SOL - Generation Eight - Chapter Five
What??? is this??? a chapter, that's what!
Last time... I don't even remember, friend. Sorry.
“Today, we are going to have a conversation in Russian,” the teacher said, for once in her heavily accented English. Ola - they were allowed to call teachers by their preferred names - was a Russian born woman in her early thirties, and who had given the Americans valuable information when she discovered her husband had long standing links to the KGB. They had offered her a place to flee to, and she had continued to have close links with the agencies both across the pond and here, before being offered a job as a full time teacher in the academy.
Yasmin liked her a lot. She was a kind woman, full of positive praise, but she expected the best and would not settle for less. Her classes were hard but rewarding.
She glanced over her shoulder to see her friend, Astrid. Mickey wasn’t in this class - he was learning common African dialects - but she was glad that she wasn’t alone! They paired up and began to have a broad conversation, testing all they had learned in a more dynamic environment that the academy encouraged. Their conversation was a little stilted and some words were pronounced incorrectly, but it was still an excellent attempt.
“Well done,” the teacher said, returning to her native tongue. “You are all doing exceptionally. Soon we shall begin to learn words that you will need to know in any technical environment, such as your initiation, should you choose to become one of the UTI.”
The UTI was shorthand for the qualified agents - the undercover training initiative. Whenever she heard the letters, a ball of excitement buzzed in her stomach.
They left the class soon after. Astrid fell into step beside Yasmin. Astrid was a year older but had joined shortly after Yas - she was the adopted daughter of an influential vampire family (the good kind of influential, she had assured Yasmin), and was a rare Onori. These supernaturals could become so in tune with their surroundings that they could channel their senses through inanimate objects - a very useful talent for a spy.
Astrid had filled up the spare room on Yasmin’s left, and she had encouraged Mickey and Josh to include her. She was a serious girl, thoughtful and kind, but she was a natural genius it seemed. She wasn’t snobby about it, though, so Yasmin didn’t mind.
They walked to their next class which they shared with Josh. The classes were small - always less than twenty pupils - and students were sorted depending on talent for the class rather than ages. This class - electronics and technology - was Mickey’s favourite, and he was in the top bracket.
“Ready to take apart some computers, ladies?” Josh asked, flashing a grin. Yasmin rolled her eyes. He took after his older brother far too much and was becoming insufferable.
“Bet I’ll do it faster than you,” Astrid said sweetly, swaning into the class and leaving Josh staring after her.
Today they were learning how to take laptops apart on a time limit, so that they could learn how to insert tiny devices that registered everything from GPS to key strokes and more. These were much more useful than those that worked on USB slots, which were far too dangerous to use in delicate missions.
Yasmin worked through the class at a respectable pace. Her mind was on the next lesson - this was where they learned about case studies of previous missions and worked through simulations. It was fun, even when she considered what it would be like to do this for real.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Yo, Yas!” Mickey yelled, waving at her madly. She spotted him at their usual spot in the canteen, but made no move to go over; she didn’t want to give up her place in the line. “Get me an extra pudding!”
Yasmin rolled her eyes. “Get it yourself, lazybum!”
“Wow, you got him there, Yas,” Josh snickered from behind her.
“Shut up,” she protested, inching ever closer to the food. Josh snorted and folded his arms over his chest, watching Astrid take a seat next to Mickey. “Do you think they’ll have any pizza squares left?”
Joshua laughed, prodding Yas forward when she didn’t move. “Always asking the important questions, huh, Yas?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Where’s my damn coat?” Aktaion asked, searching through the pegs hanging up.
“Try the tumble dryer,” Rome called back, poking his head out of their bedroom. “It was gross, I had to wash it.”
“That was my fault,” Remy muttered from the desk. “A bird took it upon itself to shit on me.”
“Why the hell didn’t you - oh, never mind, I’m going to be late.” He grabbed a different jacket and waved to the twins, out of the door in seconds. He narrowly avoided missing the bus and managed to get his connecting train without too much of a problem, and then he was walking down the hill to his sister’s house.
