Chapter 13

Private Lands
Outside the Great Sand Dunes National Park
Alamosa County, CO

February 2003

Spencer was just happy he finally made it this far.

They were in what looked like a movie set of a small town on private Templar lands in Colorado. He and Shan were there with eleven other people, male and female, all in their early 20's. They were all wearing military surplus pants, as instructed, and comfortably broken in hiking boots. When they had arrived at the Alamosa Travelodge they had each found a uniform t-shirt and a sweatshirt to wear over it in military olive drab. Directions said to wear the sweatshirt here over their t-shirt. Spencer had also found an envelope he suspected they alone had received. In it was a short essay and poem, with instructions to memorize both. Early this morning they had been driven out here in twos and threes and now they were waiting. "I'm surprised they're letting us do this together." Spencer said quietly to Shan.

She turned and smiled. "Maybe they didn't have enough to make two groups." She replied. "I'm not complaining."

"Yeah, but from all over the US?" Surely they had enough recruits or new members to make 24 people.

"I don't know."

Finally a jeep entered the town. The driver and one passenger looked like the rest of the other group that was occupying the town with them, like well-worn soldiers here to run the operations. But the man with them was well dressed in a European suit and tie. He was a short man with short brown hair combed flat, rough features and what felt like a pugnacious attitude. "Ladies and gentleman, my name is Bernard Maupin." He said. Spencer knew he was originally from Belgium but his accent spoke of a British education. "Welcome to the final test."

The largest man there, big in the shoulders with a military haircut and air about him looked around the town. "This is it?"

"This is the beginning of it. This is a simulation of a refugee march through military lines. This area is set up to simulate an area under civil war, including combatants and locals." He indicated the men behind him.

"Which side are we on?" asked a Hispanic woman.

"We're Templars. We've been on our own dammed side for the past seven hundred years. By now you know the drill, someone tell me which rank takes which job in a crisis situation?"

One man, smaller and a bit redneck, put up a hand, then started speaking. "Knights of the White take leadership and defense, Knights of the Brown take supplies and logistics, Knights of the Black handle money and negotiations and Knight of the Blue..."

"...do what Knights of the Blue do. Your mission is to get any and all Knights of the Blue to safety. Period. Do that and you all pass. Fail that and you all fail." Maupin pulled a map from his jacket pocket, handed it to the big military man and turned to the mountains visible to the east. "In ninety minutes this little town will fill up with troops out to shoot anything that moves." The men behind him were armed with paintball guns. "You have that long to gather supplies and get out. Approximately 125 miles east of here is the city of Pueblo, Colorado. You have fourteen days to get there and complete your mission."

"You mean..." The big guy started.

"Take your sweatshirts off." Maupin said.

They all pulled their sweatshirts off. There were five in white t-shirts, including the big guy and the Hispanic woman. The redneck and two others were wearing tan-brown shirts. Two were wearing black shirts.

Spencer and Shan groaned. Of course they were the only ones in blue. "This is gonna suck." Shan said to him quietly.

"The clock starts now. Have fun children." Maupin said with an acid smile, before getting in the jeep and leaving with the rest of the 'enemy'.

"Right." Big guy stepped up, stood next to Spencer, and took command of the group, "Introductions at our first stop." He started handing out orders, sending people to this building and that to gather supplies. At the end of it he turned to Spencer. "I'm Jamie. Stick with me kids." He grabbed them by the shoulders and shoved them along in front of him.

Spencer groaned. He had a feeling Shannon was right. This was going to suck.

Somewhere in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Colorado

"Okay, I'm officially scared." Shan said

"Yeah, well..."

Spencer was scared as well. He hadn't expected that they would be taken prisoner.

They were trapped in a small hut somewhere in the mountains. At least a half dozen mercenaries were milling around outside and in the other room. Now they both knew that no serious injury could be done to them, they weren't supposed to come out of this with anything major. But Spencer had to wonder if the mercenaries knew that.

"What do you think they want?" Shan asked.

"Likely to see if we'll break under pressure."

"Meaning torture."

"It's not like we haven't practiced." They'd both gone out to the mountains for training in resisting torture, along with wilderness survival, spending their vacations being beaten and humiliated and whatever else they could think of. But it was one thing when it was Knights of the White, who only ever pushed so far. These were strangers. This was entirely different.

"We don't know that these people play by the rules." Shan wrapped her arms around her nearly bare torso and shuddered.

