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by Emery Hale

  Everyone on the outside had been too caught up in the rumours and conspiracy theories about this place that they’d never really looked at the people who lived inside it. No one ever saw that the students endured so much.

  ‘I’m going to be with you through all of this, I won’t leave you again.’ I promised.

  With those words, Jessica did something I didn’t expect – she pulled me into a tight hug, burying her face in the crook of my neck. I hid the shock as she squeezed me even tighter. Two hours ago she’d been yelling at me to leave, but now it seemed she needed me to stay.

  Jessica wanted me to carry out this investigation and I knew it was because she trusted me. The past didn’t matter because I understood why she did it. Everyone was always driven by a motive, and now I knew Jessica’s was fear.

  I’d expected tears but when she pulled back there were none. I guessed she wasn’t fully ready to let me in and that was OK, I’d get there eventually. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the shut door, but her glacial look didn’t return; all I saw was warmth.

  ‘If I can keep you here under the radar then I need you to collect as much data on this place as you can,’ Jessica told me. ‘Enough to take us to trial.’

  I nodded quickly, a victorious smile crawling up my face.

  ‘I promise, Jess, I’ll do everything I can.’

  Jessica didn’t share my enthusiasm, in fact she seemed sceptical. I knew I didn’t have the ins and outs of the place yet, but I must be on the right track?

  With a heavy sigh she took my hand and led us to sit on the bed.

  ‘Naomi, when it comes to building a case against these people, others are going to come up against you.’

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘People like Katie,’ she said, and I took a sharp breath in.

  I highly doubted Katie would take an interest in this, but there were people like her all around the world. If anyone got wind that my mum was working on a huge story they’d bang down the door and bribe her to get it.

  I hadn’t considered the implications of this fully yet – it was all well and good standing up to Jessica, but it was another thing to stand up to strangers; people that don’t know, trust or accept you. They would judge on facts, rumours and speculation. If this all went public was I ready to be in the spotlight? I had to be, not just for me, for Jessica too.

  ‘I’ll be ready when the time comes, they won’t get anything from me.’

  ‘Naomi, you might think you’re uncrackable like . . . a Rubik’s Cube but you’re not. They’ll make you talk.’

  ‘Did you just call me a Rubik’s Cube?’

  ‘Naomi,’ Jessica groaned, ‘this is serious.’

  ‘So is calling me a cube!’ I exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood.

  Jessica laughed, her head falling, but as she glanced up it was like she was searching for something – maybe it was sanity, since I’d clearly lost mine.

  Suddenly Kayson butted into my mind, his smile, his charm, his jawline – Christ! I had to remember he only acted like that to get close to me, but there was this feeling that inched its way through my gut, convincing me it wasn’t all fake. It couldn’t be. You can’t fake the connection we had, that I felt, could you?

  ‘Why did you send Kayson to babysit me?’ I asked her. She seemed surprised at first but then sighed, like she knew this would come around eventually.

  ‘After the whole thing with Katie, I had to do something.’

  ‘She wasn’t doing anything to me,’ I said quickly, and subconsciously I felt my hand pull back and rest in my lap, my head dropping a little.

  Jessica scoffed. ‘She treated you like a pet, Naomi. I mean look at you.’

  I knew what she said was true, honestly, I didn’t know why I continued to defend Katie. We were friends, so to speak, but on a different level, a totally different level.

  Then I felt a warm arm wrap around my shoulders. ‘If you won’t leave me, then I am never letting that idiot near you,’ she told me. ‘All she did was manipulate, and I know the same could be said for me.’

  ‘Well, you did tell Kayson what I liked in a guy, then sent him to my door,’ I said bluntly.

  ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I was just worried.’

  I took in a deep breath. ‘Well then, worry like my mum does – just ask a million questions every time I walk by or even better, go off on one when I don’t do the dishes.’

  She let out a chuckle.

  ‘Well you know what, I will,’ she told me. ‘You’re on clean-up duty while we’re in classes.’

  ‘Isn’t that Helen’s job?’

  ‘Nah, she just manages us, comes in every once and a while to make sure we’re not dead.’ I laughed at the comment but Jessica didn’t, was she not joking? Dear God!

  I had so many questions for Jessica; her apparently not-so-dead-anymore brother, the true story behind Willow’s death and what the hell ‘outside duty’ was, but for now I silenced the need to know, pulling out of the warm embrace and grabbing the laptop from the bed.

  As soon as the warmth disappeared I craved it, this was the first time in years we’d just sat and talked, I didn’t want it to end.

  But if I didn’t show her what I found then Jessica might disappear – not physically, mentally. If she became like Harkness then she would just be a shell of the girl I once knew.

  A look of recognition sparked on her face as I lifted the laptop into my lap. When I opened the lid and explained what I found she told me it was her brother’s; he’d left it purposely a couple of weeks ago when he was at the Academy on business. James had given it to Jess so she would have access to any reports he made, but also so she could spy on the Academy.

  I moved on quickly to my phone, showing Jessica the video with Harkness and Lennox. I don’t think I could have prepared myself for the expression of pure shock. Well it’s official, we were in crazy town now, people!

