PROJECT SPARTA

CHAPTER 11

The Compound

2010

"Welcome to Intelligence class, I am Damien Cusick," the instructor welcomed the recruits. Again he dressed in casual clothes - today it was a Rage Against the Machine T-Shirt though. The Mainframe harbored an eerie feeling as shadows littered the room from the faint glow of the monitors. The room was disordered with hardware sprawled out everywhere – screens and computer consoles lined each of the interior walls. There were five workstations on each side, one for each Spartan. Wires hung from the ceiling and coiled around the four support beams in the room. It resembled the guts of a machine and they were all plugged into it.

Cusick held a keyboard with one hand and typed at the speed of light with the other. Screens began to change and graphics started moving. "We are going to be learning a lot of different things in this class. This is where you will develop your inner geek like me. You will learn how to crack firewalls, analyze intelligence, you will learn anything and everything having to do with computers. You will learn how to hack."

Mac's face lit up like Christmas morning. Cusick took notice and then continued.

"And more importantly, we will teach you how to not get caught. If I heard correctly that was how we found you, Mr. Morrison." He smiled down at Mac, who was still the primary enthusiast in the room. A small chuckle came over the room.

"Today we will be starting slow. We will start out slow with computer basics and then we will slowly get into basic Java script." They all hopped in the cockpit seat at their workstation – all of which were color coded. Screens surrounded each Spartan, encasing them in a virtual reality. While the Spartans fumbled through the lesson plan, Mac flew through the lessons without a break in focus. He would complete the exercises twice as fast and help his neighbor finish theirs.

Xander noticed his skill and how helpful Mac could be in the future for him. After class they had a long walk across the Compound to 'the Thicket'. The Thicket was what they called the forest, which lined the other side of the Compound. It was a deep and long wooded area that had natural hills and streams. Oaks and Firs towered seventy feet tall and many of them had naturally grown toward the light shining through the Oculus. The Spartans walked together into the forest with no idea where to find their instructor Miss Rearden. In front of the main clearing leading into the woods was a tree stump with a piece of paper nailed to it. It read:

To Find What You Seek, You Must Think Like What You Seek

"She must be hiding or something?" The recruits became kids again, playing a game. Eight of them ran off in every direction looking under rocks, behind trees, anywhere Rearden could have been hiding. The two that remained at the stump were Ezra and Xander. Xander's natural intuition had kicked in and Ezra could see that he had a plan up his sleeve.

"They aren't going to find her," Xander whispered. "She's too skilled to be found. She will be flushed out from her hiding spot by everyone else, we need to become camouflaged and find higher ground, let her come to us." Ezra was impressed. He didn't realize that Xander had such a knack for strategy. Xander saw the nearby bank of the stream and pointed it out to Ezra, "Brilliant!" he whispered. They ran over and flopped down in it like pigs taking a mud bath. Covered in mud, they would be able to better blend in with the bark of the trees. They returned to the tree and climbed to its furthest heights. At the top, they were able to view the whole Thicket. They marveled at the natural beauty of it all. The sun cascaded down through the tree leaves and settled on the southern pond, sparkling across the water's surface. They could see their fellow Spartans run down into the meadow chasing the wildlife on their way.