Ron stood with a glazed look in his eyes. She thumped his arm, giggling again at the effect she’d had on him. “Earth to Ron! The boxes!”
He jerked back to reality, blushing brightly. “Um, sure thing.”
His fumbling attempt to pull the stack of flat-packed boxes from the shelf was a failure. His grip slipped and he stumbled backwards, banging his head on the shelf behind.
Tina winced at the solid thunk his skull made as it connected.
Ron crumpled to the floor, holding his head. “Oooww!”
Tina had just bent down to see what damage he’d done when the door opened and Jean came in. “What are you two up to?”
“It’s Ron, Ms. Dukes. He’s banged his head,” Tina explained. She saw no sense in telling their teacher why it had happened.
Jean crossed the narrow room and knelt beside him. “Let me see, Ron.”
Ron moaned and took his hand off the egg forming on the back of his head. “Please don’t let Doctor Llewellyn get me, Ms. Dukes. I’ll be a good boy, I promise!” His eyes swam, unfocused. A moment later Jean and Tina narrowly avoided being spattered by vomit as he threw up.
“Looks like he’s got a concussion, I’m going to take him to the infirmary,” Jean said, frowning in concern. She scooped him up as though he weighed nothing and carefully carried him out of the storage area. “Come on, Tina. You can sit with him and keep him awake while he recovers. I think we both know why he wasn’t paying attention.”
She hurried toward the elevators, Tina scurrying to keep up.
The matron confirmed Ron’s concussion and admitted him to the infirmary for observation. He had begun to talk normally after the matron gave him some fluids to replace what he’d lost when he’d been sick, and the matron had said he could sleep once she was satisfied the concussion was not severe.
Tina sat by his bed watching him sleep as the IV line fed him a mixture of ibuprofen, paracetamol, and fluids to reduce the risk of swelling and help with his pain. She’d asked for an explanation of everything as the matron calmly bustled about taking care of Ron earlier, and the short version was that he would be fine after some rest.
The infirmary was too quiet. Tina got her tablet out and opened the Bootstrapping app, thinking she’d pass the time that way. Aleksi’s version was still available from the previous session, so she selected it from the menu and began a new game with the same parameters.
One of the nice things about dating a fellow superbrain was that she and Ron spent hours talking about everything they loved to geek out about. He had told her all about the history of the castle, how it was one of a ring of castles that had been built around Snowdonia by the English king back in the twelve hundreds to oppress the Welsh.
The renovation teams had made the castle into a fortress once more, ensuring that only TQB employees could reach the facility. The only remaining vulnerabilities were from air or sea attacks.
The game was ready, and Tina began preparing her inventory for the impending attack. The first time she’d played the game, the enemy had come overland using tanks. The Challenger IIs had halted on the opposite bank of the River Conwy and fired on the walls using high-explosive squash-head rounds designed for penetrating stonework, then opened up with their chain-guns when the HESH rounds had breached the walls. They had lost that game by a mile after the army and navy moved in.
This time Tina would be ready for them. She had been helping Jean disassemble and pack the manufacturing and production lines, so she now had a better idea of what was available in the castle inventory—and also where she would find the ideal components to be repurposed into her defenses.
Half an hour later she was putting the finishing touches to her setup when Ron stirred, waking up. She paused the game and got up to get him a glass of water.
She held the glass out, and he smiled sheepishly as he accepted it. “Hey,” he said awkwardly. “It’s a dangerous thing, falling for a beautiful woman like you.”
Tina blushed at the compliment. “Stop being so cheesy, Ron! How are you feeling?”
He sipped the water and caught one of the ice-chips in his mouth before setting the glass down on the over-bed table. “I’ve been better. What did the matron say after I fell asleep?”
“That you’ll be fine after you rest.” She bit her lip, carefully reaching out to take his hand so she didn’t disturb the canula taped to the back of it. “Geez, Ron. You scared the crap out of me, talking nonsense all the way from the storeroom to the infirmary. When you brought up you-know-who I thought you were going to tell Ms. Dukes everything!”