  ‘They’re going to – shit.’ Jessica’s hand went to her hair and pulled on it, the emotions clear as day on her face: worry, anxiety, stress.

  ‘Are you on any medication right now?’ I asked.

  Jessica walked over to the small organiser beside the computer and pulled out one of the drawers, then took out three different silver foil pill packets, holding them up. Dread dripping from her mouth.

  I looked at her expectantly. ‘You all take those?’

  She nodded. ‘Every day.’

  Without missing a beat I picked up the video phone and walked over, taking the foil packets to examine. There weren’t any words on them, but I noticed on one there was a red dot, on the other a pink one, and on the last a blue. I snapped a couple of shots before looking up to Jess.

  ‘What do they do?’ I asked.

  Jessica picked up the one with the pink dot. ‘This is just for the girls, stops our periods.’ She let that one drop onto the desk before picking up the blue-dotted one. ‘This one is apparently a multivitamin.’ Then she stopped and just looked at the red-dotted silver packet. ‘That one . . . I don’t know.’

  ‘You don’t know?’ I asked, my eyes bulging and mouth gaping. ‘Jess, if you don’t know what that is, why the hell would you take it?’

  As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew they were stupid and pointless. Jessica’s head dropped, her arms wrapping around her torso, a look of shame rising within her.

  ‘When we get to the Academy we all go through a medical, then leave with this cocktail of pills. We’re told that we’ve to take these, once a day for the entirety of our stay here. If we don’t . . . we get taken to the medical wing and the stuff is injected into us.’

  Piss off, injected?

  ‘So you can’t refuse? It’s your body, even in hospitals they can’t force you to take anything without your consent,’ I told her, but Jessica only shook her head.

  ‘You think I let him pin me against a wall?’ she asked. ‘You think any of us would be here if we had a choice?’

 
Choice, something that was in short supply at the Reign Academy. Basic rights completely disregarded.

  Just as I was about to ask another question Jessica continued, like everything she had kept pent up for years was tumbling out of her mouth. ‘My mother sent me here because she has shares in the Academy. Quinn’s mum is in a witness protection programme that’s controlled by the Academy, Lily’s sister is a lawyer in a firm governed by Duke, and Grace’s father works in a pharmacy, also run by guess who?’ Jessica asked. ‘We can’t say no to this.’

  Their families were intertwined with all of this. I didn’t even think that was possible, I just assumed none of them knew about it. This must have been done under the table, behind closed doors. If they had Scotland Yard, then they had control of the police. They had control over witness protection schemes, lawyers in the courts, chemists in pharmacies and journalists in the media. The Academy’s reach was much wider and more powerful than I’d ever anticipated.

  It horrified me that Jessica’s mother had shares in this place, but what chilled me to the core was that her mother knew what they did and invested anyway.

  ‘So your mum knows what goes on here?’

  Jessica scoffed. ‘Knows? The woman practically wrote the how-to guide. She invested her hard-earned cash into this place, to develop assassins for the war.’

  ‘What war? What are you talking about?’

  ‘The war against Trojan,’ she started, but I remained oblivious as ever. Sure there had been attacks, but those were the norm around here, I never thought we could be in the middle of a full-blown war. ‘It’s a terrorist network, they were responsible for the bomb at the bank and at the theatre.’

  That’s who was responsible, Trojan? All these attacks that we had been told were completely random came from the same organisation?

  ‘Trojan was one of the reasons the Academy was created,’ Jessica said. ‘Amongst others of course.’

  I could barely string two words together – trying to wrap my head around all this felt like I was running up a foggy mountain, out of breath, with no sense of direction. The Academy had so much control, held power in every sense of the word, but its methods were barbaric. I assumed they got results, but surely there were easier ways?

  ‘So this school trains spies?’ I asked.

  She shook her head. ‘This institution trains the next generation of killers, faster and stronger than the last. Agents send their kids here thinking they’ll receive the same training as they did, but it’s a lie. You don’t just become a killer, you become a weapon.’

  The question popped into my head but I only just managed to get it out through gritted teeth.

  ‘Have you killed anyone?’

  When Jessica shook her head relief ran through me, but it didn’t last.

  ‘Grace has, shot a man in the head, at the theatre,’ she said. ‘It changes you. Ever since the whole thing she’s been different. It was only a matter of time.’

  Only a matter of time? Jesus, the way Jessica spoke, it was as if tomorrow when she walked down the street it might happen. Even so, I wouldn’t leave Jessica, not when I could change something for the better, help more than one person. They endured so much but it wasn’t right. None of them should have to kill, take unknown pills, be subjected to abuse and have their right to choose taken away.

  ‘Naomi,’ Jessica said, catching my attention. ‘You know how dangerous this is going to be? You know this is going to implicate you for the rest of your life? With the info you already have, if they find you out, you’ll have a bounty over your head until you’re in the ground.’ A bounty? Oh great, that’s not concerning at all.

  But if I didn’t risk my life, no one else would.

  I wouldn’t stand by and watch Jessica become the next Harkness – she wouldn’t be dancing around my room to ABBA, she’d be planning her next hit. What kind of life was that to lead?

