Cam’s smiling face is in the upper left corner. A short message glows on the screen. “Mr. Tang took me to get our supplies from our lean-to. Ask Anja if it’s all right if I move everything to our house.”
“Why didn’t he ping my tablet?”
Kai shrugs. “I tried your tablet before too and it wouldn’t let me. Maybe check your settings?”
I nod. “I’ll do that after class. Go ahead and tell him I say it’s all right.” My stomach does flip flops as I think about the pictures, books, and personal items stored among the food and toiletries. All that’s left of Mom. I blink back tears and look down at my desk.
Kai settles his hand on mine, and I look up.
“It’s nice that we don’t have to worry about anyone in your camp harming my parents while they help Cam move your stuff.”
“If anything, they’ll be mobbed with hugs.” I smile. I hated living down in Hells Canyon in our soggy tent all these years, but I’m now realizing that the people we lived with down there were more like family. I find I miss them, as well. “They appreciate all the assistance your family has given them over the last few weeks.”
Kai grins. “My mom is determined to adopt the whole camp.”
“They might need a bigger house.”
The lights flash red. I turn in my seat, letting go of Kai’s hand. Our professor walks to the front of the room to start class. I take out my tablet and start taking notes.
Halfway through class I feel someone watching me. I glance over my shoulder and spot Josh a few rows behind glaring at me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I quickly look away. Maybe Rand is right. Maybe there’s more to it than just Josh’s issue with leadership. I frown and try to concentrate on the rest of class.
I don’t move once class is over. I’m staring at my tablet. In the settings for messages it says, “Locked by Security.”
“What’s wrong?” Kai places a warm hand on my shoulder.
I scoot the tablet to the edge of my desk. Kai kneels next to me.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” I look up at Rand. “Do you have a block on your messages?”
He takes out his tablet and runs his fingers over it. He tilts it toward me. “Nope.” His screen shows several messages from professors, unread.
I raise an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t you read those?”
He shrugs. “I’ll get to it tonight. But what are we going to do about yours? You need to be able to get messages from teachers as well.”
“And Cam.” I look at Kai.
“So, where do we find security?” he asks.
I look up at Rand who grins. “Not sure if they can help, but let’s go.” He hurries past us.
Kai stands up, and I shove my tablet into my backpack and follow. The corridor is packed with students heading out of their classes for the day. I grab Kai’s hand and we follow Rand easily with his head bobbing above everyone else.
He turns down a corridor lit with a deep blue strip light, darker than the residential light markers. There are only a few students in this area, and they’re all dressed in black with the triangle logo. Security interns. Just like Josh and Alex.
My stomach twists, and I wonder if Rand has made that connection yet.
Rand leads us down a few more corridors as we follow the blue lights. He hesitates before a set of double doors then pushes through.
4
Security
We step inside what can only be described as a very dark and creepy room. The walls are almost black, and the only pieces of furniture are a few black metal chairs and a tall reception desk. Behind it sits a girl with a suspicious gaze, her dark hair pulled back into a severe ponytail. She’s lit up by a single light, the only lighting in the dim room.
“Can I help you?” she asks.
I step forward. “I need to talk to someone about a lock on my tablet.” I hold it out so she can read the message.
“Have you been disciplined or had an academic suspension?” she asks.
“No, of course not.”
She takes the tablet, and something flashes through her features as she taps a few commands. She hands it back quickly and turns to the glass top computer embedded into her desk. “Have a seat and the Director will be right with you.”
I look at Kai and Rand. They look as confused as I am. We all perch on the uncomfortable seats until a door opens and a tall man steps out.
“Anja Toland?”
I stand. “Yes.”
“Come on back.” He hesitates. “Are they with you?” His eyes drill into Kai and Rand.
“Yes, they’re my friends.”
“Come on back, then.” He shakes all of our hands as he leads us down a bright white corridor. I squint until my eyes get used to the light.
At the end of the short hallway there’s a door with a bio pad. He turns back to us. “Each one of you needs to identify yourselves before stepping through the door.”
We take turns placing our hands on the bio pad.
I’m surprised to find a room full of plants and trees that reach to the ceiling. There are two doors leading off in opposite directions. We sit down in chairs in front of what looks like a real wooden desk.
“I’m Director Cregg. What can I do for you?”
“This office is amazing, sir,” I say, my attention still on all greenery surrounding us.
“Thank you. Plants are an excellent source of fresh oxygen.” He steeples his hands together and looks at me with his piercing blue eyes.
I swallow. “Yes. Well, I wanted to talk to you about this,” I say and hand him my tablet.
He studies it, his eyebrows knitting together. He taps a few commands on it, then puts it down quickly. Just like the receptionist did. His fingers fly over his computer. He shakes his head. “This is strange.”
“Strange? How so?” I squeak out.
He looks up. “Your tablet has been locked by someone at the Space Intelligence Academy.”
“SIA? I’m not even applying there.” Security and spy stuff are not jobs I’m interested in. Especially after meeting Josh.
