“Miss Grove, please present your report,” Llamp said, the moment I entered the room. She was sat at her desk, with a video camera on a tripod pointing in my direction. I fumbled to insert my pen drive into the ready and waiting computer. Feeling totally exposed, I stood by the white board, waiting for the PowerPoint to fill the screen. I let out a sigh of relief as the first page appeared on the board.
My voice grew louder and higher with every syllable. My breath catching at the back of my throat, I heaved and gulped to calm my nerves. Llamp didn’t speak. She simply sat at her desk, her fingers entwined. After the first five pages, I began to calm.
I laid out our discoveries in sections. First the bomb locations, casualty count and resulting damage. Then, I covered what we knew of the biological agent involved. As I came to a close, Llamp indicated to the seat in front of her.
“Impressive choice. A current mystery with many avenues to both success and failure.” She flicked though the notes she had taken during my presentation. “Your choice of team members is acceptable. You seem to have selected at least one person from each department. Can you tell me why you felt this was necessary?
I shifted in my seat. “In all honesty, I didn’t know entirely what I would come across during the research. I thought a student from each area would give my team the best results.” I watched her without blinking, waiting for any sign of approval. There was none.
“I see. If this is the case, why did you choose to include two custodians?”
My mind raced for an answer. I had chosen Bree and Ash because they were my friends. I never thought to come up with a reason beyond that.
“I watched them practice,” I lied, “they work as a team. I thought, as they are trained to work together in the field, it would be best to have them in my team as partners. I do believe it’s also how they prefer to work.” I flinched at the snark tone in my voice. I was sounding more and more like Llamp as this conversation went on.
She watched me for a moment before taking a note.
“And, where do you hope to go next with this investigation?”
I mouth clamped closed. I hadn’t thought this far ahead. My mind raced.
“I think, we should look into the theft of the explosives,” I said, impulsively. “If they can be traced or if they need a specific kind of environment to be held.” I held my breath, waiting for her reaction.
“I see. Well I must say, with this element of your training, I am impressed.”
I noted the clause. “This element?”
She pulled a paper file from her desk drawer. “Yes. It seems you are not doing so well in some of the other aspects of training.” She held out a sheet from the file and waited for me to take it. I reached out and clenched it with my fingertips. I didn’t dare look at it.
“As you can see, your progress in physical training and computing is not to the same standard as your leadership skills. A Mole must always have the ability to rely upon one’s self.”
My hands began to shake. I balled them into fists and held my head high.
“I can correct this. By the final test deadline, I will be better.”
“No.” She sat forward and stared at me, her hands pressed flat on the desk. “Not better. If you want to be Consummate, you will be exemplary.”
I left the room in a daze. I clutched the paper showing my current lacking close to my chest. Visions of stumbling to my death from a forced heart attack filled my mind. It wasn’t enough. All the time and work, wasn’t enough.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ash was waiting for me outside the building. I smiled weakly. It didn’t fool him. He put his arm around my shoulders and we walked in silence to the house. Owen and Jay had the kettle ready when we got back. Without word they watched me, impatiently waiting for the verdict. Ash joined them on the other side of the room watching, ready for the hammer to fall. I threw my bag to the floor and tried to put into words my mixture of feelings. Ignoring the sting in my leg, I paced.
“She likes the idea and what we’ve done so far.”
The guys erupted in cheers. Ash picked me up and span me round.
“But,” I said, breaking their celebration.
He placed me back to the floor slowly, waving his hand to the others to shush.
“But what?” Jay asked.
“But, it looks like I’m not going to be passing with you guys.” Tears welled and I looked away. I could feel the tension in the room as we all realised the consequences of my failure.
Ash reached for my shoulder and gently turned me to face him. “What did she say?”
“My leadership skills are fine and our team’s progress is fine.” I felt my lip tremble and immediately bit it. “But, my progress in computing and physical, isn’t fine.” Biting my lip wasn’t working. I felt the first tear streak down my cheek.
“Did she say it was too late to improve?” Ash wiped the tear away with his thumb.
“No, but,” I sucked in a breath, determined not to have a break down in front of my friends, “but, she said to pass, I had to be exemplary.” I looked to Ash, my voice falling to a whisper. “I can’t fail, I don’t want to die.”
There it was. The realisation that my life hung in the balance was enough to break me. Ash wrapped his arms around my shoulders as the first sob erupted through my body. He stroked my hair gently as I shook with the force of the tears. I gripped his shirt like a lifeline, keeping me afloat.
Time seemed to stand still. The shaking which ripped through my body eventually stilled. My face saturated with fear, was buried in his shirt.
“Roz, look at me,” Ash said, once he was sure I had control.
My eyes rose past his now drenched top and met his eyes.
“Roz, you’re not going to fail. You’re going to pass and they won’t hurt you.”
I pushed away from him and rubbed my eyes dry with my sleeve. Owen and Jay had disappeared, fled at the sight of tears.