  Then I cracked a smile. I knew what I was getting into now, so I might as well enjoy it while I could.

  ‘Is that supposed to be a warning?’ I asked. ‘Some kind of threat?’

  Jessica returned my look, excitement alight in her eyes.

  ‘Naomi darling, it was an invitation. Welcome to the Reign Academy.’

  CHAPTER 14

  Affrap

  To strike down.

  JESSICA-GRACE WINTERS

  I would never have left Naomi’s side if it could be helped, but I still had a show to do. Despite everything, we needed to carry on as normal.

  While on that stage that night, I was comforted by the knowledge that Naomi was safe, tucked away in Quinn’s room.

  There was only one package drop happening, so there was just a basic surveillance team in the wings, nothing like before. I didn’t know any of them but frankly, I was enjoying myself too much to listen in to the comm chatter.

  Theatre was a way for me to escape, to lose myself in the ecstasy of movement and sound, rhythm dictating my body. I could forget the life I led for a brief three hours, but when I walked out the stage door, a cold wind set the pole of lead straight in my spine.

  Maybe this new drug wouldn’t be so horrible. Flashes of Willow’s face would no longer haunt every absent second. Wouldn’t it take the pain away? Make everything just stand still?

  It was the back of ten o’clock before we all managed to sit down together.

  Part of me was grateful for the time apart to gather my thoughts, collate some kind of answer for my team. At the end of the day I only had to convince one person: my second, Grace.

  The only good thing about this meeting was that Kayson wouldn’t be in attendance, so there wouldn’t be the use of the bitch word. Well, that was unless Grace decided to act up and in that case, I took no responsibility for my actions. I still didn’t regret slapping her.

  Everyone on my team except one wanted Naomi here. Grace was outvoted, there’s her fucking democracy.

  Lily, Quinn, and Naomi all huddled together on one couch in the living room, while Grace sat sourly in the lone chair. My intention had been to mediate any arguments, but since I was the one involved in the outbursts, no mediating took place.

  ‘You all can’t keep fighting against one another,’ Naomi said. ‘If you wanna beat the bosses we all have to work together.’

  ‘Aw come on, what Lifetime movie did you grab that from?’ Grace scoffed, leaning back. ‘What chance have we even got at getting this to court?’

  Being outvoted didn’t seem to lift her dour mood, in fact it made it worse.

  ‘Well, since we don’t know what pills we take and now they’re going to start drugging us through the water system, I’d say a good one,’ Lily said. ‘It’s wrong, we didn’t agree to drugs and physical abuse.

  ‘Our world will become a better place if we stick to the rules,’ Grace said adamantly. ‘The country is at war and if we don’t keep to the training then there won’t be any country left.’

  When Grace whipped her head around to face me, I forced myself to look away because she was right. Trojan were winning the war and if the Academy planned to drug us then they must need graduates fast. It was the only theory that made sense; something had scared them. Whatever it was, the world in the next year was gonna be a fucking mess.

  ‘Trojan have a hold in Eastern Europe but they’re also advancing from the north, that’s the latest I heard from my brother.’ I knew I had to say something, and that was all I could muster. ‘The Academy must think they’re advancing towards the UK.’

  ‘So your brother isn’t dead?’ Naomi asked.

  ‘No.’

  The voice in my head started to nag away. Grace was right, if we didn’t stick to the programme everything would fall into chaos. It wasn’t just about saving lives, it was about preventing attacks in the first place. If we rebelled, who would stop the bombings or shootings? There were other agencies, but they weren’t trained like us. The Academy conditioned students specifically to take down Trojan agents; we had access to info that no other agency
knew about.

  ‘I don’t want to be a mindless drone, Grace.’ Quinn said, her voice louder than usual.

  ‘I second that,’ Lily said. ‘If they’re going to use drugs in the first place, they’ll order us to do something awful, like murder innocents.’

  ‘They won’t need to because if we do this, every innocent will either be dead or taken hostage,’ Grace said condescendingly.

  ‘They are going to do it regardless!’

  ‘No they won’t, it’s just an idea, it’s not like they’re going to go ahead with it.’

  ‘For the record,’ Naomi said, the camera phone now recording as it sat on the brown coffee table.

  Well, here goes the bloody interviews. It’s not that I disliked them, I just wished we had planned out when we were going to do them. It would have given me more time to prepare answers.

  ‘Trojan are advancing; isn’t there someone else who could deal with this? I think you’re overreacting, surely someone else could help?’

  Those certainly weren’t the words I expected to hear – she thought we were blowing this out of proportion?

  ‘Elaborate?’ I asked, crossing my arms.

  ‘Like you said, the Academy trained you to do this, but couldn’t you ask for help? Collaborate with other secret service agents?’

  There was the reporter in her, of course she would take after her mother. I knew then her questions weren’t personal, they were just there to rule out any possibilities

  ‘No,’ Quinn answered firmly, beating me to it.

  ‘We tried to reach out to Gabriel Hale once,’ Lily added. ‘He worked with Jessica’s mum when she was younger.’

  ‘Yeah, and we all know what happened there,’ I muttered.

  ‘Source B,’ Naomi said pointedly to Quinn. ‘Can you elaborate?’