“I’m going to scrub your tablet. All of your schoolwork and data will be saved offsite, so you won’t lose anything. All right?”
I nod.
He puts in a few commands and hands my tablet back. “There, try it now.”
I open up my messages and find it full. I open the first one. It opens normally, without any errors. “Seems to be working now. Thank you, sir.”
“Let me know if that block comes back. In the meantime, I’ll try to track down exactly where it came from.”
“Yes, sir.” I stand and leave the room with Kai and Rand right behind me. Once back in the corridor I wait for them to catch up.
“Weird, right?” I ask them.
“Very strange. The Director even looked surprised by it,” says Rand.
A shiver goes up my spine. “Nothing here has gone as I expected.” I glance at Kai. “I guess I worked for so many years to get to the academy, and this isn’t exactly how I imagined it. I thought it would be like being in heaven or the perfect home away from home.”
“I can understand that. I came over here with my family to live in New China as royal citizens. Now I’m an outcast from my own country. Not quite what I counted on either.”
I squeeze his hand. “Sorry.”
He squeezes back. “Don’t be sorry. I just mean sometimes life doesn’t work out like we expect. No matter how much we plan and schedule.” He grins and tugs me down the corridor.
When we get to the main corridor, it’s still full of students. Kai pulls me closer as we follow the light blue lights back to the dorms. Rand sticks close, surveying the crowd as we walk.
We get to the common area and sink down into the fluffy couches. We’re the only ones here. I lean my head on Kai’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Before you two get all comfortable, let’s get dressed for the track.”
Kai puts his arm around me. “I thought you liked running.”
I look up into his smiling face. “It’s a little different here. You won’t be smiling once you’ve gone a few laps.”
He looks between Rand and me.
Rand jumps up and heads toward his dorm. “Come on, Kai, we’ll show you.”
Kai follows Rand and I head into my dorm.
Once in my room I check my tablet. As I swipe past all the professor’s messages that I’ll need to read later, my eye catches on one with just one name. “Anonymous.”
I frown and try to open the message, but it just blinks and disappears.
Very strange. Other than a few notifications from when Kai and Cam tried to message me, there’s nothing else out of the ordinary. I decide I’ll have to catch up with my professor’s messages when I get back from our workout.
I place the tablet on the charger and hurry to get dressed. Once in my gym uniform, I grab the weighted pack, and tuck the tablet in a side pocket.
Rand and Kai are already out in the common area. Kai looks uncomfortable, adjusting his pack.
“Ready?”
“You’re really not going to tell me why I’m wearing this?”
“Nope,” says Rand.
I grin. “You’ll find out soon enough.” I grab his hand and we start down the corridor.
I look up as a group of students comes toward us. I grit my teeth as I spot the raven dark curls of Josh and the bright red hair of Alex. If Alex wasn’t mixed up with Josh, I might’ve taken a liking to him, seeing as there aren’t too many other redheads around. I’ve noticed when Alex isn’t with Josh, Alex is much more relaxed and social. Makes me wonder why they’re friends.
I squeeze Kai’s hand tight, despite my palms sweating. I hug the wall in hopes we’ll just be able to slip by the group.
No such luck.
Their group fans out, taking up the whole corridor. When we reach them, we have to stop.
“Going running with your boyfriends?” asks Josh. He crosses his arms and laughs. He glances at the others and they laugh with him.
I place my free hand out to hold Rand back. “Some of us take our studies here seriously. Maybe you should as well so you have some chance of getting somewhat close to our scores.”
Josh’s face tints pink. I start planning my exit strategy as his expression darkens.
Alex steps in front of Josh. “We heard your Chinese friend here was late coming to school because he was tortured by his own people.” He glances back at the group as they laugh with him.
I gaze over the group and find Katrina and Sam at the back, neither one smiling. Well that’s something at least. I look at Alex as Kai gives my hand a tight squeeze. “You might want to think twice before you spread rumors about something you know nothing about, Alex.” I push Rand ahead of me and the three of us cut through the crowd before Alex can reply.
As I pass Katrina and Sam, I nod to them. I can’t be sure because it was so quick, but I think Katrina smiled before turning back to the group.
Rand cusses under his breath as we follow the corridor to the lift. Kai hasn’t said a word. When we get to the top of the building and are standing in front of the outer hatch to the track, I pull Kai to the side. I look over at Rand. “We’ll be there in a minute.” He nods and disappears into the compression room.
As Rand cycles through I lean close to Kai. “Are you all right?”
His face is lined with sorrow. “I thought what happened down there was supposed to be classified.”
“It is. There’s obviously been some kind of security breach for Alex to know that. The commander never mentioned your name, where you’re from, or that you’d been tortured. Those are all things he shouldn’t know about that situation.”
Kai sighs and leans back against the wall. “Alex is the son of the Space Intelligence Academy’s commander.”
I clamp my mouth shut and look away. Well that’s not good. I look back up at Kai. “But there’s no way the SIA commander would jeopardize his position to give his son classified information. Right?”
“Unless he doesn’t know Alex accessed it.”
