by W. J. May
As it stood, there was a small group of teenagers standing in front of them, their faces half hidden in shadow. At first, Rae thought it had to be the Knights—sent out to recover them from their midnight exploits, but the group in front of her looked too young. There was something familiar about them, like she’d seen them in passing before.
Her eyes grew wide as she made the connection.
If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn they were—
“Long time no see, Rae!”
The crowd parted as a tiny girl made her way down through the middle, two braids swishing on either side of her beaming smile.
“Ellie?” Rae asked in astonishment. “How the hell did you make it out of Guilder?”
Ellie put her hands on her hips, clearly concerned with a more important question. “Why are the two of you wearing those stupid hats?”
Chapter 9
“It’s even worse than you could imagine.” Ellie sat on the hood now with Rae and Gabriel. The hats lay forgotten in the front seat.
The rest of the students she had brought with her—somewhere between fifteen and twenty of them—stood in a loose circle around the car. Some of them were staring at the Council’s legendary fugitives, some of them were trying very hard not to.
“After you came the first time to break into Mallins’ office, the whole place was on high alert,” Ellie explained. “But when you guys came back with the Knights, we went into complete and total lockdown. I’m talking about agents walking students to classes. No off-campus visitations. A curfew of seven-thirty. They even shut down the library.”
“They shut down the library,” Rae repeated incredulously, trying to imagine the prison state the young hybrid was describing. “Why?”
Ellie exchanged a quick glance with some of the students closer to her. “Because they didn’t want any of us to meet in secret and talk about what we wanted to do. They didn’t want this.”
Rae followed her eyes around the little group. They were nervous, that much was clear. Terrified, was more like it, shifting restlessly from foot to foot as they huddled in a tight mass. Half were keeping tabs on the conversation at the car, while the other half seemed to be watching the road, afraid they might have been followed.
A concern that Gabriel seemed to share.
“How did you know where we were going to be?” he asked sharply. He didn’t know Ellie, and although he might be dedicated to Rae’s cause, he had no loyalties to Guilder. “I only just decided it myself.”
It was a fair question. Was there a chance the Council had put the Abbey under surveillance?
“We have a tracker,” Ellie said quickly, gesturing a boy to her side.
He was as tall as he was gangly, an awkward combination of adolescence with a splash of freckles thrown in for good measure. He half-wilted when he saw both Rae and Gabriel staring down at him, but even so, he raised his hand in a self-conscious little wave.
“Uh, hi. I’m Jake. Ellie’s boyfriend. I’m the one who found you.”
What?!
Rae and Gabriel spoke at the same time—Gabriel to the boy, and Rae to Ellie.
“How exactly does that work?”
“You have a boyfriend?!”
Gabriel glanced at her sharply, and she leaned back. “You’re right, not important.” But the second he turned away, she threw Ellie a conspiratorial wink.
“How does that work?” he repeated, fixing the boy with an almost stern gaze. “Is there a chance that anyone else knows you’re here?”
Jake-the-boyfriend shook his head so fast it looked like it might spin right off and roll down the hill. “Not at all. It’s my ink.” He extended his arm and showed them the tiny design on his arm. It was one Rae had never seen before. A tiny globe with a million glittering dots. “All I have to do is think about a person, and I know where they are.”
“We couldn’t find you before, even though we were trying for days,” Ellie took over. “I’m guessing that wherever you’re staying with the Knights, they have the place cloaked in the same kind of force-field as Guilder. But the second you left tonight, you popped up on Jake’s radar.” She gave him a proud grin, and Rae couldn’t help but smile.
However, the fact that the students had found them was the least of their problems. It was what to do with them now that they were here.
“So I’m guessing you guys snuck out?” she asked sternly, fixing her eyes on Ellie. “That’s hardly responsible, wouldn’t you say?”
These were dangerous times. Kids shouldn’t just be wandering around the streets.
Ellie raised her eyebrows. “And what exactly was it you two were doing tonight? You expect us to believe the Knights just let you two come and go as you please?”
Gabriel maintained a straight face, while Rae blushed and thought guiltily of the two misshaped hats sitting in the car.
“We were here on Knights business,” he said without inflection.
“Important Knights business,” Rae added, causing him to roll his eyes and Ellie to smile.
“Sure,” the girl grinned, eyeing the remains of the chocolate cake.
Sometimes Rae forgot her young protégé was specifically gifted in such a way that it was impossible to pull things over on her. Wisdom and understanding. A regular bullshit detector, and the closest thing to Kyo that the Council had on its team.
Unless…Ellie wasn’t on their team anymore.
“So why did you sneak out to find us?” she asked quietly, searching Ellie’s eyes. “What are you kids doing here?”
Ellie glanced behind her, and for the first time since their arrival the entire group seemed to stop moving at once. Their restless energy was momentarily suspended, and all eyes travelled as one to the car—resting on Rae like she was their only hope.
“We came here to join you,” Ellie said bravely, pulling herself up to her full height. “We came here to help you fight.”
