beats per minute

by Alex Mae

  ‘I believe you.’ He wasn’t entirely sure if he did, but what he did believe was that Raegan was frightened.

  ‘And then I had my accident,’ she whispered. ‘I wish I could remember what happened then!’

  Jasper patted her hand. ‘The two, ah, might not be related.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘And... do you know why someone might want to steal your necklace, of all things?’

  ‘I don’t know! It has special qualities – I thought only my family knew about it, but maybe it can do more than I –we - thought! Or maybe someone nicked at it just to get at me – because they knew how much it meant to me?’

  She gave a short cry of exasperation, and banged her fist on the table. ‘I. Just. Don’t. Know!’

  He didn’t respond; instead, he left his hand on hers, sensing she had more to say.

  ‘Look.’ Raegan sucked the air in through her teeth impatiently. ‘Just say I am imagining it all. That would be great. I’d prefer that option! But I can’t get away from the fact that there is a person who has hated me, for no reason, ever since I came here. One of the few people who has had constant access to me and could have done all this stuff. The same person that I sat next to tonight, with my backpack between us. The backpack with my necklace in it.’

  She was gripping his hand now, a silent plea in her eyes.

  Jasper took a deep breath. ‘What’s the plan?’

  Chapter Thirteen: I Spy

  Agent Eliot was not the average Skipper. Drafted into Sentinel work directly from the civil service due to familial pressures and an impressive Regency lineage, he had always found the ritual, pomp, and rigidity of the institution mildly baffling. Military life simply did not come naturally to him; but then, neither had the civil service. He felt as uncomfortable in soldiers’ garb as he had in a suit and tie.

  To say that his interest in Skipper duties was minimal would be an understatement. This particularly applied to the Night Watch, which he considered a completely pointless exercise - for nothing which had not been programmed within an inch of its life ever happened at Unit Prime. Period.

  Most of the time.

  And so he patrolled the corridors of Block IVB with only a fragment of attention dedicated to his nightly duties. The quiet sound of breathing completely passed him by; neither did he notice the suspiciously large gap behind the statue of Kronos, usually snug against the wall. No-one of an average build, possessing the average amount of strength, could move the statue, of course. It was impressively large and made from solid, heavy marble; indeed, its ornate grandeur was rather at odds with the military sterility of the building. Yet Agent Eliot had been trained to expect the unexpected; for Regents, too, did not conform to the law of averages.

  His mind was on other things.

  And this is why two figures were able to lurk in a corridor – well after curfew – without detection. Their hiding place was not given the most cursory of glances.

  Caution was still practiced, however – these beings were not foolish. Once Agent Eliot was well clear of the statue, a shadowy figure moved seamlessly from behind it. Signalling carefully at her partner, still concealed behind the statue, the figure waited until the Skipper had rounded the corner, before darting after him. Once the coast was clear, she flitted back. The motion was noiseless and almost preternaturally fluid.

  The effect of all this above average behaviour was rather ruined, however, by the appearance of someone else, lumbering out from behind the statue without warning. A collision was narrowly avoided.

  Despite the broken quiet, Agent Eliot did not reappear.

  ‘Whoops,’ Jasper whispered in apology, as Raegan held out her arms to steady him. ‘Sorry ‘bout that.’ Dressed all in black, she was difficult to make out; the glint of her eyes was just about visible in the gloom.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she hissed, not without concern. ‘We’ve got to be quick, he’ll be back soon.’

  ‘Yeah. Just not used to all this sneaking around. Legs feel a bit wobbly.’

  ‘It’s the adrenaline,’ Raegan told him kindly. ‘Your body is all fired up. Take some deep breaths.’

  Sensing his embarrassment she turned her attention to their hiding place, giving him some breathing space. Checking that the corridor was still clear, she nudged the extremely heavy statue back against the wall with one swift, easy stroke.

  Brushing her hands off against her black combat wear, she smiled at him encouragingly. ‘Okay?’ her voice was low and urgent. ‘Let’s do this. Now.’

