There was already a small group in the auditorium. Casey was there, as expected, since the PA system was there too. He was arguing in Japanese with Ichiro. Casey outwardly appeared cool and calm, while Ichiro was gesturing wildly, on the verge on panic. Joshua heard the name “Fletchers” mentioned several times.
Richard huddled nearby with his fellow pilots, Jayson and Val. Those two had only recently returned from various missions throughout Europe, as they hailed from that region. Jayson was a swarthy Greek, and had been with the Academy in the early days, since Greece had been one of the first to succumb to the Confederacy. Val was from Moscow, and came from a strong heritage of defiance against oppression.
Joshua didn’t know how reliable they were, but trusted Richard’s judgement.
As for the seven who had followed him in, Joshua didn’t know their names. But they were here and that meant they wanted to help. It would be enough for now.
Joshua broke up the argument between Casey and Ichiro. He simply walked up and stood between them, arms spread wide.
‘What’s going on? In English, guys.’
‘What do you think you’re doing here?’ Casey said. He looked around at the rest of them. ‘All of you are supposed to be in your rooms.’
Joshua brought Casey’s attention back to him. ‘Hey! We want answers. Why the alarm?’
Casey stared daggers at Joshua, but it was Ichiro who spoke up.
‘Dr. Prewett is dead. I found him in Brock’s cell. Before he...’ Ichiro choked up.
‘He thought Brock’s iPCs were hacked,’ Casey finished hastily. ‘Which means someone was watching the whole time.’
Ichiro picked up the story again. ‘We followed Brock up to the surface. He saw the island, he knows where we are. That means whoever was watching on the other end does too.’ Ichiro sagged in defeat.
‘Brock died up there,’ Casey added. ‘We found pieces of him scattered around the island. He must have raided the armoury or-’
Joshua held up a hand, silencing him. He’d had enough of Casey’s inaction. He turned to address the small crowd.
‘You all came here for a reason. Call it strength of will, your bravery, or just a desire to know the truth. Well now we know.’ Joshua paced and gesticulated like a seasoned orator. He was faking his confidence, but that didn’t matter now, he knew what needed to be done. ‘With Prewett and Brock dead, we have no hope of unlocking the secrets of the bio-ID. But we will not give up.’ Joshua extended an arm to indicate Sarah. ‘We have learned the location of the Fletchers’ base.’
A murmur rippled throughout the students. Richard stepped forward and his fellow pilots followed suit. They were raring to go already.
Joshua suppressed a smile, now was not the time to get sentimental. ‘You all know what the Fletchers are capable of. They are infiltrators and saboteurs, not soldiers. They won’t attack us directly. But they are also the closest Confederate force to our location. They will be the first to strike.’
The students were all pent up, itching to hurl themselves into action with a word from Joshua. He had them.
‘I say we take the fight to them!’
A cheer rose up.
By the time the noise had subsided, Casey had already left the auditorium, headed in the direction of the student’s housing district. He hadn’t been cheering with the rest of them.
‘He won’t want to leave the island,’ Sarah warned. ‘And he’ll rally the support of many other students. Too bad you didn’t make a recording of that speech.’
Joshua blushed, but this time, instead of waiting for Sarah or Casey to call the shots, he sprang into action. He pointed to four of his new followers, aware that they were now waiting on him for direction.
‘Get to the armoury. We’re going to need heavy weapons and explosives. Bring as much as you can carry to the hangar.’ Then he singled out the other three hangers-on. ‘I need you guys to get to the stockroom. Get jumpsuits for yourselves, the pilots... everyone.’ The seven kids paled at these instructions. This was out of their league. ‘Go!’ Joshua finished. They scattered, set to their assigned tasks. Joshua was reminded of the street kids from Chicago. They also were bolder than they appeared.
The three pilots moved in for their orders, but Joshua hesitated for a moment. He couldn’t take a large force with him. If the Academy’s location was compromised, they needed to evacuate everyone. That would take time, especially with only three planes. If Joshua rushed off with the ships, he might be leaving hundreds of kids trapped here.
