Fracture

by C. J. Daugherty

  ‘Isn’t it?’ His gaze challenged her to be honest.

  The problem was… he was kind of right.

  For months now, Sylvain had fought to win her back. To earn her trust. But she was always waiting for Carter to decide what he wanted.

  Heat flooded her face and she reached for his arm. ‘Sylvain, I’m so sorry. I don’t want you to be my backup plan. It’s just hard to know what I want sometimes.’

  ‘What do you mean, “sometimes”?’ His voice was so low she couldn’t be certain she’d really heard it. ‘You’ve never known what you wanted.’

  As he’d done the night before in the hallway, he put his hand on top of hers. The warmth of his skin radiated through her. She knew what it felt like to have his hands stroke her face, her hair. Pull her close.

  ‘You have to make up your mind, Allie. I don’t want you to choose me just because Carter is already taken. I want you to choose me because I’m the one you want.’ His eyes were like blue flames; it hurt to look at them. ‘All I ever wanted was to be the one you want. But I’m beginning to think I never will be. I can’t wait for you for ever – no one could do that. Already I think I’ve waited too long. It hurts too much —’

  Somewhere down the hallway a loud, unfamiliar voice shouted, ‘Curfew!’

  They stood close together for a second longer, Sylvain’s eyes locked on hers. Then he took a step back and dropped her hand.

  ‘It’s late.’ His voice sounded empty. ‘We should go.’

  TWENTY-SIX

  Z

  elazny was at his desk when Allie walked into the history lesson the next day.

  When she saw him, she froze in mid-step and the student walking in behind her ran into her.

  ‘Sorry…’ Allie said, never taking her eyes off the teacher.

  ‘Everyone take your seats today please,’ he growled with characteristic grouchiness, as if he’d never been away. Never held Eloise prisoner.

  Her heart hammered in her chest as she tried to figure out what was happening. Did this mean Raj had come through? Had he brought all the teachers back?

  A few minutes later, Carter rushed into the classroom at speed and nearly tripped over his own feet when he noticed Zelazny.

  When Sylvain walked in, she saw his eyes widen in surprise. Catching Allie’s gaze, he raised his eyebrows in a silent question. She shook her head very slightly to indicate she had no idea where the history teacher had come from.

  The exchange calmed her down a little – at least they were still communicating.

  She’d been up for hours last night thinking about what Sylvain had said and how badly she’d behaved towards him. The way he’d left her the perfect opportunity to say she chose him over Carter and she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Why couldn’t she just say it? He’d taken her by surprise but… still. Why couldn’t she just tell anyone how she felt?

  Zelazny stood by his desk at parade rest, his pale eyes surveying the class shrewdly.

  Pulling her notebook from her bag, Allie tried to act normal. What if Zelazny knew they’d been in his room? And God – what if he knew they’d accused him of being the spy?

  The thought made her shudder. She waited, so nervous her hand trembled when she picked up her pen and drew shaky prison bars and a gigantic lock on the paper in front of her.

  But then Zelazny just… taught the class. They were studying the battle of Austerlitz and he picked up precisely where the replacement teacher had left off without a word of explanation or apology for his absence.

  At first, Allie waited for the axe to fall, and for Zelazny to call her out. Accuse her of looking through his bedside table, the box under his bed. But as time went by, she realised that wasn’t going to happen.

  Slumping down low in her seat, she prepared to take sparse notes and bide her time until she could talk with the others about this development.

  But the lesson was surprisingly interesting. As Zelazny explained the battle between Napoleon and an overwhelming coalition of British, Russian and Austrian troops, she found herself absorbed.

  ‘Napoleon was a master strategist,’ Zelazny explained, drawing a quick map on the whiteboard. ‘He knew he couldn’t win by sheer force because he was outnumbered and outgunned. So he decided to create a trap.’

  He wiped out part of his design on the right side and tapped it with his fingertip. ‘He intentionally weakened his right flank to draw the coalition forces in. His hope was they’d throw everything they had at it, thus confusing their troops and weakening their own defences. Once they were in place, Napoleon’s hidden forces would rush out and attack them.’

  The history teacher drew a violent series of arrows swinging on to the board. When he turned back to face the class, he looked positively gleeful.

  ‘They never saw him coming.’

  As Zelazny described the battle in gory detail, Allie pictured Nathaniel’s letter, stabbed to the wall of the chapel with a knife. What if that was something like Napoleon’s ploy? Make them so paranoid they begin to suspect each other. Wait until they’re confused and distracted. Then attack from the flank.

  Zelazny was drawing more lines on the board. ‘With the coalition forces weakened, Napoleon prepared his troops to deliver the coup de grâce. Famously this is what he told his generals then.’ He wrote a sentence at the top of the board with such force the pen squeaked in protest. Then he stood back and looked out over the room.

  The sentence read: ‘One sharp blow and the war is over.’

