The line went dead and Broadbent replaced the receiver in its cradle. His orders weighed heavily on him. He was from the local area originally, which was why he had been assigned to ‘the Conwy farce’ – as he’d been privately calling this mission for weeks.
He had joined MI5 as a fresh-faced university graduate with the naïve assumption that he would boldly save the nation from all that sought to cause harm. Twenty years later his outlook had changed. Now, he just sucked up whatever they threw at him and got on with things as best as he could. One shady mission after another had left his shining armor tarnished, to say the least.
Kidnapping innocent British citizens, that was a new low. Involving children always made him feel sick to his stomach but that was the way his duty went sometimes.
He sighed as he left the office, making sure the door was locked behind him before heading for the briefing room.
CHAPTER EIGHT
United Kingdom, North Wales, Conwy Castle, Labs
The underground manufacturing floor thrummed loudly with the noise of the workers shutting down the production line. Ron’s guess had been mostly correct—the production was handled by robots, but the robots were fully controlled by humans.
Tina stood with Ron, and Aleksi at a workbench near the machine Jean was working on, taking notes. Jean had clipped a tiny camera to her lapel and set it to send a live feed to the students’ tablets so they could get a close-up of the problem.
“Hey,” Aleksi called to Halli as she walked by, but she didn't make eye contact or reply—just skimmed her gaze over them as she took in the details of the room on her way through.
“It’s weird that they won’t talk to us,” he complained. Even Craig had abandoned his joker act, doing nothing to distract Jean or her class from their work.
Tina, who was used to bodyguards, reassured him. “If they’re chatting, their focus isn’t on their job.”
“I still find it strange,” was all Aleksi had to say.
“Pass me the Allen keys, one of you,” Jean shouted from under the chassis of the huge assembly robot. “Gott Verdammt British engineering. Who decided that this was a better system than a simple wrench?”
Tina grabbed the bunch of hex keys from the tool cart beside the workbench and slid them along the floor toward her teacher. “Is the whole compartment bolted down with them, Ms. Dukes?”
“You know, the Allen key was invented by an American,” Ron whispered conspiratorially behind his hand to Tina, who just shook her head slowly at him.
A muffled curse came from underneath the chassis. Jean slid out a moment later, covered in dust and cobwebs. “You do know that I can still hear you when you whisper, Mr. Diamantz.”
Ron blushed at being called out.
Jean was too preoccupied with the tool cart to chastise him any further. “And yes, Tina. Worse, not one of those keys fits, so I’m going to take my trusty hammer and persuade them that it’s in their best interest to cooperate.” She slid back underneath the silent machine and removed the problem the old-fashioned way. “Elbow grease,” she called between the clangs. “And engineering.”
Aleksi spoke up. “If you don’t have what you need, change what you have to fit the purpose.”
“Exactly, Aleksi.” Jean praised the boy from underneath the machine. “And if that doesn’t work, hit it really hard a few times. The screen wobbled as she hit the protruding bolts one at a time with the claw end of her hammer. Each blow landed precisely, shearing the heads of the bolts clean off. “That is an excellent use of my enhanced strength,” she chuckled.
The view on the screen steadied as Jean eased the There was a rattle and another clang as the access panel finally came free in her hand. “What the… This is worse than I thought. Zoom in on your screens and tell me what you see, kids.”
“Oh, geez,” Ron said in a pained voice. “Looks like someone rigged a foam canister to go off in there.”
Tina zoomed in on the bright orange hard-as-concrete expanding foam almost completely covering the inside of the compartment. “It’s a mess!”
Jean concurred. “It’s going to take me a while to get this operational again. Lucky for you this is not class with BMW. I got with the program and prepared a little something for you to do if there was a day like this. Open your tablet menu and select the app named ‘Bootstrapping.’ You may as well have some fun while I’m busy.”
Tina opened the app and began exploring the menu. “This is cool!”
“What’s this for, Ms. Dukes?” Ron asked. “It looks like a game.”
“It is a game!” Aleksi cheered.
