The Hive Construct by Alexander Maskill

Author:Alexander Maskill
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448171019
Publisher: Transworld

Chapter 17

THE LIGHTS TURNED on with a faint hum, revealing the floor space of what had once been a huge industrial cold-storage unit. Although the fans and ducts which had once brought the temperature in the unit to around minus fifteen degrees Celsius were no longer functioning, the stained concrete walls and sharp white lighting gave the place a strange chill independent of actual temperature. The room was located in the back of one of the largest meat-processing facilities in the city. It was soundproof, secure and easily accessible. Against one wall, piled high, were bags filled with sand, each of which had a paper target stapled to it. Along another wall were around two dozen Franz Geller Kaufer Mark 25 combat rifles and several crates of ammunition. When Maalik was deciding where to train potential New Cairo Liberation Corps personnel, this had been the logical choice.

Alice got the distinct impression that Maalik was very proud of this place as he led her to it for the first time. They had brought thirteen new recruits, all eager to become involved in the revolution. News coverage of NCLC rebels taking over a tower block, emptying its data banks and leaving undetected through crowds of civilians and SecForce officers had made the group legendary and had greatly increased their allure to many young people. Almost all the thirteen newcomers were students, excited by the NCLC’s social agenda. They lined up in front of Maalik and Alice, shaven-headed and in ill-fitting combat fatigues, to begin their training. Maalik ran them through their paces.

Their enthusiasm was short-lived. Maalik’s training methods were harsh: they were made to run until they collapsed; they paired off and were taught hand to hand combat in full-contact sparring; and they fired seemingly endless rounds into the targets stapled to the sandbags against the wall. Every time they underperformed, Maalik would scream tirades of abuse at them; even at his nicest he referred to them all as ‘maggots’, ‘filth’, or ‘scum’ and kept calling them ‘worthless’ or ‘disgusting’. If they talked to one another at all, they were hit. If they attempted to help one another, they were hit harder. This kind of deliberate, systematic dehumanization was not something Alice had ever gone through as a police officer – it resembled the socialization techniques of the military. Soldiers needed to have their regular social norms broken down, then reformatted around unit cohesiveness, obedience and a willingness to hurt or kill when told to.

It lasted for hours without break. Alice’s portable terminal was the only time-keeping device available in the building and with no windows to the outside world the room was divorced from the regular pattern of the day. Despite their having started at five in the morning, it was almost three in the afternoon before stomachs began to growl. At that point Maalik set the trainees a deal. He brought out new paper targets, each printed with the image of a gun-wielding Security Force officer. The recruits were to pick up their rifles and set them to three-shot burst.

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