“Good afternoon, cadets,” Banks addressed them and Rin put all those chaotic musings on the backburner. He waited for them to repeat the greeting and then got straight to the point. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, the group case assignment is an important part of this program. Those of you who are able to solve it will be allowed to choose your focus for next semester. Getting ahead like this will help you decide where you hope to be placed before junior year starts.”
Everyone had to choose a major of sorts their junior year at the Academy. There were four options, detective, inspector, coast, and guide.
Detectives headed teams of two to four in the field. They took on cases and were given a spaceship and ID badges that allowed them to move about their designated galaxy freely. Sometimes they even got assigned to things in other parts of the universe. Their main training focus was learning how to think with a critical eye, how to defend themselves, and minor interrogation, as well as other things.
Inspectors were the second in command in any given unit. They answered to the detective in charge of their team but weren’t technically governed by then. Their jobs were to help solve cases, but also to ensure the team stayed within the legal parameters of whatever planet or world ship their case took place on. Since every planet had its own set of laws, this was an important position and required tons of study.
Coasts consisted of other members of the team, those who hadn’t placed high enough to be considered for detective or inspector roles. They could earn the title by climbing the ranks and doing a good job helping with their assigned teams, though many chose to remain in this position their whole lives.
Guides were a fairly broad category, including everything from Actives to diplomates. When a person was officially signed with the Intergalactic Police Force—better known as the I.P.F—they cut citizenship ties with their home planet. Unless they were a guide.
Crate Varun had ordered the brothers before the start that they were to go for a guide position. His grand plan was to have his youngest son graduate from the Academy and return home to act as a diplomat between Tibera and neighboring planets in the name of the Interstellar Conference. Up until now, they’d done a good job of staying in the middle ground in order to ensure this was where they ended up.
But that wouldn’t last.
Rin couldn’t draw attention to himself, sure, but he also didn’t want to be stuck on his home planet, letting his father pull his strings for the rest of his life. That wasn’t in his plan or his brothers. All he had to do was make it to junior year, and then he could start really working toward his goal, and to ensure he wasn’t automatically placed in the guide training program he needed to get a high enough score on this assignment to be able to choose himself.
Which meant he couldn’t let Kelevra fuck things up for him by throwing the competition—because it was a competition.
“The first five groups to solve the case will be allowed to choose their major from any of the four branches,” Banks said then, almost as in confirmation to Rin’s thoughts. “The next three will be able to choose from the two lower branches, coast or guide. If the rest of your grades throughout the year are high enough to get you automatically placed in detective or inspector, this assignment won’t affect that. However, for those of you worried about your futures, I suggest you take this seriously and treat it like a real case with real stakes.”
Banks hit a button on the tablet he was holding and a second later all of their emblem-slates dinged with an incoming message alert. “I’ve sent each of you the same packet of information. No one here has a leg up on anyone else, so I don’t want to hear any whining later if you don’t place high enough to have earned the choice of placement.”
None of them checked their devices, knowing better than to do so until given the go-ahead.
“This year’s case is loosely based on a real one that took place in another galaxy. A serial murder investigation. Your job is to find the killer. Once you’re certain you’ve solved it, you can come find me and explain your reasoning. If you’re correct, you pass. If you’re incorrect, you fail. No second chances, you got that? In the real world, you peg a crime on the wrong guy and you’ve just destroyed an innocent life.”
Calder raised his hand, and Banks nodded his chin at him to speak. “So, it’s basically like a board game? We just sort through the information in the file you sent, figure out who did it, and then give you our answer?”
“There will be active fieldwork involved,” Banks corrected, eyes narrowing slightly at the usage of the word game, though he didn’t call him out on it. “Locations have been set up all over the city, made to look like kill sights. Though they’ve been inspected already, and information on all of the finds at each kill have been given to you, a good I.P.F agent does his due diligence.”
Great, meaning they were expected to wander all over the place with their partner. Rin internally cringed thinking about having to spend any kind of one on one time with Kelevra.
It seemed like the universe was out to get him, though. He couldn’t afford to be failed, and he needed to place high enough in this assignment to be able to choose inspector. A lot was riding on solving this case, and not just for Rin.
“And for the seniors?” Madden asked, not bothering to lift a hand and wait to be called on, another thing that had a vein in Bank's temple twitching. “We don’t get an extra incentive?”
“Since you’re already familiar with the way this goes having been through it yourselves when you were sophomores,” Banks replied, “your incentive is to aid your partner. You are their superior, and a good superior takes care of their team.” He rolled his eyes like he already knew none of them cared about that. “You’ll also be exempt from the final exam.”
A couple of the seniors—those standing with Kelevra—let out a hoot, but everyone else kept their respectable pose and their mouths shut.
Pricks.
Rin’s anger had subsided over the past few days, but that still didn’t mean he was over being tossed around and played by the Imperial Prince. He wasn’t a toy to be used and discarded at his majesty’s whim, no matter how happy Rin was at finally having been left alone.
“This year we’re adding an extra layer to the case,” Banks announced. “Throughout the semester, the killer will be conducting more ‘murders’. These staged crime scenes will take place at random and you’ll receive a notification the same way you would if you were official I.P.F agents. Your job will be to look for clues at these specific scenes. And for those of you who are wondering why bother doing all that extra leg work,” he sent a pointed glance to Madden, but knew better than to outwardly scold him, “the team that catches the killer on-site—if a team can—will be awarded. For sophomores, this will include a free year of tuition covered by the Academy, including room and board. For seniors, your apartment will be paid for, in full, on Percy.”
That was a big deal. They were basically saying they’d buy them a place outright. Percy was the man-made planet where I.P.F agents lived between cases, since they generally had to sever ties with their home world. Aside from being a planet created specifically for those in this field, it still operated the same as any other, with bills and grocery runs and the like.
“That’s insane,” Brennon risked tilting his head in Rin’s direction to whisper. “That’s worth like five times the amount of a year of tuition here.”
Someone must have thought the seniors this year wouldn’t give the case their all without something bright and shiny dangling over their heads on a stick.
Rin couldn’t blame them.
The only problem was, whoever had picked this prize hadn’t taken the members of class A-12 into account. Madden was a Royal and Kelevra was the Imperial Prince. They could buy a planet on their own dime, let alone an apartment. And not just, everyone here knew Kelevra had no intentions of becoming either a detective or an inspector. His home was Vitality, and that’s where he’d be staying, nice and cushy in his penthouse tower. Madden, as his second, would be doing the same.
This wasn’t going to make either of them want to help their sophomores win, and a quick glance in their direction proved as much.