“It’s not a game, Aleksi,” Jean corrected him. “Well, it’s not just a game. It’s a battle simulation. The aim is to work as a team to manage your resources and defend your base against attack. I’ll be done in a couple of hours or so.”
“Cool!” Ron skipped through the available scenarios. “Looks like we can change the difficulty level, and the location, too. No way! It’s the Meredith Reynolds!”
Tina glanced up from reading the instructions. “That’s a challenging one. The scenarios are all ‘Star Journey’ or ‘Galaxy Battles’ fanfics made up by BMW. We should choose one of the Earth locations for our first try. They’re all based on historical events, sort of.”
“What about this one?” Ron showed them another scenario. “I know a lot about Gettysburg.”
Aleksi typed furiously. “One minute. I have something else that I think you’ll both like.” He sent them each an attachment to download. “I just need to load the plans and inventory for this facility into the game. What do you think?”
Tina opened the castle layout on her tablet. “I like the idea, but there’s no defense tech here. What are we supposed to defend it with?”
They all heard Jean laugh. “That’s why it’s called ‘Bootstrapping’. You have to build your defenses using the facility’s inventory. Good job, Aleksi! You kids enjoy yourselves, now.”
They had already turned their attention to the game.
***
Maxim shook his head fondly as he passed them on his patrol a while later. He admired the way the three of them could completely absorb themselves in a problem. Nestor was the same—the same dreamy expression passed over his cousin’s face whenever an idea popped into his head. Maxim admired their ability to lose themselves, even if he didn't want to be that way himself. He could never allow himself to be so unaware of his surroundings.
Today’s lesson in forward planning and preparation trickled through his mind as he walked the stone corridors, his steps echoing softly from the high walls. The castle’s refurbishment team hadn’t managed to extend the cheery atmosphere to the connecting corridors between the labs in the lower levels of the castle. Despite the plush carpets and wall tapestries, the cold sea wind still leached through the outer walls. He heard a hushed voice from up ahead that he would have missed without his enhanced hearing. It was Doctor Llewellyn, and she sounded distressed. He hurried on silent feet to the door he heard her voice coming from, which was ajar. He listened for a moment to make sure he wasn’t disturbing a private disagreement.
Doctor Llewellyn hissed quietly into the smartphone in her hand, “I’m not going to do that!” There was a pause while the other person spoke. “Look, I can’t do it any faster than I am without getting caught, and I haven’t told anyone!” Maxim heard a sad sigh. “Ok. I understand. I’ll do the last one as soon as I get a chance. Don’t… Just don’t, okay? I’ll do it.”
Maxim held in a gasp. Who was on the other end of the phone, and what did they want Doctor Llewellyn to do? Was she involved with the saboteurs? Why would she refuse to follow orders if she was one of them? Perhaps the person on the other end of the call was threatening her in some way.
Maxim was torn, unsure what he should do. He couldn’t go to John or Jean with his suspicions, not yet. He couldn’t accuse an esteemed TQB scientist of colluding with the enemy without hard evidence.
He crept away fro
m the door and resumed his patrol. This would have to wait until tonight, when he could discuss it with the others.
United Kingdom, North Wales, Conwy Castle, King’s Tower, Student Dormitory
There was a heavenly aroma in the air as the students piled into the dormitory at the end of the day—real Earth food. Tina thought the smell rivaled even Chef Van’s cooking.
Doctor Llewellyn stood at the kitchenette counter with John, emptying the contents of ten pizza boxes onto plates. Ice-cold bottles of sugar-free soda stood on the draining board, dripping condensation onto the towel beneath them.
“Pizza!” Tina rushed over to the counter with the others to grab a soda and her plate of cheesy deliciousness and a hug from her uncle.
“This one’s yours, Teeny.” John grinned, pushing one of the plates toward her. “Plain cheese, just how you always have it.”
Tina let go of John and took the plate from him, then went over to sit at the table with Maxim, who was sitting alone and brooding. The pizza filled the plate from edge to edge, and was cut in handy squares. She picked a slice up eagerly, watching the hot cheese stretch with anticipation.
