Pep Squad (14 page)

‘Your latest game? Is this what you get up to while I'm at rehearsals?'

‘It's been in the back of my mind for a while, so it was fairly easy to slap together a beta version in a few days,' said Ben. ‘The graphics are all low-res.'

‘Hey – why do you want
me
to test out a game for you? Em's the gamer.'

Matt and Ben passed that look again. It reminded Jess of the way her parents acted when they were going to tell her something they knew she wouldn't like.

‘This isn't a game for gamers,' said Matt. ‘It's to try to lure non-gamers into the market.'

‘
Attract
non-gamers, not
lure
them,' said Ben, noting the look of mistrust on Jess's face.

‘You don't think I'm good enough to play your regular games?' said Jess.

‘I told you this wouldn't go well,' Matt murmured to Ben.

‘No, we're just trying to appeal to a broader audience,' said Ben. ‘A lot of games are pure fantasy. We thought we'd try to ground this one in reality. Get the users to go on adventures that they could feasibly encounter in the real world. Like finding the secret passageway between a queen's bedroom and–'

‘Let me stop you right there,' said Jess. ‘You just said “real world” and “queen's bedroom” in the same sentence.'

‘Technically it wasn't the same sentence,' said Ben. ‘And this particular part of the game was written for people interested in European history.'

‘Look,' said Jess, standing up, ‘I really am flattered that you boys want to use me as your guinea pig but sorry – I've got a date.'

‘It wasn't a date!' Jess said for about the fourteenth time that morning.

‘Sure it wasn't,' said Emily, favouring her right leg as she hobbled to Espionage 101. ‘He took you to a romantic setting …'

‘The front lawn,' clarified Jess.

‘Brought you chocolates …'

‘Oh, for goodness' sake, it was just a packet of Jaffa Cakes,' protested Jess.

‘I bet he even walked you home afterwards …'

‘Of course he did. Everyone has to walk past our dorm room. And would you keep your voice down?' said Jess.

‘And why is it that the first I hear about this date is over breakfast from Matt and Ben?' continued Emily, unperturbed.

‘Because it wasn't a date,' hissed Jess and quickened her pace to show that the discussion was over.

‘Why are we having today's lesson in the kitchens anyway?' asked Emily as they joined the cluster of transition-year cadets around the kitchen-access door from the refectory.

‘Remember that movie with the great chase scene through the hotel kitchen?' Matt asked Ben.

‘That's right. The guys were throwing knives, hot oil, boiling water, chilli paste – there are a lot of lethal weapons in the humble kitchen,' said Ben. ‘One guy even pressed another guy's face onto a hotplate.'

‘Charming,' said Jess.

‘If you don't have the stomach for wounding bad guys, maybe you should consider another career,' grunted Krivan.

‘Maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself,' said Ben.

‘Or what? You'll come at me with a limp cabbage?' snorted Krivan.

Svetlana, who was standing next to Krivan, burst out laughing.

‘Glad to see you're all in such good spirits for today's class,' said Lieutenant Parry, opening the kitchen door. ‘Find a spot on one of the benches and put your aprons on.'

‘Aprons?' said Matt.

‘Sure,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘Cooking can get messy.'

‘Cooking?' said Emily.

‘What else were you expecting to do in a kitchen?' asked the lieutenant.

Once the cadets had all donned their aprons, Lieutenant Parry began.

‘For the remainder of the term, our Monday-morning double periods will be what most other schools would call “Home Economics”.'

‘Seriously?' groaned Matt.

‘There are several reasons for including Home Economics in the syllabus. As you know, at Theruse Abbey we tailor-make your meals so you can achieve your optimum physical performance. In these classes we will teach you about foods, their vitamin and calorific content and how to plan your own optimum-performance menu. Secondly, as all your meals are prepared and the course load is so heavy, there isn't a lot of opportunity for you to cook and cooking and learning about food safety is an essential life skill. We will teach you that skill. Thirdly, when we need to infiltrate a premises or event, one of P.E.P. Squad's preferred techniques is for our agents to pose as catering staff, so in addition to cooking and nutrition, you will learn how to be first-class waiters, bartenders and baristas. And before you ask – no, we will not be using real alcohol. Any other questions?'

‘Are we marked on this?' asked Aidan's roommate.

