The Cabal

SIN U was not a normal University. It was a specialized school to train elite operators for the Nation's Military, Police, Judicial, Extra Judicial and Secret organizations. Each organization thought they were the last bastion between their country and anarchy. However, they all recognized that they needed the others, sometimes, and that they all needed talent.

The Cabal was SIN U's version of a University Board of Governors. It was made up of representatives from each branch of the Military, Police and Government agencies. Together they decided on curriculums, instructors, research and more. What they focused on most of all though, was recruiting the best students into their programs early. It wasn't as simple as moving a student to the 'Military' curriculum after first year. There was just too much overlap between each group for that to make sense.

A student training as a field operative for a secret organization would be learning the same skills that would make him a great commando too. So the Cabal used a system of sponsorship, mentorship and rewards to train and attract the most promising students. They had to organize the more ordinary students too, so that they would each have enough people for their operations.

The brightly lit conference room, surrounded by windows on 3 sides, didn't seem like the meeting place for secretive groups, but SIN U was one of the most secure locations in the Nation.

"I think we can all agree that the general assessment worked out this year. Two thirds were assessed for tactical operations, and the other third was evenly split between analysts, researchers and management track students," said a tall blonde man. He had the kind of shoulders that made you wonder how he put his suit on, and yet all of his clothes fit with the precision that could only come from personal tailoring. He looked around the board room, seeing his Cabal colleauges. Each were experts in their fields, though it was hard to tell just by looking. A few almost blended into the background, like furniture. They were the Cabal members he watched most closely.

"Yes, we're glad everything is going the way it is supposed to Kent," said a blonde woman to his right. She looked like she belonged at a high street legal firm wearing her severe, but obviously expensive, skirt and blazer set. "We want to see the exceptions," she said, and licked her lips.

It was fair to say that everyone was only interested in the exceptions, Kent included. He had the advantage though, as his team controlled the on campus surveillance. "Of course Belinda," he said, then pressed a button on his smart device. The shades dropped on all the windows, and a 3D projection filled the space in the middle of the table, showing high resolution models of 20 different students. The models rotated, and below scrolled high level stats.

The space in front of each Cabal member lit up with a holographic screen and keyboard, allowing them to dive into each file more deeply. They all did, and the room went completely silent, except for a few taps of fingernails on the table top as some tapped through the holo-keyboard in their haste to type notes.

"This year's crop is definitely worth fighting over. One has black belts in 5 martial arts, another already has a bachelor's in engineering that he completed at 13, one is high functioning with Aspergers, and one is an accomplished acrobat. I think the recruiting games will be interesing," Kent said. He believed it too. Most students of Sin U were desined to be officers and specialists in the military branches, as they needed the most people. The Military represented two thirds of the Cabal. When it came to the exception, the Military was on equal priority with the rest of the Cabal for recruiting, maybe even slightly behind. 'They say they want talented individuals, but the Military really just wants people that are trainable and replaceable. The rest of us need people with uncanny skills,' Kent thought.

The recruitment games at SIN U was a shadowy affair, pitting the students against each other and proffessionals, all below the surface of their regular student activities. They needed to see if the students could maintain their regular facade while completing missions. Kent had his eye on a few of the candidates, but, unlike everyone else in the Cabal, he liked to wait and see how they did during the first few rounds of the games. Unlike some of the other organizations, Kent needed completely capable all rounders. Someone who can be dropped behind enemy lines one night, and pop up a week later as a legitimate business owner and maintain cover for months. Then kill a bunch of people and escape. Kent smiled a little, remembering some of his memorable ops.

One recruit intrigued him more than most, he was a varsity level athlete with above averaged hacking skills. 'If I can teach that kid to kill, he'd be perfect.' Kent was happy to wait and see, the best students always rose to the top, whether they wanted to or not.

"They all seem interesting, your team did good work this year Kent," an older man said. As usual, Director Maddox wore a rumbled brown suit and left his black and grey beard grow in wild and umkempt. He looked like a clean panhandler, or a poor college professor. Somehow he looked very forgetable. And yet, he was the most senior member of the Cabal this year. Kent heard that his department had lost several tactial and assassination teams in an off the books war with a rival nation, and he needed to recruit heavily this year.

"I do notice that their psych profiles are all fairly .... vanilla. Was there no one with anything I could work with?" Maddox asked.

It was a fair question, Kent thought. Sin U screened out students with mental instabilities, after all, they would be in unbelievably high pressure situations once they graduated. However, stable students with a few quirks, or were on the lower end of some personality spectrum, made ideal agents for some agencies. "There were a handful of students that hit a few flags on the sociopathy scale, but not enough to look into more, and they were otherwise unremarkable."

"That is too bad. I could use a few sociopaths right about now," Director Maddox said.

"Couldn't we all," echoed Kent.