Page 19 of Flickerstate

Saturday, 11/20–Sunday, THANKSGIVING BREAK

Monday, 11/29–Wednesday, 12/22: Review

Sunday, 12/13: U.S. Navigation Secretary’s Annual Talk

Wednesday, 12/22: Final Exam

Thursday, 12/23: WINTER BREAK

Okay. The Archive competition will be over before Thanksgiving. I have about three months to get better at nav than kids who’ve been practicing for years.

Fabulous.

“If you pass the screening,” Dr. Langmore continues, “you’ll be sorted into Clinic A, where you’ll compete for an Archive assistantship. Being an assistant opens doors. Every assistant since the Archive opened eight years ago has gone to their first-choice college. The older assistants have gone on to excellent graduate schools or competitive jobs—Yale Law, Harvard Medical School, staffing the U.S. secretary of navigation. Although . . .”

Grumbles fill the room. Since President Nixon formed the federal Department of Navigation, hoping Highwall’s newly discovered quasi-science would give the U.S. an edge in the Cold War, presidents have appointed navigators to lead the department—until Secretary Tully, who can’t navigate his way out of a paper bag. Our beloved current president appointed Tully to hack away at public funding for navigation research and beast emergency response. I’msurprised that, according to the syllabus, Tully’s bothering to make the secretary’s usual visit to the Academy.

Dr. Langmore frowns and shakes her head. “That is to say, Archive assistants are the best young navigators in the world. But the trials will be grueling and ultimately unrewarding for all but three of you, so we’re giving you a chance to self-eliminate. Raise your hand if you’d like to bow out now, rather than after the screening.”

I glare around me, willing kids to self-eliminate. No one does. All around the room, faces shine with hope and ambition.

Everyone wants inside the Archive.

“Good,” Dr. Langmore says. “Now, about your grades. If you pass the screening, you get at least a B for the semester. If the first trial, an A-. If the second, an A. Questions?”

Vik, glowering at the syllabus, raises his hand.

“Mr. Souza?” Dr. Langmore says wearily.

“Channeling’s a group activity, but it ends with solo navigation. Occlusion’s solo nav too.”

“Yes. What was the question?”

“Are we going to try genuine sharing?”

“‘Genuine sharing’?” The air quotes are heavy in Dr. Langmore’s voice.

Some of our classmates look confused. Others smirk. Griffin and Mirabel trade glances, his puckish, hers annoyed.

“Genuine sharing,” Vik repeats evenly. “When we channel, the group’s nav all goes to one person. And that one person decides how to use the nav. But there’s always loss of power in the transfer. Youraverage navigator can channel half their power, maybe two-thirds if they have a great working relationship with the person they’re channeling to. The rest is lost. That’s channeling. But in leaguing, the group pools power and decides how to use itasa group. No transfer, no power loss. In fact, theorists of leaguing think it couldmagnifynav ability.”

As Vik talks, our classmates’ confused looks melt into more smirks, like he’s announced we should try navigating with the Slenderman.

“Leaguing is just a theory,” Dr. Langmore says. “A myth. Group navigation can’t work. To navigate, you need an individual will steering the ship. One person to take control and lead the way. Other questions?” She doesn’t wait for a response. “Let’s continue. This year’s screening will be a set of siphoning duels. For those who don’t know, siphoning is when one navigator takes another’s power by force. You will try to take your opponent’s power, and your opponent will try to take yours. If you win, you’ll use your opponent’s siphoned power to navigate through a card deck, ace to king, clubs to spades. For the next two weeks, that’s what we’ll be practicing. Any questions aboutthat? No? Then I need two volunteers.”

Bree raises her hand with a please-don’t-skewer-me smile. I notice that she chews her fingernails as violently as I do: tiny scabs where she’s gnawed off cuticles, smarting quicks bared on her index and middle fingers. “I know the theory behind siphoning, but they don’t teach it in county nav departments. Could you maybe, um, demonstrate? Before we volunteer to try?”

Dr. Langmore frowns at Bree. “Ms. Allen, correct?”

Bree nods like a bobblehead.