Knight Moves

by Julie Moffett

  “We already did that in the laser maze and the active-shooter scenario,” I pointed out. “I think Hala’s right. It’s going to be something totally different.”

  “Like what?” Wally asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I just think the attacking-and-avoiding-the-adversary thing may have played out already.”

  We guessed for a while longer until we split up to finish homework and turn in early so we’d be rested for the trial.

  Later, after all the lights were out, I lay in bed staring at the dark ceiling and working myself into a nervous wreck. After tossing and turning for about an hour, I climbed down from my bunk, put some clothes on, and grabbed my shoes, a coat, and a flashlight. I needed some fresh air to clear my head.

  The lights were dim in the hallway. Instead of going out the back toward the basketball court and garden maze, I decided to go out the front door. The moon shone brightly in the clear sky. I took a breath of the cool air. I zipped my jacket to my neck and strolled around the grounds, finally sitting on a bench under a tree to the side of the building. Clicking off my flashlight, I sat looking at the stars. I sat in peace, revealing the solitude when I suddenly heard a cracking sound.

  Without thinking, I slid off the bench and behind a tree. After a moment, I saw what had made the noise. Someone was creeping through the forest, trying to approach the building as inconspicuously as possible.

  There was something familiar about the way the figure was shaped. When it passed closer to me, I clicked on the flashlight.

  “Jax?”

  He jumped. “Whoa. You scared the crap out me, Red. What are you doing out here?”

  “I could ask the same of you.” I looked over his shoulder at the direction from which he’d just come. “Were you just at the UTOP campus?”

  He leaned one arm against the tree and grinned, his teeth gleaming white in the moonlight. “You going to tell on me?”

  “Don’t you know UTOP is off-limits?” I glared at him. “We’re confined to the KIT compound.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  “Knock it off. What were you doing there?”

  “Oh, I never kiss and tell.”

  I rolled my eyes in exasperation. “Do you want to get expelled?”

  “Of course not. I’m just pushing the envelope. No harm, no foul. Unless you tell on me, of course.”

  I sighed and sat down on the bench. “I’m not going to tell.”

  “Good.” After a moment, he sat down next to me. “So, why are you out here?”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Worried about tomorrow?” When I nodded, he tapped my head. “Quit overthinking. It will be fine.”

  “It won’t. One more misstep and I’m pretty sure I’m out.”

  He laughed. “You? Girl genius? I don’t think so.”

  “I’m not a genius,” I said. “Well, my Mensa scores say I am, but a high IQ doesn’t necessarily translate to real-world knowledge.”

  He chuckled softly. “Red, I’m going to let you into a little secret. Every single one of us is trying to figure out how to get ahead of you. You, of all people, have the least to worry about.”

  “Me? I’ve already lost two trials. Mr. Donovan said the scores are weighted heavily toward those who finish.”

  “Yeah, they say a lot of things. This is spy school, remember? Deception, trickery, evasion. They’ll say whatever they want, manipulate us in ways we can’t imagine, until they get or see what they want from us.”

  “Which is?”

  “The makings of a good operative. That’s endgame, right?”

  I studied him, considering. His voice had lost its cockiness, and those amazing green eyes were looking at me in a way that seemed different from how he usually looked at me. Was he right? It was hard to know exactly what they wanted or expected from us.

  “Just keep being yourself, okay?” he murmured.

  The intensity in his gaze made my breath catch. Slowly, he lowered his mouth to mine and stopped just short of my lips, as if waiting for me to do the rest. For a moment, I just froze. I’d never kissed anyone before. Then, throwing caution to the wind, I lifted my mouth and pressed my lips to his. He kissed me back, far more tenderly than I ever would have expected from him. Warmth, dizziness, and softness curled through me.

  He finally broke the kiss and leaned back on the bench, blowing out a breath and pushing his fingers through his hair. He looked like he was already regretting the kiss. I flushed as he abruptly stood and took my hand. “Come on, they do a check around midnight.”

