by Emery Hale
I was kitted out in a dark blonde wig, a small prosthetic nose, brown contact lenses, fake freckles, fake eyebrows, fake teeth, a pair of glasses and, to top it all off, the Reign Academy uniform. As I caught myself in the mirror’s reflection I hardly recognised myself. I’d been too busy learning my backstory and fake name to watch what Quinn was doing.
‘What do you think?’ she asked, jumping up and down giddily.
‘How are you so good at this?’ I turned from side to side in the mirror: she had contoured my cheekbones, turning my round faced into a carved one.
‘My mum worked as a make-up artist before she went into witness protection – that and I took disguise in year two,’ Quinn replied proudly.
I could tell she had a good connection with her mother, there was something about her that simply lit up. Even as she was putting the make-up on, Quinn told me stories about her, the movie nights and small tea parties. She was such an empathetic person, I wondered how she’d ended up in a place like this.
‘Now,’ she started, before reaching into one of her drawers and pulling out a flesh coloured earpiece, ‘you wear this at all times, I need to be able to talk to you. I’ll guide you to different parts of the school, all you need to worry about is not being seen.’
Now it was my turn to get excited as I fiddled with the small contraption. This was it! I was going in undercover for real, this was actually happening! I wasn’t just a little girl playing pretend in her bedroom, this was the real world. I slipped the device into my ear before turning back to Quinn, who typed away at the computer.
The screen was black except for a grey tab down the left side but as I took in a breath I realised that what I assumed were soundwaves moved slightly. Then a beating heart icon continually spiked up and down – were these my vitals?
‘I don’t have a visual, but that’s fine – all I need is audio. We have the laptop, so I can monitor you through there. If a teacher starts asking too many questions, curl your hand into a fist,’ she told me. ‘That’s the signal, I’ll get one of the girls to get you out.’
‘What if they’re busy?’
‘I don’t have a reason to be in the building, so once I’m hidden I can’t move. If anything happens you’re on your own.’
‘Splendid.’ I said sarcastically.
Quinn squeezed my shoulders, resting her chin on them and, armed with a mic and camera phone, I was ready.
Quinn would take me to the crowd of first years that were gathering outside of the accommodation, claiming I’d gotten lost, then she would head to the Academy to input my details in the system. Since this had never been done before, we were just kind of presuming there weren’t too many measures in place that would screw this plan up.
Once I was on the orientation trip I would slip away from the main group, be guided by Quinn to Jessica and Lily’s class, then to the hospital wing. There had to be something going on that I could use as evidence.
However, fear kept finding its way to my heart. It pounded in my chest, the echoes ringing through my ears. This was the stupidest idea I’d ever had.
Well, I never said I made good decisions.
CHAPTER 16
Masquerade
A false show or pretence.
NAOMI JADE
Well this was terrifying, scary and utterly insane! After Quinn ushered me out the door and took me to the growing crowd I immediately wanted to do a one-eighty and run back inside. This was the stupidest plan I’d ever come up with, and I had done a lot of stupid things in my short lifetime. Jessica’s plan was to keep me hidden from the Academy and here I was skipping into the joint.
As I slowly edged my way towards the group flashing a smile, some of the girls turned in my direction, then so did the guys. Their eyes scanned me up and down before a couple turned, whispering to their friends. Was something out of place? Had a contact gone squinty? Did I have toilet paper on my shoe or something in my teeth? Were they talking about me? I felt like I was right back in high school – everyone had already sorted out their groups and here I was, Maggie no pals.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts, I didn’t hear the familiar click of heels walking towards us. A tall, slender woman appeared with worrisome pale skin and thin, straw-like hair, dressed formally with a key hanging from her belt. Was that some sort of master key? I thought it would all be plastic cards like you see in the spy movies: I sincerely hoped they didn’t have a dungeon here.
‘Welcome to the Reign Academy, you may address me as Ms Helen. Nothing more, nothing less. Anything other will result in disciplinary action.’
It was her – that was the same voice I’d heard in Quinn’s room. My mouth clamped shut, my lips pressing into a fine line. There was no way she could tell it was me, she didn’t even know I was in the room when she came in. Despite the blatant facts I couldn’t put aside the anxiety crawling up my throat. If we’d get disciplinary action for calling her a different name, it was no wonder everyone hated the staff here.
‘Follow me,’ she said.
I did as I was told.
I followed at the back of the group, slowly at first, staying behind people instead of beside them. If I did that then maybe it would be easier to slip away. I wasn’t trained like Jess or Lily, and I certainly wasn’t a master at surveillance. I was only guessing at what I had to do. Quinn said she would head straight to one of the command rooms, set up a small station and then connect to my earpiece. She better do it soon.
We left the accommodation scheme through a path to the right – it was long and lined with smaller, growing trees, and through the bobbing heads in front of me I could see it opened up to the main building. Well if this wasn’t a crazy school, I’d say that it would be great that classes were only a two-minute walk away. But it was a crazy school.
As soon as I caught sight of the tall mahogany doors fear chilled through me. This was it, once I was in there was no turning back. I would be on at least one security camera so better make this quick.
