The ship’s communicator hissed throughout the cramped room. Richard flipped a few switches over his shoulder, all business.
A voice came over the comm. ‘Come in aircraft Nyctalopia... this is Ground One Oh Two Oh, we have you on our screens. Requesting transmission security clearance code, over.’
‘We passed through the blackout barrier already?’ Sarah asked.
Richard smiled at Sarah in confirmation and touched his headset mic. ‘Itchy! Is that you? They got you on ATC duty now? Pulled the short straw this week eh, ha ha!’
The voice came back short and terse. ‘That is Hashi Ichiro to you. Just give me the imaimashī kami code.’ Richard chuckled at that, while the voice continued. ’...And say “over” when you have finished speaking on the communication system. Over.’
Richard covered his mic with his hand and leaned over to Sarah. ‘I guess he's a bit sore at being left minding the shop on this mission. No honour in that or some such most likely.’
‘You better give him the code,’ Sarah chided. ‘May I remind you that the Air Traffic Control also has access to the SAMs?’
Richard at least had the decency to wipe the grin off his face. ‘Hey Itchy and me are bros. He wouldn’t fire a missile at us.’
Sarah just looked at him, unblinking. Richard uncovered his mic. ‘Okay mate, keep your skirt on. Here we go, commencing transmission.’ Sarah cleared her throat. ‘...Over.’ Richard finished, the grin back in place.
He turned on the autopilot, got up, and took a step over to a nearby panel shaped like a synth keyboard. The relic had to be at least 50 years old. It looked very tacked on and out of place on the sleek profile of the aircraft. He hit a series of thirteen notes, the opening riff from one of Casey’s favourite classic rock songs.
Never gets old, Sarah thought, very nearly letting herself nod her head in time with the tune.
The comm hissed again. ‘Nyctalopia is cleared for landing, orokana pairotto. Naze watashi wa kore o gaman shinakereba narimasen... Over.’ The channel closed.
‘Do you think he was talking about me?’ Richard flopped back down into the pilot’s chair.
‘Oh, Ichiro-san only speaks Japanese when he doesn’t want you to know when he’s talking about you,’ Sarah said with mock severity. ‘I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you too.’
Richard lightly punched her shoulder. ‘Yer all right Jensen... fer a civilian,’ he said, putting on a strong Texan accent in a half decent imitation of Master Casey. Sarah gave a small chuckle.
All business again, Richard sat up, cleared his throat and turned on the aircraft’s PA. His voiced echoed throughout the ship.
‘Attention passengers... this is... your Captain speaking. In a few minutes... we’ll be starting our descent... to beautiful “Classified Information” Island.’ He spoke in his best imitation of a professional airline pilot’s voice, even censoring his own announcement. ‘The weather is a balmy... 27 degrees Celsius... and the local time is 4:18pm... tomorrow. Please return your tray tables and seat backs to their upright position. On behalf of everyone on board... we’d like to thank you for choosing to fly Academy Airlines. We wish you... a pleasant day.’
He turned to Sarah with another grin. ‘That ought ’ta wake him up.’
Sarah shook her head. 'You spend too much time viewing the archives,' she said, and left him to bring the ship in for a landing by himself.
Sarah stepped off the ladder from the cockpit and strode down the hallway. The ship was incredibly roomy for an ex-military vessel. Richard had stripped out all non-essential equipment and even knocked a few walls down. That left a large galley in the centre, with a small medical bay adjoining the living quarters tucked under the cockpit. Mission equipment was stored at the top of the loading ramp bringing up the rear of the ship for easy access when being deployed. There were two living quarters flanking the galley under the gigantic retractable wings. Richard sometimes set up a hammock in the cockpit, which allowed up to 3-4 people to live comfortably enough if they didn’t mind getting cosy.
Since the Nyctalopia only needed a couple of hours to get anywhere on the planet, no one would be bunking over for the weekend any time soon. Technically, they were almost in orbit right now. The ship bounced along the atmosphere like a stone skipping on water. When they skimmed the atmosphere, gravity returned until they reached the apex of the next huge jump, at which point they were in a zero gravity free-fall. They could bounce right off into outer space if Richard wasn’t there keeping the ship in line.
