by C. G. Hatton
“I’m not scared of anything.”
She pretty much purred at me, “Nothing?”
I should have been. That night was the start of it. And if I’d known then what was coming I would have taken her hand, taken her back inside and told her to stay the hell away from me.
We made it back before anyone noticed we were missing and snuck into our dorms. Imogen held my hand all the way back from the lake. She let go as we parted, letting her fingers linger against mine, blowing me a kiss and grinning as she turned and ran off. I climbed through the window, ditched the uniform and slipped into bed, ducking under the covers and grabbing my board. It took me thirty seconds to get back into the system and nudge up against that barrier. I was ready for it. I was sure I was ready for it. I took care. I didn’t do anything wrong… and I woke up four hours later as the lights came on, sprawled face down, the board dead and dark beneath my cheek, and a pounding headache driving nails into my eyes. Dammit.
The whole of the next day I went back over every step I’d taken. I had no memory of what it was that had thrown me out, no matter what I tried. I could remember up to the barrier, I even went back in and checked, stopping before I got to it, and scanned to see if there was any record, any alert, any evidence that I could have screwed up.
Nothing.
We had gym practice last period. Running laps around a track. I had my knee wrapped tight, it still gave out sometimes, but I was feeling good, brain ticking over every second of the last couple of days. I was only vaguely aware of an insistent nudge through the Senson.
“LC.”
I was so close to figuring it out. I was near something, I knew I was.
“LC,” Hil sent again, “stop running.”
“What?”
“Stop running.”
I glanced up as I slowed my pace, blinking in the bright sunshine as I refocused back to the running track and the playing fields. All three instructors, including our housemaster, were standing on the side of the track, arms folded, one of them, the track coach, holding up a stopwatch. Hil was beside them with some of the other seniors, all the other kids out there standing and staring at me, Imogen included. I got a smile back as I caught her eye.
The track coach yelled, “Dennison,” probably not for the first time from her tone.
I slowed to a walk, and sent to Hil, “What have I done?”
“LC, you’re an idiot. You just ran ten k in less than thirty minutes.”
I did the math quickly. Shit.
“Just go with it,” he sent. He was grinning. “It wasn’t so fast that they’ll drag you in for testing. They’re impressed. Go with it.”
I walked up to the coaches, trying and failing not to slouch, chest heaving.
“You’ve been here six weeks,” the coach said, her voice a mix of scathing animosity and barely disguised approval, “and you just now show us what you’re capable of? Why was this not on your last school’s report?”
My last school report was fake. The last school I’d been at had been the Royal Ancients Military Academy where we’d been sent to assassinate the Emperor. And before that it had been a missionary school for orphaned kids in a war zone. If they’d known any of that, they wouldn’t have let me within a million miles of the place.
Our housemaster was looking at me like he’d just discovered a piece of gold glinting in a dung heap and wasn’t sure he wanted to reach for it to see if it was for real. “Felix Dennison has a problem applying himself,” he muttered, to the other instructors, not me.
Change the name and that was word for word what the schoolteachers on Kheris used to say about me.
“You maxed the math test today, Felix,” he said, direct to me that time. “Highest score we’ve ever seen a pupil achieve on that module. In the history of the school.”
Double shit. I’d been concentrating on it all day. Hadn’t realised I’d been concentrating on that and not taking care to keep my test scores average, below average. It takes more effort than you think to screw up answers in a way that looks realistic.
The guild hadn’t told us to lay low like they had before Redemption. The Chief had briefed us and told us to enjoy the experience, smiling as he’d said it in a way that made me sure we were headed into something I’d hate. Mendhel had just told me to be me. I didn’t want to be anyone. But it looked like I’d blown any chance I had to stay under anyone’s radar. I’d been keeping my head down because I don’t like the attention, and I don’t like the demands people place on you once they have expectations. I could already see the way Hil was being pulled into stuff because he was doing well. There was nothing there I wanted to achieve or prove to anyone. Even in amongst the school’s huge array of trophies and accolades. I needed to prove myself to the guild not this bunch of privileged assholes. I wanted to get to the top of the guild standings. I wanted to beat Andreyev’s records in the Maze. I wasn’t going to get to do any of that while I was stuck at a stuffed-shirt private school on an assignment that wasn’t even a real tab.
I glanced at Imogen. The way she was looking at me sent a flutter through my stomach as I gave her a smile in return. Maybe this wasn’t all bad.
Hil shook his head, smothering a laugh, and started to turn away, sending privately, “Looks like you made the track team, bud. I have to split. I’ve been called into a team meeting. Are you okay?”
I should have told him about the glitch in the system but I sent back, “Yeah.” I reckoned I’d tell him later once I’d figured it out.
The three gym instructors were still staring at me. I think one of them might have said something I’d missed. I still wasn’t totally all there.
“Get showered,” our housemaster said, amusement creeping into his voice, “and be in my office in one hour. I want to know what other talents you have, Felix, that you’ve been keeping hidden from us.”
