Renee bit her lip as she looked down at the building they’d
escaped from. The term hornets’ nest didn’t give it justice. “So how do you
think Lilia was right?”
“I
know
she was right.” Ursula flashed her best winning smile,
sliding on her aviators, and guiding them up into the air. “I was in her room
when you met me. The picture I climbed out of was titled, ‘The heart of a
woman.’ I had a lovely big jewel in my hand too.” She smiled at the memory of
the glee on Huber’s face when he saw it.
Yeah, it had been worth a month off. A month hounded by Renee, but
still.
“The friendship thing . . . Being part of you?” Ursula shrugged.
“I guess I can live with it.”
The winning smile on Renee’s face had been worth it. The buzz of
helping had been worth it. Being a good guy could be fun too. In fact, it was
addictive.
Ursula hauled herself up and dropped down soundlessly behind
Jessie. She was too busy setting up her rifle. High powered. Capable of hitting
a target over a mile away in experienced hands. In the wrong hands, it didn’t
bear thinking about.
“You know, wind burn isn’t a good look.”
Jessie turned. Ursula snatched the rifle off her and leaned it
against the wall.
Easier than she’d thought.
“How did you know?” Jessie looked down. “How?”
“Let’s forget me and get to why you were about to gun down a load
of people.”
“What?” Jessie shook her head. “No . . . not people . . .
never
people.”
Ursula tapped the gun.
“Not people,” Jessie blurted again. She looked green and
breathless. Ursula spotted the inhaler on the floor next to a rucksack and
handed it to her. Jessie took the pump and pointed to the main building.
“The weather vane. Those men are looking for people to take away.
Useful people. If I hit it, they hear it. They will take me. They won’t take
Miroslav then.”
The term elite sniper came to mind. This kid was not one of those.
The rifle was bigger than her. “You think hitting a weather vane will stop them
paying attention to Miroslav?”
Jessie nodded. “Now I’ve burned my notes, Kevin won’t be able to
pretend anymore and they’ll look for the real genius. They’d know it’s
Miroslav. It won’t be hard to find him, he’s too honest.”
So she was willing to put herself in his place to save him. Now
why did that sound familiar? “Jessie, if you fire a rifle, they won’t be
looking at roof decorations, they’ll be too busy shooting at you.”
Jessie frowned. A dumb genius, wonderful. “Kevin is meeting them.
He is lying. He’ll get taken away.”
“Kevin will have more issues than going missing if they realize
he’s a fraud.”
Jessie sighed. “He is clever. He’s just not as burdened as
Miroslav or me.” She shrugged, her wiry brown hair dancing in the wind. “If he
was, he wouldn’t be so happy about it.”
Now she sounded like Aeron. “Let’s get you off the tower and back
before someone takes it out on Samson.”
“They wouldn’t.” She had a defensive glare that rivaled Renee’s.
The Aeron effect.
“They would. She cares about you. Don’t hurt her by talking about
any of this.”
Jessie nodded and Ursula broke down the rifle, stowed it in the
rucksack, and slung it onto her back. She wasn’t leaving it up there. Only she
had ever completed the challenge in climbing to the top before Jessie but it didn’t
matter. It was better to be cautious.
Ursula used her suckers to steady herself and attached a rope to
Jessie so that the kid had some safety. “I’ll give you something, not many
people can figure out how to get up here.”
Jessie clambered down over the edge of the tower. “There’s a
balcony. Perfect for anchoring to . . . when you reach it.”
They made careful progress down the back of the tower that was
hidden from view. The guards and staff wouldn’t look up without a reason. It
was impossible to climb, so why would they? Impossible for most but Jessie was
more nimble than she looked. Aeron’s workout regime was paying off. “Ever
thought about being a thief?”
Jessie fixed her with a look of disgust.
“Oh, you are happy firing rifles and hacking doors but you have
issues with stealing.” Ursula pulled the second rope attached to the rucksack,
secured herself to the wall, and pulled out her phone to call off the alert.
She slipped her phone back in her pouch and caught up with Jessie.
“Why did you collect all the door codes anyway?”