She and Ciaren were living together now; she had finished her degree in media and then started working on doing a 180 and joining the police force. ‘Ren was still working public sector jobs until getting his degree actually paid off, which would hopefully be sooner rather than later...
Akta hugged them both and immediately crouched down to listen to Attie’s stomach. She only had a month until her due date, and the excitement between the couple was tangible. He was over to help put the finishing touches on the nursery and do ‘Ren a favour and cook dinner for them. They were hopelessly sweet with each other, and Akta wouldn’t have wanted Attie with anyone else. It put a big smile on his face that remained the whole evening and didn’t disappear well until the next day, when he went to visit his parents.
Emily was working on a big case - she was still flirting around the edges of the Esmaretto bunch, but Quinn hadn’t let anyone go near them until they had more evidence on those that helped them. It was going to be a delicate operation. She didn’t mention that they had been using UTI agents in order to find out information, and Akta tried not to think about it.
His father was much more interested in talking about his research, which Akta found a whole lot less stressful to think about. Nyc had recently been out at a huge ruin in Iraq, which was soon to be taken over by a Chinese company for the mines (thereby completely ruining the site of great archaeological significance). Work had been slow there for years, mostly because of the various conflicts, but Quinn had sent a special force out to gather known supernatural relics that would be dangerous in the wrong hands.
Akta then went on a longer trip to visit the grandparents, though he still stayed away from the pack. The pack dynamics didn’t interest him, and luckily his frail grandparents had better things to talk about. Cameron was clearly healthier than Elly, though given his full ‘wolf genes, that was no surprise. He made a point of visiting them once every couple of months, knowing that their time was quickly drawing to a close.
When he eventually returned from his round trip, he had plenty of things to keep him occupied: his garden, his chef job, and keeping Rome out of mischief (harder than it looked, even with Remy’s help...)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Tomorrow morning we meet at the front of the campus at 0700 hours, at which point you shall be transported to the training area in your teams. You will not be aware of your teams until tomorrow, and you will have an hour long bus ride where you will be provided with a map of the training area and a box of six eggs in a backpack with various items. You must protect these eggs at all costs. The team with the most eggs wins a day off classes, and the least have a 2km run with heavy backpacks to look forward to when you return. Anyone who is late shall double this, so keep that in mind.” Miss Stephanie Diaz spoke in a commanding voice, harsh eyes glaring out at them. Her black tangled curls were brought back into a ponytail so tight that made Yasmin’s eyes water just to look at it. She had weathered skin and hardly smiled, though in a way it made her approval all the more worth fighting for.
And Yasmin had an idea.
She made her excuses to Mickey and went into her room to boot up the laptop. She ignored the IM pop up and went straight to the internet to look at google maps. Unlike with other uses, the map did not automatically hover over her location - no website was allowed to hold information on them, and besides... nothing legally existed in this area. The map would show nothing but green fields and a couple of old barns.
Yasmin found the location anyway, and methodically zoomed out to examine anything that could be an hour away by minibus. Eventually she spotted an old army training base that was definitely where they were going. She zoomed in and, as best she could, began to plan the best areas to hold up and snipe from, and the worst areas to get stuck in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quarter to seven, Yasmin found herself at the front of the campus. Many of the younger unqualified agents were here, including some she didn’t know very well. Astrid, Mickey and Josh all stood next to her.
Stephanie read out the list of teams. Yasmin found herself with Mickey, which she was grateful for. Josh would have tried to take lead without listening to her, and Astrid would have been too happy to let her take the lead. With Mickey there was more of a feeling of push-and-pull; they bounced ideas off each other and worked well as partners.
There were four teams of six. Yasmin and Mickey found themselves paired with two girls and two boys: Marie, Gabriella, Connor and Jeffrey. Yasmin had never met Jeffrey before, but she shared a couple of classes with the others and knew their faces if nothing else.
As soon as the minibus began to pull away, they looked at their loot. They each had a backpack with a box of eggs wrapped away. The idea was that any clumsy moves would risk breaking them, but general running around wouldn’t. The main threat was the other teams and their paintball guns.
