After a two year courtship Catherine's departure for Oxford University sends Duo completely 'round the bend leaving his friends to try and pick up the sad, silly pieces.

For Catherine

They are society's flotsam, murderers, sociopaths, criminals bred for Darwinian survival. A select group of convicted youths are given a second chance by a shadowy organization: The Academy. They will be trained to become efficient weapons of death, honing into a valued asset the very thing that made them outcasts. They are divided into classes, trained as a unit for three years and isolated from everyone and everything else. The final exam? Over 100 square kilometers, classmates must track down and eliminate each other until only one remains. The rules: They cannot engage each other in public places, in front of witnesses, or harm or cause harm to innocent bystanders. Highly trained and with limited time, friend will kill friend, enemy slaughter enemy across a populated urban backdrop. This is The Academy. Let the exam begin. © Copyright 1999 - 2008 by IDIOM Inc. & Kenneth Barr. All Rights Reserved. Written by Kenneth Barr