“I was working out a way for us to escape . . . Miroslav and I.”
She sighed. “I wanted to take Kevin.”
“Did Kevin tell them?”
Jessie shook her head. “No, I didn’t tell him anything. He just
thought they were equations.”
Ursula stopped for a moment. “You were lucky you weren’t caught.”
“It was more than just codes. I was working on hacking the staff
computers.” Jessie bit her lip. “If Kevin tries to follow what I was doing . .
. If he figures it out . . . I don’t want him hurt.”
“Why would he follow if he just thinks they are equations?”
Jessie hung her head, oblivious to the fact they hung from a great
height. “Deputy Principal Jäger found out because I tried to send for help from
his computer.”
“To?”
Jessie started to climb down again. Her eyes darting back and
forth as she thought. “The director of child protection for the academies. His
name was—”
“Huber,” Ursula said, trying to hide her sigh. Which is why he
knew there was a budding locksmith in Caprock. “Are there any other notes?”
Jessie glanced at her as she climbed. Her face was red with the
effort. “Kevin copied some. He doesn’t know what they mean. They’re code.”
“Leave it to me.” Ursula gave her a charming smile. “Kevin won’t
realize it’s gone.”
Jessie didn’t look convinced but no one ever did. She had no idea
just quite how inventive Ursula could be when acquiring things.
Chapter 23
ONE WORD THAT strikes fear into the hearts of students everywhere
. . . midterms. I thought the mental institution during a full moon was
something else, but boy, had I been in for a shock.
Teenage hormones, exam pressure, and the extra spiciness that a
place like Caprock threw in made them all crazy. So crazy that fights broke out
at random, kids hobbled around with injuries. It was strange to watch them all.
The silent march they did between classes. How much they telegraphed their
disputes, their worries, their terror just through body movements. The look in
their eyes was more telling. You could see who was thriving, who was breaking,
and who had an inbuilt drive for survival.
And survival it was. Frei hadn’t pulled any punches when I’d asked
her over dinner one night.
“Why are the kids so worried? I don’t get it. So they fail an exam
or two.” I stabbed at my food. I’d been bombarded with hysterics and drama all
week. I didn’t know what was going on with my group.
“The rumors start at this point. Jones and Sawyer will be
instigating it.” Frei was as unmoved as always.
“Rumors?”
Frei looked up from her food. “What happens to the ones who fail.
The stories get wilder. You’ve seen the way the whispers work, how damaging
they are.”
I had. In Oppidum I’d felt the full brunt. “But it’s just lies,
right?” I pushed my food around my plate. It was bothering me. I wanted to be
able to tell my group it was nonsense.
Frei finished up her dinner and put her plate in the sink. I
grabbed her arm as she passed by.
“It is all lies . . . right?”
She sighed. “No.”
No? I gripped her tighter with the panic. “What happens to them?”
Frei removed my hand from her arm and squeezed it. Her eyes were
gentle. She knew I cared for the students. I couldn’t hide it. “They are deemed
to have no value and are sold.”
That made no sense.
“What?”
“Sold to people who will use them for whatever use they can find.”
Frei’s voice held a sadness that could only come from witnessing such a thing.
“Any use.”
The idea shook me. I tried to hide it but I started to pay more
attention to the way the students interacted with each other. Helpless to do
anything but look on. Helpless but in making sure my group passed. It was all I
could do.
The closer the midterms got, the more the atmosphere changed. That
stillness filled the air. That hanging. That collective holding of breath as
summer storms rolled through.
My group broke up into social clicks. Jessie and Miroslav always
together. The other girls huddled close to one another or wide apart, depending
on where they were in their friend-to-foe cycle. Jed and his boys strutted
along with arrogance but I didn’t miss a couple of well-placed shoves when
someone came too close to Jessie, the girls, or Miroslav.
Something in Jed had started to change. It was for the better.
They would need him.
The gold group took a lot of hits. They were being targeted with
the full anger of teenage rage. Most of the time it was by the kids in Jones’s
and Sawyer’s groups. The influence of the teachers was starting to tell.