‘Absolutely,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘Flavour, technique and neatness of your workstation, so wipe up spills straight away. Now, let's start with our first recipe. Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we'll begin with an upmarket version of Eggs Benedict with salmon and rocket. At the end of each bench is a fridge. All the contents are clearly labelled for those of you who really have no clue. You will have to weigh and measure them yourselves. All the equipment you need is on the storage shelves under your bench. The recipe is on the whiteboard. Sing out if you need help.'

Jess got going. Her father typically spent Saturday and Sunday mornings whipping up the most fantastic brunches, and Eggs Benedict was a family favourite. The most complicated part of the recipe was making the hollandaise sauce, but her father had taught her a neat trick. Instead of putting the bowl with the sauce ingredients directly into the saucepan of gently boiling water, Jess rested it in a vegetable steamer over the pot instead.

‘Nice work, Leclair,' said Lieutenant Parry on one of his rounds of the kitchen.

Emily, who was at the bench next to Jess, looked up. She was red-faced and sweaty and not in a good mood.

‘Aargh! How do you do it without it going all lumpy?' yelled Emily, dumping her third batch of sauce in the bin.

‘You have to whisk it the whole time and make sure the water's at a gentle simmer, not bubbling away quite so violently,' said Lieutenant Parry, adjusting the heat on Emily's cooker.

‘OK, class,' he said. ‘This is where it gets a bit like
Masterchef
. You have ten minutes to plate up before our taste testers arrive.'

‘What?' said Matt, dropping a poached egg on the toast, which made it split its yolk and dribble all over the plate.

Jess carefully poured her sauce over the egg, smoked salmon, rocket and toast on her plate and took a step back. It looked appetising, but nothing like Ben's on the next bench over, which could have been the cover photo on a cookbook.

‘Chefs, tools down,' said Lieutenant Parry when the ten minutes were up. ‘Let's welcome our guest critics.'

With all the showmanship of the TV programme, the kitchen door opened and Signora Enigmistica walked into the kitchen, followed by Principal Metsen. They made their way around the class slowly, talking to the cadets, inspecting the cleanliness of their benches and finally tasting the food.

Signora Enigmistica sampled Emily's meal, while Principal Metsen cut into Jess's.

‘The eggs are poached perfectly,' he commented, ‘and as for the taste …'

He put a forkful of egg, salmon, rocket, toast and sauce into his mouth.

‘I give you a solid nine for that, Miss Leclair,' he said, dabbing the corners of his mouth with a napkin and smiling at Jess before moving on to Ben's plate.

‘Two Sykes,' said Principal Metsen, after he'd tasted both boys' dishes. ‘One with great presentation, the other with fabulous flavour. Less vinegar next time,' he added in a stage whisper to Ben.

‘OK, cadets,' said Lieutenant Parry when the food critics had finished making their rounds. ‘The final stage in the cooking process is the clean up. The kitchen staff have one hundred and seventeen lunches to prepare, starting in fifteen minutes, and your workstations need to be spotless before they arrive.'

‘What on earth would possess anyone to go on
Masterchef
?' said Emily, as she hobbled to their next class. ‘That was the most stressful lesson I've ever had. I can't believe we have to do it all again next week.'

‘Beats having to jump off a cliff,' said Matt. ‘Just.'

‘I'll tell you what, I'd rather cook a three-course meal for Metsen any day than do this test,' said Jess, as they got to their Chinese class where Miss Kwan was waiting at the front of the room with a pile of test papers in her arms.

‘I'd imagine after all your
tutoring
yesterday, you'd be feeling quite confident,' said Emily, smiling evilly as she sat at her desk. Jess rolled her eyes and sat down as Miss Kwan started to hand out the papers.

The final weeks of spring term were the busiest Jess had had at the abbey. Regular classes and Fitness Training were full-on as usual, plus there were extra rehearsals and costume fittings for Presentation Day in the evenings, as well as first-year band practice during lunchtimes. Their final class for the term was a special Espionage 101 with Herr Klug in the multi-purpose room.

‘Today you will be trialling a new device from P.E.P. Labs,' said Herr Klug, holding up a mobile phone. ‘This looks like an ordinary smart phone, but we have a very special app installed called IseeU which allows you to locate living things through solid objects.'

‘Sounds cool,' said Ben.