* * *
“She said there were about a twenty students total, and that doesn’t even count faculty and the agency staff. Of those, she guesses about half would join us. And of course, that still leaves the agents themselves. Those are the people we really want to get on our side.”
Rae and Gabriel were standing in the hallway outside Fodder’s chamber. They had gone automatically to wake Carter first, but the second they started their story, he spun them straight around and escorted them right to the commander.
If Fodder had thought it at all odd to open his door and see two chocolate-covered teenagers and the former President of the Privy Council outside his room at three in the morning, he certainly didn’t let on. Or perhaps he did, but Rae was just too excited to notice.
“That means that over half the entire population at Guilder was convinced by our story and is ready to come over. If we can just get a message to the Council, telling them when and where to meet, there’s a chance we can—”
“Miss Kerrigan.”
Rae recognized that tone of strained patience. It was the same one Carter used almost every time he said her name. Perhaps they taught it in some tatù leadership conference. Restraint 101.
“Yes…sir?”
Probably best to tag on the formalities at this point. The man was in his pajamas, after all.
He stifled a small sigh before sharing a glance with Carter. “Do you think perhaps it’s best that we talk about a revolutionary uprising at Guilder not in a public hallway?”
Rae’s eyes widened slightly as she glanced up and down the corridor. There was a certain degree of logic to that…
“Uh, yes. Sorry. I just…we wanted to tell you as soon as possible.” She glanced back at Carter for a moment before lowering her voice. “You know, back at Guilder Carter had sort of an open-door policy. Available to us at all hours, day or night—”
“No, I most certainly did not, Miss Kerrigan,” Carter replied shortly.
There it was. That tone again.
“A point I tried repeatedly to make to you and yo
ur friends, although clearly the message never sank in.”
Gabriel lowered his voice respectfully. “I never disturbed you after hours, sir.”
“No,” Carter’s eyes narrowed, “you simply passed on every word I told you to my mortal enemy, you filthy little spy. But you did it within office hours, so, for that, I suppose I ought to be grateful.”
Rae stifled a grin as Gabriel dropped his eyes back to the carpet. Despite his repeated attempts to get back on Carter’s good side, the president had never quite warmed up to him after discovering his original mission as Cromfield’s spy. Gabriel had once even gone so far as to send a box of cigars…which Carter then returned, along with Gabriel’s official termination of employment.
Fodder’s eyes danced amusedly as they travelled from person to person, coming to rest on Rae. “Why don’t we discuss this in private?”
She walked tentatively inside as he pushed open the door, her eyes quickly taking in the sparse walls and perfectly ordered belongings. Rather predictable, given what she knew about the commander. Even his books were shelved in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.
The only thing that did surprise her was that the room itself was the same size as hers. No bigger, no smaller. It seemed they were called the Knights for a reason. Everyone here was on equal footing. It was something she was fast coming to respect.
“So you met with other students from Guilder,” Fodder surmised, sitting down at a small desk pushed into the corner and offering Carter the other chair. Rae and Gabriel stood awkwardly on the sides. “This happened just tonight?”
“Yes,” Rae said a bit reluctantly. An unfortunate part of recounting this story was that she and Gabriel would also have to confess to their crime.
But just thinking the word caused her blood to boil.
Crime?! It wasn’t a crime. It shouldn’t be a crime. They’d never asked to come here; they were taken whilst unconscious. And unless the Knights made it clear they were to be prisoners, they should be free to come and go as they wished.
Gabriel sensed her distress and quickly moved on. “We met them a little way outside the city. They came alone, and were very clear about their intent to join us.”
“The thing is,” Rae took over, “they’re at a bit of a loss as to how to do it. You see, Mallins is running the place under something close to martial law, and even though they’re not technically prisoners…it feels an awful lot like they’re not allowed to leave.”
Fodder lifted his eyes to meet hers, showing not an ounce of fear. “Feel free to speak your mind, Miss Kerrigan. We can be candid here.”
She held his gaze. “I believe I just did.”
“You’re asking if you and your friends are something akin to political hostages,” he summarized quietly. “You’re asking if I am preventing you from leaving the compound.”
Rae pulled in a sharp breath, but kept her voice steady. “It occurred to Gabriel and me tonight, that if we wanted to go to the city we would have to do so secretly. That if we tried to leave in the open we would be stopped, and tensions here would aggravate even further. I don’t know why we would have felt that if there weren’t—”
“Yes.”
She froze in place, staring at Fodder in a whole new light. “Yes?” she repeated incredulously, sure that she had heard wrong.
“Yes, I’ve put measures in place to stop you and your friends from leaving,” Fodder answered with his signature quiet calm. “It seemed the wisest course of action, considering the players on the board. The danger we’re all in.”
Rae’s stomach dropped to the floor. “And you think some of the danger you and your people are in…is from me?”