That was the part that had them scared. The one place they hadn't gone in training was sexual assault. Dames of the Blue, even potential ones, were supposed to remain untouched. But these mercenaries had taken her shirt, and been quite open about admiring what they saw. "No we don't. I'll love you no matter what Hob." Hopefully that was reassuring.

Seemed like it was. "Good to know." She replied. "What are you doing?"

"Watching them." He had his eye pressed to a crack in the boards, where he could see the majority of them sitting around and talking. One of them had not reacted to Shan the way the others had. His body language and mannerisms and attention told a very different tale. "Gideon said the strongest weapon we have is a profile."

"I don't think you're supposed to use what Gideon taught you out here."

He looked over and flashed a smile. "Why not?"

Marriot Courtyard
Pueblo, CO

Twelve days after they started Spencer found himself standing in a small conference room in a Marriott hotel in Pueblo, Colorado. He was battered and bruised, limping slightly, hungrier than he ever wanted to be, and in dire need of a shower and a shave. If he could block the last twelve days out of his memory he would have.

"I could live with never doing that again." Shannon said as she took shelter under his arm.

"Agreed." He put his arm around her carefully, mindful of the bruises that criss-crossed her back. Bruises delivered by their jailers.

In the end it hadn't been that hard to escape. He'd realized that one of the mercenaries was gay, and had been looking at him, not Shan. That had nothing to do with anything he had learned from the Order. They had learned to endure torture through the Order, where the memories of 1307 were still bright. He had learned to understand his enemy and manipulate him from his future Nouoroa, Jason Gideon. He'd distracted him long enough for Shan to attack; they'd taken his weapons, and fought their way out of the group just in time for Jamie and his men to join in. They'd left the mercs secure and carried on the march, suffering nothing more than nightmares and bruises. And the Knights of the White paid a lot more attention to protecting them the rest of the way.

Now there were here at last. But no one was willing to rest until they saw if they passed.

"Well done!" Maupin said, as he strode into the room. "Very well done. You got everyone here with no major injuries and well before the deadline. I am impressed. Now Shannon, Spencer and Jamie, if you will join me please we shall see if you all passed."

"We got them here." Someone said. "They're in one piece."

Maupin look at the speaker. "I'll be the judge of that." He led the way into the room next door.

Inside was a man sitting at a laptop. "What's this?" Jamie asked.

"Final evaluation," Maupin said. He picked up a familiar envelope from the table. "Spencer and Shannon here were given this the night before you all left. Take a look."

James pulled it out and looked over the essay and poem. "Okay, so?"

Maupin looked at Spencer. "The poem." Was all he said.

In reply Spencer closed his eyes, mentally brought up the writing in his memory, and started reciting it back, word by word, punctuation mark by punctuation mark. The man at the laptop typed as fast as Spencer could speak. When he was done he told the program to analyze the new document. There were no errors; it was an exact copy of the original. He had not been too messed up by the march to remember.

"Shannon." Maupin said. "The essay."

Shannon took a deep breath. Spencer knew the days held prisoner were especially taxing on her psychologically. She had not been harmed, but the threat of rape had felt very real, and the emotional abuse had to recall her childhood. But she closed her eyes and recited back that essay, word for word, mark for mark.

James had moved around to watch the analysis. Now he looked up at the two of them, impressed by the sacks of potatoes, his words, he'd had to drag over the mountains. "Whoa." He said. "Couriers."

Maupin nodded. "That could be anything." He said. "Military plans, banking information, you name it. Electronics can be broken, papers can be destroyed, but people will always insist on surviving. As a Nouoroa your job will be to make sure whomever you're assigned to does indeed survive and is capable of regurgitating whatever we stuff in to his or her head."

"Nouoroa? Does that mean..."

"Yes, you passed." Maupin stepped back into the other room. "You all passed! Congratulations! You have rooms upstairs, your luggage has been settled, and a buffet will be set up in here shortly. Enjoy your evening, tomorrow you all fly home. At the end of next month you will all be initiated into the Order of the Knights Templar."

A sigh of relief went around the room, followed by happy grins and laughter. They were a cohesive group now, old friends until the end. All except for Spencer and Shan, but as she stepped into his arms again he knew they had each other.

As he headed up to shower he could feel someone's eyes upon him. He turned and saw Maupin watching him carefully.