Pass/Fail (2012) Read Online Free PDF

picked. He reached for it, and then stopped.
    He only had one chance. And a wrong pick meant an automatic fail. He could feel sweat rolling down the small of his back.
    He looked back at the Proctor. He—she—it—didn’t move a muscle, just stood there patiently, waiting to see what he would do.
    “Can I ask you questions?” he said.
    “You may, but the number of answers I can provide are quite limited.”
    Jake nodded. He pointed at the topmost, leftmost envelope. “Is it this one?”
    The Proctor didn’t even shake its head. So that wasn’t the answer.
    “Cheating is permitted,” Jake said, quoting the rules. “Sometimes it’s necessary to cheat to complete the test.”
    “Yes,” the Proctor said.
    “Do I have to cheat to complete this test?”
    “No,” the Proctor said. “Of the entire series of tests, this is the most straightforward. There are no alternate conditions. There are no variables involved. Only one envelope is correct. It is in this room. There is no time limit, nor any constraints on how you choose. You may pick the envelopes up and feel them, hold them up to the light, smell them, weigh them, and so on as you please. The test will continue until you open one envelope. Do you understand, Jake?”
    “I… think so,” Jake said.
    This had to be easy, he thought. It at least had to have a logical solution. It looked like a purely random choice, but that just wasn’t fair. Not when his very life was at stake. The tests were designed to challenge him, but they weren’t meant to be arbitrary—he was almost certain this wasn’t just a pointless game, that there was a reason he was being subjected to this, that he was being sized up for something, something important. Something the rest of the kids in his school weren’t qualified for.
    He wanted to Pass. He realized that, right then. Always before good grades had just been something that came naturally. Easily. This was different. He wanted it. He wanted to know what was on the other side, what happened when he passed the last test and it was all over.
    But he had to get through this test first. Nine envelopes, completely alike. If he was allowed to pick them up, test them however he wanted, hold them up to the light then most likely such examinations would be useless. Picking at random was almost a sure way to fail. His hands, he realized, were shaking.
    He started to reach for an envelope, just to get it over with. He picked up the one in the middle row on the right-hand side, lifted it in both hands and almost got his thumb under the seal to tear it open—when something hit him like a brick.
    The envelope, the Proctor had said, was in this room.
    It never said it was on the desk.
    He turned around slowly, looking around at the corners of the room, glancing up at the ceiling. He asked the Proctor to move so he could close the room’s door and see what was on the back of the door—maybe it was taped up there. It wasn’t.
    One more place to look. He got down on his hands and knees and looked underneath the desk. Just like, he thought, he had looked under his bedside table at home and found that row of his own initials. That was funny. He crawled under the desk and looked up.
    Taped to the underside of the desk was a pale blue envelope.
    “Oh my God,” he said, letting out a trapped breath. He had come so close to opening the wrong one. This one, a tenth envelope, surely contained his PASS.
    As he opened it, though, he realized the Proctor had promised no such thing. It had said that all but one envelope contained a FAIL. It didn’t say anything about the tenth envelope.
    With eyes wide he tore open this hidden envelope and pulled out the simple card inside. It read DUCK.
    As soon as he’d finished reading it, a high-caliber, high-velocity rifle bullet shattered the window at the far side of the room and lodged itself in the vinyl floor tiles.
    The test wasn’t over.
     

Chapter Eight
    Jake fought to control his breathing. He