The Serpents of Arakesh by V M Jones

to the other by crawling through one of the holes without coming into contact with the strings. It was wired up to this buzzer, which went off when you touched it. Catch was, the same hole couldn’t be used twice. Obviously it made sense for one of the big guys to go through a low, easy hole first, and then help the lighter girls through holes higher up. That would leave the low holes free for the heavy guys to crawl through once the rest of the team was on the other side. But it took ten minutes of arguing and people getting stranded on the wrong side of the net with all the holes used up, before this seemed to occur to anyone.
    Next, we had to get the whole team across a wide, shallow stream using two car tyres and a wooden plank. There was the usual hubbub of suggestions, everyone shouting each other down. Then suddenly Kenta turned to me and asked, ‘What do you think, Adam?’ To myamazement, everyone quietened down and looked at me. I flushed, heard myself explaining how I reckoned it would work best … and in no time flat, we were over.
    With the wall, the big thing was to get someone stationed up top who was strong enough to haul all the others up — especially Jamie — with everyone else heaving from underneath. Little Kenta was left till last — with a run and a bounce, she was up and over all on her own. She flashed me a shy smile.
    Last of all was a two-strand electric fence — it gave a loud buzz if you touched it, though, instead of an actual shock — which we had to navigate our way over using just a plank of wood. We made a kind of human stile and got across, no worries — and again Kenta was last, running nimbly up the plank while I held the high end, and jumping down to land lightly on the other side.
    After all the time we’d wasted, I was amazed when Shaw came up and gave us all high fives and told us we’d finished first. We ambled over to watch the other team struggling with the tyre and the pole, Richard standing solid as a rock as the base of the human tower while Genevieve teetered at the top. At last they did it, and we all gave a great cheer, before heading back for afternoon tea.
    The best thing about the initiatives course was that it made us feel as if we’d known each other forever. I’d started the day with a bunch of strangers, but as I took a couple of chocolate-chip cookies from the loaded plate and passed it on, I realised that I felt closer to these kids than I did to anyone at Highgate, or at school. Not counting Cameron, of course. Jamie was reaching for the last biscuit when the dining room door opened and Q walked in.
    â€˜Hello everyone,’ he said. ‘I trust you’ve all had an enjoyable afternoon. Shaw tells me we have some excellent problem solvers, and you have all performed most satisfactorily. Well done.
    â€˜Now, there is one final exercise. Will you all please wash your hands thoroughly, and then follow me.’
    Mystified, we queued for the cloakroom, and gathered in the corridor. The atmosphere was relaxed compared to the morning — you could see some friendships had been formed, and I couldn’t help wondering what would happen that evening, when the selection was announced. The thought made me feel slightly sick.
    I glanced at Richard, and he grinned at me. ‘Do you need clean hands for arm wrestling?’
    Q led us back to the computer room where we’d done the first test. I hoped we weren’t in for another dose. But he walked over to the dark, shrouded object in the corner, and told us all to gather round. Then he turned off the light.
    The room was immediately plunged into absolute darkness. I heard an indrawn breath, almost like a sob, from someone … then there was a slither as the cloth slid away, and a collective gasp from us all.
    There, suspended in the darkness, was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. It was a transparent glass sphere, perfectly round, about the