"Entree"
Undisclosed Location March 1, 2008 Seeing the familiar faces of Paige and Enola on the chairs had been a shock, but a nice one. She hadn't known until she had seen them, how much she regretted not being able to say her goodbyes; now she didn't have to. There were other people there, about 20 of them all together, drinking coffee or tea. She didn't recognise anyone other than for her friends and former colleagues, but the way the others moved, she felt their backgrounds would turn out to be military. She had no time to ask the many questions she had burning inside, as Rebecca spoke quietly "Thank you for coming. The SIA is a new agency, with an old job to do. Fighting the terrorists and criminals that would like to control the way we live. There are a couple of tests to do before we continue to phase 2. I will see you at the end of the first test and also the second to explain the procedures for the next phase." and she was gone, the door panel closing quietly behind her. Totally different to Madeline she thought, steel, but this time inside a velvet glove, still no saying how this one would turn out. The two wooden doors at the end of the room slid open and she could see a room behind filled with wooden tables in rows, each with a laptop on it. A tall man with dark brown hair and blue-green eyes, was checking them in, Saf hung behind, trying to be last and yet take in all the surroundings. When she arrived at the door, he just ticked off her name and spoke quietly "Take a vacant seat Ms Churchill," before he moved to the front of the room and to a raised dais. She moved to an empty seat and sat down, noting that Paige and Enola were next to each other a few rows ahead. The clock on the wall in front said it was 15.30hrs "You have 20 mins to complete the following test which will ask questions on logic, memory, perception and numerical. Please open up the laptop and type in your name in the form you will see. Then once you have pressed return you will have 20 mins to answer all the questions. At the end of this time, the laptops will send your scores to the central computer." Saf opened the laptop and saw that it was already running the program. There was no time to waste exploring her connections or lack of them. She typed in her name and pressed return. The questions came thick and thin. Finding the sequence, numerical and figures; Memorising details on the screen to answer the memory questions, she found herself wishing she had Paige's photographic memory; Rotating shapes by degrees and answering questions on numbers, all of them starting relatively simply and getting increasingly difficult. When she had answered the final question, she realised that she still had a few minutes in hand, but not many. She debated whether to try hacking to the central computer to find her scores but mindful that this was a new start, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and just sat patient for the time to be called. People did not speak when they had finished, just waited for the announcement which wasn't long in coming. "Please stop." She noticed as she waited for something to happen that the screen gave off the message `downloading' obviously the infrared comms existed to allow access from somewhere else. The dark haired man, stood up and addressed the group, "When I call out your names, please go back to the room where you first came in, otherwise stay where you are." he proceeded to read out a series of names, not including hers, Paige's or Enola's or a number of others. When the people had left, the doors were shut; there were now only 12 of them left, had they failed already? A door opened behind her and she turned to see Rebecca enter the room. She moved to the front of the room and spoke to the man, nodding occasionally and seemingly ignoring the 12 people sitting at the tables. Paige turned to look at her with a look of puzzlement and also trepidation. Saf shrugged, she had no idea what was going on either. Rebecca cleared her throat, "Congratulations, you have passed the first phase," she turned towards the man at her side "this is Gray Wellman, my assistant. He will now administer the second test to you. Are there any questions?" No-one moved, it appeared that they were blithely going to wait and be eliminated one by one. Saf decided she wouldn't just sit and wait, she had put up with too much of that in the past. Fresh start meant a different regime she hoped. She put up her hand and waited for Rebecca to notice, when she received the nod she stood up and spoke "Can you tell me what would have happened if we had not passed?" Rebecca allowed a moment's pause before she replied "Unsuccessful candidates are returned to base, with no further participation." It seemed so innocent, but Saf knew in her case that RTU'd was not an option; for her it would have meant cancellation, so she everything to gain and nothing to lose. "Any more questions?" Rebecca asked, but no-one responded and as silently as she had come, Rebecca exited the room. Gray Wellman put them in groups of four, she was with two men, one of dark or Arabic appearance, the other sounding vaguely Australian, and a redheaded woman who sounded South American, possibly Brazilian by her accent. Paige she noted was with 3 men, she would be in her element. The tables were moved into their groups and the laptops were synchronised into pairs, the redhead had difficulty in grasping how to do this and Saf had to show her how the infra-red connections worked. Finally they were set up and each group were given blindfolds and headsets. Two of the group were told to put on blindfolds, Saf won the toss and elected not to wear one, but she knew her chances were that she would be doing it second. The Arab and Australian put on the blindfolds and headsets first and the task was explained. The people wearing the blindfolds were to be guided through an electronic maze, while the people without were to give them verbal guidance. A bleeper would tell the blindfolded person that they had reached a wall, and on the guider's laptop, a picture of the maze would also appear, as well as a symbol for the person she would be guiding. In her case she had drawn the Australian, she hoped he would be as easy going as Aussies were without the sassiness of being a MCP. She guided his hand to the start of the maze by using the clock as a guide to movement he should make. Concentrating on his efforts, they completed the first maze in good time, with few mistakes. The second task was harder and it took them slightly longer to achieve the route, Bruce asked clarifying questions when he wasn't certain on how to proceed and she was relieved that they had paired up. When it was her turn, she hoped that they would use the same mazes, but from the descriptions she was given she thought differently. Bruce was calm and patient, but at the same time he never flapped and she felt confident working under his instructions. When they had finished she removed her blindfold and smiled at him and mouthed "Thanks." The other groups were not long behind in finishing, apart from the redhead and Arabic man, who appeared to be struggling with him giving her instructions. Gray called time before she had finished and Saf was hard put to give her a reassuring smile while silently pondering what would happen next. Return