But a trained monkey could do that. Sarah amused herself with the thought.
It was manoeuvring “in-atmo” where Richard excelled. He may be a loudmouth, but it was with every dodged missile or avoided drone swarm where he earned his keep.
Sarah looked up and saw she had arrived at the port crew cabin. She knocked on the door.
‘Joshua, you awake?’
The door opened. He didn’t exactly look rested, but he was finally clean. Sarah took a small involuntary gasp.
‘I feel like a shaved monkey,’ he said, looking embarrassed in a neatly pressed navy blue tracksuit.
‘No no... you scrub up, uh... nice.’ Sarah’s awkward compliment left them both speechless for a moment, then it passed.
‘So we’re landing apparently?’
‘Yeah... Well it's the coming back in atmosphere that’s the rough part,’ Sarah said. ‘The landings are always pretty smooth with Richard at the helm, don’t worry.’
‘Oh I’m not,’ Joshua quickly pointed out. ‘He seems like an okay guy, as long as he’s not handling anything other than this ship. I’m not sure I’d trust him in the street, but otherwise...’ He shrugged.
‘It’s okay. Come on, we’d better put our seat belts on before we hit the re-entry,’ said Sarah. They sat down in his cabin and strapped in. Joshua juggled his leg and exhaled. He turned to Sarah with a sudden realisation.
‘Hey! You never said where the Academy actually is. The Pacific Ocean is huge, it could be anywhere.’
Sarah just smiled. ‘Exactly.’
Chapter 9
The Nyctalopia blasted down through the upper atmosphere at Mach 6, less than half the speed it achieved while in near-orbit.
The heat build up was barely felt by the passengers, yet the ship came down scorching hot every time. Layers of the light flexible weave that Sarah’s jumpsuit was made up of covered every centimetre of the ship’s inner hull. The entire structure of the hull was then broken up into sections of moveable plates that, after cooling down following re entry, could be rearranged like a jigsaw puzzle to switch positions with the outer hull. The cooling fins on the outside took a good five minutes to allow the transformation, and until that time the Nyctalopia was exposed for anyone to see before the active camouflage on the inner hull could be turned on.
That was where Richard’s piloting expertise came in. He’d lost track of the number of times they'd narrowly avoided being blown into a million pieces by attack drones during the cool down.
There was no chance of that here though, as the ship adjusted the vector of its jet intakes to allow a gentle descent with a comfortable cruising speed no faster than a helicopter. The vast Pacific Ocean stretched in every direction, apart from the tiny coral atoll steadily growing in the forward view.
Richard whistled low and opened the ship-wide comm. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we will be touching down in two minutes...’ he went on, explaining the local customs and weather using his mock pilot’s voice.
In the crew cabin, Joshua unbuckled himself and followed Sarah to the loading ramp where they had boarded the ship.
‘You’re really going to make me wait to find out?’ he asked as they stood at the top of the ramp.
‘Trust me, you’ll thank me later.’ Sarah tried to hide her grin.
Joshua was shaking his head when the ramp lowered, letting in a brilliant stream of bright clear afternoon sunlight. His jaw dropped in sync with the ramp.
Crystal blue
water flashed in his eyes from either side of the exit, blinding Joshua for a moment. Hot golden sand lay at the bottom of the ramp and stretched out in a straight line to a hill covered in lush green foliage.
Joshua had never seen anything so beautiful. There had been the occasional old billboard dotted around Chicago, advertising island getaways for low prices. They had looked so worn and faded he was sure they had come from another era, some long forgotten past when the world was still beautiful. A world he had never known was real until now.
His senses were overloaded with magnificent details. The sparkling ocean flashed in his eyes. Heat radiated up off the sand. Thunderous surf from a distant beach. The soft lapping of warm water soaked into his rags. Salt on his tongue as he struggled to form words.
‘This is...?’
