Enlisted

by Nathan Pedde

  Des listened to the Mr. Smith call out each name. Des didn’t listen to the names, except for the name of the student next to him.

  “Veer Robert,” Mr. Smith called out.

  “Here,” Veer replied.

  “And lastly, Ryder Fly,” Mr. Smith said.

  “Right here,” Des said.

  “I assume you all know what this course is actually about,” Mr. Smith said, “so I won’t explain it. This class is an hour in length, and it’ll consist of a lecture. There are no notes allowed to be taken. There will be no tests, except for the final. Each morning, before class, you’ll write out the notes from what was talked about on the previous day. That’ll happen before class starts. The doors will be open, up to a half hour before class starts. Do not write your notes down after the class ends. You may not record any audio. If it’s discovered you’re cheating, you will be disqualified and punished. I’m sure you all know what I am. I know where each of you lives.”

  Des felt the veiled threat in his bones. The hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. Mr. Smith was serious.

  Mr. Smith gazed at the dozen students in the class. His arms were clasped behind him with his back straight. His hard eyes locked onto the students. They drilled into Des’s soul before they passed to the next student.

  “Do you understand me?” Mr. Smith said, before anyone could answer, he continued. “All right. Let's begin.”

  The teacher started his lecture. Mr. Smith did not wander around the class like most teachers but stood still as stone in the same spot. Most teachers had the habit of making eye contact with someone in class during their talk. However, Mr. Smith did not.

  The class ticked by. Des listened to every word. Mr. Smith looked at his watch one moment while he talked about the importance of knowing what was going on at all times.

  “Times up,” Mr. Smith said, stopping mid-sentence. “See you tomorrow.”

  Mr. Smith spun on his heels, marching out of the classroom. The students looked at each other for a moment, shock on their faces. They grabbed their bags and proceeded to file out of the room.

  Des grabbed his bag and walked out the door.

  “Where are you going?” Veer called out from behind him.

  Des marched away, ignoring him. He had places to be and he didn’t have much time. Des had to get across the sector to the safehouse, then change his uniform to his school one, and get to his other school on time. He hated the fact the safehouse wasn’t near the military academy or his school.

  The trick was getting out of the military academy this early in the morning. Most kids would be going for the full day. If Des was seen leaving the academy every morning, and not in anyone's classes, his cover will get blown.

  The school was packed with students. The hallways bristled with cadets of different sizes and ranking. They all looked relaxed in the halls, yet still very military academy formal.

  At Des’s school, the students would be half out of their school uniforms. They would have their jackets off, and ties loosened with lots of slouching. Here, the cadets still talked to each other, joked and laughed, but they had what Des knew was the Academy Crispness. The students all stood straight, and the uniforms were impeccable like the cadets were honored to wear them. It gave them the stereotype of being elitist.

  Des strode through the school corridor, careful not to bump or jostle any of the cadets. He blended into the cadets and joined behind a group who walked through the passages the way he needed to go.

  No other student looked at him twice. He was just another cadet at the school to learn. At one of the entrances to the academy, was his brother and his group of friends. His brother would notice him leaving the school, even with the face of Ryder Fly.

  “Cryslis,” Des said quietly. “Why are there so many students at the school at this hour and how do I get out of the school without anyone noticing me?”

  “I was wondering if you were going to ask me that question,” Cryslis replied into his ear. “Test time. Figure it out. Don’t get followed, questioned or caught. I’m watching you on camera.”

  “Shit.”

  He walked up the stairs to the second floor. The windows on the ground floor were covered in iron bars. There were no bars on the upper windows if he could find one to climb out of.

  “Ryder,” Veer called out behind him.

  Des turned his head. Veer was trying to catch up to him. The boy was going to get him noticed. Des saw a boy’s bathroom nearby and entered it.

  The room was empty of people. Des shoved the garbage can underneath the door handle and jammed it in. It wouldn’t be enough to block the door from being opened, but it would be enough to slow him down for a few minutes.

  Des scanned the bathroom with a half dozen stalls and urinals on one wall and sinks on the other. A retched stench migrated out of one of the stalls. At the very end was a window opened a crack. Des slid the window all the way open and looked out. On the edge of the building was a concrete lip where the first and second floors met. It would be enough for Des to get a toehold if he was lucky.

  From the angle of the bathroom, there was no one in eyeshot. Behind Des, the door slammed as someone tried to get into the bathroom. Des climbed out of the window and shimmied along the ledge of the building. He strained as his fingers gripped on individual bricks.

  I don’t want to die, Des thought, I don’t want to die. This is crazy. I don’t want to die.

  Looking back, he saw the window open. He shimmied back and slid the window shut. Nearby, there was the power conduit for the building. It was a heavy steel pipe stretching from the top of the building and into the ground of the station.

  Des climbed down the steel pipe to the ground. He let out a sigh of relief. Des marched across the academy grounds and around the corner. He needed to figure out a better way out next time. And better places to change into civilian clothes, even if he were to keep his Ryder face on.

