Peace World (12 page)

He had done his homework during the past two-plus months en route to Earth.  He studied the humans.  He knew their weaknesses, their aversion to violence.  He knew how they were governed and he understood clearly where the threat must have originated.  Violent's Prison was the only place on the planet where the sheep had fangs.  It was there that he would concentrate his forces.  Once that nest of vipers was clean, he would move on to the human Leadership Council.  No longer would the humans be allowed to govern themselves in exchange for meeting their quotas.

Going forward, they would meet their quotas or they would die under the boot of a Minith master.  The human council would make excellent examples for the rest of the flock. 

Obey or die.  It was as simple as that.

His next thought was of his brother.  It was hard to believe his sibling could still be alive after so many years, but that was the word Rala had passed along.  Treel was alive and being held prisoner. 

Soo was unsure how he felt about that.  He opted to wait until they met before deciding Treel's fate. 

CHAPTER 15

Eli joined his seven-person team for the standard pre-match talk.  The team consisted of three girls and four boys, all between the ages of six and nine.  At six-and-a-half, Eli was the youngest member of team.  As their most-accomplished blader and the acknowledged mastermind behind their string of thirteen wins, one might have expected him to be the team's captain.  He was not.  That title went to Adrienne, the oldest in the group at nine years and ten months.

The young boy did not mind.  He knew that the older, larger team member was the right choice.  When they had formed teams two months before, she had already known the other members of their squad, and they knew her.  As the odd one out, Eli was just glad to be included.  The fact that his mother ran the facility had made his involvement a foregone conclusion.  Being accepted by the orphans, however, was not.

Those early days seemed like ancient history now.  The seven had bonded well over the past eight weeks, and had become a cohesive, well-trained unit.  After losing their first few matches, Eli had tentatively offered suggestions to Adrienne on how they might improve their chances against the other teams.  To her credit, she had listened to his ideas, recognized their value, and implemented them with the team.  They had not lost a contest in their age division for the past month.

The winning streak was in serious jeopardy today.  For the first time, they were paired against a team from the ten- to twelve-year-old division.  It was the first match ever between two age groups and brought on, most likely, because of the success Eli and his team were having.

Jonah, who Eli had first met with his dad months before, led the older team.  As the undisputed leader of one of the larger orphanages that now existed in the former Violent's Prison, it made sense that he was captain of his team.  What concerned Eli most about the upcoming match wasn't that Jonah's team was older.  What concerned him most was that they were very good.  They did not have a lengthy winning streak, but they had won more than seventy percent of the matches they had played in the older division. 

Eli had overheard Jonah talking to a group of kids that morning.  The twelve-year-old wasn't happy having to play a team from the younger division, and had made it clear they would have no mercy on Eli's crew. 

That was just fine with Eli.  He did not want mercy.  He had relayed Jonah's words to his team and they were up for the match.  None of them wanted the streak to end, and would do everything they could to keep it running—no matter who they played.

"Let's do this just like we practiced," Adrienne stressed to her team as they prepared for the match.  "They may be older, but that doesn't mean they're better.  Keep your heads down and stay out of sight unless you have to move or you're ready to fire."

Jak raised his hand.  Adrienne nodded his way.

"Who is on point?"

Eli grinned.  The older boy loved taking the lead position, despite the heightened possibility of being taken out early.  For him, the chance to get off the first shots of the battle was worth the risk.  In their fourth match, he had single-handedly taken out the entire seven-person team they were paired against from the point position.  From then on, it was a daily struggle convincing him to give others a chance. 

"For a match against our first older team?  It has to be you, Jak," Adrienne said.  "Is that okay with everyone?"

She got nods all around.  They knew their best chance of victory came with Jak in front.

"Okay, everyone make sure your blades and your guns are ready," Eli reminded the team.  His dad's instruction to "always make sure" had carried over from the chess board to the paintball field. 

Tane had made some improvements to the original blades his dad had asked the scientist to design.  The most important—at least to Eli, who had suggested the change—was the ability to convert their footgear from non-wheeled to wheeled mode with the touch of a single button located on the heel of each boot.  When in boot mode, the wheels of each boot rested flat against the outside of the side of the wearer's foot.  When activated by the owner, the wheels automatically swung down on mechanical springs and locked into place.  The ingenious design allowed the user to go immediately from boots to blades—or blades to boots—at the touch of a button, without having to change footgear. 

The location of the activation buttons on the inside heel of each boot was coincidental, but resulted in perfect placement.  When Eli and his team were given their new boots, they spent hours practicing with the new design.  Through trial and error, they found they could go from boot mode to wheeled mode by jumping and clicking the buttons on their heels together.  The hours of practice continued and the team rapidly developed an impressive run-jump-click-land move that, when performed properly, started with a sprint on boots and ended in a rolling landing on wheels. 

Now, prior to the start of the match, each member of the team neatly activated the wheels on their boots and executed a smart, tight circle.  The group then turned their paintball guns on the nearest wall.  The concrete, already liberally splattered with various tints, immediately accumulated seven splotches of purple, the team's assigned color for these matches. 

Their pre-match ritual complete, the team spread out across their end of the forty-meter-wide course and assumed their assigned positions.  Jak, Cale, and Adrienne took forward, offensive positions ten yards out from the start line—the farthest they were allowed to proceed until they heard the bell that signaled the start of the match.  Once the lights were turned on over the course and the starting bell sounded, their job was to push through the opposing team and, if possible, capture the flag that waited at the far end. 

