The Tree of Knowledge by Daniel Miller (room on the broom read aloud .txt) 📕

“What, you don’t eat?”

“Oh, I eat,” replied Albert. “But I feel that traditional food is haphazard and disorganized. So, I just eat nutrition bars that provide me with my daily values of calories and vitamins.” Albert removed a bar from his pants and slowly unwrapped the wrapper.

Brick stared at the bookish fellow. “You mean to tell me that all you eat is nutrition bars?”

“Nutrition bars, power bars, fruit bars, vegetable bars. To be honest, I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do it. You always know how many calories you’ve consumed, and you can regulate your vitamin and mineral intake.”

Brick closed his eyes briefly and then looked at Turner. “It’s going to be a long week.”

Chapter 13

Fifteen minutes later, Albert and Ying were walking with Professor Turner along the back border of the Travis Farm. Tall green grass rolled along for miles, framed by an ocean of trees. Most were still green, but a few sported the flaming reds and bright golds of early fall in Vermont. The lawn was punctuated by long rows of hay bales about twenty yards long and five feet tall. In the middle of the field stood individual hay bales in intermittent squares like the alternating boxes of a chessboard.

Ying and Albert stood in the middle of the shooting range in Brick’s leftover military athletic wear. The outfits gave the unathletic academic and his petite graduate assistant an aura of the absurd. Albert’s pale legs protruded from the slightly too-short shorts like sticks from a scarecrow. And Ying looked more like a child preparing for gym class than a soon-to-be combatant.

Looking at the expressions on the faces of Professor Turner and Sergeant Travis, Albert could see that they were thinking much the same thing. The professor scratched his chin, while Brick merely shook his head and sighed.

“We didn’t give ourselves much to work with, did we, Professor?”

“Well, Sergeant, I’m not much to look at in a T-shirt and shorts either, but I turned out alright.”

“True.”

Turner walked the two of them to one side of the range, stopped next to one of the hay bales, turned to Ying and Albert, and began. “Puddles and Ms. Koh, this is the beginning of your training. From now on, I want you to stop thinking of me as your professor or friend. Think of me as your drill sergeant. As you both well know, we are in an extremely delicate situation, and the best chance we have to get out of it is if you two become fluent in the Tree and its power. As it stands, I am the only one who fully knows what the Tree can do, but I’m getting older, and I won’t have it die with me. I also won’t have it fall into the wrong hands.”

Turner paused and looked around at the peaceful setting. “You know, I once estimated that it would take me a year to teach a student what I’ve come to know about the Tree. Unfortunately, I also estimate that it won’t take more than two weeks for Eva and her team to find us, so for the next two weeks, I need you to be extraordinary. You will be working sixteen-hour days, and every single part of your day will be planned and regimented. You will be learning a set of skills and concepts about which you currently know absolutely nothing. This will be hard for both of you. You will feel pain that you’ve never felt, in parts of your body you’ve forgotten about. You will doubt yourself. You will want to quit. You will certainly decide to quit—more than once. But I want you to remember that what you are doing here will change your life and may end up changing the world. To succeed, you must stop feeling like a human being and start thinking like a logician. No emotions, no anxiety, no pity, no morality, no shame. Just pure tactical reasoning.”

Turner paused again and took a deep breath. His words hung heavy in the crisp country air.

“Before we begin, I need to ask you for one final thing. I need you to agree that you will commit yourself fully to this training and push yourself to the absolute limit of what you are capable of. I can’t and won’t babysit you through this process. I need you to be soldiers, not students. Any doubts you have, you must overcome by yourself and keep to yourself. When you decide to quit, I expect you to talk yourself out of it. And you must never, ever tell anyone what you know. Do I have your commitment?”

“Yes,” said Ying and Albert in unison. Though Albert wasn’t sure he believed it.

“Good,” said Turner, clapping his hands together. “Let us commence. As Brick mentioned, the two of you are going to compete in a series of challenges over the next few weeks. The goal of these challenges is to teach you how to think logically and problem-solve not just mathematics problems but every situation you face. You will be competing against the absolute best in the world in hand-to-hand combat, weapons and strategy, and psychological operations. Without a doubt, you will lose and lose badly at first. However, if you use your logical mind and trust the Tree, eventually, I assure you, you will prevail. Brick was right when he said this is just like chess. You have a goal, and so does your opponent. Your job is to manipulate your opponent so that you achieve your goal.”

The two nodded their agreement, and Turner patted them supportively on the shoulders.

“Now, the first challenge is designed to teach you tactics and strategy. Think of it as a real-life chess match. Behind the hay wall on the other side of the course are Captain Salazar and Sergeant Travis. Each of them has a paint gun. Their job is to do everything in their power to prevent you from crossing over their hay wall.