“Billy no mates, you going to sit with me or not?” I spun on my seat to see Bree. She was sat at a bench with a group of people, including Ash. “Get your lanky arse over here blondie.”
I squeezed in between her and a guy who grinned at me from under his long hair. He watched me as I put my bag under the table. Then continued to stare. It took me a moment to recognise him as the guy with the Tequila bottle from the bar.
“Hi,” he leaned in close, “I’m Jay.”
I kept glancing away as he continued to stare. “Hi, I’m Roz,” I said, hoping it would satisfy him. He leaned his head on his hand, gazing at me. His grin spread across his bright white teeth.
“Jay, quit it,” Ash snapped. He leaned over and pushed his hand, making Jay’s head fall forward.
Jay erupted in laughter. “Alright, alright.” He shoved back at Ash.
“Ignore him, Roz,” Ash said. “He seems to think he’s some kind of ladies man.”
Jay leaned back in toward me. “Jayendra Suresh, at your service.” He picked up my hand and kissed it.
I snapped it back, unable to hold back the laugh. “Nice to meet you. I think.”
The group continued on with their multiple conversations. Bree seemed to be in the middle of them all. It didn’t take me long to realise that this group wasn’t just Wolves like Bree and Ash. There was a girl from my Mole group who I hadn’t spoken to yet, and a guy who Bree continuously referred to as shark, which I presumed meant he was with the hacking group.
“How was today then?” Ash asked, dragging me away from listening to the other conversations. He had a packet of biscuits in front of him, which he was demolishing swiftly. “You getting used to it here?”
“No, not at all. How about you?”
“Doing alright. I’m used to training, so not too different from home.” He offered me one of his biscuits and I refused. “What is it you don’t like?”
I shrugged. I didn’t dislike it here. But, I wasn’t overly happy either. “I don’t know really. We’ve just been given a task which makes no sense. I’m not really making any friends here. I don’t know, I just don’t seem to fit.” I sank back in my seat, immediately regretting being so honest.
Bree jabbed me in the shoulder. “What do you mean, you haven’t made friends? What am I, a spare tyre?” She scowled at me and punched my arm again.
“Hey!” I protested, shifting further away from her on the bench seat. “I meant in class, that’s all. I just, don’t really fit in with them.”
“Well that’s okay, you fit in with us.” She slung her arm across my shoulder.
“Great. I fit in with the crazy wolf pack.”
The table thundered with cheers. I cowered with my hands over my head, as multiple hands smacked in high fives.
* * *
As night crept closer I was glued to my computer. I had made myself a nest at the table in the kitchen in the form of snacks, coffee mugs and pads of paper. A quick search on the internet told me that the sentence from the bottom of my task sheet was a line from a Wordsworth poem. My heart had lightened with the ease of finding that piece of information. But, as the hours dragged and I failed to discover what that poem meant, my heart was sinking in time with the sunset.
“What you got there?” Owen asked, as he put the kettle on. “You want a fresh one?” He picked up my forgotten coffee cup without waiting for an answer.
I held up my notes. “All useless ramblings and procrastination. I have no idea what to do. I’m going to fail my first real task and get booted out of here.”
He placed the mug beside me and sat in one of the rickety chairs. “Lay it out for me.”
“I can’t. It’s my task.”
“I’m not going to solve it. Come on, bat your ideas around.” He leaned back and gulped back his coffee.
“Well, I don’t really have any ideas,” I said, as he huffed and glared at me to continue. “Okay, okay. We were given a task. We have to find something which is hidden within the campus, then figure out what to do with it.”
“What are you looking for?”
I slammed my fist on the table. “I don’t know, that’s the point. I have to figure out what it is I’m looking for and where. It’s hopeless.”
He leaned forward and reached for the test paper. “This the only clue?” He read through the poem line a few times. “Not much to go on.”
“It’s nothing to go on. So far, I’ve figure out that it’s a poem by Wordsworth, about a painting. We don’t have the painting anywhere on campus. I went to the library and found nothing in any books that could look like something that was hidden. I even asked the librarian if anything was hidden behind the desk. She looked at me like I was crazy.”
Owen re-read the paper again. “What were you told to do, exactly?”
I sat back and thought back to Llamp’s words. “We’re to complete the task and submit it to her officially within twenty four hours. We can use any means available to us and are marked on how we perform all the different Mole roles.” I picked up the cup and sipped. I was surprised to note that Owen already knew how I took my coffee. “And, she said Consummate procedure would be in effect.”
“Well, that makes it more difficult.”
“Why?”
“You’ve read the info book. Consummate are never seen in action. Meaning, whatever you need to do in this task, you can’t be seen by anyone.”
“How the hell am I supposed to search the campus without being seen?”
“Go undercover, I suppose? Jam the cameras?”
“Hang on. I’m marked on using all the Mole roles. One of those roles is leading a team. Organising a team.” I sat forward and gripped his arm. “She didn’t say anything about getting a team together, but she didn’t say not to. And, I was told to use all means available. You guys could be my team.” I grinned at Owen.
