by Leito, Chad
Asa looked over at Jen. She put her head down at the table, and didn’t seem to be paying attention.
Asa recalled what Jen had said when she recounted what had happened the night before. He realized that she had left out the part where Allen said that they would attack today. Asa was thankful for this. He didn’t want any of his teammates to know; otherwise, they might not go to the dance, and they might keep a closer eye on him. Asa wanted to go set the bombs privately. He didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.
“I think you’re right,” Asa lied. “They’re not going to try and attack us outside during Winggame, for sure, because everyone would just fly off. The Multipliers are strong, but they cannot fly.” He felt slightly guilty for using Teddy’s point, and also for misrepresenting his beliefs. He looked over at Jen and was again thankful that she seemed to not be paying attention.
Viola added: “And I hear that a lot of people aren’t going to the dance.”
Asa didn’t know this.
Roxanne looked up suddenly and spoke through tears. She hadn’t been listening to the conversation, and changed the subject. “Do you think that we should go get Bruce’s body after this? We don’t want anyone to find it. Won’t they be suspicious of us if the Academy finds the body?”
Mike Plode cleared his throat. “They’ll already be suspicious of us, Roxy. And, not to be crass, but I bet that his body isn’t there anymore. Did you shut the door before you left, Palmer?”
Asa took a second, trying to remember. “No. I didn’t.”
“The monkeys probably took it,” Boom Boom said.
“Oh,” Roxanne replied in a monotone voice.
The rock music outside was vibrating the ground and the walls around them.
Jen ran a hand through her hair and sat up. “Do you think that there are other Multiplier Hunters, like Carmen?” She brought the issue up randomly.
“I guess,” Asa said.
Jen furrowed her brow. “Well, if they know that there is going to be a Multiplier attack, maybe they’re planning on doing something about it.”
“Like what?” Asa asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe they have set up some kind of defense,” Jen replied.
Boom Boom interjected: “That would only be the case if there were enough of them for their presence to be a threat to the Hive. We have no indication as to how many Multiplier Hunters are out there. Carmen could be one of five in the world.”
“Yeah, but what if she’s one of thousands?” Jen asked.
Asa thought that they should be concentrating on the game. For starters, they were in a public facility, and the little room could be wire tapped. Secondly, they had absolutely no shot at winning if they didn’t start mentally preparing for the match.
The metal door at the top of the stairwell opened, and the Sharks stopped talking. They heard footsteps, and a jingling noise as someone descended the stairway.
A person Asa wouldn’t have guessed came out from behind the wall. It was Robert King. He was alone, except for Jamie, his pet chimpanzee, who was on a leash. Jamie was clearly a David. His head protruded upward much too far for him to not be mutated.
Both Robert King and Jamie were dressed in a peculiar fashion.
Jamie looked sharp. He wore crisp, khaki pants with a brown belt. The pants were clearly made to specifically fit Jamie’s chimp legs. Above the pants, he wore an ironed, button down white shirt; the top two buttons were left undone. This item also appeared to have been specifically made for Jamie. His arms were the size of a very tall man’s, but his torso was the size of a human child’s. Still, the shirt fit him in every aspect. Atop his unusually large head he wore a New York Yankees blue baseball cap. Asa wondered if Robert King let Jamie watch television. Perhaps he’s a fan of the Yankees? Or maybe he just likes Jay-Z?
Robert King was dressed in a fashion unlike any Asa had seen him in before. The Boss typically wore plain jeans, boots, and a flannel of some kind. Today, he was dressed like a member of the secret service. He wore dark sunglasses, black shoes, black pants, a white shirt, and a black blazer. Peaking out from his suit on his left wrist he wore a gold watch.
Jamie padded down the stairs beside Robert King on a diamond-encrusted leather leash. Robert King’s silver hair was impeccably neat. His face was closely shaved.
Asa didn’t know exactly what it was, but whenever Robert King entered a room, people couldn’t stop staring at him. Asa guessed that it might have been the fact that Robert King was the richest person on earth. Or maybe it was that Robert King could kill every student and face no consequences.