“How? How am I supposed to suddenly become exemplary?”
He walked toward the door and poked his head through. “Guys, get back in here.” The sound of footsteps thundered down the stairs.
Owen was first through the door. “You okay sweetie?” He asked, as he hugged me hard. I nodded as I hugged back.
“Roz needs to become a super student, fast,” Ash said, as he stood in the centre of the room. “Owen, you think you could show her a few short cuts in the computing department?”
Owen grinned, like he was in on a secret. “Oh, I think I can teach her exactly what she needs to know. I can show you short cuts even the tutors don’t know about.”
“Jay, can you back up on the surveillance side?”
“Sure. You want to learn how to plant bugs? I’m your man,” Jay laughed, high fiving Owen.
“And I will train you,” Ash announced.
I looked up at the seriousness in his face and gulped. The last time I was on a mat with him I almost got a concussion.
“I could ask Bree?” I said, trying not to sound ungrateful.
Ash shook his head. “No, Bree will go easy on you. You want to pass, you train with me. It won’t be easy, but believe me; I will get you through the tests.” He turned and opened the cupboard door. It was lined with cups and jugs. He pulled out a sports bottle. “Go get changed in to your trackies. We start now.”
I froze. “Now? I’m not ready; I can’t just suddenly train now.”
“You want to pass? You have to be ready at all times.” He filled the bottle with water while he spoke.
I watched him, my mouth hanging open. His body was tense, like he was preparing for conflict. A shiver ran through me as I watched his muscles flex. I couldn’t train with him. He was Jupiter. His muscles had muscles.
Within ten minutes we were facing each other on the grass. He had taken me to a clearing within the campus grounds. It was neatly mowed and flat, surrounded by thick conifer trees. We were alone for the most part. Few students passed us here and there. None stopped
to chat. They sounded like they were gearing up for a party. If one thing could be relied upon here, it was that at any given moment there was a party going on in the campus somewhere. There was a constant murmur of student’s voices at all times of day and night.
He placed a bag a few meters away from us on the grass. I wrapped my arms around myself, too nervous to speak.
“Why are we here?” He asked, pulling a football from the bag and gently spinning it in his hands.
“You want to train me?”
“No. I mean, why are we here at this university?” He threw the ball to me gently and I caught it. He put his hands out, waiting for me to throw it back.
I threw the ball. “Because, we were chosen to train as undercover agents.”
“And what do undercover agents do?” He asked, as he threw the ball harder.
I leaped higher to catch the ball. My hands stung with the impact. “We collect information which could be a danger to the country.”
“Wrong.”
He dropped to his knee and threw the ball, hard. It smacked into my stomach, knocking me to the ground. I wheezed as my breath was forced from my lungs.
“We put our lives at risk following orders to find information.” He held out his hands again, waiting for the ball.
I didn’t throw it back. “That hurt.”
He stepped forward and took it from my hands. “Then why didn’t you defend yourself?”
“I didn’t know you were going to attack me with it,” I snapped.
“Roz, when we leave here, do you think they’ll have us working in safe places?”
I shook my head.
“They’re training us to be covert, to get the information where others couldn’t.”
“So how is throwing a ball in my gut going to help with that?”
“First lesson in defence is agility. You need to move without hesitation. You need to see the danger before it has a chance to touch you.” He threw the ball again and I ducked. It flew over my head and disappeared into the trees. “See, I knew you could do it.”
I lost track of time as I ducked and swerved. Again and again, he threw the ball at me. My leg screamed in protest, but I kept moving. I didn’t manage to avoid every hit, but it was worth it when I finally caught Ash with a return throw.
“Ha! Got you.”
“Show off when you hit me again,” he laughed.
I never managed it. He was so fast. It was like he knew where to move before I knew where to aim. I even tried looking one way while throwing in the opposite direction. It didn’t fool him. He was exactly what this university looked for. A true Wolf. He leaped high and caught the ball each time I threw it back. The training got steadily more difficult as he added obstacles which I had to jump over and roll under whilst avoiding the ball. I panted with exhaustion and exhilaration. I felt alive.
When Ash held up his hand to indicate a time out, I collapsed on the grass next to his bag. I was dripping in sweat. My arms felt like they were on fire as I pressed them against the cool grass. Even after a full day of body boarding, I had never felt this wiped.
“You’re doing great, Roz,” Ash said, as he passed me a water bottle.
I downed half the bottle before I could speak. “You’re a good trainer. Where did you learn all that from?” I poured some of the water into my hands and scrubbed my face.
He shrugged. “My Dad. He’s in the military, all my family are.” He laid beside me on the grass.
“He trained you like this?”
“As soon as I could walk.”
I turned on my side, propping my head on my elbow. “You’ve been training since you could walk? You must be some sort of secret ninja by now.”
