The Covert Academy: Scout’s Honour
By Peter Laurent
Copyright 2013 Peter Laurent
Cover image by Peter Laurent
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Acknowledgements
To everyone who wrote a review or contacted me in some way, and to those who said that they couldn’t wait for the next one. Thank you!
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Preface
This is a short novella designed to bridge the first novel of The Covert Academy trilogy with its sequel, which I am aiming to publish in late 2013.
The timeline of this story starts around two thirds of the way through the first book and ends at the start of the second.
I wrote it because I thought it would be interesting to see other events that occurred outside of the main characters’ journey in the same universe, as well a couple that occurred inside but from another character’s perspective. Think of this as the “lost chapter” that didn’t fit into the narrative structure of either the first or second book.
I recommend reading The Covert Academy first to get an extra sense of context. However there are only minor spoilers in Scout’s Honour if you wish to get a taste of the main course.
I hope you enjoy it!
-Peter
In the Academy hangar…
The engine idled with a deep throaty rumble. It was opposite to the sound the Confederates made with their troop transports and drones. They were all so quiet and crafty. The vibrations of this ship, the Machaera, would often send a tingle of excitement through the crew. But the students, assigned shipboard duty this week, had left to grab a meal at the Academy diner.
The carnal power of the Machaera was often put to another use - getting Jayson laid.
He’d hit the jackpot when he’d been asked to serve as a pilot for the Academy. Seniors, like Sarah, recruited new students from whatever hopeless circumstance the fallout of the war had delivered them. Then it was Jayson’s job to fly them to the Academy in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The girls that he picked up didn’t seem to mind either; they were attracted to him like moths to a flame. Some things never changed.
Richard had once said that Jayson acted as if he were a pent-up college senior let loose in a high school with a motorbike and a leather jacket. He figured Richard watched too many movies but he could tell he was jealous. Jayson too might have found it sleazy, if he didn’t enjoy himself so much. He would drop the girls off with the promise of seeing them during the course of their studies at the Academy.
One such young lady surprised him while he was asleep in the bunk behind his ship’s cockpit.
‘I’m here on official business, of course...’ she purred as she playfully brushed something against him. Her shirt. She walked away and left it on his head. Jayson was awake and out of his bunk in a flash.
Shit, what was her name?
The girl wandered down to the cockpit and he followed, captivated by her athletic figure swaying in a hypnotic rhythm. Sixteen, maybe seventeen years old, long blonde hair... Jayson tried to contain himself, and his excitement. The girl fiddled with the ship’s dials and levers until the engine revved up under her touch.
‘Oh I think it likes me, Jayson,’ she giggled, spinning around. He leaned down to let her reach as she put her arms around his neck. She brushed her fingers through his wavy mop of jet-black hair, but her eyes lingered on the ship’s controls.
‘Call me Captain Georgiou.’
‘Ooh Captain... You know, with a girl like me at your side, we could go anywhere, do anything, and take whatever we wanted eh? Be… privateers,’ she gasped at her own rebelliousness.
‘Roam the seven seas, pillaging and plundering...’ Jayson indulged her with a serious expression as he pretended to consider the idea. It was a fantasy. First pirates, what next? Who was this girl? That accent... He thought back through a blur of trips, and one in particular to Canada. It’s possible she was one of the ragged street urchins he’d picked up there. She looked so different after a few weeks of proper sleep, food and muscle building.
Just enjoy yourself, the voice in Jayson’s head told him. He had the energy of a man in his early twenties, was well-fed but stayed naturally lean and trim. His olive skin and disinterested attitude was a hit with the ladies. So why not enjoy myself while I can? He grinned devilishly and pushed his hips toward the girl. She had her arms pressed against the console behind her.
‘I always get what I want, my salty sea-wench…’ he said, and she giggled again, ‘Jess…?’ he guessed. ‘Jen?’
‘It’s Julie.’ Her smile fell away.
‘Ah of course, my little-’
Julie brought her knee up into Jayson’s stomach. He collapsed on top of the flight controls, and killed the engine. Silence filled the small room.
‘You’re all the same,’ Julie sighed. ‘Honestly I don’t know why I bother.’ She picked up her clothes and stormed out, leaving behind a tiny plastic data card. Jayson snapped it up and followed her to the crew quarters. He came up short at the sight of his crew of two, returned from the diner with satisfied expressions. They made an exaggerated effort to dodge the storm cloud following in Julie’s wake.
‘She was cute,’ Matt commented, a hand over his mouth to hide his laugh.
‘You’re such a pig,’ Zoe accused him.
Jayson put his hands up in surrender. ‘Guilty as charged,’ he grinned and gave Matt a high five.