  Still recovering from this display of skill, Jasper clumsily reached around for the strap on his back. From it, he unsheathed a strange, red contraption; what looked like a long pair of augmented tongs made out of metal and rubber. If observed closely, small metal protrusions at various angles along the side of the jaws and top of the arms were just barely visible.

  Grimly, they nodded at each other. Raegan walked a few paces down the corridor, gesturing for Jasper to follow, all the while checking around her.

  ‘Which one is it?’ Jasper asked, under his breath.

  Each door looked the same: beige, non-descript, without a number or any defining feature. Raegan stopped at the third from the end. Finger to her lips, she cocked her head toward it.

  A cold sweat broke out over Jasper’s forehead. The moment had arrived and now it was time for him to play his part.

  But he had never done anything like this in his life. Yes, when safely in his workshop, the comforting smell of molten metal permeating the air, the reassuring thickness of a chisel in his hand, he had lapsed into daydreams: pretending that he would be the one using his weaponry and inventions in service of the greater good. He pictured scaling castle walls, tearing down darkened corridors just like this, axe whirling through the air, to rescue his fair maiden (who usually looked a lot like Bree).

  He had dreamed of breaking down doors like the one in front of him. The reality of the situation had never crossed his mind, though: breaking into a room on Unit Prime was a gross breach of his position and would result in his instant dismissal plus a stay in one of the infamous Sentinel prisons.

  The fact that Jasper was acting purely in the service of friendship would not be taken into account.

  But then he looked down at Raegan’s curly, red head, the exposed skin white and curiously vulnerable, and these doubts began to subside; not erased, but overtaken by a greater compulsion. Warwick had let it slip that he and Declan were planning to sneak off campus that night and go to a nearby bar, leaving Declan’s room empty for most of the evening, and Raegan’s body was tensed and ready for the search.

  Alerted by the weight of his stare, perhaps, her head tilted up. There was no colour in the freckled cheeks, but her blue-green eyes were full of trust. He could not let her down.

  He nodded and hoisted the gadget in reply, before he lost his nerve. Raegan braced the door as he had instructed her. Fitting the jaws around the handle, lightly, the arms laid at a right angle against the join of the door and frame, he fiddled with the dimensions carefully for a moment, screwing and unscrewing, extending and recoiling, until he was satisfied that all was in place as he intended. Finally, he pushed a button on the handle of the device.

  They had one chance to get this right.

  They both held their breath as the metal protrusions lengthened, spreading out like pincers from the arms of the device; perfectly, these slotted into and around the lock of the door, before halting with a click.

  Raegan let out a sigh of a relief, eyes still fixed intently on the door, as if even blinking would bring misfortune.

  ‘Ready?’ Jasper whispered. ‘With any luck, the lock will pop. If not, we’ll have to take it off entirely, but it should still come away without a scratch-‘

  ‘Having fun?’ A sing-song voice rang out mockingly behind them.

  Raegan whipped round. Her hand brushed Jasper’s arm; it was already clenched in a fist.

  There was a brief moment of pause, while Jasper
, frozen with panic, dithered about what to do. He could not avoid looking guilty - there was no way to retract the implement quickly without destroying the door. In fact, he couldn’t make the slightest movement with it without causing considerable damage. He was, quite literally, stuck.

  But he could still move his head; and gradually, as he twisted this way and that, a small woman came into view. She was also dressed in black, but more casually than them, in a black rollneck jumper and black tracksuit bottoms. The diamante trim of the tracksuit sparkled almost as brightly as her gleeful dark eyes.

  From the way Raegan was glaring at her, Jasper thought it was a safe bet to assume that this was the infamous Adriana. And even when his heart was racing with shock, he was hormonal enough to register that she was definitely a looker.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Raegan whispered, moving forward to block Adriana’s view of the door. ‘Did you... follow us?’

  ‘I didn’t have to,’ Adriana replied silkily. ‘I overhead your conversation with Warwick. You Brits do have such loud, carrying voices.’

  ‘This was a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t even mention it to Warwick!’

