you over first thing tomorrow morning. Good luck.”
“Thank you,” Mika said.
Gorman watched them leave, thinking what a nice, polite boy Mika Smith was.
Mika followed Ellie into the elevator and they were taken by armed guards down the fortress to a training area, where they were left in a classroom. The men with guns settled at the back and leaned against the wall.
Ellie sat down and put her feet up on one of the desks. This was a familiar environment to her — she’d worked in classrooms like this for over a year — but it was not familiar to Mika. He milled around the desks, remembering their old classroom in Barford North. The bitter cold in winter, the unpainted concrete walls, the Plague posters, and Mrs. Fowler, who sat at the front wearing a pom-pom hat and mittens. The contrast between old and new was stark: This classroom was warm and bright, and full of expensive equipment.
And Ellie.
He glanced at her.
She smiled.
The door opened and a woman entered. She was dressed in white, with short gray hair, and she had the familiar sharp look of all the instructors they’d met. Jabbing a tablet with one finger, she hurried past them toward the desk at the front of the room.
“Find a place and sit down, Mika,” she said. “My name isRona Strap. Hello, Ellie. Get your feet off the desk. Those screens cost several thousand credits.”
Mika sat next to Ellie and they watched Rona Strap search for their lesson plan.
“I thought I was going to get a week before your first mission,” she said, sounding flustered. “But we’ve only got one day, so we’re going to have to get through everything quickly. It’s going to be hard work.”
Once she’d found their lesson plan, she looked at Ellie again. “Is there something wrong with your eyes?” she asked. “You look a bit … tired.”
“I’m fine,” Ellie said.
“OK,” the woman replied. “But you must concentrate, both of you. Welcome, Mika.”
“Hi,” Mika said.
“OK, let’s get on with it. Tomorrow, you’ll be dropped on the other side of The Wall with equipment you’ve never used before. While you explore the mansion and search for Everlife-9, you’ll be close to Raphael Mose and his family. You’ll be breaking into his home and encountering the security systems that protect it, including animal borgs you may not have interacted with before. Raphael Mose is a very dangerous man, and a very important one at that, so if you want to survive, you’re going to need to know your equipment well.”
She paused. They were watching her steadily with those weird, mercurial eyes. She’d just told them they were facing danger and they hadn’t blinked. She still doubted they were fully concentrating. She had planned to show them the drop capsules first, but she decided to save that lesson until laterand show them something more interesting; something that would wake them up.
“Your biggest advantage on the other side of The Wall,” she said, “will be that the borgs believe you’re animal, not human. And we’ve designed something else that will offer protection from Mose’s bodyguards.”
She turned. On the wall behind her desk was a safe. She punched a sequence of numbers into the control panel, and the door swung open. Inside was a white case. She removed it and opened it and walked toward their desks to show them what was inside. The case contained eight silver orbs. She removed one and held it up. It was about the size of a golf ball, with a thin chain hanging off it.
“This,” she said, “is an invisibility shield.”
That woke them up. Their eyes were suddenly intense and curious.
“You wear it around your neck,” she said. “And when you need it, you press the top.”
She put it on. A small hole appeared and a cloud of tiny fragments puffed out like a swarm of shiny flies. They surrounded her, shimmering like millions of mirror fragments. Then they linked, flashed, and vanished — and she vanished with
“Thank you,” Mika said.
Gorman watched them leave, thinking what a nice, polite boy Mika Smith was.
Mika followed Ellie into the elevator and they were taken by armed guards down the fortress to a training area, where they were left in a classroom. The men with guns settled at the back and leaned against the wall.
Ellie sat down and put her feet up on one of the desks. This was a familiar environment to her — she’d worked in classrooms like this for over a year — but it was not familiar to Mika. He milled around the desks, remembering their old classroom in Barford North. The bitter cold in winter, the unpainted concrete walls, the Plague posters, and Mrs. Fowler, who sat at the front wearing a pom-pom hat and mittens. The contrast between old and new was stark: This classroom was warm and bright, and full of expensive equipment.
And Ellie.
He glanced at her.
She smiled.
The door opened and a woman entered. She was dressed in white, with short gray hair, and she had the familiar sharp look of all the instructors they’d met. Jabbing a tablet with one finger, she hurried past them toward the desk at the front of the room.
“Find a place and sit down, Mika,” she said. “My name isRona Strap. Hello, Ellie. Get your feet off the desk. Those screens cost several thousand credits.”
Mika sat next to Ellie and they watched Rona Strap search for their lesson plan.
“I thought I was going to get a week before your first mission,” she said, sounding flustered. “But we’ve only got one day, so we’re going to have to get through everything quickly. It’s going to be hard work.”
Once she’d found their lesson plan, she looked at Ellie again. “Is there something wrong with your eyes?” she asked. “You look a bit … tired.”
“I’m fine,” Ellie said.
“OK,” the woman replied. “But you must concentrate, both of you. Welcome, Mika.”
“Hi,” Mika said.
“OK, let’s get on with it. Tomorrow, you’ll be dropped on the other side of The Wall with equipment you’ve never used before. While you explore the mansion and search for Everlife-9, you’ll be close to Raphael Mose and his family. You’ll be breaking into his home and encountering the security systems that protect it, including animal borgs you may not have interacted with before. Raphael Mose is a very dangerous man, and a very important one at that, so if you want to survive, you’re going to need to know your equipment well.”
She paused. They were watching her steadily with those weird, mercurial eyes. She’d just told them they were facing danger and they hadn’t blinked. She still doubted they were fully concentrating. She had planned to show them the drop capsules first, but she decided to save that lesson until laterand show them something more interesting; something that would wake them up.
“Your biggest advantage on the other side of The Wall,” she said, “will be that the borgs believe you’re animal, not human. And we’ve designed something else that will offer protection from Mose’s bodyguards.”
She turned. On the wall behind her desk was a safe. She punched a sequence of numbers into the control panel, and the door swung open. Inside was a white case. She removed it and opened it and walked toward their desks to show them what was inside. The case contained eight silver orbs. She removed one and held it up. It was about the size of a golf ball, with a thin chain hanging off it.
“This,” she said, “is an invisibility shield.”
That woke them up. Their eyes were suddenly intense and curious.
“You wear it around your neck,” she said. “And when you need it, you press the top.”
She put it on. A small hole appeared and a cloud of tiny fragments puffed out like a swarm of shiny flies. They surrounded her, shimmering like millions of mirror fragments. Then they linked, flashed, and vanished — and she vanished with
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