He’d been afraid of the man because of the way he looked at Alex, like he saw what was going on his head, and felt a little bit sorry for him. There was something in his disconcertingly perfect smile that implied an absolute assurance, such a complete and total advantage that it didn’t even merit contesting. He’d seen it in the faces and actions of the people that surrounded and fawned all over the Mexican, inmates and guards alike.
And he could see it again in Anastasia’s eyes, and in the eyes of people who looked at her. Picking a fight with her would be worse than pointless, it might even be impossible. Alex understood now why people were afraid of the Black Sun — and it wasn’t the cartel, powerful though it might have been.
It was the girl sitting in front of him, glancing at the clock impatiently.
“I figured that the cartel thing was for life,” Alex said, shrugging, fighting down the urge to ask why she kept looking at the clock, if there wasn’t some place she would rather be. “She said she was born into it.”
“Certainly, as I was into the Black Sun,” Anastasia acknowledged coolly. “But, nothing obligates us to die where we were born, Alex. We make a choice when we leave the Academy, the same choice any orphan makes. Sometimes there are surprises, defections even. Don’t you think it reflects poorly on the Hegemony that all they see in Emily is a future homemaker? I’m certain that I could find her something more meaningful to do, in the Black Sun.”
“Wait, I get it,” Alex said, shaking his head. “But, I don’t think she would turn on her family.”
“What is to stop me from recruiting the entire cartel?” Anastasia glanced at her fingernails, looking vaguely disappointed. “I don’t have to worry about problems of scale. Therese Muir is much more practical than Emily, and she would most likely be receptive to the right offer. I am certain she would want to bring her beloved baby sister along.”
“You’d go that far,” Alex asked, wonderingly, “to get me to join your cartel?”
“It’s not all about you, Alex,” Anastasia said dismissively, standing up and walking to the door to open it for a very puzzled looking Emily, a water bottle in one hand, her iPod in the other. She looked blankly from Anastasia to Alex and then back to Anastasia.
“Hello Emily,” Anastasia said casually, smiling at the stunned girl. “Care to join me for the three o’clock Yoga session?”
“If you are ever going to pay attention,” Mr. Windsor said patiently, “then today is the day. This is the single most important piece of work that we will do this session, though I realize that for some of you this will be a lecture that you have had before…”
“Several times,” Anastasia said quietly, sounding bored.
“…but this does not in any way reduce the value of a return to the topic! Please pass this around, thank you, should be enough for everyone? Good, then.”
Alex took one from the stack of documents that Emily handed him and then passed it on to Vivik. Emily looked terribly disinterested, and even Vivik seemed less than thrilled. Alex took a closer look at the stapled document he’d been given.
It was seven pages long, with nearly twenty numbered articles, followed by a block of text, composed of a single run-on sentence that used the word ‘whereas’ at least four times. Alex immediately gave up on reading it. He tossed it on the desk in front of him distastefully, then looked up at Mr. Windsor and was surprised to see him smiling at the unhappy class.
“It is a formidable document, yes? It was not designed, I’m afraid, for a casual readership. But don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to read it — though I would add that anyone too lazy to read the document that lays out their fundamental rights cannot claim to be too surprised when said rights are taken from them — but, I do want you to at least have a concept of the intent of the Agreement. Now, those of you who’ve been with us through grade school, I want you to go ahead and share what you’ve learned with newcomers in our class. The Agreement, you see, has four main functions. Miss Martynova, could you tell the class one of them?”
Anastasia rolled her eyes and answered in monotone.
“The Agreement established a universal code of conduct and applied it to all Operators and cartels equitably. Now, I am going to sleep until this session is over. Please don’t call on me again.”
Alex was only a little surprised that Mr. Windsor let it go with a smile. He was getting used to the way people treated Anastasia.
“Very good. Miss Martynova is better than a textbook, class. There is little that I can add, except that this code of conduct will be utterly critical to your life, going forward. Ignorance will not be considered an excuse if you take action outside of the Agreement, and the punishment for violating it is dire. But, do what you will. Now, Eerie,” Mr. Windsor said, turning to and clearly startling the changeling, “can you tell me another function of the Agreement?”
Eerie nodded hopefully, and then her face gradually fell when it became clear that more of a response was required. Eventually, Windsor took pity on her and repeated the question, followed by another long pause while she considered. Alex found the way her forehead wrinkled and her eyebrows scrunched while she thought to be unaccountably endearing.
“Um,” she said, so quietly that Alex could barely hear her, as if she was humming to herself, “well, you know, the government and stuff. The Committee and the Board. All of that.”
“Very good!” Mr. Windsor enthused. “The Agreement does indeed set up the foundation for a formal government in Central, providing centralized rule over the cartels, as well as a mechanism to impart that universal code of conduct Miss Martynova mentioned earlier. And for those of you who subscribe to the notion that this was a bad idea, allow me to remind you that cartel feuds would have killed off the majority of you before you were eighteen, were it not in place. Now, Margot, a third, if you please?”
“The Agreement set out the terms and conditions under which Central could intervene and regulate the affairs of the cartels, and established the Auditors to enforce the Agreement,” Margot responded, sounding no more or less disinterested than she always did.
