For a brief moment dread fell over Donny. He looked up at Captain Williams, but the look in his eyes helped to calm Donny. He did not see concern, or even an attempt to assert authority, but instead he saw that this was being put forth as a challenge. I accept. Donny thought for a moment, being careful to word his response correctly. “I appreciate the concern, but I feel like that would not be the best course of action sir.”
“No?” Captain Williams egged him on.
“You asked if there were anyone who would want to harm me, and I can only think of two groups of people. One is the yellow team, and the other is the villains.”
Captain Williams looked calmly back at Donny. Am I being too bold? Donny wondered. No, I will get nowhere if I back down now. He set the challenge with his threat of sending me home, now it is my turn to return the challenge by bringing up the villains.
Captain Williams leaned forward over his desk. He, too, was accepting the challenge. “Why would they want to hurt you Donny?”
“The yellow team would want to harm me because of who I am, and the villains would want to harm me because of who they are.”
Captain Williams smiled thinly. “Is that a fact. Tell me Donny, who are the villains?”
The bait was set, but Donny would not bite. You can’t get me that easily. “The villains are the ones we are here to prepare for. There is a war going on, and merely being at this school means I have sided with the heroes. The villains are the other side of the fight, and the fact that they attacked the school means they are getting more bold. A time of change is coming, and I think it will not be long until the villains either rise and become unstoppable, or fall for good.”
“Interesting theory. But you still have not answered my previous question. Why would the villains want to hurt you.”
“Maybe because they saw what my brother could do, and are afraid. Maybe because I am one of the few at this school that is unpredictable. Or maybe they were not coming for me at all, I do share a room with many other students who are bigger and stronger than I am. Maybe they were coming for one of them.”
“Nevertheless, someone tried to get into your room last night, and if you think it possible that the villains would wish to come after you, then there is really no other option than to send you home.”
“There are always other options. You could use me as bait.”
“We do not use our students as bait.”
“No, but you used my brother to fight.” This caught Captain Williams’ attention, and Donny could not decide if it were a good thing or not. “If the stories are true, then my brother was a key player in fending them off.”
“The stories are true Donny.”
“Then my brother is truly a hero.”
The conversation was over. To anyone who might have heard the conversation it would have sounded like Donny had been the victor, but they both knew better. Captain Williams leaned back in his chair while Donny’s stomach sank.
“You have convinced me Donny. Sending you home would be impractical. It would be much safer to keep you here where you can be protected. Good luck in the remainder of the games.”
Donny said nothing. He rose from the chair, and without a word he turned and walked out of the office. He struggled to keep the tears away as the word that had betrayed him played repeatedly in his mind. There was no doubt now, Captain Williams knew where Donny stood. Despite all the blocks and deception Donny had been using to keep his secrets to himself, they had spilled over to one with no more power than himself. Captain Williams now knows that Donny is not innocent in all of this. Donny had been revealed from the slip of a single word.
“is”
CHAPTER 1 5
DONNY GOT NO more sleep that night. For the first time since he arrived at the Academy, Donny truly felt like he had been beaten. He had been bested before, such as in defensive tactics when they were running exercises, but each time it was just a practice, and Donny was soon able to master the technique and turn out the better for it. This time he had been made the fool of, and this time it was serious.
Donny almost wanted to remain in bed and forget about the simulation games completely, but he knew this would truly be a failure. The only way he can be beaten fully is if he gives up, and he knew he could not hand the whole war over to Captain Williams. The secret messenger that Donny had been contacted by had told him to win the games, and he would do his best to hold up his end of the plan, even if he did not know what that plan was. He would do it for Jay.
When Donny arrived at the arena, he found Duke sitting up against the side by the door. Duke’s eyes were bloodshot, and Donny knew immediately that Duke had gotten even less sleep than he had the night before. Even so, Duke looked anything but tired.
“You were right,” Duke said as Donny approached. The tone was a mixture of distress and anger.
“I was right? What was I right about?”
“You asked me once before if I thought the school wanted us to lose. You’re right, they do. I don’t know why, but for some reason they are willing to do whatever it takes to stop us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Donny, it was the school. A professor came after you last night.”
Donny could not help but look around. Duke had not whispered this last statement, and Donny was afraid someone might have overheard. When he saw no one, he looked back to Duke, and responded quietly. “Who was it? Which professor did they send?”
It was clear that Duke was upset by all this, but he was still able to continue the conversation. “I could not make out who it was, but he was clearly older. I did not pay him any heed at first, because he was wearing a professor’s suit while walking down the hall. His head was down, and I never got a good angle to see his face. When he arrived at the door he took off his jacket, and was wearing all black underneath. He clearly did not wish to be seen. I saw him pull a needle out of his coat pocket and prepare it with something, then he got ready to enter the room. He had a good block set up, almost a paranoid one, so it was difficult to get a reading, but I could dimly make out one picture.”