“True.”
The sound of students coming out of the lift on our level has me moving. “Let’s go,” I say as I push the button to open the hatch.
Kai follows me into the room, and I cycle the door shut. He looks all around as the computer equalizes us to zero-G. We both reach for the handholds on the wall as we become lighter and lighter.
“Seriously? The track is in zero-G?”
I smile. “Remember all those times they made us run in our space suits?”
Kai adjusts his pack. “So, our school track times here are dependent on us running in zero-G with weighted packs?”
“Yes. Think you can keep up?”
Kai pushes off from the wall and tackles me until we bump into the other wall. He places a hand on either side of my face and kisses me. My whole body tingles.
The lights in the room glow green as the track hatch cycles open.
I grin as my eyes focus on Kai’s handsome face. “I’ll take that as you’re terribly afraid I’ll beat you by a long shot.”
He grins as I push off from the wall, shoving him backward.
“No, that just means I love you.”
My heart skips a beat, and I freeze in place. Kai’s smile fade as he realizes what he’s just said.
“I-I’m sorry.”
I pull him back toward me and wrap my arms around him, both of us floating in place. “Only be sorry if you didn’t mean it, Kai.”
His gaze is intense as we float inches from each other. “Of course, I meant it,” he says, his voice deep with emotion. “I just don’t want to rush you or push you away.”
“You haven’t. And you won’t.” I lean in and kiss him again.
Two sharp electronic beeps cut through the air. I groan. “We need to get on the track so the others can cycle through.”
I help Kai out to the side of the track and advise him on how to orient himself on the five lane zero-G track. I’m not sure how much he listens to me since he’s gawking at the sight of the stars out the glass ceiling. A space station floats by, seemingly way too close, but then just disappears overhead.
I’m even awed by the sight, and I’ve been here every night for the last few weeks.
“Must be one of the low orbit stations studying Earth’s diminishing natural resources.” Kai points to where it disappeared.
I glance behind us as we get settled in our lane. “Next quarter we’ll start zero-G obstacle training.” I point to the middle of the track where the empty space has several old satellites and metal bots floating in different states of repair.
“Can’t wait.” There’s a gleam in Kai’s eyes that I haven’t seen since before the attack. I grin.
We wait until Rand is in sight behind us before I give Kai the signal to go.
After a few side steps, Kai gets his balance and leans into the zero-G. I grin as he matches my stride. Rand comes up along next to us.
“What took you guys so long? I’ve already lapped you.” Out here on the track is where Rand seems the happiest. I can understand that. I love the freedom of running and stretching muscles that are sore from sitting all day.
We run silently side by side for one lap. When we come around back by the hatch, we spot Josh and Alex and the rest of their group climbing onto the track. Rand curses and puts on speed, putting more distance from them as we hurry past the group. Josh and Alex are laughing at something, but I ignore them.
Kai soon pushes himself, and I do the same to match his speed.
“Are you sure you’re all right to do this?” I ask him, a bit out of breath. I shove away images of him bleeding in my arms.
He looks over with a smile on his handsome face. “Yes. This feels great, actually.”
I grin back and we continue, making sure to stay ahead of Josh’s group.
When we
finish, the three of us cycle through the hatch, sweaty, out of breath, but grinning.
“That was great,” Kai says as we close the final hatch behind us.
“I wasn’t sure you could go the whole way. It’s only been three weeks since we left you at the hospital,” says Rand.
I glance over at Kai. “Yes, you were in pretty bad shape. I’m glad you were able to get such good medical care.” A wave of sadness flows through me as I remember that horrible week.
Kai opens his mouth and takes in a breath, apparently about to say something, when my tablet pings.
I turn so he can get it out of my pack’s side pocket.
When I turn back Kai’s face is pale as he looks down at my tablet.
5
Grissom
I step toward Kai. “What’s wrong?”
He silently hands me the tablet. “I didn’t mean to read your message. It was already open.”
I take the tablet and look down. “Anonymous” again. This time the message doesn’t disappear. I read it several times before looking back up.
“What’s that all about?” whispers Kai.
“What does it say?” asks Rand as he steps closer to us.
I look at Rand. “It says it’s from Anonymous. And whoever it is has paid for my mother to be buried at the Gus Grissom National Space Cemetery. They’ve already moved her body.”
Rand stares at me, his eyes wide. “But–”
“I know. We already buried her out at the old Hells Canyon cemetery.” I start walking.
Kai and Rand each flank me.
“It’s an amazing honor to be buried at the Grissom, but can someone do that?” asks Rand.
I glance at him. “I didn’t think so. Whoever they are. If I could’ve afforded it, I would’ve buried her back there. But I couldn’t. As it was, my teachers and friends all donated to help me bury her at the canyon.” I grind my back teeth as I hurry down the corridor.
“Where are you going?” Kai slips his hand into mine and squeezes.
I glance over at him and smile weakly. “Security said if it happened again to go back so they can trace it. This time the message didn’t disappear.”
Earthlight Space Academy Boxset Page 22