His dark eyes scrutinized her. She felt like a bug on a pin.
“You’ve got friends in high places. They’re trying to push you through. I’ve seen some of your scores. You’re doing fine in Aerodynamics, Frequencing, doing OK in Theoretical Protections. But you’re weak in other areas.” He pointed his menacing cigar at her again. “You gonna try to tell me you ain’t weak in some spots?”
Maddy gulped, feeling the slightest bead of sweat on her forehead, her face flushing. “No.”
“Good,” he said. “I
also wanted you to be aware that I’ve received some . . . information . . . that distresses me, to say the least.”
“Information?” Maddy asked. One name flashed through her mind: Emily. But what could Emily possibly have told Kreuz? Her mind raced a mile a minute.
“Yes. I’ll be looking into the situation personally. If I need you, you’ll hear from me.” Kreuz kept his gaze on her for a moment, then looked back down at the papers on his desk. “Now go and learn how to fly. I saw you in that video; you got a lot of work to do.”
Twenty minutes later, Maddy found herself staring into an enormous space the size of at least a few football fields inside building #7, one of the hangar-like structures built past the offices. The vast expanse in front of her looked like an obstacle course, except instead of just running along the ground, the obstacles were built on the walls and ceiling, too. Bright lights arced across the course, and an enormous air conditioner hummed, pumping chilly air into the building as the sun baked outside. She saw hoops arranged in jagged lines, vertical gaps between two blunt walls, a dramatic Angel-made valley full of jags and crannies, and even a strange plastic corkscrew-type length of Angel-sized tubing.
The whole thing would have been overwhelming even without Maddy being totally distracted by what Kreuz had told her about the mysterious “information”.
“Welcome to Proving Ground 1. My name is Professor Trueway. We’re beginning with basic agility work,” the instructor, who Maddy had heard was a former Angel Disciplinary Council Agent, said. Although he wasn’t wearing his futuristic bat-wing armour, the black jumpsuit the flight instructor wore reminded her of the ADC garb somehow. She shuddered to recall the ADC’s pursuit of her and Jacks through the skyscrapers downtown. The agents had been incredible fliers – almost as good as Jacks.
Maddy herself was wearing a flight-training uniform that was black with grey trim, and although it wasn’t really Spandex, it was close enough to make Maddy feel a little body conscious. The back had slits for wings to expand without damaging any of the fabric.
The instructor continued: “This goes against some theories, which say you should teach an Angel straight speed first. But after losing a couple Protections in the ’70s, we re-thought a lot of the curriculum, and agility now begins flight training.”
A door off to the side opened up, and Emily walked into the room, wearing her flight uniform. You could see every curve on her body as she stood next to Instructor Trueway. She was stone-faced.
“I trust you know each other?”
“Oh, Maddy and I go way back,” Emily said.
“Wonderful,” Trueway said, totally oblivious to the thick-as-tar hostility that hung in the air between the two girls.
The instructor held a small control in his hand. He typed in a code, and a strange whirring occurred on the course. “We’ll start you on the easiest level.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Maddy saw the slightest of sardonic smirks creep on to Emily’s mouth.
To Maddy’s astonishment, portions of the obstacle course began to flip like segments on a cube, rotating around so that an entirely new face was exposed in each section. There were far fewer hoops and obstacles on this level, and the jagged valley had been replaced by a calm, undulating hillock.
“Emily has been so kind as to demonstrate the proper technique for these courses.” He motioned to the Aussie Angel. “Emily?”
“No problem,” she said. Maddy’s hair blew back as Emily’s wings suddenly ripped out, spreading open. She looked at Maddy. “Should be quite easy.”
Emily leaned slightly forward, on the balls of her feet. Her wings were not fully spread, maybe sixty per cent. Maddy noticed immediately how much bigger than her own wings they were.
“As you’ll see, for correct take-off technique, Emily is looking directly forward with relaxed shoulders. Her wings are only— ”
Before the instructor could finish his sentence, Emily had beat her strong and sharp wings, once, twice, and then was off like a slingshot. Maddy’s jaw literally dropped as she saw how fast Emily could fly. The young Angel twisted, dipped and turned with ease, her flowing red hair whipping behind her, as she screamed to one edge of the course, then back, dipping over a series of hills, flying through a line of suspended hoops, and then rotating sideways to fit through a large gap between two walls. She was almost a blur.
Before Maddy even really knew it, Emily was landing next to her and the instructor, having finished the course in less than fifteen seconds. She wasn’t even out of breath.
“That’s how you do it,” Emily said, narrowing her eyes at Maddy, her incredible wings spreading out behind her. “This is kids’ level. Should be pretty easy. Well, at least for a full Angel.”
It was going to be a long afternoon.
“Now your turn,” Instructor Trueway said.
Butterflies in her stomach, Maddy stepped forward on the balls of her feet like she’d seen Emily do. Emily’s gaze felt like it was burning a hole into her. Maddy took a deep breath, then flapped her wings, once, twice. . .
And flew two metres and careened over on her right side as she crashed into a heap.