She smiled and waited. “Ah, could I come in, Rozlyn?”
I staggered back, almost tripping on my too long pyjama pants. “Sorry, yes, of course.”
I led her into the room and cringed at the sight of pizza boxes and papers. Nothing had moved since our marathon research session.
“Sorry about the mess, we’ve been up working for a while. Then, not really had the chance to tidy.”
“So I can see.” She leaned over a pile of papers on the table and smiled. “I’m here to see how you are handling the events of yesterday?” She stood with her hands held behind her back, smiling sweetly.
“As good as can be expected, I think. I don’t know where the others are right now.” I didn’t know what to do with my hands. In the end I reached over and picked up my cup.
“Good, good. Well I’m afraid in times of terrible accidents like these, all one can do is continue on with life.”
Warwick stood from the settee. “Accident? Do you have the post-mortem results, already?” His voice was flat, emotionless.
“The analysis arrived on my desk this morning. All evidence suggests Miss Shepherd slipped in the shower. Tragic.” Her unflinching grin contradicted her words.
“That is tragic,” he said, looking at me. I watched his expression, not understanding at all.
Llamp picked up a file from the table. “Working on the bombing case. Very good. And, how are things progressing?”
I looked over to Warwick, who shrugged with his hands thrust in his pockets.
“It’s going well, I think,” I said, “I had a meeting with Doctor Levins. He’s explained that they’re looking into the biological component of the bomb.”
“I see. And, your investigation into the unfortunate attack on the science department?” She asked, without looking up.
“Nothing much yet, I’m afraid. The police still haven’t filed a report.”
“Not to worry, I’m sure you will get to the bottom of it. It was lovely to see you, Roz.” She walked to the front door. As she opened it, she paused and turned to Warwick. “Have you officially relocated to this team, Mr. Bower?”
“Yes, Doctor Llamp. I handed my resignation to Spring myself.” Warwick spoke from the far room, not moving closer.
“Very good. I will adjust my records.” She closed the door behind her.
I stood and looked at the glass as the reflection as Llamp drifted away.
“What the hell was that about?” I said.
Warwick kicked the doorframe. “Fuck.”
“What?”
“She was checking up on us. All that crap about Karissa, checking the task progress? She’s noticed us.”
“What the heck are you on about?”
“Nothing just, let’s get back to it.” He turned and threw himself into the chair and picked up a wad of papers.
“What’re you talking about? Warwick, tell me what’s going on.” I held his eyes, unblinking.
He threw the papers back to the floor. “Didn’t you notice anything wrong when they collected her? Didn’t you see it?” He stared at me incredulously.
“See what? They put her on a stretcher. What else were they supposed to do?”
“What else are they supposed to do? How about check her pulse? How about try to revive her? Roz, they already knew she was dead!” His chest heaved.
I stared blankly at his trembling lips. My breath cut through my tightening throat, quick and sharp. I remembered, standing back while three reflective jackets hoisted our friend from the bath. I couldn’t picture their faces. I don’t think I even looked. Warwick was right, they didn’t check her. They were in and out of the house in less than two minutes.
“You must have told them when you called.”
“No. I told them she wasn’t responding. They didn’t even pause. They had the blacked out coroner van outside waiting. They knew before they arrived. They knew she was dead.”
“But how?”
“How do any of them know anything around here? How did they know the bomb wasn’t toxic without police help? How do they know what we do in our tests here? How did they know she was already dead? Because, they’re behind it all, watching.”
“You can’t possibly think there’s some sinister plot by the university which makes students trip in the shower?” I laughed. It felt alien.
“No? Just like I can’t think the university is hiding information about the bombs? That last bomb was different and they’ve not involved the police or revealed anything.”
“Different how?”
“Seriously, you haven’t seen the difference?” Warwick looked at me sarcastically. It was becoming an annoying habit of his.
“Why don’t you enlighten me?”
“No-body died,” he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
He was right, it was obvious. I had been so consumed with finding a connection between the bombings; I had missed a vital difference.
“How did I not notice that? Do you think the blast area was too small?” I said, as I rummaged through the papers to find the police report. “Where is it?”
“The report? What report?” Warwick was smirking at me like I was still missing something.
“But, it’s been days. How can the police not have filed a report yet?”
He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he looked at me. “You understand what kind of place this is? What happens to people who don’t pass, what happens to the ones that do?”
“To the ones that do? What do you mean?”
He lowered his eyes, like he was considering his words. “Roz, this place is off the map.”
“I know that. That’s why we had to be transported here by guards when we came.”
“I mean, this place is literally off the map in every area.”
I shook my head to show I still didn’t understand. He smirked and continued.
“This place is government run. We are training to be, for lack of a better word, spies. Do you honestly think they have ever called the police for anything here?”
“But, when the bomb went off, there was flashing lights,” I argued.
“Yes, from their police force. The real police would never have been called. When Bree was drugged, what did Llamp do?”