Instead of backing down, Fodder considered her appraisingly. “When you first arrived here, yes, those were my thoughts exactly. Given your history and the information we’d gathered about you over the years, the conclusion seemed sound. Between that and the fact that when we found you—a group of five teenagers—you had already taken down over half our rival agency, I must admit I was relieved that for at least the first few hours you were with us, the five of you were under heavy sedation. Then, of course, there were other reasons—other rationalizations for keeping you here. Your injuries, for one. Your age, for another. The fact that the Council was sure to be hunting you down. All that, combined with the fact that my son…” He paused. “Point being, there were many reasons, some legitimate, some less so, for me to keep you here.”
Rae felt like she was barely breathing. She had no idea why he was telling her this, and she had no idea how she should be reacting. Was now the time to run? He’d just admitted that the iron gate ‘meant for their protection’ was actually a cage. Shouldn’t now be the time to break it?
But Carter wasn’t moving. In fact, Carter looked as calm as Fodder did. A sight that filled her with a strange sort of assurance.
“So what changed?” she demanded. “Or has nothing changed at all?”
The atmosphere in the little room seemed super-charged. Like at any second, the whole thing could shatter into a million pieces. That’s why both Rae and Gabriel could not have been more startled when Fodder threw back his head and chuckled.
“Say what you want about my people, Andrew,” he turned to Carter, “but at least they know when it’s alright to let their guard down. This is like some sort of psychological case study…”
Carter flashed Rae, and even Gabriel, an indulgent smile. “Caution is a virtue.”
“That’s what you call this?” Fodder parried, still grinning. “Caution?”
“I call it doing whatever it takes to stay alive.”
Rae’s eyes darted back and forth between both of them like a tennis match, growing increasingly anxious, until she was unable to take it anymore.
“Well that’s a lovely little diagnosis you’ve both come up with, but I still don’t see what—”
“Everything changed,” Fodder interrupted her gently. “From the moment you spoke to me the first time. The moment I saw with my own eyes, that all the ‘dangerous Kerrigan’ propaganda was exactly that—propaganda. The moment we came together and formulated a plan; one to defeat Cromfield and protect every man, woman, and child gifted with a tatù. The same plan.” He leaned back in his chair, surveying her with something bordering on affection. “We want the same things, Miss Kerrigan. When I realized that, everything changed.”
Rae stared back at him in silence, completely taken aback by both his sincerity and his frank conclusions about the future, and where they all stood. This was the man to have on their side, she thought suddenly. This—coming here—was perhaps the only fortunate turn of events she and her friends had stumbled across in a long time.
“There are still guards outside our doors.” Gabriel was less convinced, and with his history she hardly blamed him. Devon was right. Both he and Angel needed more time to reconcile with these sorts of things. They probably always would. “A patrol passes by the gate every seventeen minutes on the dot. Passes by the interior of the gate. They’re keeping people in, not out.” His eyes flashed as he stared Fodder down. “What do you have to say about that?”
“That,” Carter pushed slowly to his feet, “was my idea.”
“Your idea?” Rae couldn’t believe it. “Why would you do something like that?”
He gave her a calculating stare, and all at once she felt like she was just a student again. Just a student talking to her headmaster. It was comforting and chilling, all at the same time.
“I suggested it,” he explained, “because, unlike Commander Fodder here, I happen to know you. I was completely unsurprised when you showed up at my door this evening, and I’ll be completely unsurprised should it happen again. That will not stop me, however, from doing everything in my power to prevent you children from leaving.”
Gabriel shook his head slowly. “But why—”
“Because you are being hunted by the Council.”
A profound silence followed this remark.
“Since the day you started at Guider, Rae, you’ve been in danger. Gabriel, from what I know of your past, I would expect you’ve been in danger for longer than that. You’ve spent years of your lives out-smarting and out-maneuvering foe after foe—both on official Council business, and within your own lives. You no stranger to this, I understand that. But what you have to understand is this: the Council isn’t like anything that’s ever hunted you before. The resources, the man-power, the personal knowledge of you and your friends. A friend turned enemy is the most dangerous sort.”
Gabriel still looked hesitant, but Rae was beginning to understand. “So you lock the gate…”
“…because I don’t want to see any of you get hurt again.” Carter’s voice was soft and filled with an emotion that he usually kept at bay. “I would lock you all in your rooms if I could.”
That essentially ended the meeting. As they were getting up to go, Fodder promised that he would talk over Guider extraction plans for the people who wanted to defect with his counselors and they’d discuss it the next few days. Other than that, they were all officially free to come and go as they pleased…the Knights’ ban had lifted. Though Carter would have seen it otherwise.
They bid the commander goodnight and set off quickly down the hall—Rae, Gabriel, and Carter—heading back to their own rooms. They didn’t speak, but as they passed the ICU and Gabriel turned to go, Carter caught him suddenly by the shoulder.
He turned around in surprise, half-bracing himself for a reprimand, but Carter had just three simple words to say to him.
“Even you, Gabriel.”
Gabriel’s lips parted, but for one of the first times Rae could remember he could think of nothing to say. He was still staring in shock as the door swung shut between them.
“Well…” Rae began as the two of them continued down the hall, “that was unexpected.”
Carter shot her a look. “My words to Gabriel, or your most recent outburst in front of the Commander of the Xavier Knights?”