‘As you've learnt in Biology, animals give off heat. The IseeU app uses this to show the location of animals, including humans, with a red dot on the map. Today we will be testing not only your ability to use this device effectively, but also your reaction times, by sending you into a maze,' said Herr Klug, drawing the cadets' attention to the high black partitions, with wires on the top leading up to the roof, which filled the majority of the room. ‘However, this is no ordinary maze. The walls move. To make it even more interesting, we will also be playing laser tag. One group of four will be unarmed, wearing target vests and carrying a smartphone. The larger group will have guns, but no vests or phones.

‘Emily, Ben, Matt and Jess, you can be the first target group. The rest of you, go around the back of the room to the south entrance of the maze. Grab a laser gun and go inside.'

‘
Kif
!' said Emily.

‘Eh?' said Herr Klug.

‘Don't mind her,' said Ben. ‘She's full of weird South Africanisms.'

‘Right,' said Herr Klug. ‘Your objective is to make it all the way through to the south entrance of the maze without getting shot. To your advantage, each laser gun takes ten seconds to recharge after being fired. So if your opponent misses you, you have time to make your escape. If and when you do make it through the maze, press on the big red button just outside the south entrance and the maze will be deactivated. In you go,' he finished, giving Ben a small tap on the shoulder.

Jess, Emily and the boys entered the maze. It was exactly like being inside a cave. The lighting was very dim. Matt immediately headed off to the left.

‘Wait,' said Ben, his head bent over his detector. ‘I'm just plotting the route … OK. We go left.'

Matt rolled his eyes and continued down the passageway, the others following.

Jess looked at her own detector. She zoomed right out so she could see the whole maze. She saw four dots moving down the passageway from the north entrance and a swarm of dots fanning out from the south entrance.

‘Now turn right,' said Ben.

There was a low rumble. Just as Matt turned right, a wall slid down behind him, sealing him off from the others.

‘Matt!' called Emily, banging on the wall.

Jess looked down at her detector. The map of the maze was changing. Now there were three dots on one side of the wall and Matt's single dot on the other side.

‘What happened?' called Matt from the other side.

‘Hang on,' called Ben. ‘I'm just recalculating the route. Oh. You're now in the complete opposite direction to where we need to go. You're on your own, buddy.'

‘And once again, Matt fails to get the girls.' Emily giggled.

‘Hot spots coming our way,' said Ben. ‘Let's go. Left up ahead.'

Jess and Emily followed Ben's instructions, keeping close together so they wouldn't get separated.

‘Left again … Right up ahead, now left … Tsk!' said Ben as there was another low rumble and the maze reconfigured itself, leaving them standing in a T-junction. ‘Every time we get close to the exit … I reckon Herr Klug has one of these too and he's doing it on purpose–'

‘Run!' cried Emily.

While Ben was muttering and concentrating on figuring out a new route, Svetlana and Lauren had appeared from behind. Jess ran right. Emily ran left. Ben stood stock still, trying to calculate the best escape route and ended up getting shot.

Alone, Jess glanced at her detector. She was heading towards a dead end and two dots, presumably Svetlana and Lauren, were only one corner behind, following her. Jess ducked around the final corner before the dead end and waited. She could hear two sets of footsteps growing louder as they got closer. Then they were drowned out by the rumbling of the maze reconfiguring itself and suddenly there was a solid wall between Jess and her pursuers.

But there was no wall between her and the person directly in front of her.

‘Jess!' said Matt. He was sweaty and panting.

‘Oh, thank goodness!' said Jess. ‘Svetlana and Lauren got Ben. I lost Emily.'

‘Yeah, well Krivan would have got me if the maze hadn't just reconfigured,' said Matt. ‘What's the best way out of here?'

Jess recalculated the route. They were only metres from the south exit, but if Herr Klug was manipulating the maze the way Ben thought he was, they'd never get there.

‘Where did you say Krivan was?' asked Jess, noticing a dot on the other side of the wall from Matt heading directly north. It was only metres from a break in the wall that led to the corridor they were in.

‘Through that wall–'

‘Run!' cried Jess, as Krivan poked his head through the gap.

Jess and Matt ran directly south.

‘Hot spots to the right, go left!' said Jess. ‘Now right … right again …'

There was another low rumble as the maze reconfigured itself. A bright light appeared in front of them.