“Yes,” Mr. Windsor affirmed, nodding in agreement. “This was perhaps the most contentious part of the Agreement, as previously, cartel politics had held precedence over everything else in Central. Before the Agreement…”
Alex tuned out. He couldn’t help it. He just couldn’t see the relevance — other than agreeing to join the Academy, and allowing his Activation, Alex hadn’t been offered too much in the way of options, and he didn’t expect that to change much. After all, no one had bothered to ask him if he wanted nanomachinery injected into his blood in the first place.
Alex was busy stewing over it, when he was jarred from his ruminations by Emily, who pushed her notebook up and sideways on her desk until it was in the field of his vision. He ignored it for a moment, until he realized that the note on the top corner of the page was intended for him.
“If Windsor had told the class in advance,” Emily’s immaculate cursive read, “everyone would have ditched today. Most of us have the Agreement memorized by now.”
Alex pushed his own notebook into place, and then thought about it for a moment, chewing on his pen cap without realizing he had started. He stopped in mute embarrassment when he realized what he was doing.
“Can we still ditch?” Alex wrote hopefully, his own writing a pitiful scrawl next to Emily’s very feminine penmanship.
Emily’s eyes widened, and then she frowned at Alex, who decided to hurriedly return to the notes on Mr. Windsor’s projector. He was blushing furiously, he knew, and he sort of wished he hadn’t asked, even while part of him was still hoping she would agree.
“…that’s right, Choi.” Mr. Windsor continued on cheerfully, unaware or unconcerned with the class’s complete disinterest. “The final intent of the Agreement is to define Central’s relationship with the outside world, establishing the parameters of a unified foreign policy. Please pay special attention to the various ame
ndments here that concern the Society, the Anathema, the Fey, and other associated…”
Emily shrugged, and then smiled weakly at him. Alex felt uncomfortable, as if he had suggested something inappropriate, and he regretted it, a little. He was sure that she would refuse, and why wouldn’t she? Emily actually wanted to go to the Academy, after all. Who was he to interfere, because he was bored? But, he had to admit that he was so very, very tired of homeroom.
“Wait a couple minutes, and then meet me outside by the drinking fountain.”
He hadn’t even noticed her write the note, but it was unmistakably hers, purple pen and a little circle instead of a dot over the lower-case ‘I’. He tried to catch her eyes, but she had already stood up and quietly excused herself, as if she was headed to the bathroom. Alex sincerely hoped that no one but him noticed her blushing as she did so, but the combination of an amused look from Anastasia and an elbow digging into his side from an indignant Vivik disabused him of any such notion.
“Dude, what the hell?” Vivik hissed at him. “What are you doing?”
Alex gave him a lame smile and then went back to staring blankly at Mr. Windsor, doing his best to ignore Vivik’s fuming and Anastasia’s smirk. It was a long four minutes, but that was as much as he could give it. He excused himself as quietly as possible, stepping over Vivik’s legs, ignoring the way the Indian kid looked at him. Vivik’s crush on Emily, Alex told himself firmly, was not his problem.
Emily, he reminded himself on his way out of the classroom, was his problem.
She was waiting for him by the drinking fountain, her smile fragile and uncertain. She looked nervous, and kept sneaking furtive glances back toward the classroom, as if she was worried that Mr. Windsor would come out after them.
“I’m sorry,” he said, walking up to her with his hands buried in his pockets. “I don’t know why I made you do that. All our stuff is still in the classroom, too, so Windsor is bound to notice.”
Emily shook her head, and Alex was fascinated by the motion of her blond ringlets as they bobbed along with the gesture.
“He won’t say anything,” she said, reassuringly, putting her hand on his arm, “and Vivik will collect our stuff at the end of class.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Alex said glumly. “I think he’s probably mad. He likes you a lot, you know?”
Emily sighed and frowned.
“I know, silly. Of course I know.”
She said it gently, but Alex felt like an idiot. Somehow, he couldn’t remember that Emily was empath, she seemed so normal. Of all the people he had met in the Academy, he thought, she was the most like a real person — not that he was entirely sure what he meant by a ‘real person’ in the first place.
“He’s been like that since he showed up, last session. Maybe I shouldn’t have been as friendly with him, but, well,” she fluttered her hands helplessly, “everyone was being so mean to him, what else could I do?”
Emily sighed again, looking unhappy, and Alex racked his brain futilely for a change of subject.
“Anyway, what’s done is done,” Emily said, tightening her grip on his arm and guiding him gently away from the classroom. “We should make the best of it. Let’s go somewhere, okay?”
Alex let himself be led along by her, obliging when she linked their arms. He was very aware that the side of her chest was pressed against his arm as they walked, and he found it difficult to think about anything else. That was probably why he missed it, the first time she asked.
“What?” Alex said, shaking his head and trying to focus on the girl next to him. Or, rather, on her face, and the words she was saying.
“I asked if there was anything you wanted to do,” Emily said, obviously repeating herself.
