Piece by Piece

58. Much to Learn

"Alright, boys and girls, here we are, on our big day!" Edwards clasped his hands together, watching his recruits as if they were a delicious dessert.

Davyn didn't care much about the creepiness of the whole thing. He was much more preoccupied with actually surviving this ordeal. They had been receiving quite a bit of training in survival, but they were heading out into the real thing.

Wandering a couple of miles from base was surely not enough to get them ready for endless sand dunes. Of course, he hadn't realized it back then. He'd thought a desert was a desert, and he'd learned how to walk without twisting his ankles, so the first mile was just as important as the next 50. And yet...

"I hope you've all packed the way you've been taught by our guides," Edwards continued, indicating the three men who handled their desert training.

Omar, Ahmed, and Mahmud nodded at them, their faces a mask of seriousness. None of the recruits knew them very well because their English was limited, and the only one who spoke a bit of Egyptian was Walt. Davyn suddenly found that problematic. On the verge of leaving, he began to identify a whole load of problematic things, the language barrier being just one of them.

"And, of course," Edwards said, "I'm so curious to see what each of you decided to bring on as your extra item."

It had been a test. They were all instructed what should be packed, but they each got to bring along an extra item. Davyn knew it was a trap, and just one more object wouldn't be enough for what they had to do. That bad part was, he was unaware what more he could need. He'd debated with Rachel and Simon, trying to figure out what best three items should be brought along so they could split it between the three of them. Simon and Rachel hated Davyn's suggestion of bringing a camera, but he stuck to it.

"This is top secret," Rachel had argued. "They'd surely destroy any photograph you take."

"Rachel's right." Simon backed her up, as always. "As much as the thought of camping memories pleases me, they won't let us have them."

"Maybe they will if they're harmless," Davyn had said with a shrug.

Because it wasn't the memories he wanted, though he didn't want to admit this to them. Yes, photographs of his new friends would be lovely, but the closer they got to the day if departure, paranoia got a hold of him, and he became convinced that something awful would happen. The camera was a guarantee that his memory wouldn't play tricks on him, that he could analyze what happened later, if needed. This unfortunately meant he'd have to suddenly develop a fascination for photography so that it wouldn't look too suspicious.

Rachel had finally settled on an extra layer of clothes, while Simon brought along an additional canteen of water.

It appeared like the others were thinking of survival too, mostly. Phillip had chosen extra rope, while Alan had brought lock-picking tools. Walt predictably chose a book on ancient Egyptian linguistics, while Harrison surprisingly chose paper and pencils.

"It's to draft reports, probably," Rachel said under her breath.

Davyn did his best not to laugh because it was his turn to present his addition to the class.

"My, my, a camera," Edwards said with a smile. "How very touristy of you."

"I figure I might as well document the whole thing."

Edwards' expression darkened. "You are very aware this is off the record."

"Yes, but I'm thinking that, if we do this, then the rest of the agency might want to know what it was like."

The look in their leader's eyes was much too analytical for Davyn's liking. He could see why it was not just a good idea, but a perfect one, and yet he didn't want to admit it because he knew something. And it was that something that worried Davyn the most.