It was like they had joined forces and were hunting the others. A
pecking order in place, a need for the lowest to prove themselves and that rage
was growing inside them. To survive they wanted to get rid of any competition.
The ringleaders would then turn on the ones beneath them. I could see it. I’d
seen it inside. I had no idea how I could stop it escalating.
Frei’s group stayed away from everyone else and each other. There
was a sense of unease that filled me when I watched them. I caught Frei
watching each of them as if making mental notes. She watched all the students
with a look in her eyes I couldn’t understand. Maybe memories of when she was
here as a student. Whatever it was, it seemed laced with longing and regret.
I felt lucky not to have my burdens in full. I couldn’t imagine
wandering around in a haze of angst, terror. I wouldn’t have coped with feeling
the weight of teenage crushes, the panic to fit in, and that creeping sense of
fear. I often caught myself looking for that cloud. Looking for the trailing
suckers that fed off the victims below.
Here in Caprock, there was no escape. They never left the academy.
Those who had families never went home. It was prison in all but name. The
guards in huts posted around were meant to be security. I hadn’t missed the
rifle lockers. I hadn’t missed the quick flick of a hand when a student got too
close. They were sharks circling as if they wanted to pick off any weak ones.
Jäger scared even them.
At his height, he towered over most of the students but the way
they scattered when he was near gave me goose bumps. I’d seen him drag a boy by
the scruff up to his office once or twice but they’d always returned.
They didn’t re-offend.
It made me thankful I had Frei to protect me. Living with her
hadn’t been the tense, awkward experience I was expecting. She made everything
so easy. She’d started teaching me how to cook and she was a more patient
teacher when folks weren’t watching.
I found it something to look forward to. I’d go back to the villa
after classes and we’d have dinner. Frei would work while I read my way through
the library.
We always did so in silence, so each night, I felt more relaxed
than I had in a long time. It was routine. I was in a prison environment and
that made me feel more in control.
Renee had always said I was institutionalized.
I hoped that control fed through to my group as I wandered over to
the gym. It was assessment day. Harrison and a couple of visitors would be
monitoring. Frei had told me the evening before that Huber would be one of
them.
I’d had three months to get my group buff and it was starting to
show. Miroslav had worked real hard and looked like a different guy. A lot of
the girls had noticed too, which made me roll my eyes at the giggling from the
corner.
“Listen up,” I said, hoping to cut the conversation I didn’t want
to hear. “You know the drill today. It ain’t gonna be easy to impress but it’s
important that you do.”
One of the gigglers, Leigh-Anne, raised her hand, long nails on
show.
“Shoot.”
“Why?” She asked.
I folded my arms at her. She was a tricky one at the best of
times. She had a tendency not to take her medication so I had to watch her. She
could fit at any time. “Why what?”
“Why do we have to impress?”
How did I get out of this one?
“Simple,” I said it like I knew. “It makes me look good.”
That brought a chuckle of appreciation. They did that a lot. I
waited for it to calm as it was laced with an edge of hysteria.
“The other thing is that I think you’re worth something.” There
went my mean facade. “Everyone in this place treats you real bad. I seen it and
I was like you were once.” I held onto my arms, hoping I could cover the
splurge of truth. “It took me a long time to figure out I was okay with being
different.”
All eyes were fixed on me, opened and focused. I felt the need to
help them. If any failed, they’d be taken off someplace and sold. I didn’t what
none of them suffering that.
“Being you ain’t ever gonna be easy. The folks out there won’t
ever get you. What I want them to know is that different can be better.”
Their gazes grew more intense and I smiled.
“So make me look good, sure, but most of all make yourselves feel
it.”
Jed stuck his hand up. He was a pain in the butt but he was
growing on me. “You read that on a cereal box?”
The class joker. Titters and whispers rippled through the group.
“You want to run the track, twice, before we start?”
He dropped his hand with a deep scowl on his face. The kind only
teenagers could perfect.
“Didn’t think so.”
Harrison tottered in and I turned, feeling the group’s eyes on me
and my own nerves rattle around inside me. Harrison was flanked by two men. One
was bald. His gray shirt strained over his biceps. He had pock marks on his
cheeks, deep inset eyes with a greedy glint in them.
