Game of Secrets and Shadows (Book One in the Covert Operations series)

One

On my first day at Golden Oaks Academy, I was ushered into a classroom and given 'the talk.' 

At most private schools, that kind of thing would probably be used as a time in which the Headmaster explained the rules.  No students out of bed after curfew.  No male students in female students' rooms (and vice versa).  No violations of the dress code.

That wasn't what I got.

Instead, we were met with things like 'no removing explosives from the Covert Ops practice room' and 'no attacking each other in the halls—even if it is for practice.'  We were told that we weren't allowed to speak English before two o'clock in the afternoon to better our multi-lingual language skills.  But, most importantly, we were told that what we did behind the secluded gates of Golden Oaks academy had to be completely confidential.  VIP's only. 

Golden Oaks wasn't like most prep schools.  We didn't have sports teams or cheerleaders.  There weren't the typical clichés like the jocks or the pretty girls or the nerds.  Our clichés were more of the 'he blow's things up the fastest,' or 'they have the best take-down time,' and 'she's one of the best street-artists we have.'

Another thing that set Oaks apart from all the other schools?  There was no application process.  There were only two ways you get into Oaks Academy.  The first was dependent on your parentage.  Chances were, if either of your parents went to Oaks, then you were almost guaranteed to get the Golden Ticket.  The second was by way of intelligence.  I didn't know how they did it but somehow the Trustees had the entire world wired.  If you had the brains, they would find you. 

That's why I still wasn't quite sure how I got in.

I had an IQ of one-hundred and sixty-seven.  It wasn't bad, not by a long shot, but considering the fact that eighty-point-three percent of my classmates were pretty much walking computers, including one of my roommates and best friends, I was of the stupider variety of attendees to Oaks.  I had absolutely no clue on how I'd ended up here.  But, there was one thing I did know and that was the fact that I wouldn't change it for the world.

Not even right now when I was in the middle of one of my final examinations.

Along with my classmates, I'd been dumped out on the side of the road with only a communications unit, a map, and a flashlight for use.  The unremarkable black vans had then disappeared, heading back towards the school, we presumed, which was where we'd eventually find ourselves. 

Now though, we'd divided ourselves up into three groups.  We had our objective, a little computer device inside of an old warehouse which was currently being guarded by some of MI6's, an intelligence agency based in London, best operatives.  Some of those people were more widely known amongst us as our teachers while several others, I happened to know, were parents to some of my classmates. 

But, just because we had some families coming together on the field tonight didn't mean that we got any sort of hint as to what we were up against.  If anything, the edge of competition only heightened the seal on the confidentiality of the situation.  Everyone just wanted to prove that they were the best. 

A hand brushed across my shoulder and I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was.  Maxwell Bennett.  Max.  He'd been the first person that I'd met at Oaks and we'd become fast friends, though now the term family was probably the one used most commonly to describe our relationship.  He was like a brother to me, more so than my own brother, Wesley, who I hadn't seen in well over three years. 

Max had turned into handsome man too.  When we'd first met, he'd been tall and gangly and it had constantly seemed as if his limbs were just going everywhere.  Now, though, he was more solidly built.  His face had filled out some and he'd put on nearly fifty pounds of muscle from the day we'd met.  That, combined with his piercing blue eyes and clean-cut sand-coloured hair had made him quite the catch at the school where the dating pool was unsurprisingly limited.