Chapter 4
The next five days for Koksun were like something out of a bizarre dream. Where his instructor before would have him run four miles, it was now twenty. Where his instructor before would have him climb the wall twenty times without a break, it was a hundred. Where his instructor before would give him a four-hour test over languages, Varco codes, and secret handshakes, it was now eighteen. And all without a break.
What before would have taken Koksun or any of the other recruits far beyond their limits and been impossible he was now doing with a surreal ease. With the same surreal quality of a man in a dream watching his body struggle to move in the way the dreamer commanded it, Koksun now conversely watched in equal disbelief as his body and mind performed impossible feats. Muscles contracted rapidly and responded to mental commands effortlessly long after they should have gone limp with exhaustion. Facts were recalled from his mind and proceeded flawlessly from his mouth long after his brain should have collapsed with fatigue. He felt as if he had somehow become a different species and had left behind his flawed, former body like a butterfly leaving its chrysalis on a branch.
Every day at precisely the same time, Koksun took his scheduled dose, and the subtle hints of oncoming fatigue would quickly vanish like shadows chased away by a bright light.
Then, when the time drew near for what would be his sixth dose, he began to think of the unpleasant fact that there was no sixth dose. He was done with this trial run and due for a two-week detox after that . . . and, heck, who knew if he’d ever get to enter this paradise again. That thought brought him no joy, and he had the cognitive wherewithal to realize that if not for the Valder coursing through his veins he would likely be feeling extremely apprehensive and depressed.
But coursing through his veins it still was, and thus, his mind, which was currently focused on a ten-hour examination on unarmed combat techniques, was as likely to be deviated as a large herd of thunderous bison roaring across an open prairie. He performed the hundreds of techniques flawlessly, but by the end of the exam he was only a few hours away from what would be his sixth dose—the dose that was not to come.
Now, his mind was starting to feel the slightest indications of returning back to the chrysalis and then regressing all the way back to his caterpillar state as a mere human being. And this time the negative thought was not up against a herd of stampeding bison but practically the wandering mind of a child, which can be distracted without great exertion. He started to feel a subtle sense of dread that he somehow knew was going to get far worse before it got better.
“LINE UP!!” Vilgor shouted.
Everyone in the room quickly did so.
“Everyone currently in the room is on the five-dose regimen, which has now just about run its course. You’ve done an excellent job, every last one of you. You’ve done more physical and mental exertion in the last five days than you have in any two-week period leading up to this. You’ve each had no sleep and have still performed flawlessly on a merciless series of physical and mental examinations. Would you say that Valder has a bit of a kick to it?!”
“SIR, YES, SIR!!” they shouted in perfect unison.
“It does indeed!” Vilgor concurred. “But unfortunately, it’s got two kinds of kicks. The good kind, which you’ve already met, and the bad kind, which you’re about to meet and maybe are already starting to get to know a little. What can I say—what goes up must go down,” he said shrugging his shoulders.
“But you’re going to learn to how to control the landing. And if it still hurts, well, just remember that Valder isn’t meant to be part of your morning breakfast. It’s to be used only when truly needed, and that should not be terribly often.
“Now, you’ve all earned a lot of shut-eye, and you can have it. In fact, you’ve earned two weeks of rest.”
This prompted a happy smile onto the faces of the recruits, who were now starting, little by little, to feel the aftereffects of what their bodies and minds had been pushed through during the last five days.
“You’re each going to be confined to a private room and will not be allowed to leave. This will be a period of soul-searching so that you can decide if you really want to be a Varco agent. You’ve got some more training to do with Valder and some detox sessions that are going to make this look like a piece of cake, so if it seems like it’s getting hot in the kitchen now, this would be a great time for you to pack your bags and get the hell out of here because it’s going to get a lot harder before it gets any easier.”
This erased the smiles from the recruits’ faces but elicited no outward groans. Inwardly, however, some were nearing their breaking point.
“To become Varco, you have to successfully complete each and every detox. However, some Valder will be placed in your room in case you start to have seizures or any severe withdrawal symptoms. If you take even one grain of this Valder, you will not become Varco. But we’d prefer you to fail the Varco and still serve your country with the many skills you’ve learned in some capacity rather than die from withdrawal. It’s a choice you’ll have to make. The Valder will be placed on a scale in your room, and if even one iota disappears, an alarm will go off, and you will be expelled immediately. IS THAT CLEAR?!”
“SIR, YES, SIR!” they shouted out.
The recruits were led down a hallway, placed into small rooms with nothing but a bed, a hole for bodily needs, and a small bookshelf with various training manuals. As Koksun went down the hallway towards the room he would be assigned to, the effects of Valder were now dissipating from his body like sand rapidly falling down the aperture of an hourglass.
By the time he reached his room, the upper chamber of the hourglass was losing its very last grains of sand, and thus, so it was with his energy. Like a shipwrecked man completing the last two swim strokes that will bring him to shore and conclude his arduous swim, Koksun somehow made the two final steps to the bed that awaited him, its austere sheets holding far more charm in that moment than a goddess of pleasure awaiting him with open arms. He fell face-first onto it like a sack of grain. He heard the door to his room click and lock. Then, everything went black.