The other guy was sinewy. His gray hair wavy but styled, white at
the temples. He wore a light gray suit and a sharp white shirt underneath. His
low brow shaded piercing blue eyes. Everything about him was sharp.
I didn’t know which one Huber was but both looked dangerous. It
once again made me marvel at Frei’s ability to survive.
“This is Samson,” Harrison said. She held a tablet in her hand
with a stylus pen poised over it. “She is head of physical education.” She
motioned to baldy. “This is Mr. Crespo.” She motioned to sharp eyes. “And this
is Mr. Huber.”
So sharp eyes was Huber. Go figure. I nodded to them, not knowing
how I should greet Huber.
His eyes twinkled as he flicked his gaze over me.
“Let’s see how many we can salvage,” Harrison said in such a
dismissive manner that I scowled.
If she saw it, she didn’t acknowledge it, and turned to the kids.
I sat down next to Huber, Crespo, and prayed that my group pulled off a
miracle.
AS HARRISON TOOK us outside and ran each kid through a vigorous
fitness test, Huber guided me away from the others. “My girl says you’ve done a
good job with what you have.”
The way he talked about Frei was paternal. “I learned from her.”
He kept his eyes on the proceedings. Harrison was demanding more
and more from each kid who went up. “She’s always been a good teacher. She
speaks highly of you.”
She did? I straightened my shoulders at that. “Anyone who knows
her would feel the same way about her.”
Huber’s face didn’t change expression from the mild interest in
proceedings but something flickered across his eyes. “If they knew she was
running wild . . .” His jaw flexed. “That I’d allowed her to do so . . .”
“Sure,” I said, not knowing what he was fishing for.
“She says you’re unique.” His eyes met mine with an odd look that
I couldn’t read. “Shame, that you never came my way.”
So he could sell me? Did he
want
to be flattened? “Er . . .
thanks?”
He smiled. “It’s a compliment. Take it.”
And that sounded like an order.
“She said they are sold for their uses?” I felt sick. I felt like
crying. I felt like I needed to grab the kids and rescue them.
“If she didn’t tell you, neither will I. It’s better you don’t
know.”
He was so calm about it all. Crespo was eying each kid like they
were lunch. Harrison was more and more pronounced in her desire to fail them.
How could they do it? How could they act like these people were worth nothing?
“You are all sick bastards, do you know that?” I couldn’t hold it
in, and I was ready for Nan to rattle me for cussing but it hurt. It hurt to
watch the terror. It hurt to watch the lack of emotion these people had.
“I didn’t make the system,” he said as if I hadn’t just insulted
him. “I just work in it.”
“It don’t matter. You let this happen.”
Huber met my eyes. “I never pretended I didn’t. It’s business and
she’s right.”
“About what?”
Harrison’s scowl grew deeper as she challenged each kid. They were
more than a match for her test. I’d made sure of it. They could do it several
times and still be ready to go again. My group were not being sold.
I tensed as next up and last in line was Miroslav.
“She is right to speak highly of you.” He wandered to Crespo who
looked as unhappy as Harrison.
I held my breath as Miroslav began his test. I had rigged it so
that everyone performed the test sitting down. If he didn’t stand, he’d be
safe.
“Nan, if you can hear me, help them,” I
whispered up to the sky, following it up with a silent prayer. The sun overhead
made the temperature soar. Miroslav’s condition didn’t do so well in the heat.
He needed help. Help from somebody who cared.
I leaned against the wall, powerless to do anything but watch.
Miroslav started off great. He sipped his water as much as possible. It had
salts and minerals in it. It tasted foul but Frei had come up with it and he’d
improved with it.
I found it hard to join up what I knew of Huber, his manner and
the way he treated Frei, to the cold businesslike way he talked.
He seemed to have accepted the way things were but then he wasn’t
the one being sold.
Miroslav finished the test. He wobbled but he’d managed it.
Harrison looked ready to spit feathers. I held my breath as a sly smile touched
her lips.
“You will stand as we run through the results.”
My heart sank.
The heat made me feel tired. Miroslav couldn’t do it.