Free The Covert Academy by Peter Laurent Page B

trade jobs, and the Confederacy at the top of the food chain. The world was on the brink of erupting into war again.
    ‘Then someone in the Confederacy came up with the idea of forcing anyone with the right set of skills into working for their armed forces. Only they weren’t building more tanks and planes, they built the drones.’
    The hologram changed to an image of an attack drone of the same type that had chased Joshua yesterday. It was actually just a few short hours ago, and suddenly Joshua felt incredibly weary. He pushed the feeling down as Casey switched off the display. Sarah and Ryan went to stand next to him on the platform.
    ‘The Confederacy was initially promised as a temporary measure until individual nations could rebuild themselves. That was over twenty years ago. They’ll never give up their power. We’re here to make sure it happens, starting by finding and eliminating the Confederate board members.’
    Ryan spoke up. ‘You’ll be trained how to become invisible, take them all down one at a time.’
    ‘And th ose drones won’t know what hit ‘em,’ Sarah added.
    The three of them fell silent. The sales pitch was over.
    Joshua hesitated over his next words. He wasn’t sure whether these people saw him as their saviour or their sacrificial goat. But if he could just get one of those suits like Sarah had, it wouldn’t matter what the Academy wanted to use him for.
    He could play along. He could be invisible. He could find Lucia. He didn’t even blink.
    ‘Sign me up.’
     
     

Six Months Later
     
     

Chapter 12
     
    The fleet of drones flew up out of one of the many deep fissures in the Colonnade, keeping low to the ground as they zipped between the ruined hulks of what had once been lofty skyscrapers equal in majesty to the Tower.
    They moved with a singular purpose, not content to patrol the network of soaring airways as thousands of their brethren did.
    While they flew, one drone protruded a small weapon from a concealed utility compartment, and fired a single shot down toward the doors of an apartment building. The unlucky soul that had been walking out to the street was instantly burned to a crisp. Pieces of scorched flesh fell and blew away in the wind.
    Another drone fired at the roof of a low building, sending people scrambling for cover. Not all of them made it.
    Each of the six drones was now firing off a few shots at random targets, just warming up their guns.
    The formation tightened up as the drones came to a dense area of the city. They flew through a narrow gap between two buildings, and burst out into a wide courtyard filled with people.
    This particular courtyard was once a popular spot for local politicians or celebrities to gather a crowd for press announcements. In another lifetime. Now it could have passed for any old junkyard from before the war, except the crowds remained, making use of the debris for makeshift homes or shop stalls.
    The only thing the drones knew was that there was a crowd of people greater than a predetermined number. In fact there were over a hundred souls scratching a living amongst the filth. But the drones didn’t care. They weren’t programmed to. The arbitrary value written in their code for this mission determined the value of the peoples’ lives below, and their number was up.
     
    Four drones drifted to each corner of the courtyard, and the last two hovered back to back in the centre, revolving on the spot. Weapons and scanners disappeared inside their chassis’ as they rearranged their front facing armour plates to reveal display monitors hidden beneath.
    Simeon appeared, his face projecting from each of the six drones in the courtyard. When he cleared his throat, the noise boomed out and echoed off the building walls, magnifying its effect.
    ‘Attention,’ he began, ‘Attention citizens of the Confederacy. I have been informed of a small minority who are itching to distribute their stockpile of illegal weapons amongst you. For your