“Right now,” Jackson said. “Follow me.” He led Noah toward a building that stood beside the field, a two-story concrete structure that might have been some sort of warehouse, and pointed at it. “There are flags hidden somewhere around that building. They could be inside, outside, on top, out behind the building—they could literally be anywhere.” He motioned to one of the other students who were still following along, a young woman. “This is Angie,” he said. “Angie, show Noah how quickly you can bring me one of those flags.”
The girl didn’t so much as nod, but suddenly took off running toward the building. She veered off to the right, and for a second, Noah thought she was going to run around it, but then he spotted her true intent. There was a car parked up close to the building on that side, and when she got to it, a single leap took her onto its roof, where she spun suddenly to the left and leaped again. Her hands caught a protruding brick, while her feet contacted the wall for a split second, and then hands and feet worked together to fling her upward. She caught the top ledge of the building, and somersaulted over it, disappearing from view.
Jackson was looking at a stopwatch in his hand. “Twenty-four seconds, and she’s on the roof. I think that’s her best time yet.”
One of the others, a guy who looked like he might have been all of fifteen, nodded his head. “I think you’re right,” he said. “She got mad when I beat her yesterday, so I figured she was gonna try to show me up today.”
Without even looking at the boy who had spoken, Jackson said, “Noah, meet Gary. Gary tends to set the bar on this course.”
Noah was concentrating on the building. Whatever was going on here, he wanted to make sure he was going to develop the necessary skills and muscle tone, so he didn’t let himself be distracted, and that’s why he saw the flicker of motion through the window on the second floor. “She’s inside,” he said. “Second floor, that window.” He pointed at the one he meant.
“Yes, she’s working from the top down. Going to the roof first meant that she would have gravity to help her as she moved downward through the building itself. Besides, if there had been opposition inside the building, that would increase the element of surprise for her. Keep watching.”
Noah watched, and a few seconds later he saw another flash of motion, and realized that Angie had literally flown out of a ground floor window at the rear corner of the building. She rolled and came to her feet, still running, and he saw a scrap of yellow fabric in her hand.
Jackson clicked the stopwatch as she slid to a stop in front of him, the yellow flag held out in front of her. “One minute and fifty-nine seconds,” he said. “That was an outstanding time, Angie. Good job.” He turned and looked at Noah. “Noah, there are two more flags somewhere in the building. Do you think you can get one of them as fast as Angie did?”
Noah spun and launched himself into a run, choosing to follow the same path to the roof that Angie had taken. Like her, he leapt to the roof of the car and used it to throw himself at the wall, and caught the same protruding brick that she had used. When he threw himself upward, though, he didn’t have quite the momentum that she had enjoyed, and only one hand managed to catch the upper ledge.
For a split second, he thought he was going to lose his grip and fall, but his right foot found purchase on another brick, and he was able to transfer some of his weight to it. That let him bring his other hand up and get a grip on the edge, after which he swung his legs until he got his left foot on the ledge, and then rolled over the top. He landed on his back on the roof, but didn’t allow himself to rest. He rolled to his feet, looking around to see how Angie had gotten into the building.
There was no access door on the roof, nothing that could lead down into the building, but he saw what looked like a flagpole on the far edge. There was a sturdy rope hanging down from it, and it was swinging slightly, as if someone had moved it not long before. He ran to it and looked over the edge to see an open window directly below the pole, so he grabbed the rope and threw himself over the edge. His momentum caused the rope to crack like a whip, and then it swung him directly to and through the window opening.
He landed on his feet, ran quickly to the door he saw in the opposite wall, then through it and into a hallway. His eyes were scanning the entire time, and he ran quickly through the hall, looking into every room for the yellow flag. He was just about to move toward the stairs at the end of the hall when he saw a tiny bit of yellow protruding from what looked like a cabinet in one of the rooms.
Into the room and to the cabinet he ran, and as he snatched it open, he saw the yellow flag flutter toward the floor. He caught it in midair, then spotted the open window across the room. He checked his memory of the building, and decided that the window ledge was about eighteen feet above the ground, but he had made bigger jumps than that in the past. He threw himself through the window and spun in the air so that he landed on his feet, still running forward, then didn’t slow until he got back to Jackson and the others.