‘Wake Island,’ Sarah finished. ‘This was once a base for the US Air Force, but it’s been long forgotten by the Confederacy... and the rest of the world.’
A thin strip of tarmac was the only indication of habitation, and even that was almost entirely obscured by the beach. But there, a glint of metal caught the sun, revealing a partially submerged anti-aircraft emplacement.
They walked down the ramp onto the sand and Sarah nodded over to the AA gun. ‘We have those linked up to a custom Identify Friend/Foe system. They’re actually rail guns, and can fire a non-explosive projectile as fast as Nicky flies in orbit. At that speed... Bam!’ Sarah punched a fist into her open palm to demonstrate her point. ‘We don’t have much in the way of high explosives here, so these puppies work wonders.’ She considered a moment, ‘...Or so I’m told. I’ve never actually seen one fire at a real enemy before,’ she admitted.
‘They look pretty deadly,’ Joshua agreed, not entirely with as much enthusiasm as Sarah. ‘What’s to stop the Confederacy firing back?’ he asked.
‘Oh we’re well hidden from the eyes in the sky here,’ Sarah said. ‘But if somehow a missile was shot at us and somehow missed all the point defence cannons... our Air Traffic Control guys have systems in place to reduce the airspeed of incoming projectiles. Buys us time to retreat if we have to.’
As she said it, a seagull protecting its nest squawked, and in the blink of an eye, dived at them. When it came to within two metres of the ground, it seemed to become stuck in slow motion. The gull inched along and eventually swooped up out of reach of the force field, returning to a normal pace.
‘Very cool,’ Joshua admitted. He shielded his eyes and looked back along the path they were walking. Someone was marching out to greet them.
A sudden clang, and the grinding of heavy gears behind him, caused Joshua to turn back to see the Nyctalopia descend down into the Earth on a hidden platform. He was starting to feel uneasy about this whole set-up.
He looked forward again and could make out the features of the person coming towards them. A man with big broad shoulders held stiffly with his fists clenched, wearing loose-fitting black pants and a tight black t-shirt, despite the heat coming off the sand. He had brown hair slightly greying at the temples in a short crew cut style, and his face seemed to be in a permanent frown.
He was far too pale to be living in a place like this, thought Joshua. Had he just arrived as well?
They came to within a few paces and all three of them stopped. An outside onlooker might have guessed it was a stand-off.
The man looked first at Joshua, then over to Sarah. He finally broke the silence. ‘Jensen, a word?’
Sarah ignored the question. ‘Master Casey Jayne may I introduce Joshua... um...’ she looked at Joshua. ‘What’s your surname?’ she whispered loud and gestured wildly, as though this were a game. Neither Joshua nor Casey found it funny.
Casey turned his head and cracked the ligaments in his neck. ‘Jensen,’ he repeated, and indicated with his head she should come in for a sidebar with the judge. She walked over, leaving the newbie by himself to watch.
Joshua stood back and kept an eye on the discussion, which could only be about him, but the beauty of the island held most of his attention. The emptiness of the ocean was somewhat intimidating, having lived in the densely populated streets of Chicago all his life. It was the greenery behind Casey that looked all too inviting for Joshua, a place to lose yourself in, one of the few truly private locations on the planet.
It looked to the world like an unspoiled tropical paradise, but the disappearing act of the Nyctalopia and the defensive AA cannons had already shattered that illusion for Joshua.
He noticed three strange towers forming a loose triangle around the beach. They looked as though they were intended to emit some sort of signal.
Or maybe they blocked signals, Joshua thought. Confederate flyovers probably saw nothing but ocean.
He looked back at his companions. Sarah sounded calm and collected while she justified her actions. The bear of a man called Casey made the occasional grunt when he looked to be in disagreement, but he also glanced at Joshua frequently as though he expected him to release a pack of drones any second.
Eventually they both stopped and looked at Joshua. Sarah walked back to him.
‘We’d like to show you something,’ she said, and held out her arm for him to follow. Casey frowned and grunted, but the corners of his mouth twitched up in an attempt to look reassuring. Joshua swallowed the lump in his throat, nodded, and stepped in line behind Sarah and Casey.