  As she stared at those ruthless words, a sudden chill made Allie shiver.

  What if that’s us?

  After class, Allie met Carter and Sylvain in the corridor. It was lunchtime, and hordes of students rushed by them on their way to the dining hall.

  ‘What in the actual hell is going on?’ she asked.

  Carter looked at Sylvain as if he would have the answer. ‘Raj Patel?’

  Sylvain shrugged. ‘I guess so. He works fast.’

  ‘If Zelazny’s back do you think that means…’ Allie stopped as the realisation took shape.

  ‘What?’ Sylvain asked, a slight frown creasing his brow.

  She shook her head. ‘Nothing. Don’t worry about it. There’s just something I have to do.’

  Turning on her heel she started walking away but Carter called after her: ‘Aren’t you coming to lunch?’

  Without stopping, she threw her answer back over her shoulder. ‘I’ll meet you down there later.’

  Running against the tide of students, she took the stairs at speed and jogged down the long hallway. She was moving too fast to stop when she reached the English classroom and skidded around the corner, fairly flying through the doorway until a voice stopped her in her tracks.

  ‘Hello, Allie.’

  Isabelle stood just inside the door, and she did not look happy.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Allie could hear the hurt in her own voice.

  One part of her wanted to cry. Another – needier – part of her wanted to hug the headmistress. But she did neither. Instead she stood alone, arms at her sides.

  ‘As I understand it,’ Isabelle said, drawing out each word, ‘you know perfectly well where I’ve been. And I would like to ask the questions right now, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Actually I do mind.’ Allie lifted her chin stubbornly. ‘How could you just go away and leave us alone? How could you do that? We’ve had to deal with all this on our own. And now you show up again and you want explanations? What? Was this all some kind of test?’

  If Isabelle was surprised by Allie’s anger she didn’t show it; her leonine gaze was steady, cold. ‘You went into Mr Zelazny’s private rooms —’

  Allie wouldn’t let her finish. ‘And found what you were looking for, yes. You’re welcome.’ She rested her hands on her hips in a defiant posture. ‘Anything else you want to thank us for? Warning the students their parents were on Nathaniel’s side? Giving them a chance to make their own decisions? Thinking on our feet? Bein
g innovative? Doing your jobs?’

  ‘Enough.’ Isabelle’s powerful voice rang out in the empty room. ‘You’ve made your point. Now sit down. I have a lunchtime workshop scheduled and the students will arrive in a few minutes.’

  Allie hesitated a second – she could, after all, just storm out in protest – but she really wanted to hear what Isabelle had to say.

  With reluctant slowness, she lowered herself on to a nearby seat.

  Placing her hands flat on Allie’s desk, Isabelle lowered her gaze to hers. ‘What you did – invading Mr Zelazny’s private space – was in complete violation of The Rules. You had no right to take it upon yourself to do that. If he ever found out what you did I don’t like to think what his reaction would be. If Lucinda found out you’d be lucky to still be at this school.’

  Allie exhaled a long, relieved breath – Zelazny didn’t know. They hadn’t told him.

  The rest – Isabelle’s lecture – didn’t really matter. She’d known all that when she walked through Zelazny’s door.

  ‘What was he doing with the key?’ Allie asked, searching Isabelle’s fine-boned face for clues. ‘Have you asked him? Is he the one?’

  The headmistress closed her eyes for a second as if summoning strength. ‘Allie, you must let us handle this – this is what we do.’

  Her voice fairly crackled with frustration but Allie refused to back down.

  ‘You didn’t even know he had the key —’

  ‘We did know.’ Isabelle’s voice rose. ‘And the key is now back in the book again. Please, for the love of God, leave it there.’

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  D

  isbelief made it impossible for Allie to speak for a moment. She couldn’t seem to get her brain to function.

  ‘You… you… what?’ Allie stuttered in shock. ‘I… I don’t…’

  ‘Understand? No, I don’t suppose you do.’ Isabelle smoothed the dark blonde hair which had begun escaping from her hairclip; as if her rage had been transmitted to her hair follicles. When she spoke again, her voice was more controlled. ‘Allie, Raj and I are investigating all the people who could be Nathaniel’s spy. All of them. And we have been for months now. We know everything in everyone’s rooms down to the tiniest speck of dust. Down to the fingerprints on their books. And the earplugs in their bedside tables.’

  As she tried to process this, Allie held up a hand – she needed Isabelle to stop talking while she thought it all through.

  ‘Why did you leave the key there, though?’ she asked after a second. ‘Why haven’t you just questioned him about it?’

  ‘If he’s Nathaniel’s spy we can learn more by not making him aware we’re watching him,’ the headmistress replied. ‘He could inadvertently lead us to Nathaniel, or reveal others who are working with him. Once we show our hand we’ll get nothing from him.’

  This made a dark kind of sense. But there were others involved, too. Other questions unanswered.