No, Asa corrected in his mind, thinking back to his father’s contract. He can’t kill me without consequences.
Asa wondered how Robert King felt about him. The Boss was a power hungry man, and yet, Asa and Charlotte held a certain influence over him, due to Edmund Palmer’s contract. Does that frustrate him? Asa wondered.
Robert King stopped on the third step from the floor and did not speak. The metal device that Jamie wore around his neck flashed a green light, and the David spoke in a metallic voice, “Mr. King would like to speak with Mr. Palmer.”
The Boss turned, still not having said a word, and he and Jamie ascended the stairs. Asa looked around the room at his teammates, not knowing what to do. “Go,” Jen urged him. She looked frightened. Asa got up from where he sat and clambered up the stairs.
Robert King led the way outside, and then down one of the Town’s cobble stone paths. Asa jogged to keep up. Robert King did not turn around to see if Asa was following.
The crowd was deafening from above the Moat’s water, as the spectators anxiously awaited the championship. They were stomping their feet a rock song with heavy bass. Asa could feel the noise in his chest.
Robert King turned off the pebbled road and walked up the stone stairs to one of the London-style stone buildings that characterized the Town. Jamie held the door for him and The Boss went inside. Asa came in a second later, wondering what Robert King could possibly want to speak with him in private for. He opened the door for himself and went inside.
Asa had never been into this building before. It looked like a newsroom, but a very tidy one. There were high ceilings, and the initial room was spacious with big windows looking out onto the Town. It was much warmer in here than outside. Robert King moved down the rows of hundreds of desks until he spotted a clean one that he found appropriate. He pulled the chair back, sat down, and motioned with his hand for Asa to sit across from him.
Jamie leapt on top of the desk, and stared at Asa, who was still wondering what this could be about.
Could it be about what happened last night? How would Robert King know that we went and spied on the Multipliers? Could he know that I know where they are hidden? Could it be possible that he has found out about Teddy?
Then an even scarier thought came into his mind: What would he do if he found out about Teddy? If he tells me that he killed Conway and Mama for housing a Multiplier, I’ll lose it; I’ll just lose it!
Asa’s hands were sweaty as he gripped the back of a leather chair and pushed it over so that it was facing Robert King. Like everything else in the Academy, the chair was luxurious; Asa guessed that in the pre-Wolf Flu world, the chair would have cost five hundred dollars. Now, there was no way to guess. Products were much more expensive now than ever.
Or at least they had been, Asa thought to himself, taking his seat. I’ve been in the Academy for a year now. The outside world could have changed dramatically.
Robert King took off his sunglasses and sat them down on the wooden table. His pupils were so dilated that the entire visible area of each eyeball, from eyelid to eyelid, was black. It was obvious that Robert King had just injected himself with a heavy dose of Vipocrit before coming here. The eyes reminded Asa of owl eyes, or insect eyes. The Boss’s eyeballs moved around in their sockets, but still, Asa could only see black. The only indication he had that they moved came from the way the light reflected off their glos
sy surfaces.
When Robert King spoke to Asa, his country accent was gone, just as it had been when Asa and Jen spied in on his office. Asa suspected that this was due to the Vipocrit, which made its users have increased muscle tension, as a side effect. The increased tension was something that Asa had seen in both Robert King and Teddy, after they injected. Robert King’s head jerked to the right. An accent from Southern U.S.A. was caused by a loose mouth, and since Robert King was unusually rigid, his accent was gone.
“Where is Stan Nuby?” The Boss asked Asa.
“Stan?” Asa asked.
Robert King’s mouth twitched. He nodded very slightly and then watched Asa with his enormous pupils.
Asa felt naked, vulnerable. He knew that while Robert King was high on Vipocrit he was thinking at an inhuman speed. Asa wouldn’t be able to mentally keep up. He wondered, What does Robert King know?
Asa responded: “I don’t know where he is. He didn’t show up this morning.”
“LIAR!” Jamie said from atop the desk, with the help of his electronic device. He showed his teeth to Asa.