‘Jayson, Val, I need you to stay here.’ Their faces dropped but Joshua ignored it. ‘Start loading people on your ships, as many as you can carry. Get them somewhere safe.’
Val started to say something but Joshua raised a hand to cut her off.
‘It’s best if I don’t know where exactly,’ he said with a grim smile.
Jayson and Val shook hands with Joshua, Sarah and Ichiro; gave Richard a parting thump on the back, and set off to round up as many students as possible. It wouldn’t be easy with Casey planning to turtle up. Most students would want to stay with him.
Joshua didn’t envy the pilots’ task. He’d run from plenty of fights before, but only when it was his own neck on the line. His sister had been able to look out for herself, so his being responsible for others was a strange feeling. He didn’t have time to feel sorry for himself or the pilots though. He waved an arm to round up his three remaining companions: Richard, Sarah and Ichiro.
‘Let’s get to the hangar,’ he ordered. ‘We’ve got a Confederate base to blow up.’
Chapter 29
At the foot of the boarding ramp of the Nyctalopia, Joshua and Sarah urged on their new teammates, who were slowly returning one by one from their given tasks.
Elayne was the fastest. She sped into the hangar carrying a huge bundle of jumpsuits in various sizes. William came next, he was never far behind Elayne. He and Eddie carried another gigantic load of suits up into the ship.
Well at least we’ll have spares, Joshua thought.
Ichiro tended to the young students and got them safely seated aboard Nicky in the galley. It was the only room that could house them all, but it did have secure seating at least. The kids would be safe enough there if they ran into trouble.
Richard was back in his familiar cockpit, running through the pre-launch checklist. Now they were just waiting on the last four students that Joshua had sent off to scrounge some weaponry.
‘There’s something we need to talk about,’ Joshua began lamely, as he waited with Sarah at the foot of the ramp.
‘I already promised, I won’t kill anyone. This is your show,’ Sarah said. The first of the kids bringing the weapons arrived, kitted up like an underage commando and wheeling a crate full of various grenades and other explosives. One crate had a huge cylindrical gun-barrel peeking out of the top. ‘Though if your plan involves all that,’ Sarah added, pointing at the arsenal, ‘maybe we have similar ideas after all.’
She exaggerated a knowing wink at Joshua. He chuckled, but in truth he wasn’t sure whether it was funny or not.
‘Uh, no it isn’t that,’ he said. ‘It’s... do you remember that first night we, um, on the boat I...’ his voice locked up. Damn! Why was this so difficult? He could run circles around Confederate patrols, but talking to this girl in a personal situation was impossible. He never knew what to say. The awkward silence stretched on. They just stood there looking across the ramp at each other. Joshua thought he was going to burst.
Finally the tension broke when the last three students appeared and trundled their load of weapons up the ramp. Joshua had been so distracted he hadn’t even seen them coming. He dropped the conversation and avoided Sarah’s confused gaze, as he followed the kids up the ramp and helped secure the cargo.
There was a wide variety of weapons, the kids had been thorough. No one really knew what to expect at the Fletchers’ secret base in Hawaii. Ryan had been a Fletcher, but he had infiltrated the Academy years
ago, waiting for the most profitable opportunity to betray them. The attack on the Fletcher base would be much more complicated than simple self-defence against a double agent.
Still, even the Fletchers were human, thought Joshua. If their lives could be spared in the hope they might abandon their foolish crusade, well, he’d sleep better for it.
Joshua rummaged through the weapons, moving aside Stunners, Two-Shots and various deadly looking assault rifles. He sighed. All were useful, none were suitable. They were too bulky and would create a lot of noise. Joshua wanted to keep this mission as quiet as possible until the last moment. They were aiming to prevent a pitched battle here.
From the bottom of one crate he pulled out a small device that contoured to his arm. It looked similar in design to the shield projector he had stolen from the bunker in the Colonnade. But where the shield device had been a rounded lump, this was much more elongated. Joshua slipped the band over his wrist. The device extended all the way up to his elbow like a splint for broken bones. One end strapped around his forearm, the other ended in a fingerless strap over the palm of his hand. The activation button was tucked around the back of his arm to avoid accidentally triggering it.
