Leader · ATLAS
Isha
Team Leader & Navigator
Series 1: Compass Academy
Book 1: The Compass Training Academy
Ten recruits. Six trials. Not everyone will graduate.
Ten recruits arrive at Compass Academy. Four of them become the team.
Synopsis
Ten recruits from around the world arrive at Compass Academy in Mumbai, an elite school where only the best are trained to become detectives. None of them have met before. All of them have something to prove.
Commander Rao’s welcome is short: “Not all of you will finish.” Under the eye of the fearsome Sergeant Malhotra, the cadets face test after test: in the classroom, on the climbing wall, behind the handlebars of a tuk tuk, and out in a monsoon storm at night.
Isha, Kofi, Leo and Mali each have a weakness they’re hiding. Alone, they’ll fail. Together, they might just make it.
But not everyone does. And on the last night of Book 1, Mali sees something no cadet is supposed to see: a light in the academy’s locked tower.
Mission Briefing
Top secret · Cadet file
The Compass Training Academy
Mission: Survive the first term of training, earn your place on the points board, and learn the academy’s most important lesson: nobody makes it alone.
What we know:
- Ten recruits. Six trials. Not everyone will graduate.
- Falcon Class, the senior cadets, want the new recruits to fail.
- The academy’s old stone tower has been locked for years... so who is up there at night?
The Training Trials
Trial 1 · Observation
The Classroom Test
Thirty seconds to study a crime scene, then the screen goes dark. What did you see?
Trial 2 · Courage
The Wall
A climbing tower so tall the whole of Mumbai is below you. Don’t look down.
Trial 3 · Driving
First Drive
Steer a training tuk tuk through the cones without hitting a single one. Easier said than done.
Trial 4 · Survival
The Monsoon Run
Find your way back to the academy at night, in a storm, with no maps and no gadgets.
Trial 5 · Resilience
Sabotage
Someone has wrecked your kit the night before the big test. What will you do?
Trial 6 · Teamwork
The Trial
Your first mock case. One crime scene, one ticking clock, four cadets.
The Cadets’ Challenges
Isha · India
Everyone expects her to be the best. What if she isn’t?
Kofi · UK
A genius with gadgets, but terrified of heights.
Leo · USA
Brave and funny, but he can’t sit still long enough to notice anything.
Mali · Thailand
She sees everything, but she’s too shy to say it.
The Setting
Compass Academy
A grand sandstone academy in Mumbai with a red dome, palm-lined courtyards and a parade square where every cadet’s journey begins.
The Training Grounds
The climbing wall, the driving track and the obstacle course. Training by day.
The Edge of the City
Crumbling walls, overgrown paths and old railway lines, where the Monsoon Run takes place.
The Locked Tower
No cadet is allowed inside, and no one has been up there for years. So why is there a light?
Meet the Book 1 Characters
Tech · NOVA
Kofi
Gadget Genius & Drone Pilot
Action · DASH
Leo
Speed & Action
Observer · ECHO
Mali
Listener & Observer
The other six recruits
They arrive on the same day as Isha, Kofi, Leo and Mali. None of them have met before. All of them have something to prove.
Amara
Chloe
Kenji
Lukas
Rafa
Sofia
The people who run the Academy
Commander Rao
Commands Compass Academy
Commander Rao’s welcome to the new recruits is short: “Not all of you will finish.”
Sergeant Dev Malhotra
Runs the Training Trials
The fearsome Sergeant Malhotra puts the cadets through test after test — in the classroom, on the climbing wall, behind the handlebars of a tuk tuk, and out in a monsoon storm at night.
Coming in Book 2…
Who is in the tower? Why is a scruffy street dog watching the academy every night? And which cadet will be next to leave?