I had to be someone else altogether or I wasn’t going to survive.
Chapter Three
“’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” The English teacher, Ms. Swann, leaned against the front of her desk, looking across the classroom. “Can anyone tell me who wrote that?”
“Shakespeare,” someone piped up.
“Guess again,” the teacher said.
Beside me, Lauren Wilson looked around the class as if she didn’t want to answer, then said, “Lord Alfred Tennyson.”
“Thank you, Lauren.” The teacher’s shoulders relaxed with relief, and she added, “Sometimes I wonder what I’m going to do with the rest of you. Tennyson is saying that if you loved and it ended badly, it was still worth the pain. That to love and be hurt is better than to never have experienced love at all. Such is the power of love.” She added with a smile, “He didn’t say that last bit. You can put that quote down to Lisa Swann.”
The starry look in her eyes told me she was trying to connect with the students, to pass on her enjoyment of literature, to make us appreciate it. Her sentiments may have been noble but as I looked around at the bored faces in the class, I didn’t fancy her chances.
Lauren leaned across and whispered, “Tennyson’s words are so moving.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Really?”
“I only wish I could come up with stuff like that.”
Just as I was wondering why, the bell rang and Ms. Swann asked Lauren to stay behind for a few moments. Meanwhile I was out of there along with everyone else in the class. In the hallway I caught up with Simone and Taylor who’d been sitting behind us in English.
They said hello, then promptly ignored me, having an in-depth gossip about people I didn’t know. Even though people-I-didn’t-know was a large group, I thought they could’ve been a bit friendlier. Was this what happened when people were ‘cool’?
Someone sidled up to me. The wolf whistler. He was grinning, so I smiled back because I needed all the friends I could get. Besides, he might know Ben Tanner well or have expertise and information in another area that could help me.
“Nicola Gray,” I said.
“I know,” he replied as we walked. “The bit where the English teacher said, ‘Would you please welcome the new girl, Nicola Gray’ was a bit of a giveaway. I’m Rex Anderson.”
“Nice to meet you, Rex.”
There was a sparkle in his eye. “You don’t know that yet, whereas I’ve seen a lot more of you than you have of me.”
I was never going to live this down. I decided not to give him a hard time about wolf whistling. Better to change the subject.
“Well, you’re talking to me which is something, I guess,” I said.
“And it’s not so bad.”
“So far, so good.”
I stopped in front of my locker and shoved my books inside. No sign of Lauren. Rex was still hanging around.
He sidled up close to me, his hand on my shoulder. “I’d like to see more of you.”
His lips had parted as if he was about to start drooling. Not a good look. My eyes narrowed. Something told me this wasn’t going to go well.
“There’s a lot more you could show me,” he said.
His hand dropped to my breast. I lowered my gaze to my chest. What did he think he was doing?
My training cut in. Don’t hurt him. Not too much, anyway. I stepped in, wrapped my arm around the front of his neck, nudged my leg to the back of his knee and threw him to the ground.
He landed on his butt, his books dropping to the floor though luckily his laptop made a soft landing on top of them.
“Are you crazy?” he muttered.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to show you?” I asked.
He lifted a hand, his face contorting to a scowl. “No, I’m sorry. I thought you were up for it.”
“You thought wrong.” I raised my eyebrows. “Is there anything else that’s up?”
He scuttled back. “No, it’s down. Everything’s down.”
A small crowd had gathered. A boy to one side laughed while two girls clapped. Ben Tanner stood beside them, a bemused smile on his face. This was definitely not going to plan. I didn’t want to create another spectacle or hurt Rex but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Talk about useless.
Rex was already getting to his feet. Head down, I stepped out of his way, picked up his books and laptop, and passed them to him. He brushed down the front of his pants and begrudgingly took his belongings.
“Look, let’s just forget about this,” I said quietly.
“Whatever. I’m outta here.”
I saw the other kids moving on too but was too shy to check what Ben was doing. Since when had I become timid? This wasn’t like me at all.
Shoving a folder into my bag, I closed the locker.
Deep breaths. The hardest part of the day was over. I could leave these errors behind me. All I had to do now was get home and deal with my family, except judging by the mistakes I’d made already, that could potentially be extremely difficult. I had to keep my wits about me.
I turned to see Ben Tanner standing in front of me, his backpack over his shoulders, hands on his hips, his eyes on mine.
He was looking at me.
The book I was holding flew out of my hand, my phone slipped from my fingers and my bag dropped to the floor.
“Hold on,” he said. “I’ll help.”
One thing I’d never been was a helpless female, but I just stood there with my mouth open while Ben handed me my things. I put the loose items into my backpack, slung it over my shoulders and pushed a few stray strands of hair behind my ears.
He gestured toward the door. “Are you heading off now, Nicola?”
“Yes,” I said as we walked down the hall.
He knew my name. Had he asked around? No, most likely the science teacher had said it in class and Ben remembered. Not that it was important, far from it.