He guessed who had made it, and smiled to himself. Prewett. He had a feeling this would make for a more interesting test run in front of an audience.
The Nyctalopia had not yet taken off, so he made his way to the cockpit. Richard was waiting for the command to get going. Sarah was already there too.
‘Hail the air traffic control,’ Joshua said. ‘Let’s ask for permission to leave this time.’
He hadn’t forgotten that someone in the Academy had opened the launch bay for Ryan during his escape. There was still one more traitor somewhere amongst them, but there wasn’t time now for a mole hunt. They’d just have to watch their backs.
‘Nyctalopia to ATC Ground One Oh Two Oh, come in please,’ Richard said over the comm. ‘Requesting permission to depart.’
To their surprise, it was Casey’s voice that came back.
‘Am I right in assuming that’s you three troublemakers in there?’ he demanded, skipping the usual protocols. That was a sure sign Casey disapproved.
Not off to a good start, Joshua thought. Sarah moved to speak into the comm, but Joshua got there first.
‘We need to do this Casey, open the bay doors,’ he ordered.
‘No, that ship is going to provide a defensive fire around the perimeter of the base, along with the other two ships,’ Casey shot back. ‘Oh speaking of which, I found yer two comrades here.’
Joshua exchanged glances with Richard and Sarah.
‘Say somethin’ then,’ Casey said to someone offside.
Jayson and Val came on the comm. ‘He found us in the students’ housing courtyard, sir,’ said Jayson.
‘We are sorry, sir,’ Val added.
Casey quickly came back on the comm. ‘Sir?! Why are you calling him sir?’
‘Because he has the right course of action!’ Val said, her voice rising. This was getting out of hand.
‘Casey, listen to me,’ Joshua said. ‘They need to start an evacuation. We don’t know what sort of numbers the-’
‘I won’t abandon the Academy damn you!’ Casey shouted through the mic.
Joshua waited for a second to let him cool down, then switched the comm channel to broadcast everywhere. His voice echoed out through the narrow passageways outside and boomed through the cavernous courtyards. The kids strapped in to Nicky’s galley perked up, as did every other set of ears in the Academy.
‘I know we’re all scared,’ he began. ‘The Confederacy has taken from us our privacy, our freedom, and our loved ones. So we must be defiant, and we must fight back. No more playing in the shadows, or hiding on a mythical island. If we stay here we lose the initiative. We’ll be on the back foot. Sure, we may pull through and survive somehow, but they will never stop coming. So I say, live to fight another day. We will buy you the time you need to get to a transport.’
Joshua thought of the kids in the alley, how they had safety in numbers but separated when threatened. They never got caught.
‘This is your first mission,’ he continued. ‘Scatter around the world. Harass the Confederacy wherever you can. You can... no, you will make a difference, all of you. It’s time to take the training wheels off.’
He paused as those words sank in. The hundreds of students had done nothing but train for this moment. They might think they were not yet ready, but they’d all just involuntarily graduated. Many students crowding the hallways cast their eyes around at their friends, finding strength there.
‘I am Joshua,’ he concluded. ‘You are the rebellion. Stay vigilant. Be ready for our return.’
Joshua switched the comm back to addressing only Casey, and again asked for the bay doors to be opened.
Before Casey finally obliged he said, ‘Well I never thought you’d make it this far. You proved me wrong kid. Give ‘em hell out there.’ With that he signed off. It still seemed as if he was struggling with himself over it.
‘What an inspiration,’ Richard said, rolling his eyes. He turned and saw the far away look on Joshua’s face. ‘Oh, him I mean, Casey. We will give ‘em hell won’t we?’
Joshua came out of it and grinned at him.
Far above, the doors parted and the floor around the Nicky rose up out of the hole in the ground toward the afternoon sky. A strong haze covered the horizon. Joshua hoped that when they arrived in Hawaii it wouldn’t be the last sunset he ever saw. He had no idea what he had got himself into.
‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ Richard said, as if reading his thoughts.