Ron’s dark-ringed eyes looked blank. “Huh?”
“You know, the doctor,” she whispered, looking at the door to Ron’s room, which was ajar.
“Oh, yeah.” Ron yawned.
She stroked his head. “You should get back to sleep. Rest and get better, so we can get you out of here.”
He had already closed his eyes. She pulled the crisp sheet up around his ears and went back to her game.
CHAPTER TWELVE
United Kingdom, North Wales, Snowdonia, Llyn Gwynant
John led the students into the forest. He ignored the campsite completely, piquing Maxim’s curiosity. The low sun threw diamonds onto the lake and the lapping waves scattered them as the birds wheeled above the water, catching his eye as he speculated on why they were heading away from the regular humans and out into the wilderness.
“Turn down your thoughts,” John said quietly from ahead. “Reach out with your senses. What can you hear? What can you smell?”
Maxim did as he was told, breathing deeply through his nose. “Cows and sheep?”
Craig let rip with a rumbling fart. “I smell cheese!” He guffawed.
“Ew, Craig. Gross!” Masha complained.
“Yeah, dude, gross!” Halli gagged, her extra-keen Wechselbalg senses overwhelmed.
John laughed and forged ahead through the trees, creating a path through the undergrowth. “Focus on what you can hear. Start with your immediate surroundings, and work your way out. Try to guess what I can hear. I’ll give you one clue…it’s alive, and it’s small. Whoever gets it right gets first choice on the food substitutes tonight.”
Maxim listened carefully. He heard his own heartbeat, and the heartbeats of the others. He heard his teammates breathing, and the rumble of someone’s stomach.
“I think I’d rather catch a rabbit,” he heard Craig mutter under his breath.
He extended his focus past the group, slowing his breathing so he could hear better. He was confused as he scanned the area, but his sense of smell confirmed his findings—anything that had been near them had made itself scarce.
“What are you hearing, sir?” he asked. “There are no animals or birds in the area around us.”
John gave a small rueful smile. “An unfortunate side-effect of being such a badass—I mean, having my level of enhancement—is that I tend to scare the smarter animals away just by being there. You kids have the same effect, just less intense because you're not fully grown yet. Any of you ever tried to pet a cat?”
They all nodded.
“Cats hate us, sir,” Halli admitted.
“That’s to be expected, since you smell like wolves. Now that we’ve established there’s nothing in the immediate vicinity, widen your search.”
The students obeyed, sniffing the air deeply.
Maxim smelled people, but not nearby. It was a slightly sour scent, as though they hadn’t washed for a few days. Campers, he thought. He was distracted from his musings by Craig’s victory whoop.
“A...a… A something! That way!” Craig pointed off into the trees. “I hear its heart!”
“Very good, Craig. You get dessert too if you can tell me what it is.”
Craig screwed up his face as he tried to pin down the scent. Maxim and the others put similar effort into pinpointing what Craig had found.
“It is a rodent, I know that much,” Maxim offered. He even knew what kind of rodent
it was, but it was good for Craig to get a chance to shine.
“Is it a mouse?” Craig asked.
“Looks like we have a winner for round one!” John cheered. “Keep going. Next person gets to pick their camp duty for tonight...”
They all enjoyed the game, 'finding’ a rabbit burrow, numerous bird’s nests, and a beehive—along with a number of rodents and other small forest creatures as they hiked along paths that John created as he walked.
He came to a halt as they entered a small clearing on a gentle slope. “Round two, let’s see who can get their tent set up the quickest. The prize is… Hmmm, let’s see. First watch. Last one done sits the graveyard watch with me.”
“How is guard duty a prize?” Masha complained. “It is work!”
John’s face was contemplative. “Until you’ve done overnight sentry duty, I just can’t tell you, Masha. Your classmates have already made a good start on their tents, so if you don’t hurry up with yours, you’ll see why first watch is a prize.”