  I didn’t know what to say or do so, still holding his hand, I followed him across the lawn. Jax didn’t head for the front door. Instead, he tugged me toward the side of the building.

  “Where are you going?” I whispered.

  He led me to a side window that had been propped open with a book. “Girls first,” he insisted.

  He held his hands together and told me to put my foot in his hand. I did as he instructed, and he boosted me so I could grab the sill and pull myself up. I straddled the windowsill awkwardly before falling inside. Seconds later, he hopped in easily, like he’d done it a dozen times.

  Maybe he had.

  He shut the window behind him. “Let’s go.”

  We sneaked down the hallway, stopping where the hallway split with the girls’ room down one hallway and the boys’ room down the other.

  “Night.” His cool hand touched my cheek. “Happy birthday.” He gave me a heart-stopping grin before disappearing down the hallway.

  He knew it was my birthday?

  Before he turned around and saw me staring like an idiot, I quickly returned to my room, careful not to wake anyone when I came in. As I climbed up into my bed, I thought about Jax’s kiss. It had been…amazing. But what did it mean? He’d probably kissed dozens of girls like that.

  Did it mean he liked me? Was trying to manipulate me? Confuse me? It was hard to say. I was at spy school, after all. Every action, every word, seemed to be part of a larger game.

  But as I snuggled under the covers, I couldn’t erase the smile on my face.

  Chapter Thirty

  ANGEL SINCLAIR

  Bright and early, we dressed in our white T-shirts and camouflage pants and headed for breakfast. We were all present and accounted for except for Jax, who arrived late, looking remarkably rested and in good spirits, despite his late-night adventure. He gave me a wink as he grabbed a bagel and coffee and sat at a table by himself. Frankie chatted happily with everyone, seemingly oblivious to the extreme nervousness of the rest of us. I envied her ability to be so relaxed about everything.

  At exactly 7:40, we met in Room 101 for the briefing on our new trial. To our surprise, we hadn’t sat for more than a minute when Mr. Donovan instructed us to move upstairs to the gaming room for our briefing.

  As we headed up the stairs, Wally grabbed my arm. “Finally,” he whispered. “Gaming! Something I’m going to be good at.”

  “Don’t get cocky,” I said. “Wait until you see the challenge.”

  “If it’s virtual, I don’t care what the challenge is. I’m all over it.”

  My spirits were also rising, despite my warning to Wally. Gaming was my domain—my strength. From what I’d seen of the others while gaming them or watching them game, this was going to be mine or Wally’s to lose. I’d had enough failing in the last trials, so there was no way I was going down on this one.

  We filed into the gaming room and sat. Mr. Donovan stood in front of us, arms clasped behind his back.

  “Today’s trial is a role-playing game of management and strategy,” he said. “Your avatar will have characteristics like strength, intelligence, and charisma, as well as feelings of happiness, fear, and hunger. You can die if you don’t eat, get sick, or fall prey to crime or battle. When you die, all your points die with you. You’ll also have to maintain your reputation and confidence level by acting honorably, or not, depending on the situation. Those numbers are given to y
ou based on your actions and interaction with your kingdom population.” He spread out a hand at the large screen behind us. “You’ll need to build and manage a kingdom, including overseeing activities like farming, construction, protection, economic management, and spiritual and entertainment resources.”

  My spirits soared. So far, so good. I’d played dozens of games like this and had kicked butt in most of them. I glanced at Wally and saw the smile on his face as well.

  Ours to lose.

  “The strategy aspect of the game involves the ending,” Mr. Donovan continued. “The ending happens when your kingdom conquers your opponents. So, how do you get to the top? Strategy, teamwork, diplomacy, cunning, ruthlessness, money, and/or force are all on the table. Just remember that hits to your health, reputation, as well as discontent from the masses and the economic health of your kingdom, play an important role.” He fell silent for a moment, looking at each one of us. “Typically, role-playing games can take weeks, even years, to play out. Obviously, we will be acting on an accelerated timeline. You have eight hours to win the game. Lunch and snacks will be provided in the back of the room.”