“Hush, Jamie,” Robert King said. His expression relaxed as he looked at his primate. “Let daddy handle this.” He pet Jamie on the head, and Jamie cooed and then nibbled gently on The Boss’s fingers.
Robert King looked at Asa and then said something very unexpected. “Palmer, do you know what makes a god a god? There are three things.”
Asa cleared his throat. Why did he ask that? Asa had been brought up in a Southern Baptist town, and he had been exposed to the idea before. “I know that some people say it’s being all knowing, all powerful, and all good.” Asa thought back to spying in on Robert King’s meeting with Volkner, and recalled that Robert King had spoken with Volkner about similar subject matter. The Boss had said things that day that indicated he thought he might be a God.
Robert King spoke fast—it was a side effect of Vipocrit: “Very good, Palmer. Very good. Time for a harder question. Which of those, if any, do you think are the most superfluous to being called a God?”
Asa looked around the room at the desks and up at the industrial ceiling. Surely Robert King didn’t call me here to have a theological discussion, he thought. He answered, though. It had been something he thought about before. “I suppose all-loving would be the most superfluous. I don’t think that you have to be good to be a god. You just have to be powerful.”
The corners of Robert King’s mouth twitched. “What about all knowing?”
“What about it?”
His mouth twitched again. Asa thought that The Boss was getting slightly angry, but he didn’t know what the cause was. “Do you have to be all knowing to be a god?” The Boss asked, his voice raising.
What is this about? Asa wanted to scream. “I guess so,” was what he said.
Robert King looked up at Jamie for a moment, who was cleaning his feet with his tongue. “What if someone was very smart, and knew everything that he or she needed to?” Robert King asked. “Would that qualify?”
Asa was becoming very uncomfortable with this line of questioning. He answered in the way he sensed Robert King wanted him to. “Yes. I think that would qualify.”
Robert King sighed, as though relieved. “I have become functionally all knowing when it concerns the Academy, Palmer.”
Asa’s heart began to thud in his chest. Robert King paused for a moment, looking at Asa. He looked at Asa’s hair, his eyes, his mouth, and his body shape.
“You look just like your father,” Robert King said.
“I never met my father,” Asa responded.
Robert King cocked his head. “Don’t you think it’s odd that I know what your father looks like?”
Asa flushed red. He had been told that his father had helped create the Academy in Conway’s confidence. It was a secret. If Conway hadn’t divulged information, Asa would still think that his father had been a truck driver. Asa answered fast, trying not to get Conway in trouble. “Sir. I-I-I thought that you had information on everyone. You research the Academy candidates so well. I just assumed, I mean, I don’t know…I thought that maybe you had seen a picture of him or something?”
Robert King raised his eyebrows. “You don’t think that I’ve met your father?”
Asa’s face was hot with embarrassment and fear. “No.” Asa laughed. “My father didn’t know any billionaires.”
“I’m a trillionaire,” Robert King corrected.
“Oh. Yes, sir.”
Jamie lay across the desk on his back and Robert King stroked the long, fine hairs on the chimp’s belly, contemplating what to say next in his fast working, drugged brain. “I know that Stan met with you before leaving yesterday, Asa. Like I said, I have becoming functionally omniscient when it comes to the occurrences within these five mountains. I know a lot more than you think I do.”
It took a great effort for Asa to maintain a somewhat calm appearance. He felt like hyperventilating. He remembered the story Teddy told of Robert King killing everyone involved in making Vipocrit. He remembered how terrible Volkner had looked during the meeting with Robert King. He was emaciated and missing toes. Asa also remembered that he was looking at the man responsible for the Wolf Flu, an illness that had killed Asa’s mother and billions more.
I’m looking at the most deadly person in human history, Asa thought, and shuddered.
He wondered what Robert King could mean by saying, I know a lot more than you think I do. There were a slew of things that Robert King could mean by that. He could know about Teddy, Asa thought.