“She told us we had to solve it ourselves.”
“And, when we found Karissa, who came?”
“The university hospital staff. But, they have to tell the police.”
“Why? We’re training to work in the shadows of the police, why would they involve them? Here, they eat, drink and breathe secrecy. Here we need to find the truth for ourselves.” Warwick stared at the wall, like he was trying to find something to focus on.
I felt like screaming. “Warwick, why the hell didn’t you mention this before? If you knew they don’t use the police, why have we been waiting for the reports for bloody days?” I scrunched my hands into my hair in frustration.
“Because, this place lives in the shadows. Here, there are eyes everywhere, ears everywhere. If I show my hand, I die. If I stand out, if I show that I know too much, I die.” He was breathing in heaves, his chest pumping like he had just run a marathon.
“Warwick, I’m sorry.” Slowly, I understood his paranoia. “The team and I have been talking about this for a while. From pieces we’ve managed to put together, there’s a danger if you fail. But, Warwick, you’re not failing.” I knelt beside him. “Honestly, we’re doing fine. I know Karissa was a shock. Quite frankly, I don’t think I will ever get past it, but honestly, Warwick, we’re safe. We just need to keep working.”
He shook his head and laughed. “That’s what they want you to think. But what about…” He clamped his jaw shut. “Just ignore me.”
“What? No, talk to me. How do you know so much about this place?” I put my hand on his. He was trembling. “Warwick, talk to me.”
He looked at me desperately, his fist clenching the arm of his chair. His muscles trembled under the pressure.
<
br /> “Warwick, you can trust me. You’re a member of my team and you’re my friend.” I gulped as I realised I meant it.
He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. “I have three brothers, two older. My oldest brother, Jared, went to university when I was just starting senior school.”
I curled my legs under myself, keeping my hand on his. “Where are you from?”
“Little place in Northumberland,” he smiled, “no place like it.” He shivered and I waited for him to continue. “My brother got a letter from the University of Demetae. My parents had never heard of it, he hadn’t applied there.”
“Sounds familiar. Did he have to complete a task the day before he got the letter too?” I asked.
He nodded. “He had to follow a trail which lead to his girlfriend’s kidnapping.”
I slammed my hand over my mouth. “They took his girlfriend, as a test?”
“He fought through their tests and got her back. The next day he got the letter and left for university. I didn’t hear from him in weeks. Even then it was a quick hello over the phone.”
I bit my lip not wanting to ask the question, but I couldn’t hold back. “Did, did he pass?”
“He did. But, he was never the same. He was at the university for three years, then worked for them for another two.” He paused and closed his eyes. “Then one day, he came home.”
“Did he quit?”
He looked at me with pity. “You can never quit. He came home to say goodbye.” He pulled at the lose threads on the sleeve of his jumper. “I wouldn’t let him leave. He’d just returned, finally. I didn’t understand why he came back just to say goodbye again.”
“He’s your brother; of course you didn’t want him to leave.”
“Well, I should’ve let him.” His voice was sharp.
I tightened my grip on his hand, feeling the muscles tremble.
“That night, before he left, we snuck out into the fields. It was so dark with no moon; I could barely see where I was walking. We hid in the maze field. He told me everything. The university, what happens in the tasks, how they progress.”
“What happens?”
“Nothing good. Roz, this place is training us. But, not for what they’re telling us. The tasks get harder.”
“Well, of course they do.”
“My brother told me, he had to torture someone.” His eyes clenched shut. “Then, he had to learn to withstand it.”
I let go of his hand and stood. “You can’t be serious. I know they want us to be pushed here, but torture? This is a government university. We’re training to be spies.” I shouted the last words, ignoring the ridicule I felt when saying them aloud.
“Says who? Did you get a letter with a government stamp? Everything we do here, does it seem like official training to you? We’re being trained to infiltrate alright, but on whose side?” He was on his feet too, facing me.
I thought for a second. There must be someone we could ask, someone who could be trusted enough to confide in us, someone who knows this university.
“Your brother must know. Can’t you ask him who he worked for?”
He shook his head while I spoke. I knew what he was going to say.
“That night, after he told me everything, he was killed in a car crash.”
“Oh my god, Warwick, I’m so sorry.”
He waved his hand like he was throwing my apology away. “Don’t you see? They got him. He left, and they found him.”
“But, a car crash can happen.”
He cut me off. “He made me hide!”
I held my breath as he continued.
“We were walking back to the house when he saw them. Six guys in the blacked out stealth gear. He shoved me into the shed and told me to stay hidden, no matter what.”
He kicked a pile of papers across the room. We watched as the white sheets fanned out in an arc.
“My hand was on the shed handle when I saw them hit him. One second later and they would have seen me too. They dragged him into his car and simply drove it away. A few hours later, the police turned up telling us he’d been in a car accident. Apparently he’d driven too fast round a bend and gone into a wall. Never had a chance, the police said. They had no idea how right they were.”
