Chapter 36 – Master of Sand
Monday, July 13, 2308
After a full ten days of near motionless meditation, Fox had a very curious experience.
He’d been listening, and he’d heard a rattlesnake out hunting lizards, as the sun set.
One of the guards was approaching the shallow wash where the rattlesnake was hiding. Fox, in his excitement, whispered, “Look out,” fearing for the guard, who was about to step on the snake.
The soldier paused and readied his weapon.
The snake reacted; its rattle blasting into the otherwise tranquil evening. The soldier stepped back.
The snake soon fell silent again.
“What the hell?” the soldier said.
In his cell, Fox smiled.
Later, Fox heard the man recount the affair to his comrades.
“I swear to you, I heard someone say ‘Look Out!’ but there was no one there.”
Naturally, this was met with much laughter and ridicule.
Then a hush went through the men.
Fox suspected someone had gestured toward his plastic cell. After all, he hadn’t been given a name.
None of them had seen him. No one spoke to him, nor he to them.
His meals were passed through a chambered compartment.
For all they knew, he was a terrorist of the worst order.
Confirming his suspicions, the initial soldier spoke. “I seriously doubt a terrorist is projecting his voice, warning me about rattlesnakes.”
“More like Jesus or a guardian angel.”
“You ain’t got no guardian angel, fuck-tard. All you got is that rifle, and you should have used it. I heard rattler is good eating.”
“I ain’t eating no goddamn snake!”
They laughed.
Fox laughed along with the soldiers, but quietly, so as not to be overheard.
Ashley’s Journal, Monday, July 13, 2308
This week we have classes on grappling. They’re teaching us how submission fights work and the rules about tapping out.
Two days of wrestling, then jiu-jitsu, judo and krav maga.
It was gross. The boys were all sweaty, and I had to wrestle them.
Luckily though, it’s all separated into weight class, so I didn’t have to fight anyone too much bigger than me.
I was fine with the practical instruction, the fundamentals, but when it came to the practice matches, I did not want to be rolling around with them. I’m still mad about that.
And for the second and third rounds of the wrestling matches, you have to start down!
In my final match, I punched the kid, Thomas, hard.
He was bleeding, and he didn’t get up.
I got disqualified. You’re not supposed to punch in wrestling.
I elbowed him too, right before that, but it was totally his fault.
He tried to put his hand between my legs.
Then Lopez told me… “You have to follow the rules.”
“Or what?” I asked.
“Or you get disqualified,” he said.
I laughed in his face.
After dinner, I heard they have a nickname for me.
Everest.
Well it started as Pinyin, which is Chinese for Mount Everest.
Then they were calling me Chomolungma, and I heard someone say Holy Mother too.
I asked what he meant by that, and he explained.
“We used to call you Mt. Everest, then for a while it was Pinyin, which is Chinese for Mount Everest, but now it’s mostly Everest.”
I asked “Why Everest?”
“Cause it’s the highest mountain in the world,” he answered.
That was when someone else yelled out, “Chomolungma!”
At least they smile and nod to me now, even if we don’t talk a lot.
And I like having a nickname.
Everest. That’s kind of cool.
Like how Mom used to call me Towanjica.
Monday Evening, July 13, 2308
Bravo Team’s Lieutenant, Chad Welter, dropped into the camp facility a little after midnight. Disguised as a member of the maintenance staff, no one questioned him or even noticed him as he moved about the campground. He quickly located the dorm assigned to the martial arts program and just as quickly discovered that no girls were quartered there.
He set up three cameras and withdrew, retracting his line as he went. In the martial arts hall, he placed a few more cameras, as well a few in the outdoor areas.
On his way to the gymnastics hall, a loitering security patrol forced him to take an alternate route. He hid a dozen more cameras there. Finally, he placed another dozen in the science labs and hallways.
He spent three hours on the facility and wasn’t seen or spoken to.
Tuesday, July 14, 2308
Von Kalt’s team remained glued to the monitors, the footage was analyzed, and notes were made for camera adjustments.
The cameras in the cafeterias, science lab, computer labs and martial arts hall clearly showed Ashley and Geoff interacting with the other kids. Several of the hallway cameras caught them too, but not enough of them to determine where their rooms were, if they absolutely had to be picked up.
That evening, Von Kalt sent in all of Alpha Team, four agents disguised as janitors. They adjusted seventeen of the original thirty-six cameras and installed another thirty-six. In and out in ninety minutes.
Ashley’s Journal, Wednesday, July 15, 2308
Second day of wrestling, I was up against Brandon. This time, right in the beginning, he tried to take me down, and I kneed him in the face.
That was way more blood than Tom, but not as much as Scott, on that first day. Ever since then, it’s almost like they’re just hurting themselves on me. I’m not even really doing anything. I’m not hitting them hard; I’m just accurate.
Lopez and Shou had an argument right there in front of all of us. They went off to the side, but I could still hear them good enough. Lopez said I was an embarrassment to them as instructors; that the entire class was getting their Asses handed to them by a wafe.
I have to look that up when I get home. I have no idea what a wafe is.
Shou defended me though. He said I was great. The students were getting a powerful dose of lesson number one.
Clearly said that they were lucky. He said that me beating up the boys was easier to explain than letting twenty boys beat up a girl. He said that, for over a week, the boys had been trading deserts and chores for the chance to fight me. He said I was the Holy Grail of the program.
I like Everest better. Aside from all that, I am Not Getting Hit.
I’m practicing Lesson Number Two, Don’t Get Hit. In fact, I’m pretty sure it should be moved up to Number One.
Wednesday Evening, July 15, 2308
After examining two days worth of footage, Von Kalt sent two three-man teams in. They located the rooms they believed to belong to the children and found them to be electronically locked.
They could be breached, shorted out, or possibly hacked, but not without attracting some attention.
The teams were ordered to return to base.
Thursday, July 16, 2308
Some time after midnight, Fox rose from meditation and walked through the front door of his cell. All that remaining night, that day, and the next, Fox walked the surrounding sands and creek beds. He explored the empty space between earth and sky. Fox felt himself go into the air and then into the sand. He spoke to it, and a moment later, he was there, standing.
Up till this point, his explorations had been as an insubstantial being. But now he was standing. His sandals now left imprints in the sand.
It wasn’t long before one of the guards came across Fox’s footprints. However, as they started from nowhere and evaporated into nowhere, the investigation yielded little in the way of explanations.
And after all, it couldn’t be the prisoner.
The cameras showed him, clearly still seated in his cell.
> He ate at meal times and reclined after dark.