‘Hey,’ a small voice whispered. I darted to the sound, thinking I was rumbled. ‘You know it’s just scare tactics, right?’
The girl was a little younger than me, sixteen perhaps. She had platinum blonde hair and honestly resembled a younger Anne Hathaway.
‘We’re not actually going to get a warning or detention because we didn’t say her name properly.’
Detention – I wanted to laugh in her face. Oh no, you wouldn’t get a detention. You’d probably get slapped or, better yet, not eat properly a week.
‘My name’s Jackie,’ she said, and I gave her the biggest smile I could muster, which was probably smaller than I imagined. ‘Guessing you’re one of the civilians they recruited?’
‘Civilian?’ I asked, a little confused.
‘Yeah, you don’t have any military parents or background with the secret service?’
‘Oh, no just your, uh . . . regular girl.’ Wow, I was horrible at this.
‘Where’s the others?’ she asked. ‘They take in five a year, I’m sure.’
I didn’t answer her as we walked up the stone steps and the grand doors swung open. My dad would be livid if he found out his taxes paid for this huge marble floor. This place was bigger than the security cameras made it out to be: the ceiling resembled that of a church, immensely tall, decorated with gold, and what looked like renaissance paintings. What struck me as odd though was the bleach smell that burned my nose hairs, like the chemicals themselves floated in the air around me. Older students steered clear of us – I tried to make eye contact with one guy who was around my age but he didn’t even glance in my direction. There was barely any chatter from the other students, it mostly came from our group. Ahead sat a large security desk, two burly, armed men at either side, but the chair behind was empty. Men with guns, I’m sure there’s a joke about that somewhere.
‘This is the main reception. Formal and informal visitors must come through here before they are granted access to the rest of the building. Thi
s is where I am stationed throughout the day, if you need anything I am the first port of call. Now if you all could scan your passes, then we can get started with the tour.’
Poop. I didn’t have a pass – did they mail it out to you if you got accepted? Quinn never said anything about a pass. I was rumbled. Done for. Now those two men were going to escort me out of here like a common criminal. Oh well, this was it then, this was how I died.
As the group filed forward to scan their passes I stayed completely still, trying to keep my breathing as even as possible. Our plan had failed at the first hurdle. Just then, Jackie gripped my shoulders, squeezing them, a bright smile on her face.
‘You’ll get used to it, everything is done with security passes around here.’
Yeah but Jackie, I don’t have one because I’m impersonating a first year student so I can expose this school for what it really is! I wanted to shout in her face. We didn’t have a backup plan! Why didn’t we have a backup plan?
Suddenly I felt someone barge into me, nearly knocking me off of my feet. Luckily Jackie threw out her arms and caught me.
‘Watch where you’re going!’ she called behind her, but I didn’t hear a response. She quickly helped me up, kindness swimming in her eyes. ‘You OK?’
Even though I had known Jackie a whole two minutes I was ready to word-vomit, beg her to help and hope she didn’t rat me out. Just as I was about to tell her everything I realised there was a white plastic card in my hand, with the name of my cover alias Ellie Smyth printed on it. I shot onto my tippy-toes, and just made out the back of Quinn’s pink blouse as she disappeared into the crowd.
Oh I liked Quinn.
‘Yeah,’ I replied. ‘Great actually, just clumsy.’
‘Older students, think they’re everything, honestly,’ Jackie said, shaking her head.
As we shuffled down the makeshift queue towards the scanner I let out a sigh of relief as the card rested in my hand. Well, first hurdle dealt with, let’s worry about the others when we got there.
Soon enough I was at the front and placed my card on the thin black scanner. The little red light flashed green and without another thought I left, walking as calmly as I could to the rest of the crowd. I had to act like I belonged. One of the rules when undercover was that you don’t run, don’t attract attention, you walk around like you’re supposed to be there. That’s what Quinn told me.
I had to act like I belonged; something I’ve struggled with for years.
Well, I had motivation – it was either this or a bullet in my head. I avoided the gaze of the armed guards and tried to focus on whatever Jackie was saying, but something claimed my attention. Harkness, walking down the marble steps to my right. He was so close, I could punch him in the face, stick a foot in between the banisters and trip him up – maybe he would fall and break his neck. Not that I’d actually do that, of course. That would be wrong, no matter what he’d done.
Harkness wore a permanent scowl, like the world was just a place of misery for him. He was dressed formally like Helen: white shirt, black trousers, and by the looks of it, fancy Italian shoes. Five hours of shoe shopping with Katie had apparently stuck with me. Without even a hint that he saw the large group, he walked past us. I guess he wasn’t the kind of person to say hello, but Jackie stared after the man in awe.
‘Do you know who that is?’ Jackie asked. An abusive corrupt asshole. ‘That’s Daniel Harkness, he’s got one of the highest kill counts. I heard that here he’s like a God.’
‘Really?’ I asked, feigning confusion.
‘But I also heard he’s into dodgy stuff, I don’t know the details but whatever you do, stay on his good side.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’ Oh, someone’s parents didn’t teach them how to lie.
If Harkness had this reputation, how were parents comfortable sending their kids here? Maybe they didn’t have parents or any guardians but still, common sense? Did that exist in this place?