“What was that?” Donny asked.
“It was you. He was thinking of what you looked like, which to me is pretty good evidence that he was coming for you. Even without seeing the picture, it was clear that he was going after you. You were in a room with a bunch of Titans, and the amount of liquid he put into that needle could not have been enough for a Titan.”
Donny thought about this for a moment, and realized Duke’s suspicions were valid. At least this answers the question of who was after me. Donny thought.
“Listen, Duke, we need to be careful. The school is dangerous, as you now know, and they are really good at getting information out of people. Now that you know something is going on, I need to know, do you trust me?”
Duke looked surprised by the question, but he thought about it before responding. “Yes, I do. No offense Donny, but I believe you are too innocent to be the guilty one here.”
“I take that as a complement. If you trust me, then I have two requests. First, do not do anything against the school. Take no actions at all until I tell you otherwise.”
“Very well, but you better know what you’re doing.”
“My second request is that when I do ask you to do something, that you will do it without question, and trust that I really do know what I’m doing.”
There was a pause before Duke responded, but Donny knew this meant he was weighing all the possibilities. Donny was relieved once the response came. “Ok, what do you want me to do first?”
“First, we win the simulation games.” Duke thought it was a joke at first, but when he saw the seriousness in Donny’s face, he got serious as well.
“Ok kid, let’s win this.”
IT WAS NOT long before the rest of the team arrived. Donny was glad to see that they were each dressed in layers, and all in white as well. He had already felt the metal entrance door and found it to be cold, so at the very least h
e had been right that they would be dealing with a chilly game. For a moment Donny had forgotten that he had told them to get there early, but the staring, expectant faces helped him to quickly remember that he had a plan waiting that he needed to let his team in on.
“Alright team, it’s time for us to win our second game. This time, I have a strategy waiting. We will adapt this plan to whatever situation we face. We will split into four groups, with one group flanking out to the right, another to the left. My group will wait at the door. The fourth group will wait with me at first, but be ready to move on my orders. Flanking teams stop at the table and grab any supplies you need on the way by. Your roles will be to lie in ambush. Go out and find a place where you can wait without being seen, and when you see the enemy moving in after my group, you are to move in on them. If there are paintball guns on the table, assume a shooting game, and take out all the yellow members. If there are no paintball guns, assume another type of game, and figure out some other way to immobilize the enemy. If you are able to dig, dig down to hide yourselves. The moment you run through the door, take what you need from the table, but leave two snipers, and any rope or small throwable objects if they are there.”
Donny split the team into groups, with the better shooters designated to the flank groups, and those who were not as good with shooting but were bigger in stature were put into his own group. The two best shooters, Duke and a Hermes second year named Eagle, were the entirety of the fourth group.
Donny ran through what they were each to do in various situations, making sure they understood the shootout and snow related situations specifically. When the time came to begin, the groups were formed and ready to run through the door. The moment the lock clicked open, the flanking teams dashed inside and ran to the table. “It’s a shootout!” One of them called back, and by the time Donny had walked through the door into the arena, both flanking teams had picked up assorted guns and ran off in either direction.
Donny had been correct on all accounts. The arena was filled with snow, and it was not a level snow either, but one with many hills and small cliffs. Donny immediately noticed that they were starting at the bottom of an incline, meaning that any conflict between the two sides would start out with their team shooting up, and the yellow team shooting down.
One look at the table gave Donny exactly what he needed to gain the elevation advantage. There on the table had been left two sniper rifles, as well as climbing equipment, that included a large grappling hook attacked to a long length of rope. It was clearly meant to be used to climb the cliffs around, but Donny had another idea for it. Finding another length of rope, he tied it to the end of the grappling hooks rope to make it even longer. He then handed the hook to Lenny.
“Lenny, I need you to throw this up over the catwalk. Do you think you can throw it that high?”
Lenny took the hook from Donny and looked at it. He then looked up at the catwalk, and with all his might he threw it up in the catwalks direction. The hook bounced off the ceiling just above the catwalk and fell down on the other side, leaving the rope that had been trailing behind draped over the catwalk and streaming down on either side.
“I guess you can, great work Lenny. Alright, team four, grab a sniper each and take a length of rope. Hold on tight, we’re going to boost you both up to the catwalk. You two Titans, take the other side of the rope and begin pulling to hoist them up.”
With surprising speed, Duke and Eagle were lifted up to the catwalk. Donny did not need to give them any more instructions, Duke knew exactly what to do from there. The two of them ran off down the catwalk in the direction of the enemy’s door.
“Ok, we are the bait. I am going to stand with my back to center arena, and I want the rest of you to fan out facing me. We need to make our group look as big as possible, so the bigger students stand in the front, and the smaller ones stand behind and on the sides, so it will look like all our smaller players are merely out of view. Watch me intently, and the moment I am hit with a shot, spread out further and begin firing back. Dodge shots as much as possible; the longer we last, the longer we can keep the attention away from our real firing power.”