“I’m sorry, Warwick.”
“For me? Be sorry for all of us. We’re all in this together. They’ve already got Karissa. We’ve got to stay ahead.”
“You really think they did that to her?” I lowered myself back in the chair, my heart heavy for Warwick.
He shrugged. “She wasn’t doing her work. You know the drill.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Warwick, I’m glad you’re here. But, why did you come, if you knew all this?
He rubbed his face roughly, sitting beside me.
“No choice. Jared told me all about this place. How they looked for the best and brightest. So, I failed all my exams.” He laughed, as he recalled the memory. “My Mum went crazy when she saw my G.C.S.E. results; I’d failed pretty much all of them. I didn’t even bother doing my A levels. As far as official records were concerned, I was as thick as two short planks.”
“But, it didn’t work?”
“No. One morning, I was getting ready for work. Mum brought the post through, and there it was. I knew then, this University acceptance wasn’t an offer, it was a cage. They weren’t fooled by my grades, they wanted to watch me. I knew my only option was to play along, find a way out from the inside.”
“We should report it. If you really think they killed Karissa, we can’t let them get away with it.” The words burned in my mouth.
“Report what? That our friend, who drinks too much and parties every night, didn’t really slip in the shower?”
“We have to do something.”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is we pass and stay under the radar. If we want to help, we have to pass, stay alive. The only way to avoid notice is to blend in plain sight.”
“How? How do we get free if this place is really so corrupt? Who do we trust? What do we focus on?”
“We pass. We fool them into thinking they’ve got us sucked in. We make them trust us.” He handed me a file from the floor. “Roz, all we have to do, right now, is pass.”
“But if the police aren’t involved, how do we get a report of this latest bombing? If they really are watching us, then how do we fool them?”
He smirked at me and folded his arms. “The only way around it is to set up more snoops, here in the university. We need to know what they know. We need to know when they’re going to move, and how.”
“You mean, we need to get into Llamp’s office to bug her computer?”
“Not just Llamp’s. We started with the labs, now we need to finish the job. We need to cover every inch of this place, every computer belonging to a tutor, every phone line. Jay already has the cameras set up, we just need to finish the job.”
I paced the room. My mind was buzzing with information. How had I gone from grieving for my friend to surveilling the university in one morning?
“You really think we need to go that far?”
“Roz, we have to pass. If we don’t, we end up like my brother. But, even then, we aren’t safe. We need to stay one step ahead of them. Always.”
“Then we need to tell the others.”
He shook his head. “How do we know we can trust them? I’m risking everything by telling you, now you want me to trust everyone?”
“How did you know you could trust me?”
“I’ve been watching you.” He grinned at me knowingly.
“You better not mean when I’ve been changing,” I growled.
“Not quite. But, I did like your honesty when you checked my room. You didn’t even look inside.”
My cheeks flooded red. “Jay found a bug, we were just checking rooms to make sure it was safe.”
“I know.”
“Wait, did you set them up?”
“No, but I do have a camera in my room. For just
such occasions.”
“Is that why you don’t take women to your bedroom?” I shuddered at the memory of him thrusting on the settee.
He laughed. “No, that’s what you call cover.”
“I saw you, and I can assure you, you weren’t covered.”
“But, you told others what I did?”
I nodded.
“Which is exactly what I wanted you to do.”
“Why?”
“Because, any university official watching us would from that moment see me as some carless student living life through his pants.”
I stared at him, mouth hanging open. “You slept with that woman to build a cover story?”
“She was cute. She was happy to come back with me, I was happy to build my cover story. Everyone’s a winner.” He grinned like he was the cat that got the cream.
“You’re unbelievable.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was late evening before Warwick and I had managed to fill the team in on Warwick’s story. None of them wanted to believe it.
“Why now?” Ash shouted. “Why tell us this now? All this time we’ve been working here, together. Any of us could have ended up like Karissa.”
I flinched at the sound of her name.
“What made you suddenly want to share?” Ash stood at the back of the room. It was clear he was trying to control his fury.
The tension in the room was like ice. Spikes of nerves threatened to lash out in every direction. Owen hadn’t sat down since Warwick began talking. He paced the room biting his nails. Bree sat on the edge of the coffee table, arms folded. She was so coiled up she looked like she was ready to spring at anyone who came close to her. Fern sat curled in the corner of a chair, silently listening to the argument raging around her. Jay sat on the floor in the centre of the chaos with a wide grin. He looked to be the only one finding this entertaining.
“Because,” Warwick shouted, “I had to see who I could trust. It’s not like I could just go around revealing what I know to anyone.” He was standing with his arms folded, facing the room.
Fern raised her hand. She ducked her head like she was afraid to be noticed. “Warwick, why do you trust us now? What’s changed?”
Trials in Walls of Ivy (Triskelion Trilogy Book 1) Page 19