  Adriana cocked her head. ‘No, but you did seem awful keen to know what Declan was up to tonight. Pretty relieved to hear that he’d be accompanying my brother, too. So when I saw you and Techno-boy scuttling along the via decumana earlier, I thought it was my duty to check up on you. You really shouldn’t be wandering around at night, anyhow.’

  The conversation was growing louder by the second.

  ‘Well, well. You do get around.’

  ‘I was on my way back from Bree’s,’ Adriana sneered, momentarily losing her cool. ‘Some of us have a social life.’

  Raegan sighed. ‘Whoop dee freaking doo. So are you going to be getting to any sort of point any time soon?’

  Adriana regarded Raegan coldly for a moment, and then slid her eyes slowly and deliberately over to the person standing on her left.

  ‘Hi, Jasper.’ The greeting sounded less welcoming that it ever had. ‘My, isn’t that a lovely, useful little toy you have there. Funny thing, I don’t recall seeing it listed within the armoury inventory.’

  Jasper’s complexion turned a peculiar greenish colour. He opened his mouth to speak, but Raegan was too quick for him.

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ she cautioned angrily, stepping closer to Adriana. ‘He’s nothing to do with you.’

  ‘I think not,’ Adriana hissed. ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass what you scabs are up to, but Declan will, and Max certainly will. Your little friend here will be fired as quick as you can say ‘Jiminy Cricket’. Fired... or worse.’

  The two girls squared up.

  ‘Don’t even think about threatening him.’

  ‘I think you’ll find I just did, honey. What, you think you can take me?’

  ‘I don’t think. I know.’

  ‘Oh, please.’ Jasper wasn’t looking at her anymore, but he could tell Adriana was rolling her eyes. ‘I would love to see you try. But fortunately for you, I have a little errand I want you to run.’ She sidestepped Raegan as casually as if she was swatting away an irritating fly, falling into a lean against the adjacent wall.

  ‘An errand?’ Once she was convinced that the moment for fighting had passed, Raegan relaxed back next to Jasper. ‘Right.’

  ‘You got it. And you better do exactly what I say, or I’ll be tattling a few tales.’

  She eyed Adriana warily. ‘Sure. And how do we know that you won’t do that anyway?’

  ‘Why, I’ll give you my word.’ Adriana emphasised the last, and then giggled nastily. ‘Face it, there’s nothing you can do, anyhow.’

  ‘I’m listening. Get to it, will you? Agent Eliot could be back any minute, and my friend’s arms are getting tired.’

  Adriana waved her hand impatiently. ‘Oh, put the silly thing away. But hurry up about it, I haven’t got all night.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ Raegan muttered under her breath, turning to help Jasper. She squeezed his arm. ‘You ok?’

  ‘Fine,’ he mumbled. Even with Adriana looking on, Raegan couldn’t hide her disappointment as her chance of searching Declan’s room disappeared. Nonetheless, she moved in beside him, accepting the weight of the device while he worked on freeing it. Finally, after a few huffs and puffs from their captor, the implement was folded up and ready to return to its sheath. But as Jasper and Raegan were about to do so, a loud tutting noise interrupted them.

  ‘I think not,’ Adriana said haughtily, pushing off from the wall. ‘Hand it over.’

  ‘What?’ Raegan put her hands on her hips. ‘Why?’

  ‘Call it insurance.’

  ‘You’ve already got us by the nuts – you said so yourself.’

  ‘Save it. Hand. It over. Now.’

  Raegan slapped the implement into Adriana’s palm with unnecessary force, wishing it was her smug face. ‘There.’ She was sick and tired of the games. ‘Now talk. What do we have to do?’

  Adriana was looking at her palm, now red and smarting. She shot Raegan a glare of loathing. ‘Not ‘we’. Just you.’ She tossed her head. ‘Tomorrow night, Bree will leave her room at around eleven thirty. I want you to follow her.’

  Raegan wondered if she had heard correctly. ‘Beg your pardon?’