The cheese finally broke, and she blew on the slice before taking a big bite. “Mmmm,” she said when she’d finished chewing. “Just how I like it. There’s nothing like cheese pizza done well.”
“I’ll tell the guys at the Bay Grill you said so,” Doctor Llewellyn said from the kitchenette with a wink.
Maxim looked up at the sound of her voice, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Tina didn’t miss it. “What’s up, Maxim?”
He avoided her questioning gaze, speaking so quietly she could barely hear him. “Not now, Tina. Wait until lights out, then we can talk. Bring Ron, okay?”
Tina lowered her voice. “Are you okay?”
Maxim hushed her, his eyes darting over to the counter where Doctor Llewellyn spoke to John about the history of the castle and the surrounding area. “Da, I am fine, but something strange is going on here. We will talk later.”
The subject was definitely closed when Maxim’s tablet started buzzing. “Nestor!” he cried, dashing off to the sleeping area to take the call. “Hey, Tina, come on,” he called over his shoulder. “Yana is on the call too. Get Ron!”
Tina hauled Ron away from the pizza at the counter. “Yana and Nestor are calling, so come on!”
Ron took a last slice and followed her.
Maxim was just plugging a lead into the TV to transfer the call to the big screen when the other two flopped down on the sofa.
Yana waved as soon as she saw them, grinning from ear to ear. “Hey!”
Nestor was practically vibrating with excitement. “You will not believe what I have been doing today!”
“Tell us!” Maxim cried, happy to see his cousin.
Nestor launched into a rundown of the things he’d been learning that week. “But the best part was going out to the asteroid field and shooting at the rocks!”
Ron and Maxim were practically drooling.
Yana had news as well. “Our little werecat is doing better with each day. I have been teaching him English, with Meredith’s help.”
Talk turned to lighter things, and Tina drifted back over to the kitchenette for another slice of pizza. For the rest of the evening she watched Doctor Llewellyn. She appeared to be nice enough, but Maxim’s suspicious behavior toward the doctor made Tina look at her in a different light.
Her happiness was a show for their benefit, Tina decided. Every now and then the happy mask would slip while John’s back was turned and Tina got a glimpse of a woman in turmoil. She and Yana had taken Negotiation together as an elective. The class had taught her that politics weren’t for her, but she had learned to spot a faker a mile away. Doctor Llewellyn was hiding something, for certain.
The moment the adults left for the night she cornered Maxim. “Start talking,” she demanded. “I think Doctor Llewellyn is hiding something. What do you know?”
The others were drawn to the tone of her voice, and the students gathered around Maxim’s bunk to hear his tale.
“Do you think she’s involved with the saboteur?” Ron asked after Maxim had finished recounting Doctor Llewellyn’s side of the conversation. “She seems so nice!”
Maxim’s agony showed on his face. “I cannot help but think that after what I heard, but I do not believe she is acting of her own free will. That’s why I did not go straight to John. If I am right and she is being coerced—”
“She might have a family,” Aleksi whispered. “We don’t know.”
A hush fell over the group. Even those who hadn’t been on the bus when terrorists trying to get at Bethany Anne had kidnapped them knew what had gone down that fateful day. The Romanovkan kids had all heard the story of how their leader, Boris, had turned on the kidnappers and assisted the Patriarch in returning them to their families.
The loss of Michael weighed heavily upon everyone who loved the Queen. Her loss was their loss, too, and they were old enough to understand the consequences of being careless when lives were on the line.
It made them think.
“We need to find proof, one way or another,” Masha said firmly.
Aleksi disagreed. “You heard Ms. Dukes, no poking around. We should tell her what Maxim heard and let the adults deal with it.”
Tina considered it for a moment. “We don’t have much of anything to tell her. We could be wrong, what if she was just having an argument with someone?”
“It was more than an argument, Tina,” Maxim told her. “She sounded sad, but also afraid.”