“Uh, not really,” Alex admitted, “I hadn’t actually thought about it. I’m sorry; this is lame, isn’t it? I just wanted out of there.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Emily said, clutching his arm and snuggling closer. “I don’t mind. I was going to say, that if you don’t have anything in particular that you wanted to do,” she added shyly, “we could go back to my place and hang out. I know it was weird last time, but Therese will be working all day, and she won’t get back till late. I could make us lunch or something…”
Alex might have been slow, he was prepared to admit that, but he wasn’t stupid; at least, he didn’t think that he was stupid. He’d already opened his mouth to agree when he noticed a tall figure in black walking the opposite way on the sidewalk, close enough to them that he could see the toothy grin, and his heart sank, and he didn’t bother to say anything at all. Emily waited for a moment, then nudged him when no response was forthcoming, then finally looked over at him in annoyance, in time to see Alice standing in the path in front of them, arms crossed across the scrawled ‘Emperor’ logo emblazed across her t-shirt, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a broad smile affixed to her face.
“Well, well,” Alice chuckled. “And here I thought I would have to go all the way to Mr. Windsor’s class to find you, Alex Warner. You must have gotten out of class early, huh? And Emily Muir, you must have been helping him find the Administrative building, right?”
“Oh dear,” Emily said, one hand coming up to cover her mouth. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Miss Gallow.”
“Yeah,” Alice agreed tolerantly. “I get that a lot. Thanks for bringing him this far, Emily. If you hurry back, you should have plenty of time to make it back to class before lecture is over.”
“Right,” Emily said, nodding helplessly, then slowly backing away, giving Alex a sad look before she turned away. “Maybe I could bring your books by, later, okay, Alex?”
“Sure,” Alex said, licking his lips nervously, somehow afraid to take his eyes off of Alice Gallow even to say goodbye.
Alice stood there, until Emily was out of sight. Then she slapped Alex’s shoulder and laughed uproariously.
“I’m sorry,” she managed, a minute later, still out of breath. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“That sucked, Miss Gallow,” Alex said, trying like hell not to sound like he was whining. She looked cheerful enough this morning, but Alex couldn’t totally put all the stories he’d heard about Alice Gallow out of his head when he spoke to her, and it made him cautious. “I hope you actually have something you needed to talk to me about.”
Alice laughed again quietly, then walked over to a nearby low wall, and sat down on the sun-warmed stone, patting a space nearby to indicate Alex should also sit. After a moment of ineffectual and half-hearted glaring, he joined her.
“Pretty self-righteous for someone ditching class to get all cozy with Emily,” Alice observed. “But, yes, not to worry, I am not here to waste your valuable time. Have you thought about what we talked about the other day?”
Alex was about to say ‘no’ when he realized that wasn’t strictly true. He had actually given it a great deal of thought, he just hadn’t come to any firm decisions. He didn’t understand Black Protocols, or anything of the kind, so it had been a bit difficult to formulate an opinion. But, he figured that when it came to Alice Gallow, honesty was definitely the best policy.
“Yeah, I did,” he admitted slowly, considering. “But, I’m not really sure that I have an answer for you.”
Alice looked at him with something that was either amusement or contempt. Either way, it made Alex feel profoundly uncomfortable.
“Emily’s a pretty girl, isn’t she?”
Alice asked the question quietly, from behind her inappropriate smile, kicking the heels of her boots against the stone wall as if they were chatting about the weather.
“What?”
The confusion is his voice had already started to change into worry.
“The girl you were just snuggling with. The blond,” Alice reminded him helpfully. “Pretty, right?”
Alex nodded. It seemed like the safest bet, since he didn’t know what he would have said.
“Pretty helpless, too,” Alice con
tinued on blithely. “I truly hate that, you know. So, what would you do if I decided that I hated her so much that I was going to do something about it, Alex?”
“Is this hypothetical,” Alex asked carefully, “or do you actually hate Emily?”
“Does it matter?” Alice’s voice was like ice-water, sending shivers up his back. “What if I wanted to hurt Emily? Would you try and stop me?”
Alex shook his head and inched away from Alice on the wall. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was sure he didn’t like it.
“Could I?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alice said firmly. “Either you would try or you wouldn’t. Nobody’s asking you to succeed.”
“Sure,” Alex said, shrugging and doing his best to look unconcerned. “I mean, if I could, and if you were actually going to do that, then sure, I’d want to stop you.”
Alice patted him on the leg approvingly and stood back up. Just like that, the threatening atmosphere dissipated.
“Good enough for me. We were going to put you through the Program no matter what, truthfully, but I’m glad to hear you’re willing. You should probably go back to class, now. Still plenty of time.”
“That isn’t what I meant when I said…”
Alice put a finger up to her lips.
“Shh. How else you gonna stop me, Alex? A strongly worded letter? Make a call to your member of Congress?”
“Wait,” Alex said, scratching his head, “you said something about putting me in a program, right? What are you talking about?”
“Not a program. The Program. You’ll find out tomorrow in your Applied Combat Fundamentals class,” Alice said, walking off, waving without looking back. “Say hi to Mitzi for me.”
Alex watched her walk away, dumbfounded. It was a minute or so before it all clicked into place for him. He was, of course, doomed. But, Alex found that he was still confused on at least one significant point.
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