He turned to look at me, his face confused. Then burst into laughter. “Oh yeah, I’m a super powered ninja alright.”
I slapped his chest playfully. “Seriously, you must be pretty good at all this? What does Tooth think of you?”
The thought of returning to class with Tooth made me shudder. No matter how well today had gone, I still didn’t think I could do enough to make him see me as improved.
“I’m his prize student, or so he says.” He shrugged, his cheeks flushing a darker shade of red. “I think he says that just to piss off the others. I’m always first to be picked in hand to hand. Everyone wants to beat the star fighter.” His voice was bitter.
“Do they win?”
His face fell. “No.”
I leaned up on my elbows to look him in the eye. “Ash, you don’t really like it here do you?”
“Does anybody? The constant threat of death if you fail, the pressure of constantly passing hidden tests. How can anyone like it here?” His voice echoed around the clearing.
“We don’t know for definite that they kill us.”
He looked at me and raised his eyebrow. Even I could hear the doubt in my voice.
“Okay, well they most likely do. But, why did you stay in the beginning when they said we couldn’t leave?”
“It didn’t make a difference.”
“What didn’t?”
He leaned forward and stroked a strand of hair away from my face. “I was always going to be trapped. Be it here or at home, I never had a choice.”
I leaned in closer and waited for him to continue, my skin tingling from his touch.
“My entire family are military. Every leaf on our family tree is in some form of service. For as long as I can remember, my Dad has trained me for that service. I can climb, scuba, and fight in I don’t know how many styles. For my sixteenth birthday, he threw me out of a plane so I had experience with parachuting. He’s obsessed with it.”
“He wanted you to follow the family tradition? I suppose some Dads can get a little pushy when they want their kids to do well.”
He shook his head. “It’s the family obsession. My sister always thought I was stupid for wanting something different. She can’t wait to enlist.”
“But, you didn’t want to?”
He huffed and put his hands behind his head. “I get it why they love it so much. They help people. They’re important. It’s a worthwhile road to take. But, it just wasn’t me. I wanted to do something for myself. I know that sounds selfish.”
I shook my head. “That’s not selfish. Why shouldn’t you do something for yourself?”
“It doesn’t matter now. I’m here and it’s the same result. Except here, instead of choosing which service to enlist in, I’ve been drafted.”
“Drafted?” I sat up and reached for the bottle again. “We still have some choices.” Though at that moment, I couldn’t think of any.
He sat up beside me. “I applied to six universities. I know I had the grades, but they all refused me. Then I get an acceptance from here? A place I’d never even heard of? They took away my choice, leaving me with only one option. Drafted.”
I twisted on my knees in front of him. “That happened to me too. All my applications were refused, and then I got this acceptance. It was either stay home and work in a beach bar for the rest of my life, or go to uni here.”
He nodded. “Jay said the same happened to him and his applications. All refused. Then he has a big confrontation at his parent’s warehouse with some blokes. Next morning, he gets a letter inviting him to this place.
I grabbed his arm. “The attack. Just before I got my letter, two men came and threatened me and two women at work. I had to stand up to them to get them away.”
“You must’ve done a good job, you got your letter,” he laughed humourlessly.
“Good job? I was cut to shreds. Are you telling me, you think that was all part of their plan? A test?”
My hands shook, balling into fists. Dorothy was so old; they could have given her a heart attack. And June? I didn’t think she would ever get over the shock.
“Roz,” Ash cupped my face with his warm hands, “there’s no point in getting angry now.”
“But they…”
“I know, but we’re all trapped her
e. If we fail, they’ll kill us off. Right now, the best thing we can do is fit in and pass.”
“Brilliant. And if we pass, we get to live a life of danger on the front lines. What’re we supposed to do?”
He stood and pulled me to my feet. “We become the best. We pass, and find a way to get out that doesn’t involve death.”
I let out a sigh and grinned up at him. “Sounds like a plan. Count me in.” I grabbed the ball and threw it at his head.
He dodged easily.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was almost dark when we packed the bag and headed back to the house. We walked across the grass and re-joined the path as a line of students passed us. As usual, they were dressed for a party. Some carried crates of beer, while others balanced dishes of food. We let them pass without a word.
“How can they find the time to party?” I said, struggling to find the strength to talk and walk at the same time.
“Probably don’t know the consequences of failure.”
“We should tell them.”
“And say what? The university are secretly going to kill you off if you fail your exams?”
I laughed at his cheery tone.
“We have no proof, only what Owen has put together, and even that’s guess work. And what do you think will happen to everyone who does find out?” He pulled my arm gently, urging me to continue.
“It just feels wrong. I know you’re right, but I wish we could warn people.”
“So do I, but then we could disappear, along with anyone we’ve told.” He pushed open the front door and waited for me to enter. “We just need to watch out for ourselves and encourage people to get on with their work where we can.”
Trials in Walls of Ivy (Triskelion Trilogy Book 1) Page 13