Speaking of, their backpacks yielded guns, a map, some ammo and a couple of pieces of tech, like one pair of heat seeking glasses (handy in the cold weather) and a trip wire linked up to an alarm.
The instructions were simple. Be the team with the most eggs left. Since that left a lot up to interpretation, Yasmin began to plan.
The maps were not the same. Some had a few buildings missing, others had extra floors, Yasmin’s even had a whole mock street missing. They seemed to follow the map she had found online, though, and she had made sure to memorise most of it. Since there wasn’t a lot of ammo in their very large bags, that meant there would be gear and ammo dotted about the area.
One thing about the maps was the same: they each had a red circle around one corner of the area. This, Yasmin assumed correctly, was where they would be starting.
“As soon as we stop, we need to look around for extra bits, and then retreat - possibly to this building here,” Yasmin said, pointing to a map that was mostly correct. “It’s higher than the others around it - so great vantage points - and only has two entrances. We can set the trip wire and alarm up at one of them.”
“Depending on where the stairs are, we can stake out the other door,” Mickey mused. “We’ll have to keep a watch on the first floor windows, though. Someone might be able to climb in them.”
“Only if they know that we’re there,” Yasmin pointed out. “We need a way to communicate to each other - so we know where we’re safe.”
“We could bark, like a dog,” Connor suggested.
“And reply with a meow,” Gab put in. “Because otherwise it’s easy to guess.”
“Sounds good,” Mickey nodded.
Yasmin turned back to the maps. “Mickey and I can take these three buildings here and look for stuff. However you four want to pair up, I think two should take these three buildings and the others take these ones.”
They all nodded their agreement. “Then we meet back here and discuss further?” Marie asked
“Yeah. If you take longer than ten minutes, or hear movement, retreat immediately,” Mickey said. “I know Josh is going to go in all guns blazing, so maybe they can pick each other off and we won’t have to worry about them.”
“That’s not very heroic,” Jeffrey complained.
“It’s not about being heroic,” Yasmin muttered. “It’s about winning. Can’t do that if we charge in and get all our eggs broken.”
“Good point,” he admitted, albeit grumpily.
The bus began to slow and they glanced out the windows at what looked like a ghost town.
The 0.5 square mile compound was meant to imitate an urban war environment, but had been built years ago. The walls were pocketed from gun shots, empty bullet cases lay on the floor, and graffiti stained the concrete. Still, it wasn’t there to look pretty.
They hopped off the bus as soon as it stopped. After a minute to orientate themselves, each of them were on their way.
Yasmin and Mickey crouched low. They hadn’t taken out their guns yet, knowing that there was no way anyone could have made it this far. They crossed into the first house and swept through it, finding nothing, and then the top floor of the second proved much more helpful; underneath a concrete table were two walkie-talkies. Mickey picked one up and was about to cheer in success when Yasmin pressed her finger to her lips. Immediately he had pulled his gun out. She shook her head and pointed to her ear, then at the talkies. She pressed one to her ear and heard static, and quickly turned it off. Mickey followed suit.
“If we got heat seeking goggles, what’s the bet someone already has some of these?”
Realisation dawned on him. “We can listen in.”
Yasmin nodded and tucked the talkie away. They moved across to the third house but sudden movement to their left sent them ducking behind a half wall, guns at the ready. Yasmin put the goggles on and scanned the area, but it was Mickey who laughed. “It’s just a bird,” he said, and they resumed their task.
They were halfway through the third building when they heard the alarming sound of a paint ball gun firing. The shell exploded against the wall behind them and they both ducked away from the window. Mickey had flecks of paint in his hair. “How’d they get here so fast?”
“Maybe their bus got there sooner?” Yas suggested.
“That’s not fair!”
“It’s war,” she shrugged. “Technically.” She chanced a look out of the next window with the goggles and saw nothing. “I don’t like this,” she whispered. “Let’s go up, see if we can get to the roof or at least a better place to hold up.”
Mickey nodded and - as silently as possible - they went up to the roof. The door was stubborn and noisy, but they got through and then shoved it closed. Mickey eyed the roofs of the other buildings with a grin.