Zoe shook her head in exasperation. ‘Tell me we’ve got a job,’ she said. ‘I need some excitement in my life too you know.’
‘As a matter of fact...’ Jayson produced the tiny data card and slotted it into a control panel on the wall.
‘And that’s about all the action you’re going to get,’ Matt teased.
Jayson glared at him but returned to business. He punched a button and a mission-briefing document sprang to life from a projected hologram mounted to the ceiling of the crew quarters. ‘Ahem,’ he began. ‘Julie was kind enough to drop off a note from Master Casey. As you can see,’ Jayson said, and made a wide sweeping gesture to enlarge the document. It showed a map of China, landing coordinates, a brief outline of the objective, and persons of interest relating to the mission.
‘It’s a supply run?’ Matt asked. ‘Yawn,’ he said. ‘Give me some action.’
‘Where do you think that lunch you just ate came from?’ Zoe fired back. ‘Unless you want to spend all day fishing for dinner up on the surface?’
Jayson and Matt looked at each other, and nodded. ‘Yes,’ they both said in answer.
Zoe clicked her tongue and scrutinised the personal bios. She pulled on a strand of her curly brown hair and played with it as she read. ‘The notification about the new supply drop came from this woman, Mila Gimranov,’ she pointed at the hologram. ‘Never heard of her.’
Jayson waved his hand through the air to scroll through the document. He brought the image up of Ms Gimranov and placed it next to the text while he read. ‘Apparently she’s been organising supplies for the Academy,’ Jayson made a face in surpri
se as he read the information. ‘There’s not a lot of detail here, certainly she is not in China herself.’
‘I’ve heard of her,’ Matt said. The others looked at him. ‘Just rumours,’ he quickly clarified. ‘They say she invented a way to synthesise material out of thin air.’
Jayson snorted and Zoe rolled her eyes.
‘That’s how she became so rich during the war,’ Matt continued in earnest. ‘She sold the tech to the highest bidder, the Confederacy. Even Casey managed to secure some of her work, before he went into hiding with the Academy. A version of her subatomic panels, like on the ships, I think. Then there are the horror stories about her husband.’ Matt shuddered but didn’t elaborate any further. His light freckled skin had gone paler than usual.
‘There’s no mention of any of that here,’ Jayson said, pointing at the document-hologram. ‘But then I haven’t had much time to go through this yet. Been a bit busy...’
‘I bet you have! Nice one haha,’ Matt brightened again, giggling the same way that Julie had, and all of a sudden Jayson felt old. He was playing with little kids. Jayson was only in his mid twenties, but had a good ten years on the students.
Zoe, their resident speed-reader, finished up and turned to Jayson with a summary. ‘I don’t like this,’ she said. ‘We used to get supplies dropped off in Manila for pickup. Now a change in location? Plus it’s just a few short months since Joshua brought the General’s iPC to the Academy.’
‘The General?’ Jayson said. ‘What General?’
‘Don’t you watch the Confederate broadcasts?’ she replied. ‘Never mind,’ she continued before he could answer. ‘General Withers was one of their High Council members. His intra-Personal Computer must have some fancy new tech in it because Casey is keeping it under heavy guard.’
‘iPCs are hard enough to come by even in the Academy,’ Matt said. ‘Our tech guys can’t produce them fast enough.’
Jayson focused his own iPC on Matt. The robotic eyeball, which had replaced his natural right eye, examined Matt’s facial inflections. ‘Liar,’ Jayson arched an eyebrow. He looked at Zoe and caught a glint of metal in her eye socket as well. ‘You’ve both got iPCs?’
‘Just the standard model,’ Zoe said. ‘Thermal vision, 3D recording, peer-to-peer comm... Casey is ramping up production. He wants everyone to have one, not just the seniors.’
‘Got to wonder who put that idea in his head,’ Jayson said.
‘Anyway, now that we’ve got the General’s iPC, the Confederacy is going to want it back,’ Zoe reminded them. ‘So excuse me if I find any change in routine a bit suspicious.’
‘Aw you think too much Zoe,’ Matt said. ‘As long as you and Cap’n Gorgeous, I mean Georgiou, are nearby, what could go wrong?’
‘Well for one thing,’ Zoe pointed at the mission document, ‘they want to meet on a small island just off the coast of Hong Kong.’
Matt dropped the happy expression. He knew what that meant. Everyone did. They’d be doing a supply run through one of the highest security Confederate areas in the world. Hong Kong had been converted into one giant drone production city.
‘It’s not like we have a choice in the matter,’ Jayson said. The others looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.
‘You did say you wanted some excitement,’ Matt said to Zoe, in an “I told you so” singsong voice.
‘Maybe I’ll find a nice Asian girl there,’ Jayson smiled, wistfully rocking back on the soles of his feet.
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