“You’ve made a big bang on your first day.” He smiled, probably to put me at ease. It was the sort of smile people described as disarming, one that’d have other girls eating out of the palm of his hand. Not me, though.
“It’s not like you think,” I said. “What happened with Mr. Matthews was just a mix-up and it was mostly his fault. I was only doing what I was told.”
“Whoa, I haven’t heard about this. What happened with Mr. Matthews?”
I looked straight ahead. “Nothing.”
A group of kids barged in front of us, causing a distraction, and we edged our way out of the front gates.
Ben pointed up the street. “You heading this way?”
“Yep.” Maybe I was getting better at sounding like everyone else, after all.
“Good, then we can walk together,” he said.
“Sure.”
Ben’s brow furrowed. “So, that striptease in the hallway earlier, what was that all about?”
“Well, it was…a dare,” I said.
“A dare?” He didn’t sound convinced.
“Sure. It earned me twenty bucks.”
“Sorry about Rex. The guy’s an idiot. We’re not all like him. Some of us have a brain.”
“I’m sure Rex has a brain,” I said. “He just let himself get ruled by his emotions and base urges.”
Ben stopped, raised his eyebrows. “You sound like a human biology textbook.”
How did he know where I’d got the information?
“I just meant he shouldn’t have done that,” I said. “He shouldn’t have grabbed my breast.”
“You’re absolutely right.” Ben put his hands up. “And I am absolutely not going to grope you.”
“No, I didn’t think you would.”
Ben was certainly a healthy specimen. I’d already gathered in science class that he was into sport. I could tell from the way his shirt hung from his shoulders that he’d built up his pectorals and carried a fair amount of muscle. These were observations only. I wasn’t like R
ex with his ‘base urges’.
“Good,” Ben said. “Glad we’ve got that clear.”
Nothing was clear. I couldn’t even remember what we were talking about.
In New Nation, I’d been extremely focused when it came to the mission, my role, my purpose in life. Now I’d arrived in Altabena, my brain was turning to mush and I was having difficulty working out the simplest things. What’s more, no one else seemed to be having the same trouble.
“And if I ever need anyone to beat up Rex Anderson, you’ll be the first person I’ll call,” Ben added.
“I wouldn’t want to beat him up,” I said. “I don’t believe in unprovoked violence.”
He stared at me. “I was joking.”
I stared right back. “So was I.”
The look on his face told me he didn’t believe me. “By the way, that stuff the other kids came up with about me being a gigolo, that’s not really me.”
“Really? Then what’s you?”
He spread his hands. “I’m just a regular guy.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute!”
The words tumbled out before I could stop them. Ben laughed. At least he wasn’t insulted.
I cleared my throat. “I mean, usually when someone gets teased, there’s a grain of truth behind it.”
“Nah, I don’t think that’s it.” He stopped at the corner, holding my gaze as he spoke. “You do things your own way. You don’t mind being different.”
But I did mind. A lot.
Ben’s fingers brushed the bare skin of my arm as he turned and left to join a group of boys ahead. It made me strangely warm inside, only for a moment, though that was a moment too long. I thought about following him home but decided it could wait. There were other ways to obtain more information and his address.
Meeting my target was much more nerve-wracking than I’d expected. People here seemed to make decisions based on their feelings but that kind of thing didn’t happen any more.
I was from the future. We knew better.
Where I came from in New Nation in 2120, everyone knew emotions were base urges to be overridden. The country was dotted with Badlands where those who’d been struck with the killer virus and survived still lived. These unfortunate forms of life were still human only with mutations, one of which was strange telepathic powers they used to impose feelings on the rest of us.
We all had some level of emotion within us, however the folk in the Badlands worked on this weakness, intensifying these feelings and skewing our judgment. Emotions couldn’t be trusted, unlike the power of the mind.
I kept walking home, watching as Ben and his friends ahead of me turned a corner so they were out of view.
In the future, Ben Tanner was going to create a deadly virus that would devastate the Earth’s population. Billions of lives would be lost, and I could save them. That was why I’d been sent here.
All I had to do was dispose of Ben Tanner.
Before I’d arrived, I had experienced subtle feelings. I was human and could be imperfect. Still, I’d always managed to keep my emotions in check and had certainly never let them take over, but these latest feelings were much stronger than anything I’d encountered before.
My mission was suddenly more complicated. It was one thing to consider eliminating someone who was going to be a mass murderer in the future, and it was another when the guy came across as a good person.
I liked him. How had that happened?
It made my task harder.
Harder but not impossible.
I couldn’t fail when so many lives depended on it.
Chapter Four
The back door was unlocked so I walked straight in. I’d never had a family before, or a home for that matter, and wasn’t sure what to expect after this morning.
“I’m in here, honey,” someone called out from the kitchen.
I dropped my bag by the door and slumped onto one of the chairs at the table. Who would’ve thought a day at school would be this exhausting?
Mother turned from the kitchen bench. “Waiting for me to serve you, as usual?”
“Is that okay?” I hoped I didn’t sound rude but was uncertain what to do.