“Hey, who said I was readily available?” He reached behind to pick up his laptop from the kitchen counter, and elbowed me out of the way with a smirk. “Right, Shark at your service. What do you need?”
I stood and began to pace the kitchen. “The poem is the key, that’s obvious.” I snatched up my coffee as I paced, sipping in motion. “It’s about a painting of a castle. But we don’t have the painting here.” I took another sip and turned abruptly to face Owen. “But we do have a castle!”
“Brilliant. It’s hidden in the castle then. Where abouts?” He switched his laptop on and brought up the university castle on screen. He flicked through pictures of each room, descriptions of the history and what they were being used for now.
“It will have to be somewhere hidden. Somewhere where nobody would move it.”
“Well, that rules out the main library and offices.”
“Is there anywhere off limits?” I asked.
It had suddenly dawned on me what this task was going to entail. Llamp was throwing us in at the deep end. This task was going to involve every group within the university, I was sure of it.
I knew what Owen was going to say before the words left his mouth.
“Just the roof.”
It was obvious. The clue was on the roof. A place where cameras watched, was in full view of everyone passing and was strictly off limits and locked.
“How am I supposed to get up there?”
“You sure it’s there?” Owen was looking at a picture of the roof.
I leaned in behind him to study it.
“It could be hidden somewhere else,” he mused, flicking again through the university web site.
“No, it’s there. It makes sense.” I didn’t know why I was so sure, but my trusty gut feeling told me I was right. “Now to figure out how I’m going to get in there unseen.” I paced the kitchen, knocking back my coffee with each step.
“This is a real test, I have to get there unseen, collect it unseen, and deliver it unseen. Moles get their information and are never seen. Owen, if I fail this, what am I going to do? I have no other uni to go to, nothing but
working back at home in a dead end job. And that’s if I can go home.” I came to an abrupt stop at the sink and dropped my cup in. It clattered at the bottom, snapping me out of my building panic.
No, I couldn’t fail. I had to beat this. I was surer of this than I had ever been since arriving at this strange university. This was my opportunity to matter, to become proud of myself.
I had a target. Now all I needed was my team.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Within five minutes of my phone call, Bree arrived back at the house with Ash and Jay. The three of them walked through the door noisily chatting, without a care.
“You call, we answer,” Jay announced, as he threw himself down next to Owen.
Ash stood beside me, leaning against the counter. He leaned over and whispered hello in my ear, sending goose-bumps along my arm. I tried to ignore the growing flutter in my stomach I felt whenever he was near. Feelings like that weren’t going to do me any good in leading a team.
I looked to each expectant face and cringed back against the counter top. I had asked them to come, but didn’t know what to do next. Where to even begin?
“Roz?” Bree asked, waiting for me to speak.
“Sorry,” I cleared my throat; a feeble attempt to hide the shaking in my voice. “Okay, you all know we need to form teams to get through the training?” They nodded as one. “Well, if you guys don’t mind, I would like you to be on my team.”
I folded my arms around myself, forcing the trembling to still. It didn’t work, I was never meant to be a public speaker.
“Already?” Jay asked. “I thought teams would be put together near end of training?”
“I’ve not been told formally to form my team. But, I have a task and have been told to use all means available to me. By my thinking, that means a team.”
I watched as the three of them stared silently at each other, then to me.
“We’re in, of course,” Bree grinned, “what do you need?”
I visibly sagged with relief. “I have to find something which is hidden on the roof of the castle. Consummate rules are on, so I can’t be seen, heard or discovered while I’m there. I have to get up there, find whatever it is and get back tonight.”
A wash of stillness took the room. Each of my friends considered my problem silently. I watched as Jay leaned toward Owen, looking over his shoulder at the computer screen. Bree leaned back in her chair, balancing on two legs. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ash looking down to me. I didn’t dare break my concentration by looking at him directly.
“Roz?” He asked, “does it have to be you?” He moved closer beside me so our arms were touching.
I gave in and looked up to him, gritting my teeth against the wave of butterflies. “Yes, of course it does. It’s my task.”
Owen waved my task sheet toward Ash. “She has to do what a Mole does best, get the info, by any means”
Ash took the sheet and looked back at me with a grin. “It doesn’t have to be you.” He put his finger on a line and held it out toward me to read. “Role of a Mole agent, it says here. Isn’t being the leader of a team a role?”
“Yes, but,” I thought about what he was saying and shook my head, “yes it does, but I can’t send someone else in. This is my task.”
“Your task is to get the information with whatever means available to you? Well, I’m available.” He lowered his head as Bree giggled from what felt like a mile away. “You know what I mean,” he said, quietly so only I could hear.
He didn’t meet my eyes as he looked down at the floor. My single butterfly suddenly turned into a kaleidoscope, my lips trembling as my breath caught.
“Thank you, Ash,” my voice shook.
“Ash is right,” Owen’s voice dragged me back to the moment, “you’re supposed to get the information the Mole way. You need to figure out how to get in and out of the castle, with us as your team.”
I regained control by looking to each member of my new team. Every pair of eyes were wide, eager for the challenge. I couldn’t help but cringe. How could I be their leader? They were all so capable, so independent and strong.