They made their way up the long, gentle incline from the beach to one of the few spots on the island with a view. The three of them came over a rise and walked through the thin canopy to the other side. Joshua stared as he took it all in.
The island resembled a U-shape, consisting of two smaller islands at each end of the point, within throwing distance of the largest island making up the bend. The top section was closed off by a coral reef just peeking above the surface of the water, creating a lagoon.
There were signs of past habitation scattered around, a few low buildings falling into disrepair, an airstrip on the large island with weeds poking out, and a lookout point close to where they now stood on the hill.
Casey held his hand to his ear and murmured a few words. He looked up at Joshua and grinned, suddenly seeming like a child about to reveal a long kept secret. Behind him, as Joshua watched, the water in the lagoon drained away, and the entire island seemed to grow. It was a dizzying perspective, like sitting on a docked boat and imagining it’s really the wharf that was moving.
Joshua stepped forward to look down into the centre of the atoll. Shapes began to emerge out of the retreating water. They were porous blocks of coloured coral, all constrained within a long loop and roughly the same height. A single giant cylinder stuck up tall and straight over the others on the fringe of the area. Joshua recognised it.
‘The Tower,’ he breathed. ‘This is... a map?’
Sarah nodded. ‘A scale representation of the Colonnade and several hundred metres surrounding, as accurate as we can make it.’ Joshua whistled in admiration. ‘...With two exceptions,’ she continued.
‘Well it’s definitely not big enough,’ said Joshua. Most blocks were just enough to not be able to see over from ground level. The smallest blocks were half the height of an average person.
‘And it’s only the surface level,’ Sarah finished, looking apologetic. ‘We know the Colonnade extends underground, but we have no idea what’s down there, or how far down it goes.’
Joshua shook his head. ‘What is this place?’
Casey started walking down into the now dry lagoon. ‘Welcome to the Academy,’ he said.
Chapter 10
The youngsters followed Casey down the slope, careful to avoid tripping on the sharp coral skirting the rim. Sarah set a quick pace to catch up with Casey. He led them in the general direction of the Tower, but kept silent for now. Sarah took it as an implication that she should narrate the tour for her guest.
‘We added a few things here and there to complete the look,’ she said and pointed out a pile of logs stacked in a line tha
t disappeared into the distance. ‘This is the Colonnade wall. You can climb it if you want, but we’ve got several easy entry points for when the map is not in use. We do close it off entirely during exercises. Wouldn’t be fair otherwise.’
‘Exercises?’ Joshua said.
Sarah nodded. ‘We do a lot of our training up here. It’s important to be able to operate in broad daylight, can’t rely on having unlit corridors on every mission. Plus every student is required to memorize the layout of the surface level of the Colonnade.’
Shortly they walked past a distinctive block of coral, not far from the Tower.
‘You might recognise this one,’ she indicated. ‘That’s where...’
‘That’s the building where we met,’ Joshua cut in. He looked at Sarah and she turned away. He kept talking to fill the silence. ‘If this is used for training as you say, then apart from memorizing the layout, it doesn’t seem to be very useful.’
Casey stopped and turned to him. ‘Care to explain that little remark?’
Joshua swallowed but he was committed now. He pointed to the gap next to the coral-building. ‘It’s empty.’
‘So?’ Casey said. He folded his arms, experienced cords of muscle bulging in defiance.
‘I slipped past two Confederate soldiers and disabled a drone in the alley that gap there represents.’ Joshua held up an arm and flexed his own pathetic muscles, his rake-thin arms illustrating the point. ‘You think I did it with my bare hands?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I know the streets around the Colonnade like the back of my hand. But if I had had two blank walls on either side when they came for me, I’d be dead now. I was unarmed, weak from hunger, and had no fancy suit like Sarah’s. I used the environment to my advantage.’
Casey caught on and nodded. ‘There should be other obstacles, sewers, ladders, trash bins and the like.’ The frown on his face stayed put however, and he walked them the final distance to the Tower in silence.
The Covert Academy Page 5