“No,” Yasmin groaned.
“Yes!” Mickey grinned, and promptly hurled himself to the next roof, which was a level down. He rolled expertly and Yasmin’s eyes widened. “Mickey, your eggs!”
“Aw, shite.” A quick investigation showed that three had broken and he groaned at himself. Yasmin, conscious of their follower, began to take her backpack off. “What are you doing?”
“Catch it!”
“We’re supposed to have the eggs on us at all times!”
“Are you going to tell on me?” Yas asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m no grass,” Mickey protested, and easily caught her bag when she flung it over. While she jumped, Mickey checked her eggs and gave her a thumbs up.
They navigated the next roof in much the same way, and scurried down to the bottom floor. Yasmin wore the goggles and they did their best to lose their follower, and finally ended up back at their base.
The others were already there, and had laid out their finds: ammo, a smoke grenade (Yas wasn’t sure if that had actually been left for them, or had just been left from a previous army training day) and a scope.
“Who would be the best shot with this?” Yasmin asked.
“Me,” Connor said proudly. “And where the hell were you?”
“We had company,” Yas said. “We think we lost them, but they could be tracking us down. Shall we set up here anyway?”
“It’s as good a place as any,” Gabby shrugged. “If we post someone on each floor, we should be able to see anyone coming.”
“Right. I’m going to set up the trip wire alarm for this door.” Yasmin busied herself with that while the others organised themselves.
“I’ll take this floor,” Jeffrey offered. “I’ve played enough COD to shoot fast,” he bragged.
“I’ll take roof, if I’ve got the scope.” Connor began to attach it to his gun.
“I’ve got fourth,” Mickey said.
“Third,” Yasmin offered from near the door.
“Guess I’ll take second, then. I’ll keep an eye on the windows. We’ve already checked and there are four, though only two could be used to get in. Marie can gobetween for messages and stuff.”
Yasmin brushed her knees off and they all got into their positions. She handed Connor her talkie. “Keep an ear out, too.”
He nodded and hurried to the roof. Mickey pressed a finger to his lips and turned the talkie on, making sure it was quiet. The first channel yielded nothing, but the second was promising.
“I lost them!”
“I thought you said you were good at this stuff,” Josh said angrily. “Yas and Mickey won’t let me live it down if I lose.”
“Don’t forget the rest of us,” another voice tutted.
Yasmin and Mickey exchanged successful looks. At least their team was working together. Mickey jogged to the roof to let Connor know the channel, and then returned to his position. Yasmin began to choose the best windows to stake out and began to walk between them, making sure to keep out of sight.
Mickey popped his head down from the next floor. “They’ve got caught in a fight, sounds like just one of the other teams.”
Yasmin grinned, but it quickly faltered. “I hope the last group aren’t doing what we did... except with three extra eggs.”
Mickey held up his hands. “Is it worth tracking them down?”
“We don’t know where they are, there’s no point losing more eggs in the process.” At that moment, they heard a shot from downstairs. They looked at each other. Mickey went upstairs to warn Connor, and Yas hurried down the stairs. Jeff was standing with an egg carton beneath his heel with a nasty smirk.
“Too bad, so sad,” he crowed, shooting another round into the ceiling in victory.
“Idiot!” Yasmin hissed. “Just announce our presence.” She turned to the boy that was, she guessed, their first prisoner. “Which team are you from?” she demanded.
“I was just running away from the skirmish,” he complained. “Four of my eggs were already smashed, idiot.”
Jeff scowled and waved his paintball gun in the boy’s face, though they all knew he wasn’t about to shoot. Even so, Yasmin found herself disliking Jeff more and more.
“Alright, everyone back to their positions. I’ll keep him on my floor. Gab, look through his bag. Does anyone have something I can use as a gag?”
“Aw, come on,” the boy said.
Yas glared. “I’m not having you screaming your head off and bringing attention to us.”
The boy shrugged. “I won’t, I promise.”
“Not good enough,” Gab said. “And besides, look who conveniently has duct tape in their bag?” She grinned and tossed it to Yas, who wrapped it around the boy’s mouth (making sure to leave plenty of room for his large nose) and then his wrists. She walked him upstairs and continued her pacing.