Donny had expected the yellow team to come at them fast, but he was still surprised at just how fast they had moved. They had no sooner gotten into their positions when Donny felt himself hit by no less than six shots, and was able to see a few of his Titans also take hits. The rest of the group fanned out, but they were getting picked off fast.
With only two of his group unhit, the firing stopped coming, even though the sound of the shots could still be heard. Donny was hit, and therefore could no longer give any instructions, but he could still turn his head around to see what was happening. He could not see very much, as there was a ridge of snow between them and where the battle was now being fought, but he could still see the occasional high shot, as well as shots coming down from the catwalk.
“Charge!” Donny heard from behind him, and he saw the remaining two from his group dart off towards the battle, running up the incline as fast as they could move. Donny saw one of them get hit as he reached the top of the ridge, but the other began firing and was soon lost from sight.
The whole game took less than fifteen minutes from start to finish. Donny heard the arena sound system announce the end of the game, and was relieved when it announced that the yellow team had been compromised. Donny watched as his team walked back over the snow ridge, a mass of white with splashes of paint, all laughing and joking with each other. Donny heard giggling nearby, and he realized a few of his teammates who had been downed around him were making snow angels, joking about become angels after being downed in battle.
As they were instructed to exit through the same door they had entered from, they needed to get Duke and Eagle down from the catwalk, which proved more difficult than getting them up. They finally got them down by tying ropes around their waists and lowering them down slowly, much like the way they had gone up. Donny wished he could tell them all to go celebrate, but they still had one more game left, and they were not as prepared for that one. They needed to begin preparations immediately.
“Great job team. Get cleaned up or celebrate as you will, and meet up again by the practice rooms in one hour. We need to prepare for tomorrow.”
“OK, WHAT HAPPENED this time?”
“He cheated.”
“Oh really? How do you figure that?”
“He used the catwalk, which was not part of the playing field.”
“These students are taught that anything in the arena, including the arena itself, can be used during the games. Typically this has just applied to the walls, but the catwalk would clearly fall under this ruling. There was no cheating there.”
“He also knew somehow what the game would be.”
“Now you have hit on the reason I wanted to see you two. How is it that you two are the mind readers, yet he has pulled more out of your heads thus far than you have out of his?”
“Mind reading is a difficult ability, it is easier to block than to achieve…”
“Yes I know, I am asking this question in an attempt to understand how you two could be so utterly predictable. The older boy out maneuvered you, and now the younger has out thought you. Once again it is falling on my shoulders to get the job done.”
“You know how to make him lose?”
“Losing will not be enough at this point. You were to force him to lose in order to make him think he was out of his league. Instead he has overcome two games that were stacked against him, and proven that he is right in his element. No, he will win the game. There are other ways to break him.”
CHAPTER 1 6
PRACTICE HAD GONE as well as Donny could have hoped. They would face the orange team the next day, and Donny was uneasy about the fact that his chances were looking so good. The orange team had been ranked third before the start of the games, but the way the matchups had gone, along with the early upset of the eighth place red team against the first place blu
e, the orange team had faced the teams ranked sixth, seventh, and eight, while Donny’s team had faced those ranked fourth and second. Donny had faced tough teams, while the orange team had only faced those who were not thought to be top teams anyway. The orange team also had a few major weaknesses. In their match against the red team, one of the red team’s traps apparently worked harsher than expected, and two of the orange team’s top Hermes had sprained ankles.
Despite their advantages, Donny made no assumptions of their weaknesses, and found as many ways of getting by them as he could muster. He assumed the school would not make the same mistakes it had for the previous game, which meant they would not have a means of getting to the catwalk, nor would the game be set up in such a predictable fashion. Nevertheless, Donny prepped his team for the possibility of a slow paced game.
The rest of that day passed relatively uneventful. Hunter was telling everyone he saw that Donny had cheated, and many of the yellow team members were going out of their way to bump him in the halls, but this merely reaffirmed that he had beaten them when it mattered, and at their own game no less.
The next day came, and Donny soon found himself waiting at the door of the arena for the championship game. Being unsure what to expect, he had chosen his team to be well rounded, with an array of talents ready to use. Donny felt the door, and noticed it was no longer cold as it had been the day before. He put his ear up to it to see if there could be anything heard, but he heard nothing. He was unsure if he would be able to hear anything even if there was noise, but it was worth a try.
With only a minute left to the start of the game, Donny realized he had not said a word to his team since arriving. He turned to look at them, and noticed they were all looking at him. They were waiting, even now, for instructions.
Donny smiled, and said the only thing he could think of. “Let’s win this.”
The Games Villains Play (The Academy Trilogy) Page 15