A short time later the clearing had been transformed into a camp for the night.
In the center they had a fire burning merrily, surrounded by stones to keep the forest safe. Maxim took a seat on one of the logs they’d dragged in, joining the others as they accepted the food packs John handed out from one of the backpacks.
“Eat up. You’re going to need the calories.” John wiggled an eyebrow mysteriously as he gave them all an extra ration.
“Why?” Craig inquired through a mouthful of hot stroganoff.
John grinned. “Did any of you sense anything besides the animals?”
Maxim thought about it for a moment, trying to work out what John wanted them to have smelled. “People,” he said simply. “It was faint, but it’s been there all day. I assumed it was hikers, like us.”
“Me too!” Mischa cried. The others nodded and agreed that they’d smelled something here and there.
John pulled five more pouches out of the backpack and tossed them to the students. “Extra dessert for you all. I didn’t sense them at all, but I did get a call letting me know we were being watched from a distance.”
Halli paled. “Are we in danger?”
John pulled a face. “With me? Never. Now, I’m not sure if they have eyes on us now, so after dinner I want the five of you to go into the trees and change.”
“You mean change change?”
Craig was not alone in his disbelief. The dessert pouches were forgotten as they all began to speak at once.
John held up a hand. “One at a time.”
“We are not allowed to do that on the mudball,” Maxim informed him when they quieted down.
John chuckled. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Halli asked, “What if whoever is watching sees us?”
John’s smile widened and Maxim could have sworn he had a twinkle in his eye. “I’m counting on it, Halli. Now get those calories in. I’m waiting on another call, and then we’re going for a nice, long run.”
United Kingdom, North Wales, Snowdonia
Broadbent and the soldiers were in position on the peak above the camp, watching the activity below using old-fashioned binoculars.
No fancy technology to inexplicably combust this time. He’d made them ditch anything that carried a signal before they relocated to their present spot.
He glanced to his left. “What’s going on? What’s he saying, Hobson?”
Hobson shrugged uncomfortably. “I dunno, sir. It’s getting too dark to see.”
Broadbent tutted. “Well, keep watching. I’m going to get a bite to eat.” He shuffled backwards until he was clear of the ghillie net they'd slung for a hide and took a packet of rice pudding and a spoon from his pack.
A few bites into his cold dinner, he heard Bright calling him softly.
He rushed back over and picked his binoculars up just in time to see the kids walk away from the camp in opposite directions.
“What are they doing?” he muttered to no one in particular.
“He’s probably sent them for firewood, sir,” Bright offered.
Hobson agreed. “Yeah, sir. Look, it’s getting low.”
The next thing that happened would stay with them forever.
Out of the tree line where the children had entered padded five shaggy wolves. They loped across the clearing back to the camp, where they laid at John Grimes’ feet.
The two soldiers made the connection almost immediately and scrambled out of the area, down the opposite side of the peak.
“Where are you going?” Broadbent hissed.
“We need to tell the captain to bring in reinforcements,” Bright called over his shoulder.
“No way we can take them on, not just the three of us, if they spot us. It’s suicide to stay here. They’re not kids, they’re monsters!” Hobson added.
Broadbent knew all about the Wechselbalg, as they called themselves. The British Government had worked hard to make sure that kind of thing did not become the ordinary citizen’s problem.
Now it was his problem.
Broadbent sighed and set off after the retreating soldiers.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Konstantinov Quarters
“Do you like it?” Yana watched Bai Hu with a hopeful expression as he saw his room for the first time.
“It is good! Xièxiè. My thanks, Yana.” His English was improving with every day that passed.
One of the gifts sent by Bethany Anne and her people had been a tablet of his own, with games designed to build his vocabulary. He had a quick mind, she had learned. She hoped he would make it into the Academy when he was old enough to take the test so she could keep an eye on him.