I didn’t make it to his office. I got cleaned up in the shower block down by the playing fields and headed back to the school, still thinking through that barrier and every route to it. To have thrown me out like that, the AI must have seen me, must have registered an intrusion, it must have, but there was no record of it. Maybe I was looking at it wrong…
The campus was fairly quiet that late in the afternoon but as I turned the corner by the science block, there were sounds of a scuffle. Not unusual. But then there was a scream. High pitched. Possibly someone fooling around, except there was another sound, whimpered pleading, scared, coming from the back of the building. I picked up my pace as whoever it was screamed again, and I broke into a run, around the corner right into Tenaka and two of his buddies.
The girl they had pinned against the wall was one of Imogen’s crowd.
Tenaka didn’t even look at me, just said in his lazy drawl, “Beat it, Dennison.”
I couldn’t help it. I’d shouted out, “Let her go,” before I realised where we were.
Rich boy wasn’t such an idiot after all.
He turned towards me, gesturing to his buddies with a smirk. They backed off and pushed her away. She caught my eye, looking down fast as she brushed herself off, brushed past me with a mumbled, “Sorry,” and disappeared.
Talk about chump territory.
The three of them circled around, another appearing behind me to block me in.
I’d slipped into a fighting stance, perfect balance, fists flexing by my side, before I’d even thought about it.
Tenaka laughed and took a step closer. “You think you can take us?”
He was big, obviously used to doing and getting exactly what he wanted. But I’d fought bigger, and tougher, people. We’d been training in unarmed combat with the guild, Sienna had kicked my ass plenty of times, and we’d spent months on Aston training with Mendhel’s brother and his people, former black ops special forces who didn’t give us any quarter.
I didn’t just think I could take Tenaka and his buddies, I knew I could.
Chapter 4
I shifted my balance slightly, gaugin
g the timing and the space, as they moved around me.
Tenaka’s expression darkened. “I know you were at the lake last night with Imogen.” He spread his arms. “What? You think you’re her first bit of rough? The first Imperial bastard she’s ever toyed with?”
It wasn’t the first time I’d been called that. It hardly had the same impact here. I think I laughed. That didn’t go down well.
He charged at me. I sidestepped, grabbed his arm and twisted, throwing my weight into his and moving instinctively, aware of his buddies moving in. They weren’t stupid.
Apparently I was.
I was probably two seconds from putting him down when the Senson engaged, no etiquette of permissions, Hil just breaking through with an urgent, “LC, don’t.”
I had no idea how he knew what was happening but he sounded distracted, like he was fighting someone, or running, and he added a fast, “Wait for me.” It broke my concentration, broke those automatic reactions enough that I could take stock, as if time was slowed for a split second. “I can handle them.”
“No, you can’t. Think about it, LC. We were programmed. You and me. Like it or not, LC, Spearhead turned you into a freaking trained assassin.”
Those words made me freeze, blinking, stomach flipping, dark shadows threatening to close in. I still had Tenaka in a restraint hold, brutal, one twitch away from real damage.
Hil wasn’t done. “Think about it. You floor these assholes now, in the way I know you can, you blow our cover.”
He was right. Dammit. I let go and shoved Tenaka away from me, backing off a step, adrenaline pounding, breathing heavily, every muscle tense and wanting the fight. Almost willing them to come at me so I’d have no choice.
But Hil sent, “It’s a set up, LC. Why do you think I was called over to the other side of the campus? You’re in the freaking beatdown area. How did you not see it? You know there’s no surveillance coverage back there. What the hell is it with you today?”
I took another step back. Everyone knew the beatdown area. It wasn’t exactly sanctioned but the school turned a blind eye, literally, almost encouraged its leaders of the future to sort out their own feuds with no evidence to upset the precious families. It was renowned. I couldn’t believe I’d walked into it so naively.
I muttered a curse under my breath.
Hil still sounded like he was running. “I’ll be there in two minutes. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Me? Do anything stupid?
Tenaka had caught his balance, straightening, and was looking at me like he wanted to really hurt me, like he knew he’d misjudged me and this was serious suddenly.
I was weighing up the angles between me and the four of them. A lot could happen in two minutes. “What am I supposed to do?” I sent back, not hiding the irritation. “Just roll over and take it?”
“For Christ’s sake, no. Just don’t kill any of them. Pull your punches and take your freaking lumps, LC. You’ve had it coming.”
I could feel my blood cooling. I didn’t take that personally. He was probably right.
Take the lumps. I could do that. But I was damned if I was going to let Tenaka walk away without some of his own.
By the time Hil and some of his teammates ran up, they had me on the floor but Tenaka had a bust lip and at least bruised if not fractured ribs that would hurt the bastard like hell, and his buddies had an assortment of bruises, not least their egos that it had taken all four of them to get the better of me.
Hil and his mates dragged them off me and left me sitting there on the ground, nursing a split lip of my own and a freshly reopened gash above my eye. My nose was bleeding, dripping red onto my shirt, but it didn’t feel broken. My eye was swelling though. I sat there, staring straight ahead, more disturbed by the detached numb cold that was setting in than any ache or hurt. If Hil hadn’t stopped me I could have broken Tenaka’s neck without hesitating. And I knew I wouldn’t have stopped there. He was right. It wasn’t just the training, it was the programming. And it had been automatic.