  “Yes.” Wally raised a fist. “Let’s get this going.”

  “I appreciate your enthusiasm, Mr. Harris.” Mr. Donovan smiled at Wally. “Now, I’m aware that some of you may not have participated in a role-playing game before. No worries. You’ll not be playing the game individually. Not exactly.”

  “What?” Wally’s bliss turned to dismay. “Why not?”

  “You’ll be playing in teams. Men against women.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Four on a team?” I uttered. “But…role-playing should be individual.”

  “Oh, no worries, Ms. Sinclair. Each of you will have your own avatar. But the four of you will have a collective, not a singular, goal and accumulated points. Gentlemen, you have an identical setup in the room next to this one. Both teams will be linked to each other virtually. However, strategy and information can be called out and discussed aloud, and in real time, without fear of your opponent overhearing. Please keep in mind that everyone’s scores, movements, and mistakes are factored into your overall team score. The game can be played to its conclusion, which is the acquisition and control of both kingdoms. If that hasn’t happened by the end of the game—which is eight hours—the team with the highest combined score will be declared the winner.”

  Wally exchanged a worried glance with me. I understood everything he feared in one look. Dread swelled in my stomach. It was hard enough to manage your own score, actions, and movements in a role-playing game. Directing and coordinating others in a fast-moving scenario, with a ton of different aspects, all while keeping a focus on your own actions and the end goal, would be a nightmare. And that was if the others would even agree to direction. Arguing, unforeseen mistakes, and refusing to follow directions could be a real problem. I suddenly had to face the real possibility that I could tank this trial, too. If that happened, I would be a washout for sure.

  Before I had time to fully consider the consequences, Mr. Donovan ushered the guys out of the room. Wally gave me a last worried glance over his shoulder. I managed to give him an encouraging thumbs-up even though I didn’t feel confident in the slightest.

  Right after the guys left, we got another visitor. John showed us the controls, gave us an overview of the rules, and left. We watched a seven-minute introduction video to the game before a digital timer on the wall started the countdown and it was game on.

  For a moment, the four of us just stared at each other.

  Frankie finally broke the silence. “So, Angel, what’s the plan?”

  “Me?” I said. “Why are you asking me?”

  “I’ve never participated in a game like this.” She glanced at Kira. “What about you?”

  Kira shook her head. “Me, neither.”

  I looked hopefully at Hala, who shook her head. “I’m a novice. I’ve played a few games with my brothers, but they killed me. Looks like you’re in charge by default.”

  I leaned back, pressing my hands to my head and blowing out a breath. This was far from ideal. I was stuck with essentially three newbies. At least Wally had Jax and Mike, both of whom I’d seen in action. They were experienced and decent players. I had no idea how much Bo gamed, but at this point, it didn’t matter.

  We were totally screwed.

  I inhaled a deep breath. It wasn’t in my nature to go down without a fight, so I had to tackle this logically, just like I did any other problem. I stood and walked over to a table that had loose pieces of paper and a few pencils. I brought them back to the group and placed them on the coffee table, smoothing down the paper.

  “Okay, I’ve never played this specific game,” I said. “That’s because this is likely a scenario custom-made for us. But I’ve played plenty of online role-playing games similar to this. Usually, you make alliances and form strategies to get ahead. Alliances don’t last, because someone you helped at one time will likely have to betray you down the line so they can win. However, since we’re bundled together, we must form one strategy, and all of us need to stick to it to work toward the goal of defeating the guys in their kingdom of—” I had to glance at my notes “—Ironhaven. Apparently our kingdom is called Alygarth. Are you clear so far?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Okay, then before we start, we have to consider our opponent. I know Wally, and I also know his style of gaming. I’ve also gamed once with Mike and Jax, so I have a decent feeling of their level of expertise, too. Mike is good, but I’m fairly confident he would relinquish executive control to Wally. Bo is the dark horse. I have no idea whether he plays well or not. But my feeling is that he won’t be anywhere near the same level as Wally.”