Ron was unhappy. “Look, we could be wrong, and then we’ll be in trouble for making accusations. You know how busy Ms. Dukes is, she doesn’t need us distracting her with conspiracy theories.”
“Wow, you sounded just like your mom then, Ron” Tina snickered. “We can find some evidence, then we’re not wasting anyone’s time.”
“I just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” he replied. “If someone has kidnapped her family, who’s to say they’re not watching?”
Masha waved his concerns off. “All the more reason for us to do the sleuthing. If there is someone watching then they won’t be paying attention to us. All they’ll see is a bunch of kids. Let’s take advantage of that. We’re nearly adults now, Ron. Now’s our chance to step up and help out. We’ve got this.”
Tina nodded. “If she is being blackmailed in some way, she needs our help. If not, we expose her to John and Ms. Dukes. Then they will be focused on what we are bringing, and not on punishing us for disobeying them.”
Ron shrugged. “If that’s what everyone wants then I’m in. I just wanted to be sure we all knew what we were doing.”
Tina patted his shoulder. “I know. We aren’t going to rush in, we’ll make a plan and stick to it.”
“Where do we start?” Maxim asked.
“We should search her quarters,” Mischa suggested.
“Or her office. That would be less risky,” Halli put in. “We could cause a distraction while one of you techy wizards searches her computer and her phone.”
Craig jumped in. “I could pull the fire alarm? They’d totally believe I’d do that for a prank. Then you three can slip into the office and find the evidence. I can take the heat.”
Tina ran the idea through in her mind. “It could work. But if we do find evidence she’s being blackmailed, we’ll take it to my uncle and let him handle it. Deal?”
The two hours before lights out were spent planning in detail how to get in and out of Doctor Llewellyn’s office without being caught. After that, Tina lay in bed trying to find a flaw in their plan. She couldn’t see one, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. A thought occurred to her just as her eyes fluttered shut, but it was lost to dreams in which she was chased through the castle by umbrella-wielding monsters wearing bowler hats.
The next morning…
“Are we really going to do this?” Ron whispered, his nervous breath tick
ling the back of Tina’s neck. She jumped, which rustled the foliage in front of her.
“Shhh, they’ll hear you,” she hissed back, pushing them both farther behind the potted ferns they were using for cover. They were waiting for Doctor Llewellyn and Jean to leave the office in the remodeled visitor’s center.
Ron snickered nervously. “If they catch us, we could just say we were making out.”
Tina arched an eyebrow. “You want to tell my uncle we were making out?” She snorted gently. “Your funeral. Be my guest.”
Ron paled at the thought of what John would do to any boy foolish enough to admit to such a thing. “You’re right. On second thought, let’s not do that.”
“Uh huh.” Tina saw shadows moving behind the frosted glass pane in the door and pushed him back farther into the corner. “Shhh, they’re leaving. Send the signal!”
Ron tapped his tablet, and a few seconds later the fire alarm began to shriek. The adults came out of the office, Jean looking up and around for danger. Doctor Llewellyn locked the door behind them. She paused to put the big brass key in the pocket of her lab coat.
Tina noticed it was the same one the doctor had been wearing the day before. For a second she thought Jean had seen them behind the potted plants, but she must have imagined it because her teacher followed Doctor Llewellyn when she hurried out through the front door a moment later.
Tina smiled to herself; Step One was complete. She spoke at normal volume, the alarm covering the sound. “Ron, has Aleksi taken care of the cameras?”
He looked down at the screen again. “Yes, we’re good to go as soon as Masha gets here. Did she ever tell you the story of why she learned to pick locks? It’s a suspicious skill to have, if you ask me.”
“Concentrate, Ron,” Tina admonished him. “We’re on a clock here.”
Ron’s tablet buzzed in his hand. “Oh, geez. My tablet just died!”
“Seriously? Not the best time. Here, use mine.” She passed him her tablet and refocused on the section of corridor Masha was due to arrive from any moment now.
Alpha Class - Discovery: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Etheric Academy Book 3) Page 5