He bowed his head and stood awkwardly by the holowindow Nestor had made for him from an old projector. His expression was wistful as he watched the shifting views of his old home.
“It does not have to show China,” Yana said. She picked up a small remote control from the bedside cabinet and flicked through the preprogrammed scenes, pausing on a snowy forest. “See? This is Russia, my homeland. It is beautiful, no?”
“It is,” Bai Hu agreed. He ran his hand over the soft bedspread with a troubled expression on his face. “Yana, will I see China again?”
Yana’s heart broke for the little werecat. “Oh, kotenok, it is not as simple as that. It’s too dangerous to go back there.” She wrapped a sisterly arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.
He snuffled against her cheek. “What is ‘kotenok’?’”
“It is Russian for ‘kitten.’ Do you not like it?”
“Yes, I like. You are jiějiě.”
Yana released him and smiled. “What is that?”
Bai Hu searched for the word unsuccessfully. He shrugged, looking up at the ceiling and saying the first name he’d learned upon waking. “Meredith.”
Meredith’s cool tones came from the speakers. “Yes, Bai Hu? How can I help you?”
At least that was what Yana assumed Meredith said, because the EI was speaking Chinese for Bai Hu’s benefit. Bai Hu and Meredith talked back and forth for a minute, then Meredith switched to English to speak to Yana.
“Bai Hu wishes to express his gratitude to you and your father for taking him into your home. The word he used means ‘sister,’ or more accurately ‘elder sister.’”
“Xièxiè, Meredith,” Bai Hu told the EI.
“Yes, thank you, Meredith,” Yana added.
“You are welcome, children. Call again if you need me.”
“Goodbye!”
Yana held out a hand to her little brother. “Come, it is time for me to meet Nestor and talk to my friends down on Earth. I want to tell them all about my little brother!”
“They are down there?” Bai Hu was clearly concerned. “Are they in danger? Like China?”
Yana shook her head. “They are in a safe place. You will see!”
She led him out of the family quarters and along the corridor to the tram stati
on.
When the tram arrived, she guided Bai Hu to an empty car and they kept teaching each other words until they reached the stop for the Etheric Academy. Yana's Mandarin would soon be as good as her English.
Bai Hu stared around. He was amazed by life on the Meredith Reynolds. He had taken the news that they were among the stars very well when it was explained to him by her father.
Considering he’d had no experience of anything outside his village before the soldiers came for his family, he was coping well with all the new ideas he’d been introduced to now that he had recovered from his ordeal.
Nestor waited for them at the tram station. He hugged Yana, and held a hand out for Bai Hu to shake. “Heeeey, look who is out of the medical wing!”
“Nestor,” Bai Hu said warmly, ignoring the hand and bowing deeply instead. “Xièxiè, the gift. It brings me joy.”
Nestor grinned, stowing his hand and bowing in return. “It was my pleasure. Let us get to the dorm. They will be calling us soon.”
They stopped for a moment when they passed through the doors and Bai Hu saw the main lobby for the first time.
He let out a sigh of wonder when he saw the stars dance across the ceiling. “Tā tài piàoliangle! The stars!”
“I know that one, it means ‘it’s so pretty’. He says it a lot,” Yana told Nestor with a smile.
Bai Hu did a slow circle underneath the galaxy on the ceiling with an expression of pure joy on his face. His rotation stalled suddenly and he pointed up. “Jiějiě, it changes!”
Yana and Nestor looked up to where Bai Hu pointed. The ever-shifting representation of the galaxy twinkled above their heads.
Bai Hu pointed again. “There!”
They all saw the star system wink into existence where there had been a relatively empty space before.
Nestor’s eyes shone. “Meredith, are you there?”
“Always,” Meredith answered instantly. “Good evening, Nestor. How may I help you?”
“We just saw a new star system appear on the galaxy model. Why is that?” Nestor didn’t take his eyes off the ceiling.
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