Joshua input Meyrick’s coordinates into the ship’s console and headed out. ‘Are you kidding? I’m making this up as I go,’ he said, and Richard chuckled.
Joshua got back to the main deck and slipped past the galley. Ichiro saw him walk past but didn’t call out. The seven kids they had brought with them were safely belted into their seats. Ichiro could handle anything there. In fact he actually looked confident and happy.
Maybe because this is finally an official mission, Joshua thought. Or maybe Hashi Ichiro had needed the experience of their last disastrous mission to grow a backbone. He’d come a long way. They all had.
Joshua nabbed a bundle of jumpsuits from the pile the students had brought onboard and entered one of the two private chambers on the ship.
He stripped out of his casual clothes and put on the thin white nano-weave layer that went under the jumpsuits. Very slowly he tried to squeeze his swollen ankle into a tight jumpsuit. He couldn’t do it. When not in a suit, he doped himself up on enough painkillers to forget all about his dislocated foot. But if he hadn’t been in a jumpsuit when it had happened he might never have been able to walk on it again. As it was, he’d been stuck in the suit for days after coming back from the Colonnade, and only took it off after becoming so filthy he couldn’t stand his own stench.
It was amazing how quickly he had become used to showering every day. The Joshua from the streets of Chicago would have called him a dainty flower. But that Joshua had only ever seen flowers in a photo before he had come to the island. Joshua realised he would fight to the death to defend the Academy.
He was still half dressed and daydreaming about the old days skulking around the borders of the Colonnade, when Sarah walked into his room.
‘Inspecting your handiwork?’ he asked, meaning his ankle.
‘That was a fine speech,’ Sarah said, not hearing his question. She looked almost sad.
‘What? Oh thanks I guess.’
‘Do you think they really have a chance to get out in time?’
Joshua hesitated, which told her more than she wanted to know. ‘We don’t know what the Confederates will hit us with, or when. I’m just playing the odds.’
Sarah nodded, as if that were enough. ‘And your sister is with the Fletchers,’ she added. ‘If you believe Meyrick.’
‘That t
oo.’
Sarah walked over and sat on the bed, while Joshua tugged at the jumpsuit stuck at his ankle.
‘Ryan came to me that day, you know,’ she began. ‘Just before you jumped up the fire escape to my apartment. Said he wanted to “go out” with me. Can you believe that?’ Sarah shook her head. ‘He just told me, simple as that. He didn’t ask whether I wanted to or not. Then after I said no, he tried to kill us and kidnapped the doctor.’ She choked back a sob. ‘I was so angry! How could he do that?’
Joshua hopped over next to her and sat down. ‘He was a Fletcher. Probably just wanted to get you out of the way before he made his escape. He knew you would try to stop him, that you were the best of us.’
Sarah looked up at Joshua, her eyes red and puffy. ‘No. I’m not. I killed him. You would have spared him. You were going to, I saw it.’
He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.
‘I lost control,’ Sarah continued, the floodgates open now. ‘I lost control of myself and you were there to reel me back in. You’ve always-’
Joshua didn’t need any more encouragement. He reached out and pulled her into his embrace, the jumpsuit forgotten at his feet. The effect of the pose was not lost on either of them. Sarah kissed back fiercely, and he felt his heart lurch in his chest from the incredible sensation, but it could have been the ship skipping off the atmosphere, as it sped towards the coming assault.
It was going to be a bumpy ride.
Chapter 30
Sarah hopped out of the tiny shower and put on a towel. For someone with her kind of lifestyle, running around the world antagonising the Confederacy, she had very few visible wounds. A couple of minor bruises were a clear indication of her skill.
She walked back into the bedroom and looked at Joshua's inert body, half covered by the soaked sheets. His skin was torn and bruised all over, but other than his swollen ankle, most of the marks of his newfound profession were finally fading. Sarah had to admit he was improving with astonishing speed. She congratulated herself again with her decision to recruit him. But she couldn't afford to get too attached to him. His wide-eyed optimism and talent at espionage weren't the only reasons she had endorsed him.
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