  ‘If you think it’s him, why hold Eloise?’ Allie asked. ‘Is she just, like… what? A decoy?’

  ‘Yes and no. At first we thought she might be the spy. Now we’re fairly certain she’s not but we’re holding her so the real spy can believe we’re not paying attention. We’ve reduced patrols of the grounds for the same reason, and suspended Night School.’

  Sighing, Isabelle sat down in the desk next to her.

  ‘Allie, there are more guards watching this school right now than there have ever been. The night you all went to the cottage, you were watched all the way there.’

  All other sound receded. The noise of students chatting in the corridor outside the classroom could have been on another continent. Allie couldn’t even hear her own heartbeat any more.

  We were watched the whole time? Did they watch me and Carter?

  Had someone watched them kiss? Stood by impassively as they revealed their deepest feelings about each other?

  The thought of such an invasion of their privacy made her stomach churn.

  When she looked up, she saw Isabelle was waiting for her to say something. Trying to appear calm, Allie cleared her throat, but could only manage one word.

  ‘How…?’

  ‘The guards don’t patrol any more,’ Isabelle said simply. ‘They hide and watch. They communicate using a new system Raj brought in. It’s changed everything.’

  Even as Allie absorbed this bit of information – nodding like a normal person – in her mind the same words were circulating on a vicious loop.

  … watched all the way. You were watched all the way. You were watched…

  Isabelle was still talking but Allie only barely heard her. ‘You must have seen them using microphones – they have tiny earpieces. It’s the first technology we’ve allowed on campus in more than five years. It has changed the way we work.

  ‘Very few people know this, Allie – the Night School instructors know about the tech but they don’t know about the change in instruction for the guards. Only Raj and I and his guards know. And now you.’

  ‘But… I don’t… Why…?’ Allie wanted to ask why Isabelle had her followed. Why no one had warned her this might happen. Why she’d been left so exposed when she’d trusted Isabelle to look out for her.

  The headmistress thought she was asking something else. ‘We haven’t allowed technology – computers, phones, anything – since Nathaniel hacked our system five years ago. He gained access to all our files, student records, instructor information, Night School plans, guards’ names and addresses, schedules – everything.’

  ‘So why change now?’ Allie asked dully. She wasn’t sure she cared. But it seemed the obvious question.

  ‘A recent Cimmeria graduate is a tech designer – young and innovative. He says this system is hack-proof. And after what happened with Jo and you… We knew things couldn’t continue as they were. We had to find a better system. That’s why the guards patrol less frequently. That’s why you don’t see them as much. They’re trying a different tactic. And so far it’s working.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Allie searched Isabelle’s face for clues that she’d done this out of malice, but all she found was weariness.

  ‘No one knows. And I’d like to keep it that way. Until we know who the spy is, I need you to promise me you will tell no one about this. And I do mean no one – not Carter, not Rachel. No one.’

  Allie felt blindsided. Isabelle was asking her to betray her friends. The people who’d got her through the last few months. Who’d stuck by her when she’d melted down after Jo’s death. Who’d been dragged into hell because of her family.

  ‘I can’t do that,’ Allie said. Isabelle’s breath caught but Allie didn’t give her a chance to speak. ‘I’m sorry, Isabelle. I just can’t. Those days are over. I’ll decide who I trust from now on.’

  ‘You could be making a very big mistake…’ Isabelle said. But then the first student walked into the room, glancing at them curiously as he made his way to his desk.

  Her eyes alight with disapproval, Isabelle straightened. But when she spoke her tone was as calm and professional as if they’d just been discussing Allie’s marks.

  ‘I need you to come to my office after classes today so we can discuss this further.’

  ‘I can’t.’ Allie spoke without thinking. ‘I’ve got a meeting with…’

  Her voice trailed off. She was supposed to meet the others to talk about their plans. She couldn’t tell Isabelle that… could she?

  Isabelle’s reply was sharp. ‘“Can’t” is not a word I want to hear from you right now, Allie. I’ll expect you there.’

  As the headmistress strode away, her shoulders stiff, Allie sighed. The others would have to meet without her.

  Still, when her classes ended that day, Allie didn’t head straight to Isabelle’s office. Instead, she intercepted Rachel in the hallway of the classroom wing.

  ‘Help me,’ Allie said. ‘I have big problems and I need you to solve them.’

  ‘Have you been doing
calculus again?’ Rachel asked sympathetically.

  ‘It’s worse than that.’ Allie lowered her voice. ‘It’s Isabelle. And other things.’

  ‘Boy things?’ Rachel said hopefully.

  When Allie nodded, Rachel’s warm brown eyes lit up. ‘At last! Interesting problems worth discussing.’ She steered Allie down the corridor. ‘Walk this way. The doctor is in.’

  As they picked their way through hallways teeming with students, Allie spoke in quick quiet tones. She told her the basics about her meeting with Isabelle, leaving out the bit about the new security system and the spying it involved. That could wait.