Owen winked at me, like he knew what was going through my mind.
“You really think we can do this? You all think I can come up with a way to get us in and out unseen?” I held my chin out, covering for the quiver in my voice.
“We’re a team,” Jay leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs on the table, “no problem. This will be a breeze.”
We spent the next three hours bent over a growing pile of notes, which spread across the table. Each sheet of paper depicted a different point of our plan. It didn’t take us long to deduce that the best time to carry it out would be the early hours of the morning, when it was still dark, but too early for passers-by. A nervous lump grew in my throat as supplies were gathered and jobs were divided. Finally, as the clock struck four, we got to work.
The first part of our plan was for Jay and I to set up a surveillance system throughout the campus. Intent on looking natural, I dressed in my running clothes, which were practically new from lack of use, and pretended to go for a jog. At every corner and lamppost I stopped to stretch and discreetly placed a camera. By the time I ran back to the house every angle of the university campus was flickering to life on the multiple screens Jay had set up in the living room. Thankfully, I didn’t need to explain to Warwick why we were taking over the room, as he hadn’t returned home. Fern and Karissa came home just as we were finishing the set up. After a quick explanation they were happy for us to use the room. Fern even offered to help watch the monitors as Karissa loped up the stairs to bed.
“Karissa?” I called, after her, “did you get your test sheet?”
“In the morning, Roz,” she mumbled, stumbling on the steps. I hoped for her sake she had a handle on her task. Llamp didn’t come across as the forgiving kind.
Fern hovered by the back of the settee.
“Are you sure you want to stay and help?” I asked. Although we lived in the same house, this was the first time I had really gotten to speak to Fern.
“Sure. I’m not in a group yet, I didn’t think they were being chosen this soon.” She ducked her head and blushed. “That’s if you don’t mind me being here, with your team?”
“Of course not.” I moved one of Jay’s bags of wires from the chair for her to sit. “So, you’re in science?”
“Yeah, biology. It’s fantastic here, isn’t it? The labs have everything. I can do so many more experiments here than at other labs.”
“They definitely like to challenge us,” I said, without her enthusiasm.
As the agreed time grew close, Bree and Ash returned to the house after gathering their supplies. They walked in like shadows. Black pants, black jackets and a black hood covering their faces. With them they brought a rope, some kind of climbing equipment and what looked like a gun.
“What’s that for?” I shouted, when I saw the handle sticking out of Ash’s bag.
“How else do you think we’re getting up there?” Bree said. She was looking in the mirror above the fire place, straightening the hood on her face.
“By killing people?”
“What?” She span on the spot to face me. “It’s a grapple gun, you idiot. We shoot it to the roof to hook on.”
My face flushed red. What the hell was I thinking? “Well, it looks like a gun. How was I supposed to know?”
Bree shook her head at me through the mirror, smirking at my idiocy.
I was glad of a diversion when Owen lifted his head from his computer. “Time’s almost here. You guys ready?”
Jay handed Bree and Ash an ear piece each. “Remember, we can’t cut their cameras until five o’clock, so stay under cover until then. And don’t shout, the mic will pick you up fine.”
Ash nodded and pushed the ear piece into place. “We know.” He turned to me and smiled. “I’ll be waiting for you to boss me around.”
My mouth opened to protest, but then clos
ed with a snap, not knowing how to respond.
“Don’t enjoy it too much,” Owen shouted, winking at Ash.
I didn’t know whether he meant his mission or me bossing him.
“Good luck. And, thank you so much for doing this,” I said, as Bree and Ash walked out the door into the night. I closed it behind them, my insides churning. What if they got caught? What if they fell? They could get in so much trouble and it would be all my fault.
I sat between Owen and Jay, Fern pacing behind us. The living room was filled with screens. I had no clue as to where they got them all from. The left was where Owen was monitoring the security system and power. On the right was Jay’s surveillance. From where we placed all the cameras, we could see Ash and Bree walking stealthily toward the target.
“You’re all clear.” I said, through the microphone.
“Shit. God, Roz you scared me.” Bree laughed. I watched her jump on camera as her voice rang through the little speaker.
Ash waved at the camera to signal our attention. “Okay Owen, your turn.”
Owen’s fingers fluttered across the keyboard. A moment later his screens flickered to life, the University of Terram triskelion in the centre of each screen.
“That’s the security. Hang on,” He said, as he continued to click keys. A moment later Jay’s screens saw all the lampposts go dark. “Right guys, that’s it. Lights and security alarms are down. You have exactly twenty eight minutes to get in and out.”
We watched as the two shadowed figures ran across the street. They ducked behind hedges and ran low beneath windows. They looked every bit the professionals they were training to be.
“Why only twenty eight minutes?” Fern asked, from behind us. She was biting her nails, her eyes fixed on the screens.
“The system is designed to recycle every thirty minutes. We could extend it, but this lowers the risk of being caught.” Owen replied.
Trials in Walls of Ivy (Triskelion Trilogy Book 1) Page 6