  “So, Wally will be the leader?” Frankie asked.

  “I think, given the knowledge we have, we should assume that.”

  “But what if Mike turns out to be the leader?” Kira protested. “Would it change our strategy?”

  “It might.” I lifted my shoulders. “But this point, we have to act on certainties. Anything else could lead us down a rabbit hole.”

  “I agree,” Hala said firmly. “We should assume Wally is the leader. So, what’s our plan, Angel?”

  I studied the giant screen where our avatars stood waiting to be assigned. “My gut tells me Wally will pursue a military strategy. It’s his go-to scenario, and he’s very good at it. He’ll build an army and fancy weapons, using them to crush us into submission. However, it also means he’ll have to force a lot of his people into conscription, which will cause damage to his reputation, charisma, and the happiness levels of the people. He’ll look for ways to offset that, but I bet he’s willing to take that risk. Whether he’ll be successful is up to us.”

  “Can we do the same?” Frankie asked.

  “We could, but I think that’s what he thinks I’ll do. So, in that case, their strategy will involve preparing to meet us one on one in a military face-off. Because of that, I think we should do exactly the opposite.”

  “Like what?” Kira exclaimed.

  “Like form diplomatic alliances with other nations. We get them to help us, lend us their armies, meaning we don’t have to take on the guys on our own. Two or three armies against one are better odds in our favor. Especially if we’re scoring points elsewhere.”

  “Wait. There are other kingdoms?” Frankie asked.

  “I’d be surprised if there aren’t. Wally will certainly check them out to see what they would be willing to offer, but I doubt he’d put a lot of resources into it. So, we’d have to do better and have more to offer our potential allies.”

  “But…if we fail to secure allies, we’re dead,” Kira said. “They’d crush us.”

  “They’d probably crush us anyway. I’m sure we could build an army with equitable strength and weapons and fight it out. But in this case, the odds favor the guys, as Wally is better in tactics than I am. Given that he’s also got Mike and Jax to assist, I’d rather go
with the diplomatic solution.”

  “How do we get other kingdoms to fight for us?” Hala asked.

  “We’d have to give them stuff, I assume,” Frankie said.

  “Yes,” I agreed. “A lot of stuff. That means everything is on the table. The only thing that is nonnegotiable is the leadership of the kingdoms. That’s our endgame.”

  “Okay,” said Hala. “I think I see where you’re going with this.”

  “We’ll all have a job,” I continued. “But first, we combine our funds to get started. Frankie, you’ll be our farmer, but also our church pastor. Our first purchase will be seeds to start growing crops. I’m also going to allocate funds for fertilizer so we can have food early. Spread the crops out to benefit the entire kingdom, but also so that we don’t have everything in one place in case of attack or fire. I also want you to start a coffer in the church. I’ll give you an allotment to help the kingdom’s poor and to raise our point count in terms of reputation and confidence.”

  “Okay. Got it.”

  “Hala, you’ll be our blacksmith and our carpenter. You need to make the items with which we will barter. The more things you can make, the better.”

  “I’m good at crafting,” she said.

  “Excellent.” I looked at Kira, my voice cool. I was going to have to put aside my dislike of her for the sake of teamwork. “Kira, you’re our diplomat. You need to visit the other kingdoms and create alliances. Feel them out, see what they want, what we can give them. Coordinate with Hala to see if we can provide them with what they want in exchange for military assistance.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because I have a feeling you’ll be good at getting others to give you what we need.”

  She seemed unsure how to take that but said nothing.

  “What are you going to do, Angel?” Hala asked.

  “We need a military of our own, even if it isn’t our focus. We’ll need conscripts and weapons. I’m also going to be the kingdom leader/politician, going among the people to see what they need. Keeping them happy is vital to our point count. I will also keep an eye on the overall economic health of the kingdom and see what we can leverage in terms of natural resources. Keeping the kingdom citizens in good spirits and prosperous will help us jack up our score.”