Page 110 of The Session

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m just wondering why a healthy young guy like you would turn down an opportunity like that.”

“Because I’m not into casual hookups,” Mark replied. “And I swear to God, if you bring up some of the dumb shit I did in college, I’m shutting the hell up, because that doesn’t count.”

“That’s for us to decide. The question is why you didn’t report this woman. What did you say her name was?”

“I didn’t. But she called herself Diane. What do you mean, ‘report’ her?”

“This seems like the kind of thing someone would report to Summit’s internal security.”

Mark was suddenly reminded of a long-ago museum exhibit that looked like a bunch of random shapes from one point of view, but when he walked around it, it formed a word. In that case, the word was “obvious.” Here, the word would be “stupid.”

For now Mark realized that this wasn’t the CIA, and these weren’t the people who killed Kevin. It wasn’t even Summit internal security.

This was the Session.

They told him it would come after the Supernova exam, but that had been a diversion to throw him off.

“I see your levels are coming down,” John replied, his eyes lifting above Mark’s head toward the display.

“Yeah, but maybe not my embarrassment level. I just realized you’ve been throwing the tech at me left and right. I guess they don’t do that at the CIA.” He winked at John for effect.

“You’d be surprised, but you’re right. This is your Session,” John admitted.

“Did I pass?” Mark asked.

He heard a snort from the armed guard, who had been standing silently in the corner.

“Son,” said John, no smile. “We haven’t even begun.”

Assignment

“Normally, for a Level 10 Session, it could be two or three days of intense questioning, trying to break you—psychological manipulation, exhaustion, the usual,” John explained. “But the psychologists think you probably won’t have a problem with that. I suggested, let me do it my way, and maybe it would be more of a challenge for you. But they declined. Time is kind of critical here.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Mark replied.

“You haven’t heard the rest of it. The goal of a Level 10 Session is to find out how loyal you are, how serious you are, and how good you are at problem-solving. Hard problems. Not the toy ones that you find in Supernova.

“There are two ways: the normal Session, or a battlefield commission, if you will,” John continued.

“Like Haiti?” Mark asked.

“No,” John scoffed. “We’ve got several thousand men and women around the world doing more dangerous stuff than that right now. Valor is just a merit badge. We’re talking about real skin in the game.” He pointed at the door. “Let’s step outside and discuss it. I’m kind of tired of this room. It’s designed to depress you.”

John took Mark to the area behind the compound, which stretched out toward the beach.

The horizon was completely dark. No boats, no distant lights. The only sound was the waves and the wind blowing through the tall weeds struggling to hold on to the sandy soil.

“You’ve been offered an assignment, and it is a very real assignment,” John said. “This is not a game within a game. So get that out of your head. If you treat it like that, you’re not going to accomplish what you need to because it’s real. Understand?”

“Don’t be surprised if I tell you I’m a little skeptical,” Mark replied.

“I’ve stretched the truth and let you assume things so far, but I haven’t lied to you. When I told you the Vault was broken into and records were stolen, that was real,” John insisted.

“Which records?” Mark asked.

“We don’t know everything yet. You have to understand it’s an archaic system. But we did check to see if some key records were missing. And they were. Your father’s, Tru’s, some others, and yours,” John said.