Eli and Suze, the other six-year-old on the squad, were five yards behind the offensive trio.  Their job was to stay out of sight, but to closely guard the backs of the initial group.  Anyone that managed to circle behind the first group would draw their fire.  They were also the reserve force.  If two of the first three got painted, Suze would move up to fill a position in the offensive line, and Eli would provide cover.  Eli would only move up if all four of his advance teammates went out.

Edward waited just behind Suze and Eli.  His role was purely defensive.  His position on the course would depend on which track the offensive team members took once the lights came on.  Jen, the final member of their team, would remain behind.  Her responsibility was to protect their flag in case one or more of their opponents made it that far.

None of the seven could see the other team, but they knew the older crew was making its own preparations a hundred meters away. 

Between the two teams sat an ever-changing landscape of walls, slopes, ditches, ladders, and doorways.  So far, no two matches had been set up exactly the same.  It was a way to ensure that none of the teams memorized the course, and to reinforce the need to develop flexible tactics for offense and defense.

Eli's pulse raced as it did before every match.  The excitement to begin was overpowering.  Only a month before, his greatest thrill had been racing his new blades through the massive corridors of the former prison.  Before that, it was the thrill and the competitiveness of the chess board.  But this… this was ten times more exciting than either of those things.  This field combined the excitement of blading, his need for competition, and the strategy of chess into a single, consolidated…
event
.

Eli peered into the darkened course ahead.  He could see about ten meters past the advance team, but no further.  He tried to envision what the course might look like and considered how various obstacles might affect or dictate their movement to the far end.  Many of the concepts he acquired from two years of playing chess carried over to this game.  For the young boy, this was like playing chess in real-time, with real people.  But instead of having a standard playing surface and set pieces that could move only in very specific ways, the human pieces in this game had to adapt to an ever-changing board.  The thought made his arms tingle.

The sixty-second chime sounded and the lights over the course came to life.  Eli quickly scanned the terrain, using the minute before the starting bell to study the obstacles ahead.  He noted three potential pathways the team could take.  From their previous matches, Eli had learned that most teams, when offered multiple pathways, tended to take the center path or the one to their right.  He didn't know why, but he used the knowledge to make final adjustments so his team could take advantage of the tendency. 

With Adrienne's prior approval, Eli always selected their route.  He signaled the advance team to take the path on the left, and they rolled quickly into position.  That would hopefully put his team right in the oncoming path of the enemy or at least put them in range if the enemy took the center pathway.  Eli did not want the older team to slip past their group without a battle, if he could prevent it.  If that happened, it would be a sprint to the finish line, with the fastest team to the flag declared the winner.  That scenario favored the older, quicker skaters.

With the advance team in place, he nodded to Edward to set up his defensive position along the center pathway.  If the other team acted counter to the norm, it was his job to delay them while his teammates sprinted for the flag.

Eli's internal clock counted down.

Five…four…three…two…one…

The starting bell sounded and Jak kicked off toward the left lane.  He sprinted for the forty-meter mark with Adrienne, Cale, Eli, and Suze following close behind in single file.  They expertly dodged the obstacles placed before them without incident.  Edward kept pace to their right, moving quickly down the center lane.

Jak, Adrienne, and Cal reached the designated mark, then slowed, stopped, and took cover.  Eli and Suze pulled up behind them at the thirty-meter spot.  Eli looked over to the center lane and saw that Edward was also in place.  Now, they just waited.

It had been Adrienne's idea before their fifth match to cover the first portion of the course as quickly as possible, and the suggestion made immediate sense to Eli.  Most teams were tentative at the start, unsure of how to proceed.  So, they moved forward cautiously and slowly when the opening bell sounded.  That caution quickly cost them position on the board.  By the time they made contact with Eli's crew, they were already playing from a defensive position only thirty meters or so from their flag.  It gave Eli and his team a huge advantage.

Other teams played just the opposite.  Instead of being tentative or cautious, they used a dash attack.  They gave up all forms of defense and went straight for the opposing team's flag.  Stopping at the forty-meter mark gave Eli and his team time to seek cover and set up defensive positions.  If a team used a dash attack, the initial trio could pick off the opposing team as they tried to speed past.  The few that made it past the advance line ran into Eli, Suze, and Edward sitting ten meters behind.  Stragglers were quickly given chase by the entire team and easily eliminated.  Since they had been playing, those matches where opposing teams implemented a dash attack went the quickest.

The matches that lasted the longest and were the most difficult to win were those in which their opponents used an even mix of aggression and caution.  So, that's the approach that Eli's team used. 

After setting up their initial line at the forty-mark point, the team waited.  Eli had instructed his team to be ready for the dash attack.  Jonah's comments earlier in the day hinted that the older crew might be overly confident.  In fact, Eli hoped they were.  He wanted to end this as quickly as possible.  If the older crew was going to make a dash for the purple flag, they would know within the next thirty seconds—the length of time it took most teams to cover twenty meters of course.

Eli had silently counted to the twelve-second mark when the first red player flashed past Adrienne.  The blader was moving so quickly that none of the three in the advance line got a shot off.

Although the red player moved fast, Eli did not hesitate.  He added a splash of bright purple to the player's back as he sped past.  He noticed, with some satisfaction, that the player he painted was Jonah. 

A slight dinging tone from an overhead speaker announced to all that one of the players from the older team had just been eliminated from the match.  A different, buzzing note would indicate an elimination from Eli's team.

The initial "ding" was quickly followed by five more as Adrienne and the advance line took out the following bladers.  After that, it was a simple matter to hunt down the remaining red player and capture the opposing flag. 

When the final bell signaled the end of the match, Eli was somewhat disappointed.  He had hoped for a better contest against the older team.  Instead, it was the easiest match they had played in weeks.  He knew that future matches against older teams would not be so easy.  They would not take the purple team lightly again.