  Chapter Eight

  Des’s plan was for him to get to Cryslis’s small apartment safehouse to change. He had managed to get out of the military academy without anyone really paying attention to him. Except for Veer.

  He figured Veer busted into the boy's bathroom, making a scene in the process. Once he got inside, he would have found the bathroom empty.

  Now Des had to walk the distance to the safehouse. He figured it would be a simple thing to do.

  He was told the safehouse was one Cryslis frequently used when she needed someplace to go in the Teal Sector with a few others scattered around the station.

  Des glanced at his watch. It was barely six in the morning. Most people were still asleep in their beds. A few morning people were walking along the road. Very few pedestrians paid any attention to Des.

  As Des crossed a road, he glanced to his left and right watching for traffic. Trailing ten meters behind was Veer. Des picked him out of the crowd due to Veer’s uniform. Veer walked down the road going the same way.

  He cursed Veer under his breath. For someone who had to redo the course a couple times, as Veer implied, he had managed to catch up to him. At that moment, Des realized he underestimated Veer. The jerk was better than he thought. Des saw Veer cross the road shortly after Des did.

  He looked away, shifting his bag. Des hoped Veer didn’t see him looking. He tried to look natural walking down the road. He turned the next corner and kept going. Des picked up his pace and searched to the side hoping to find somewhere to turn into. He would need to study the station more, not only the simple ways through it, but the untrodden paths.

  Des glanced back down the street at the corner and noticed Veer still followed him. He was following, but not making a scene. Des didn’t know why Veer was after him or why he had taken an interest in him. He would figure out it later, once he lost him.

  Along both sides of the road was a line of small shops with storefronts and displays. There were bookstores and coffee shops. Des turned and walked into a coffee shop.

  The bell dinged as
he entered. The shop was filled with patrons standing in line and sitting at tables. It appeared everyone needed coffee. Des walked up to the cashier and stood in line. He angled his body to watch the door. Des saw Veer look in just as he was stepped up to the counter.

  “Do you have a bathroom I can use?” Des asked.

  The coffee shop girl behind the till looked up at Des.

  “To the side of the store, just follow the sign,” the girl replied.

  “Thank you.”

  Des walked toward the small hallway. The hallway turned a corner, hiding the bathroom entrance from the patron’s view in the store. He slid around the corner, and there was a second door. However, this one said, 'staff room.' Des investigated the staff room and saw a door which said: Exit.

  “When can I get off today?” a male employee said from the staff room.

  Des entered the small bathroom. He locked the door behind him.

  Think. Think, Des thought.

  Des cursed the academy uniform he wore. He had no way of hiding in the crowd. The bright red of his jacket made him stand out, not that he had anything to change into. It was all at the safehouse.

  He heard the door handle rattle a couple of times. Footsteps slowly faded away from the door. Des got down on his hands and knees. He looked underneath the door. However, Des couldn’t see anyone by the door. He opened the door. No one was in the hallway.

  Veer’s voice echoed down the hallway. “Thanks for all of your help. Crazy plebe.”

  Des looked at the staffroom door. It was shut, and after he tried the door handle, he discovered it locked. The lock was a newer electronic, the type with a keypad and code. Des pulled out his personal phone and hit a couple quick buttons.

  New, but not sophisticated, Des thought, unlocking the door.

  Des opened the door and locked it behind him. The staff room was cluttered with boxes and bags. He made his way to the exit and left the store.

  He found himself in a short, narrow alley filled with debris. With no sign of Veer around him, Des headed down it to Cryslis’s safehouse. Des hoped he managed to lose Veer a second time using the same trick.

  It took Des twenty minutes to walk the short distance to the safehouse. He was nervous he was going to see Veer following him again but managed not to. He was worried about being followed at a distance by whoever helped him after he got out of the academy, but it was a problem for another time. He entered the small apartment building after he confirmed he wasn’t being followed.

  The building was three stories tall, skinny, and made from larger reddish stone. Only two apartments were on each floor. It was surrounded by buildings of the same style on both sides.

  Des headed up the stairs to the safehouse’s door. Des rapped on the door a couple times and was let in. Cryslis stood in the entranceway. A pin shooter was in her hand.

  “You’re late,” Cryslis said.

  “I had to lose a nosy tail,” Des replied. “What’s with the pin shooter?”

  Cryslis left the safehouse entranceway and closed the door behind Des. She led him into a small living room. A young man who looked like he was in his early twenties sat on a couch.

  “That’s Cooley,” Cryslis said. “This is Des.”

  Cryslis handed the shooter to Cooley.

  Cooley removed the magazine and checked the chamber for a round. He set the weapon into a small metallic box with a key lock. The lock snapped closed as the lid snapped shut. Cooley had a smallish head and close-cropped hair, wearing black street clothes. By the way he handled the gun, the man had military training. Des watched his uncle and his older brother do the same with guns.

  “He handles running some of my safehouses around the station. He’s also very good with computers and is our support when we’re in the field.”

  Des nodded.

  “Why didn’t you contact me about the tail?” Cryslis asked.

  “Wasn’t it part of the test?” Des asked.