He could know that Conway, Mama and I have been hiding and feeding a Multiplier in Conway’s basement. The Boss would kill Mama and Conway for sure. There were strict ways in which the Academy was supposed to deal with a student who was bit by a Multiplier, and for good reason. Robert King did not want the crows to think that he had broken Edmund Palmer’s contract. Asa remembered how angry The Boss had become when he spoke with Volkner. He had spoken to Volkner about the internet video of Robert King’s clone being killed because of what the crows released. That must have been terrifying for The Boss. He must have realized that it could have easily been himself that was shot.
But surely Robert King would have done something by now, had he figured out about Teddy, Asa thought.
He then wondered if Robert King was aware that he and Jen had spied in on him while he was meeting with Volkner in his office. He could have cameras up. He has enough money that he could pay thousands of people to monitor cameras all day long.
Asa met Robert King’s stare as steadily as possible. He hoped that The Boss was bluffing. Surely he can’t know everything, Asa thought.
But he does know about Stan meeting with you, Asa reminded himself. And he knows about Stan leaving. Asa wanted to groan. He was almost positive that Stan was dead.
Robert King went on: “For reasons that don’t concern you, but that I believe you may be aware of, I cannot offer you an unfair disadvantage when it comes to this institute.” He stiffened, and Asa thought that he was imagining his clone being killed. The crows had written out a pre-recorded message that was from Asa’s father, and delivered it to the news stations earlier in the semester. The message detailed some of the workings of the Wolf Flu, which Edmund Palmer must have known about before he died. Asa knew that the crows would not have released the message to the media if Asa had received more fair treatment in the previous semester.
The message had made a difference, Asa reflected. No one has specifically targeted my Winggame team, and in all of my classes, I have started out on par with all my other classmates.
He remembered back to last year, when the Academy had given him the mutated, enlarged Blood Canary. Asa hadn’t experienced anything of the sort this semester. Robert King was afraid of what else the crows might tell the news stations.
“However,” Robert King continued, breaking Asa’s train of thought. “I am allowed to offer you unfair advantages, or things that could help to keep you saf
e. Asa, I have reason to believe that you are in danger. And I want for you to stay in my quarters tonight, in King Mountain. You could stay there for the next few weeks if you wanted.”
“By myself?”
“I want to be clear,” Robert King said loudly, as though someone was listening somewhere. Asa looked over at the nearest windowsill and noticed that three crows were gathered there, sitting very close to the glass. “You don’t have to do this. This is only an offer. I’m not going to tell you anymore than what I’ve already said. You may be in danger, and I am offering you refuge, if you would like it. My living quarters are the safest place in the entire Academy. I think that it would be wise for you to stay with me, at least for tonight.”
Asa felt panic rise up into his throat. He couldn’t speak. So even Robert King knows it’s true, Asa thought. Multipliers are going to attack tonight. Asa wondered if knowing the attack was coming could make the Academy defendable.
In the distance, a horn sounded, momentarily covering up the noise from the crowd. This horn meant that the Sharks and Wolves were to report to the Starting Platforms for the Winggame Championship.
Robert King was still petting Jamie on the abdomen, regarding Asa calmly with his demonic-looking eyes.
Asa thought about his plan to go and set the bombs tonight. Is that even necessary if Robert King knows about the Multiplier attack?
Asa knew the answer instantly: Yes. For an unknown reason, Robert King seemed to be trying to make the Academy implode upon itself—to kill every student. This semester’s Task had been strong evidence for this. Mama had greatly supported this theory.
Asa suspected that Robert King would try to shield Asa, and maybe Charlotte, from an attack from the Hive. But beyond that, he did not care what happened to any of the students in the Academy. He didn’t need them. He needed Asa and Charlotte, so that the Academy wouldn’t be taken over by Multipliers from the Hive, but that was it.
With a normal person, this would be an odd theory, Asa reflected. He looked into Robert King’s enlarged pupils. There is no human emotion in those insect eyes. He doesn’t feel love or remorse or a sense of responsibility to the hundreds of students that he kidnapped and took to this remote, terrible place.