It was boring, and Yasmin was worried that the others would want to go off and find some glory, but luckily they all stayed put. Connor warned them that some people were coming close, but they were already covered in paint and most likely looking for somewhere to sit and rest until the training finished. Yasmin kept vigilant even though she wanted to sit too, and eventually took pity on the boy and took off the tape from around his mouth. They chatted occasionally, but it wasn’t much longer until a loud buzzer sounded. Yasmin relaxed. Thanks to her team working together - and maybe her foresight - they had only lost three eggs.
As they walked back they saw Josh, who was scowling deeply. He took in their largely clean appearance and raised his gun. Yasmin didn’t have time to react as he shot her square in the chest, the paint flying over her clothes and neck. She squealed.
“That’s not fair!” she spluttered.
“Too bad, princess,” Josh sneered. “Now turn around so I can get them eggs.”
Mickey rolled his eyes and put his arm around Yas to lead her away. “Ignore him, he’s a sore loser.”
“It hurts,” she whimpered. “He shouldn’t have shot me that close!”
“I know, but think of how everyone is going to react when they heard what he did,” Mickey said with a grin. “I’ll back you up.”
Because of this, Yasmin and Mickey were the last ones to arrive. They stood in a loose half moon, Yas glaring at Josh’s smug face. They each got their eggs out and Stephanie inspected them all. She came to their group last, and nodded approvingly. Mickey’s three eggs were smashed, and it turned out that Jeffrey had lost one in the scuffle, but they still won by far. Yasmin explained what she did - while glowing with pride - and Stephanie brought her forward.
“Listen to this girl,” she said to the others. “This is what we train you to do. Think outside the box. Take the initiative. Yasmin’s foresight gave her plenty of time to prepare. Well done.” The teacher clapped Yasmin’s shoulder and then led the groups back to one large bus this time. Josh’s face was sourer than usual.
“Typical, the Williams’ kid gets the praise.”
Taken aback, Yasmin could only gape. Astrid - as well as few onlookers - drifted closer.
“Josh,” Mickey cut in, glaring at his friend.
“What? Come on! Any of you wonder how far this special treatment goes? Yas is a Williams. There was no way this Academy was going to reject you even if you had bombed the tests,” he sneered.
For a moment, no one said anything. Her last name wasn’t a secret, and it wasn’t like no one had made the connection, but this was the first time she had heard someone assume this - and it simply wasn’t true. Was it?
“Don’t be such a dick just ‘cause Yas is a better agent than you,” Astrid tutted.
“Bet she was trained since she was little,” someone muttered.
Yas whirled around. “That’s not true!” she protested, her hands in fists at her side. “I didn’t know about any of this when I was born! I didn’t even know my last name was so famous until I came here and talked to Quinn!”
“The amazin’ Quinn, of course,” Josh rolled his eyes. “Sitting in his office while others risk their lives for him on a daily basis.”
“Enough,” Stephanie cut in, clearly having returned in time to hear the end of their argument. “Yasmin got in because of her merits, nothing else. We are not affiliated with Quinn, and we are a separate body from the Council. And before you ever think to accuse him again,” she said, fixing Joshua with her cold stare, “remember that many of us would not be here today if not for that man. You can join the late ones with a 4 km run. Yasmin - next time, walk away, or I shall make you join in for the next run.”
Cheeks burning, Yas looked at her feet. “Yes miss,” she muttered. She met Mickey’s gaze, who looked at her sympathetically. Astrid was glaring after Josh.
“Why’d he say that?” she whispered. “Imagine thinking that. Imagine.”
Mickey pressed his lips tightly together. “His father was an agent during the rifts,” he murmured back. Yasmin and Astrid exchanged looks with each other. Mickey had emphasised the was.
Yasmin knew that everyone was aware of her family history. It was one of the first things taught by many supernatural families. They were aware that her auntie had gone into the rifts, just as they were aware that her family had a role in several other things.
That was the first time she thought of her name as a curse, and it certainly was not the last.