“Macon’s Quill—twice,” she said.
“Yes, well, as your advisor I selfishly hope there will be some awards in store for this group,” said Mr. Vincenti. “But we didn’t bring you here to appreciate museum pieces and awards. We’re here because the Director believes your safety requires the Course.”
The fidgeting and whispers ceased.
“The Course is a training tool,” said Mr. Vincenti. “It’s designed to let you apply and build upon the skills you’ve been acquiring in the classroom.”
Mr. Vincenti walked over to the other elevator door.
“You are granted access only to those levels and settings commensurate with your skills,” he said. “As you improve, you may pass on to new scenarios and stiffer challenges.”
Rolf ’s hand shot up in the air as Mr. Vincenti pressed the elevator’s button.
“What kind of scenarios do we have?”
“The scenarios you encounter are dependent on various inputs. The most important input is the floor you choose here in the elevator. The floor indicates the difficulty level, and at Rowan, we have nine. Very few students progress beyond Level Six. Once on the appropriate floor, you can program any number of scenario variables: environment, objectives, opponents, et cetera. The possibilities are endless.”
“Cool,” muttered Connor, elbowing Max.
“After each scenario you complete, the Course will assign you a score based on your performance,” Mr. Vincenti continued. “That score is calculated from various factors: strategic approach, objectives achieved, time elapsed, and such. Scores range from zero to one hundred. Score above a seventy, and the analysts might store your performance in the archives and use you as an example in the screening rooms—”
Mr. Vincenti paused as the elevator doors abruptly opened. Several sweaty students emerged. To Max’s dismay, Cooper stepped out of the elevator after them, dressed all in black and breathing heavily.
“Ah!” said Mr. Vincenti. “As you can see, the Course is a busy place. Students, faculty, and alumni may use it at any time. How’d it go, ladies and gentlemen?”
“We all got creamed,” bemoaned a boy among a group of Third Years. “Level Three’s a killer—they got us right before we solved the Mayan puzzle. We couldn’t even use Mystics!”
“How about you, Cooper? Haven’t seen you down here in years! Good to have you back.”
Cooper nodded in greeting, quietly crossing to the other elevator that would take him back to ground level.
“He went down to Level Eight!” gasped a wide-eyed Second Year. “I asked one of the analysts—she said he got, like, a seventy-five!”
“Well, what do you expect from one of our finest Field Agents?” beamed Mr. Vincenti.
Max watched Cooper step inside the other elevator; the Agent towered over the students filling in around him. The elevator doors shut, and Mr. Vincenti cleared his throat.
“Well, that gives you a little taste!” he said. “Let’s go down to Level One.”
Mr. Vincenti held the door of the other elevator as the students filed in.
The doors closed and the elevator eased down, far more slowly and smoothly than their trip from the ground level. Sarah stood close to Max, smiling. Moments later, the doors opened onto another octagonal room, paneled in pale yellow wood. Into each wall was set a numbered green door.
“So,” said Mr. Vincenti, hopping out, “let’s say you’ve got an extra half hour on your hands and want to squeeze in a bit of practice. Once you arrive at the appropriate level, you’ve got basically two choices: to practice a scenario or review and analyze past scenarios in the screening room. Let’s start with a scenario.”
Mr. Vincenti led them to a smooth silver control panel set into the wall next to door one.
“Okay,” he said. “To register for a scenario just tap the touch screen here to get started—there we go. Now, you’ll register your identity with a retinal scan and select your variables from the options menus—or else leave them for the Course to define. The details are in your binders.”
A mischievous twinkle entered Mr. Vincenti’s eyes.
“Any brave soul care to try a scenario as an example we can use in the screening room?”
Sarah stepped forward.
“Excellent,” said Mr. Vincenti, smiling. “I hate it when I have to draft my volunteers.”
Mr. Vincenti tapped the screen again and quickly selected the variables.
“All right, Sarah,” he said. “You have only one objective on this scenario: to try and touch the opposite wall any way you can. Got it?”
Sarah nodded and swallowed nervously.
“Whenever you’re ready,” said Mr. Vincenti. “Just head on through the door.”
Max and the rest started cheering for Sarah as she opened the door and disappeared inside. The door closed solidly behind her.
“She’s brave!” breathed Cynthia. “You’d have needed a gun to get me in there!”
“I wanted to go,” whined Jesse, who was immediately beset by several doubters.
Max read the readout on the bright white screen:
SARAH AMANKWE: LEVEL ONE, SCENARIO 0A02
TIME ELAPSED: 00:00:14:57
When the time elapsed reached two minutes, the monitor started flashing. A moment later, Sarah emerged from the door, breathing heavily and leaning forward with her hands on her knees.
“It’s awesome!” she crowed as the others greeted her with cheers and anxious questions.
“Now,” said Mr. Vincenti, smiling, “you’ll want to study up on your performances now and again and get some feedback. For that, you use the screening room. Let’s take a peek at how Miss Amankwe fared….”
Miss Boon opened a walnut-paneled door, revealing a large room with many computer monitors stationed at dark wood cubicles. Several older students, including Alex Mu?oz, sat at the monitors, studying the screens intently. Alex merely glanced over at them without interest. Mr. Vincenti said a polite hello to a middle-aged woman before taking a seat at a large display. He beckoned for Sarah to take the seat next to him and activated the screen with a touch of his finger.
“Well, let’s take a look at how you did,” said Mr. Vincenti. “Everyone gather around and try to get a peek.”
Max looked over Omar’s shoulder and got a glimpse of the display. It showed a very nervous-looking Sarah at one end of a large rectangular room. The opposite wall was blinking bright green. Sarah had started crossing the room when the floor changed suddenly to a number of conveyor belts whizzing away from the blinking wall at various speeds. She was hurtled backward against the starting wall with a loud bang. She took a moment to gather herself and seemed to be gauging which conveyor belt was slowest. She started running up one positioned near a side wall. As she did so, enormous rubber balls started bouncing around the room from every direction. Time and again Sarah would approach the wall, only to be knocked off her feet and conveyed rapidly backward. Max was impressed by her perseverance, although the scenario ended without her touching the wall.
Sarah smiled as several girls cheered and hugged her.
“It does not surprise me that a girl volunteered first,” said Lucia, glancing at Jesse.
“Doesn’t surprise me that a girl failed it,” he shot back.
“Now, now,” said Mr. Vincenti. “The Course is all about personal development—it’s not a competition. Sarah did very well for a first attempt. You can see here that the Course awarded her an eleven, which may sound low but is very good for a first try. The recommendations listed below are pretty generic—they’ll be more meaningful once the Course has more of your performances to analyze.”
Several students giggled as they read the recommendations listed: AVOID BALLS, MOVE FASTER, SHARPEN TIME AWARENESS. Each recommendation was coupled with two or three activities that Sarah could follow to hone the necessary skills.