  “No,” Cryslis said. “I wanted to see how you got out of the school. I didn’t know you were being followed by anyone.”

  “Did I pass?”

  “You passed the test,” Cooley said. “Good job with disappearing from the bathroom.”

  “Who was following you?” Cryslis said. “And next time, you’re to call it in as you notice it.”

  “He’s going to be a thorn in my side,” Des said. “His assumed name is Veer Robert, and he’s in my class.”

  Des gave Cryslis a small rundown on what he thought about Veer.

  “The name and the face matter little,” Cooley said. “And I bet he has help of some kind to be able to get back on your tail.”

  “Or he was lucky?” Cryslis asked.

  “How many times are we lucky?” Cooley snorted, shaking his head.

  “Never,” Cryslis said, “is this house blown?”

  “I don’t think so,” Cooley said.

  “Get dressed,” Cryslis said, glancing over at Des. “You need to get to your other school.”

  Des’s walk to his regular school was smooth and uneventful in comparison to this walk to the safehouse. He felt secure not in the Ryder disguise or the academy uniform. He hoped to get to school with enough time to do his schoolwork, but the walk took him longer than he thought it should.

  The Station security closed off a section of the Teal Sector for unknown reasons. People suspected it concerned the missile attacks. Des hoped they would catch the guy, but he doubted it.

  “Cryslis, what’s this roadblock about?” Des asked.

  “Unknown,” Cryslis said. “They just did it. I suspect it’s nothing more than a training exercise, but it’s probably nothing to do with us.”

  “And if it does?”

  “I have Cooley looking into it,” Cryslis replied. “Get to class and don’t act like anything is different. No one can suspect anything’s changed for you.”

  “Roger that.”

  “I’ll see you at work later.”

  Des grumbled to himself, backtracking around the closed off area.

  Des made it to school on time, but not by much. He had only ten minutes to study for his test and do homework. He knew he was going to get in trouble for it.

  He walked through the school to his locker. Leaning against Des’s locker was Alix, who moved away as Des approached.

  “What’s up?” Des asked.

  “You’re later than you normally are,” Alix said.

  “Bad morning,” Des replied, eyes narrowing in on the dial lock.

  “Did you do the homework for the biology class?” Alix said.

  “No. I got distracted by things.”

  “What things?” Alix said.

  “A video game,” Des lied to his friend. “An older one of mine I had forgotten I had.”

  Des opened his locker and sorted out his backpack. He put in textbooks and binders he didn’t need, grabbing ones he did.

  “Which one?” Alix asked.

  “Final Adventures of Time and Space.”

  “I can’t stand the game,” Alix replied. “Too many puzzles, dumb blue box, and not enough shooting.”

  “Shooting games are fun, but not all that great.”

  “I finally decided what I want to be when I graduate,” Alix said, “have you thought about it?”

  “I’m thinking an Astrogator,” Des said, glancing at the wall clock.

  “I want to be in the Black Team.”

  “The what? A sports team?”

  “No,” Alix replied, “a special ops unit in the Jovian Marines.”

  “You’d be good in it,” Des said.

  “Thanks, I think.”

  The bell rang loud and long. Des shut his locker door and locked it before he headed off to class.

  Hours passed. Des struggled his way through the school day. The day wasn’t enjoyable, not like usual. He was trying very hard not to be stressed. All the changes were bothering him. He knew he had done very poorly on the test which Des didn’t study for. He had a hard
time focusing on his work. He would have to make up for the test and figure out how to focus on his schoolwork somehow. He managed to get his homework assignments done between classes and during his breaks, but it was a rushed job. He suspected he might not do very well on them either.

  Des went to work, Courier One, like he was told. However, as he walked into the door, Cryslis sent him into the Undercroft to see what he could. Under her orders, he had gone into a different sector than he usually went to: Purple Sector’s Undercroft.

  Dressed in his red courier uniform and no disguise. He ventured into the underground corridors and access-ways. The Undercroft in this sector was different than the others. Des unlocked the dreaded ‘no access’ door. It was usually dank, dark and dangerous-looking, like a part of a horror-vid, where monsters would jump out of the walls at him at a moments notice.

  This part of the Undercroft looked like a construction zone. Wires were strewn across the floor, a pile of damaged metal sat in another corner. Walls were opened exposing the robust metal framework.

  “Cryslis,” Des muttered quietly. “You there?”

  “I’m busy at the moment,” Cryslis replied. “Unless it’s important, call me later.”

  Des shrugged, continuing through the construction maze. He turned a corner to see a large room full of construction materials. Neat piles of wires and stacks of metal sheathing sat in lines ready for use.

  Work lights were strung across the ceiling, shining light into dark corners where Des liked to hide. He walked through the construction storage area into another corridor. He looked at the hard metallic floor. The dust that typically covered the floors was swept clean. The passage of so many construction workers made tracking anyone impossible.

  Des stopped at the intersection of two corridors. He looked down them. He pulled a small recording devise out of his pocket and pressed a button.

  “Maybe video cameras,” Des muttered to his recorder, “but how do I tell who isn’t supposed to be in here. This could be disguised.”