I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them it was only Hil there with me, just standing, looking down at me as if he knew I needed time to come out of it.
I had a lump in my throat as I sent to him on a private tight wire, “I’m not an assassin,” as if I needed to state it to make it true.
He crouched in front of me. “No, you’re not. Being able to do it is one thing. Doing it is something else.” He reached a hand out to help me up. “Did I never tell you? At the Academy, when you were still under the programming, you had a clear shot on the Admiral. Do you realise that? Kill shot. That’s what you should have taken, that was your mission and you pulled it. Even when you had no control over what you were doing. You wouldn’t have killed Aki.” He steadied me as I swayed slightly trying to stand. “But giving those four idiots a pounding all by yourself would have been a helluva lot more difficult to explain than running a ten k in twenty eight minutes.”
It would have been more satisfying but I didn’t argue.
“I want to get back,” I admitted, still using the Senson, as he walked me to Zurich House. From his response he knew I didn’t mean to our house block.
“Get the intel,” he sent back simply. “I reckon one more term and we’ll be pulled back in.”
“There’s something hidden behind a barrier within the school admin system.” I blotted my nose with my shirtsleeve, not caring that I was getting more blood on the crisp white cotton.
Hil had known me for two years. Two intense years where we’d pretty much lived in each other’s pockets. But we’d had a close call together on Redemption, then another on Aston not long after. Surviving stuff like that has an effect. We knew each other better than anyone ever could in normal circumstances, even if we didn’t totally know what we’d each come from. Apart from the fact he was enjoying himself, I was certain, totally certain, he didn’t mind being sent here with me, even though what I’d done was completely on me.
He was steering me towards the door to my dorm. “Is that what you’ve been screwing with today?”
I nodded, more red soaking through into the material of my shirt than I was expecting. “Shit,” I muttered out loud, “I can’t get this to stop.” I was starting to feel queasy.
Hil squeezed my shoulder and changed direction. “You need to see Matron. I’ll clear it with Mr Z.”
Our housemaster. As if I hadn’t used up enough of the guy’s patience.
I didn’t care. I let Hil walk me across the courtyard, something just occurring to me as we went. “How did you know I was in the beatdown area?”
Hil laughed. “Seriously? Felix, no one in this school can keep their mouth shut. You know that. And you know there are cameras down by the lake. Everyone knows you were there last night. And as soon as I saw there was no team meeting, I knew something was up. Really, Fe, you need to get wise to arrogant, overly-entitled pricks like Aki.”
He found it easy to call me Fe, dropping into character like it was second nature. I felt like an imposter. I didn’t refer to him by name the whole time we were there except through the Senson in case I got it the wrong way round. As much as I hated the guild psychs, they were right about some things.
Matron had already seen the four seniors that had jumped me. She didn’t say anything but I saw them trooping out as I went in. They couldn’t look me in the eye and I had nothing to say to them. She gave me more painkillers, a pass to miss study time that evening, and sent me to my dorm with a pat on the shoulder like she knew fine well exactly what had happened and knew that no one would report it or take it further. I’d deserved it. And Aki Tanaka didn’t need and wouldn’t get any black marks on his record. I needed to ask Hil what the hell he’d managed to pull off to become the new golden boy. Tenaka should have been hating him but whatever it was Hil had done, the kid was wary, respectful almost. I should have asked. As it was, I didn’t get the chance.
I didn’t just skip evening study, I skipped dinner, c
rawled into bed and fired up my board. This school was hiding something and I wanted to find out what. This time I was more than careful. It took me five hours and I had to play, trying stuff I’d never tried before, beyond cautious. I didn’t get past the barrier. That was the trick. I gave up trying to break a way past it and circled around. Just trying to see what it was. I managed to not get burned this time. And when I saw it, I had such a rush of adrenaline I didn’t sleep a wink all night.
Next morning I got up before sunrise and was showered and dressed, with tie, not quite so neatly knotted, before anyone else stirred. I waited impatiently until I reckoned Hil would be awake then I sent him an urgent, “Need to talk to you,” tagging it with so many guild priority alerts he couldn’t ignore it.
He didn’t take long. I was waiting in the shade of the gazebo, the early morning sun already pleasantly warm. He had two glasses of iced lemonade, ice cubes clinking. Westings was that kind of place. Freshly-squeezed lemonade on tap. If the Alsatia made me feel guilty at the abundance of fresh food and drink, Westings turned my stomach.
I took the one he offered as he sent through the Senson, private, serious. “Did you find it?”
I scratched at my eye and squinted at him, keeping the link as tight as I could make it, heart racing nineteen to the dozen. “There’s an encrypted data system in Blackstone’s office. Standalone. Shielded. Protected by a FailSafe, Hil. There’s something in there. There has to be.”
“No.” He pushed me towards the benches. “Whatever you’re thinking, no.”
“Hil, it’s a FailSafe. That’s Aries tech. Why would there be one of those in a school?”
“Maybe the guy’s just paranoid.” He switched to speaking out loud. “We need a left winger for the Seniors’ Centenary Trophy. I want you to play.”
A rugby house match? And a seniors’ match at that? I should have said no. It was the last thing I needed.