry. I’m just under a lot of stress from my parents because of my poor grades.” Alix said.
“I see. I’ve had a couple talks cause apparently my grades are slipping too.”
“Oh?” Alix said, “Why are your grades slipping?”
Des immediately regretted opening his mouth. His grades were the result of him going to two schools, and having two jobs he had to juggle around each other. Des wished this war would end so he could stop being a spy.
“Well,” Des said, “My grades are slipping cause I now have a much more difficult job.”
“I heard about that. A courier. How’s it going?”
“Not good,” Des replied, “I’m having problems with the boss. More importantly the bosses son.”
“How old is the bosses son?”
“Like twenty. He hates me and is driving me bonkers.”
“I guess we all can’t have my job.”
“I wish you would stop rubbing it in my face,” Des replied.
“Why? I like my job.”
“You mean my job,” Des said, “I wanted the job as the intern at the technology firm.”
“I know. Too bad it was a random draw.”
“Too bad.”
Des cleared his throat.
“Do you know what I kinda wish?” Alix said.
“A million credits?”
“Well… who doesn’t?”
“What do you wish?”
“I wish we could be normal kids,” Alix said.
“I know, right,” Des said, “I hear stories from my uncle about what he and my dad did when they were kids our age. They didn’t have to work. They worked cause they wanted the extra spending money.”
“They didn’t have to be afraid of the constant threat of missile attacks…” Alex said.
“And evacuation drills…”
“Maybe the war will end soon?”
“I doubt it,” Des said.
“Anyways,” Alix said, “I’ve to get to work.”
“Me too,” Des replied, “Do you get a day off soon?”
“A couple hours on Saturday.”
“Are you going to go help Susan with Elsie and me?”
“Maybe,” Alix said, “Are you actually going to go as well?”
“If I can escape from work and my studies for a few hours.”
Alix turned and locked the locker.
“See you,” Alix said, “I need to get to work before my boss blows a seal.”
Alix waved as he walked down the hallway.
Des continued down the hallway to his locker. He opened it up and grabbed his backpack. He took it to the empty washroom.
The washroom was simple in design with a couple stalls to one side and a row of sinks to the other. Des changed into his courier uniform, and he stuffed his school uniform into the pack.
Des left the washroom and hurried fast through the halls towards the outside doors.
“There you are Des,” Mr. Goldhat said from a smaller side hall.
Des turned to look at the short man.
“Can I have a word with you for a moment?” Mr. Goldhat said.
“Sure,” Des said, “But only a moment, I’m going to be late for my job.”
“Right, “He said, “Is everything okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“Mr. Mixon says your latest test came back really low. Unusually low in fact.”
“Well,” Des said, “It’s just this transition to this other job.”
“Oh?”
“At the tool factory, I did clean up. I just had to tidy up after the shop workers. It usually took me an hour or two and then I was done my job, and I got to go home and study.”
“And your new job?”
“I’ve a full bag of deliveries to make, and I’m not very good at it yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought I knew this station very well,” Des said, “But I don’t. I’ve got to go to parts of the station where I haven’t ever been before.”
“Did your boss give you a tablet of some kind?”
“Yes,” Des said, “Of course. It doesn’t work very well though.”
“Do you have it?”
Des pulled it out of his pack.
“Can I see it?”
Des handed it over to the teacher.
Mr. Goldhat looked at the tablet, and after a fury of buttons pressed, he stopped at a menu.
“Is your boss angry at you?” Mr. Goldhat asked.
“Why?”
“He changed the settings in it to cause you to go off course and has disabled a multiple route function.”
“Multiple route function? It has one?”
“Yes,” Mr. Goldhat said, “It’s a great tool. You’ll have to have it unlocked. It has a parentally lock.”
“That bast-” Des began, “Sorry, sir.”
“No worries,” Mr. Goldhat said as he handed back the tablet, “Get your work done faster and get studying. You can still get into that college if you keep at it.”
Des nodded, bowed his thanks and left. He hurried down the hall and out of the school. He looked at his watch.
He was going to be late. Another excuse for Diplin and his father to be angry with him. Des reached the parking lot and marched to the bright red hover-scooter in the lot.
He sa
t on the scooter and pressed the start button.
Nothing happened.
An error message flashed on the scooters small screen, Please insert start-up chip.
“Oh come on,” Des said, “What else can go wrong today?”
Des padded around his courier uniform and searched through his pockets. He opened up his backpack, and he began to search through his school uniform.
“Des,” Cryslis’s voice echoed in his head, “Where are you?”
“I can’t find that stupid chip. I’m still at school.”
“Hit the find button to the right of the scooter’s screen.”
Des hit the button, and another message flashed on the screen. 150 meters south, southwest of here.
“That’s-” Des began as he paused to think for a second, “My locker.”
“Go get it,” Cryslis’s voice said, “And why haven’t you left yet. You’re going to be late.”
“I know,” Des said.
Des stepped off of the hover-scooter and stormed back towards the school. He threw open the doors and marched through halls towards the locker. The school halls were deserted of people.
“Did you forget something Des?” Mr. Goldhat said from the teacher's lounge.
“My start-up chip for my scooter, Mr. Goldhat,” Des said.
Des saw he was talking to Mr. Mixon in the Teacher’s Lounge. Serious looks were spread across their faces.
He hurried to his locker and unlocked it. It was the same size as Alix’s locker. However, his locker was clean. Everything had its place. His gym shoes were in one place, while his school books were in another.
Des’s locker was right next to the door to the girl's locker room.
“Yes, I’m alone…” A Girl’s Voice said from the washroom, “I checked it before I made the call…”
The voice sounded exactly like Elsie’s.
“It can’t be him…” Elsie’s voice said, “I’m his friend… No, it’s not clouding my judgment… You did what? I know about protocol… You should have run it by me first… I want him on our side… Yes yes… I understand… I’ll do what needs to be done…”
Des looked into the locker. Sitting on the shelf next to his gym shoes was a small white device with the scooter logo on it. He grabbed the key and pocketed it.
He shut his locker door without making a sound and locked it with a flick of his wrist. He stepped away from the locker and the bathroom door. Des had