  ‘Bree will leave her room at around eleven thirty. I want-‘

  ‘Me to follow her, I get it. That’s it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That’s the master plan? For me to tail your girlfriend?’ Raegan wasn’t actually mocking Adriana: she was genuinely taken aback. ‘But why on earth-‘

  ‘I want to know where the hell she goes every night! She won’t tell me anything, pretends that it’s nothing – but I know she’s not in her room, she just disappears! Under my nose, slipping off to God knows where... with God knows who.’ Her lips pressed together in a thin, sour line.

  A male voice piped up then, surprising both girls. ‘Except you do know who she’s seeing, don’t you? That’s what you want Raegan to confirm.’

  Adriana’s agitation overwhelmed her need to posture. ‘I want confirmation that she’s cheating on me, alright?’ Angry tears glimmered in her eyes. ‘Want me to spell it out? It’s humiliating enough as it is. She and my brother had a thing before... but she told me that was all over now!’

  Bree and Warwick? How much more surreal could the evening get? Raegan’s head was spinning.

  ‘I can’t follow her myself,’ Adriana admitted. ‘I was never much good at tracking. She’ll be looking out for me, too, ‘cause she knows I’m suspicious. But you...’ She met Raegan’s eyes, grudgingly. ‘Bree says you’re pretty good.’

  Adriana really cared about Bree, Raegan realised. That almost explained the weird behaviour. She actually felt sorry for her.

  But eventually she shook her head. ‘Bree’s my friend. I can’t do that to her.’

  Immediately, the vulnerability in Adriana’s eyes was replaced by something harder. ‘Noble, but that’s not your choice to make, sweetie.’

  ‘Tell Max,’ Raegan replied simply. ‘I think deep down you’re an okay person, Adriana, so it’s too bad if you want to behave like an arse – but if that’s what you want to do, go for it. I’ll accept whatever punishment he gives me.’

  Adriana nodded slowly. ‘I believe you. But what about him?’ She jerked her thumb in Jasper’s direction. ‘Will you really let him lose his job over some sense of loyalty to Bree? Which, FYI, is totally misguided.’

  Both pairs of eyes were on Jasper now, and he hated it. He wished he could be brave and say to hell with it, as he knew Raegan wanted him to. It would sound much more impressive than what he was bound to say. Then he remembered the phone call with his father that very night; he remembered the desperation in his voice, how old he sounded, and how fragile. He could not forget his purpose. No matter how much Raegan meant to him.

  Yet the words would not come. They strangled in his throat. Instead, mute and with a
leaden feeling in his stomach, he returned Raegan’s gaze beseechingly. Silently he pleaded with her to forgive him.

  There was no room for misinterpretation: Jasper needed her help. And, ultimately, Raegan knew she deserved this; it had been her idea to break the rules and drag her friend into it. She was so obsessed with finding out the truth she couldn’t see straight.

  Sickeningly, it reminded her of the mistakes she had made in the past, like flying off to see Mr Fettes about her necklace; mistakes she made before she even came here, mistakes that had led her into the hands of the Fay. The necklace, but most of all her, always thinking she knew best, messing things up again and again! Why didn’t she learn?

  Heart sinking, all she could do was nod. Adriana’s malicious cackle barely even stung.

  But when she had seen Jasper safely back to the workshop and was alone once more, she uttered a silent prayer. Maybe Adriana would change her mind; maybe she could persuade her to talk to Bree instead; maybe Bree would not leave her room, at all; maybe Bree wouldn’t spot her.

  So many variables flitted through her mind and yet the only certainty seemed that none of them would occur.

  There was one other thing she knew without a doubt. Bree was not big on forgiveness. Those who fell short of her expectations were simply cut out of her life. Like a door closing, the removal of her affection, without so much as a cross word, was more shocking in its indifference.

  Chapter Fourteen: Betrayal

  A heavy rain fell the following evening. Mist drifted over the battlements of Unit Prime; grey, fine, but strangely powerful, it soaked to the bone with the lightest contact. Raegan sat in the library. With a hot cheek pressed against the cool glass, she watched Yali scoot across the courtyard in an attempt to avoid the vicious gusts of wind.

  The greyness of the evening reflected her mood. It would also make tracking Bree discreetly even more difficult. Earlier, with a faint burst of hope, she mentioned this to Adriana.