Once everyone was done Helen led us through the wide corridors. She didn’t tell us to follow, we just did. I expected the boys to be making one hell of a noise, or throwing comments to the girls who passed, but they stayed quiet. This wasn’t like high school at all. Sure, there were small murmurs amongst the group, but nothing obnoxiously loud. Weird.
In the corridors there were cabinets filled with trophies from sporting events and a couple of stone statues that belonged in a pantheon. I didn’t expect there to be windows, but it was like they couldn’t get enough of them: there were five on this corridor alone. Was this school so untouchable that the people inside could be seen clear as day and no one would do anything about it?
We turned a corner and headed down a set of stairs. Suddenly the luxurious walls turned to pure concrete, followed by a set of black doors. When they opened and we stepped through, a thin carpet met my feet. This room was bigger than any lecture hall or classroom. A monitor took up most of the wall ahead and six rows of desks worked their way back, all busy with students, some of them occupied on laptops while others were talking on phones. On the monitor there was a picture of someone walking through Glasgow Queen Street low level – was there an op going on right now?
The room was lit with a dim blue light, most of the light coming from lamps on the desks. But as I looked above I saw an entirely separate floor with a front wall of glass. It looked like an office, but too big of an office for just one person.
‘I’m in position,’ I heard the small voice say in my ear – the thing was so lightweight I’d forgotten it was there. ‘Presently your position is in the main command room.’ I whipped my head around, trying to find Quinn amongst this chaos. ‘Stop, don’t look for me. You can’t attract any more attention.’
I ran a hand over my face trying to regain some composure. Now I had Quinn by my side, she’d know what to do and how to do it properly. I just had to follow her.
‘You can’t slip away now, it’s too difficult. You’ll have to do it when you’re going to the next place,’ she said.
My attention was diverted as I heard the cool tapping of a man walking down the black steel stairs at the other side of the room. He barely acknowledged us, but I knew exactly who he was. Come on disguise, don’t fail me now. The man was scrawny – might have given you a papercut if you touched him. He was tall with dark hair and age spots littered his face. Despite the dim lighting I could see there were bags under his eyes. I knew teachers got stressed over schoolwork, but this wasn’t a normal school – what had he been up to?
‘This is Thompson,’ Quinn told me. ‘Don’t engage, he’s hopeless in combat but smart as hell.’
I wanted to laugh. Don’t engage, what was this, CSI? No, it was an institute for mindless assassins Naomi, get with the programme.
‘Thompson,’ Helen said, and the man nodded politely. He didn’t give a smile, he just glanced the group up and down, then turned back to Helen.
‘I thought you weren’t bringing the students until later, I’m busy.’
Since Helen ran the accommodation, I guessed she didn’t have much of a rank when it came to the teachers, but I didn’t like to assume.
‘Well, it’s orientation, we have a lot of technical support students here.’
‘I don’t care if they’re the next SAS, they’re cluttering up my control room. Get out.’
What a charmer.
I know what I said before, but Thompson must act differently at work because if he ever spoke to my mother like that, she wouldn’t be working there anymore. Helen rolled her eyes before she took off to the door, leading us away. I did another once-over of the place, but couldn’t spot Quinn – she must have been tucked away in another room.
Jackie took my hand and I looked at her in surprise, but she didn’t return it. Well, it was going to be hard to slip away when someone was holding my hand.
‘Naomi, you’re not meant to make friends, who is that girl?’ Did Quinn remember I couldn’t respond? ‘Wait I’ve got her,
Jacqueline Buchanan – woah, she is rich as hell. Her parents bought their way in, that’s – that’s seven figures.’
Hold the bloody number two bus, someone invested over a million pounds in this place? Where did people get that kind of money? I had a feeling I wouldn’t want to know the answer to that.
That was when Jackie whispered. ‘You’re nervous, it’s fine, I heard Thompson’s not a people person.’
‘It’s just a bit much. Not what I expected.’
‘They’re still expanding – don’t know what though, my dad won’t tell me.’
Expanding? Is there going to be a jacuzzi? I still didn’t understand what there was to invest in – surely this place was bad enough already? The money could be paying for the new drugs they want. You probably couldn’t grab the blue ones from a pharmacy.
As soon as we left we turned down another corridor, then another. This place was constructed like a maze, I had no clue how to get back to reception. The corridors were so long with so many different doors and alcoves.
As we walked I asked, ‘Your dad works for Reign?’
‘Oh no,’ she replied. ‘He’s Head of Security in the House of Commons, but I’ll be real with you, he also works with the Americans.’
The Americans? Were they in on this too? Maybe the better question was who wasn’t involved with this whackadoo? That list would be significantly smaller.
What I didn’t expect was Quinn to start shouting in my ear.
‘You’re heading straight for the back end of the school! Jessica and Lily are – wait, that’s weird.’
Oh shit. I was nervous for this bit – would they recognise me? I wanted to ask what was weird but I couldn’t exactly speak to thin air, not with Jackie next to me. Maybe Jess’s class would be too busy taking lumps out of each other to recognise me. If I stayed at the back of the group I should be fine – please let that be true.