“It’s lucky for you I’ve just put the coffee on.”
“Lucky for me there are muffins too.”
I reached for one from a platter on the center of the table, and took a bite. Still warm from the oven, they were chocolate with white chocolate chips. How decadent. It made me wonder if these muffins had been baked especially for me, a thought that only made me nervous.
By the sink, Mother poured coffee from a French press into two mugs and added milk. While she rinsed the plunger, I got up and placed the mugs on the table, earning a smile for my efforts.
She joined me at the table. “How was school today?”
“It was okay, pretty boring really.” I’d been fairly sure that was the sort of thing a parent would ask so I’d rehearsed the lines already.
“Did you meet anyone?”
“A girl called Lauren, a couple of others.”
“That’s a good start,” she said. “You can’t expect things to fall into place immediately. This is a new town for Dad and me too. We’re both starting new jobs. All three of us are in the same boat.”
I could see why the Grays had been chosen as my ‘parents’. The timing was perfect. No one knew them here, so the sudden appearance of a teenage daughter wouldn’t seem odd.
My superiors had arranged for computer chips to be implanted in their brains, creating my presence in their lives and giving them memories of raising a child to the age of seventeen. I hadn’t been given the same chip because my mind had to be on the mission, not on this imaginary family.
Other items had been planted for me here too, from clothing to paperwork and a birth certificate so I could be officially enrolled at school, though the authorities had forgotten to send the vitamin supplements we all took. An oversight.
It amazed me that they could plant computer chips into the past with such precision, yet they’d used the wrong coordinates for my landing this morning so I ended up in the park.
Apparently smaller items were easier to transport, and the transfer of organic matter – such as human beings – was infinitely more complex. What’s more, it was even more difficult to bring things back so the authorities were still finalizing the program for my return trip. I had to wait for confirmation that they could do so and then I’d have to eliminate my target as soon as they gave the go-ahead.
“Is that a newspaper?” I asked, reaching across.
In New Nation, information was distributed electronically by government agencies. This morning was the first time I’d seen a hard copy newspaper.
“Looks that way,” Mother said. “It’s the local suburban paper.”
The headline read, No High Rise for Altabena. It appeared that local residents were objecting to dual high rise towers planned for the site of an existing community center on the basis that the project was unnecessary and out of character with the surroundings. The township authorities had knocked back the development, however State Ruler Harrison Bartley recently rescinded the decision, giving approval for the project to go ahead.
I frowned. “It states that local residents object to Bartley’s decision.”
“Yes.” Mother pointed to the newspaper. “There are plenty of letters to the editor about it and a protest rally is being planned.”
“But that can’t be right. How can these people say they don’t want something when the State Ruler has sanctioned it?”
Mother gave me the same stare Lauren had earlier today when she’d looked at me as if I was an idiot. “Nicola, have you seen any other thirty story office blocks in Altabena?”
“No.”
“Well, maybe the proposed development is out of character.” She shook her head knowingly. “This sort of thing has been going on for a while and in other towns too.”
“Really?”
“Las
t year, they changed the law so that State Ruler Bartley and the government has the legal right to do almost anything they want.”
“Is that so bad?” I asked. “Isn’t it the government’s job to get things done?”
“They’re supposed to serve the people.” She stopped, a puzzled look on her face. “When did you become so interested in current affairs?”
This wasn’t current affairs. It was history, though certainly not the history I’d been taught at school.
In New Nation, humanity had endured a deadly virus, increasingly erratic weather and a series of disasters, few of which had been natural. But people had survived. Thrived, in fact, thanks to the Bartley government, its strict regime and thorough overhaul of society. New Nation wouldn’t have survived without the government. And society – or what was left of it – had welcomed the rules and changes.
These people around me had no idea what was coming. No idea at all.
“I was only asking,” I said.
Mother was warm and encouraging as we finished our coffee and muffins, which only reminded me I didn’t belong here. This wasn’t like the military college where I’d been raised, where they knew me, where Lucien was waiting. He was special, much more than just my captain. He was my reason for being here and I couldn’t possibly let him down.
Mother stood. “I’m just popping out to the store, honey. Can you please tidy the kitchen?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Tidy up? Because I’m a girl?”
She waited a moment. “No, because you live here.”
“Oh. I’ve got homework.”
Mother put her hands on her hips. “The two things aren’t mutually exclusive, you know. You can clean up first, then do your homework.”
“But…” I began.
“No buts. It’s time you did more around the house and became a bit more capable. I start my new job in a month and you’ll need to help out by cooking dinner from time to time.”
“Me?”
“Perhaps something along the lines of spaghetti bolognaise.”
Never show fear. It was one of the first principles I’d been taught in combat training.
“I should be able to manage that,” I said with great confidence though I’d never cooked anything so complex. I could hunt small animals and even larger game. Once, I’d even shot a wild boar that had fed the entire regiment, and I could start a fire in nearly any conditions.
Infiltration (Infiltration Book 1) Page 3