Authors: L. J. Kendall
As the questioning went on, she tried to work out how much trouble she was in. Of course angry-man, the one with all the medals, looked the angriest; though he kept shooting looks at the Director as if he wanted to complain, but was scared of him. Which was silly: Director Sanders was a softy.
Mr Shanahan looked real worried though, like he thought
he
might get in trouble, and she suddenly remembered how she'd found out about the one-minute sweeps of the outside cameras, and how she wasn't supposed to even be allowed
into
his security office; and how she'd had to get a watch so she could time it perfectly…
She'd just have to pretend not to know any of that, she decided, and hope they'd think she'd just been lucky; and hope that Uncle's excellent guessing didn't stay excellent.
And luckily, that's what happened; though the whole time, it seemed to her that her uncle was trying not to smile.
Maybe she
wouldn't
get into too much trouble, after all?
But when she got to the part where she was watching from up in the ceiling, the three feather-men got all interested. They all stared at her, real hard.
'-and there was this little hole, but big enough to see the man with the really big gun outside Godsson's room-'
'How did you know it was Godsson's room? How do you know Godsson's name?' That was one of the feather-men.
'Um.' What could she say? They were all looking at her. That she'd learned about him in school? That she'd seen pictures of him on Mr Shanahan's- but then
he'd
get in trouble. 'Um.'
'She's clearly been sent here.' That was Mr Angry with the dark suit and medals. 'Our foreign friends have been clamoring to “observe” one of Benson's episodes for years, no doubt to see what they can learn.'
'Oh?' Director Sanders asked. 'Does that mean you've decided these costly exercises
are
a worthwhile expense for the tax-payer after all, Mr Smith?'
This was like watching a ping-pong match!
'Sara is not some foreign child-prodigy super-spy,' Uncle said.
Sara blinked. She wasn't sure what a protajee was, but Angry-man thought she was a
super-spy?
Yeah! How cool was
that
! She tried, but couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face. Desperately, she fought it down before Mr Angry
Smith
looked back in her direction.
'My questions stand.'
That was the feather guy who'd asked her about Godsson, who was still watching her. Carefully. Um…
'Just tell the truth, Sara,' Uncle said. 'I promise, making up lies is not something you should be doing for these gentlemen, at this time.'
His voice was strangely encouraging, and she wondered if perhaps Keepie somehow already knew she talked to Godsson. But how could he know that?
He nodded, and looked across at the three feather-men.
'Um, ’cause I talk to him sometimes?'
Everyone – except Director Sanders and her uncle, she noticed – went instantly still, like she'd just said something really amazing.
'He speaks to you
telepathically
?' hissed the feather guy who'd asked her the questions.
'I don't- I don't know that word. Sorry.'
'In your head. He speaks to you in your head. While you are in your room?' He lurched toward her, looking like he wanted to grab her. She shrank back into her chair. '
When
does he speak to you! Is he speaking to you even now?'
'Uh, no, only when I go and visit him.'
No one said anything.
'I stand on a chair,' she added, to help.
Suddenly everyone was looking at Mr Shanahan, who was shaking his head. 'No, that's not possible. I couldn't miss something like that. The EyeNet would have flagged her presence as unusual, I couldn't have missed seeing-'
'Um, mister Shanahan, I, uh, I kind of tricked the computer.'
Everyone turned back to her.
Then she had to explain about Bork, and the stick, and her red toolkit, and being repair-girl. Everyone just kept staring at her. They didn't even believe her, not until Professor Sanders called up the security footage and they manually searched through to find the last time she'd visited. Then they were all saying stuff like, “My god, it's gray-flagged,” and she'd had to hide her smile.
Mr Shanahan had looked amazed, and relieved, and Keepie – Keepie's eyes were practically
sparkling.
The corners of his eyes had even crinkled up!
A bit like Professor Sanders's.
She had the strong feeling, then, that everything really would be alright.
And yeah, after that, things improved a lot. They were all looking at her
properly
now, too, like they weren't just seeing some silly girl any more. All the grown-up attention made her sit up extra straight.
There was a bit after that where Keepie and Mr Shanahan – and especially Mr Angry – were all like, “But you could have been shot,” to her, as well as “If my agents weren't so highly trained at telling good guys from bad guys” and stuff. Though they'd all used much bigger words than that. But she just said “sorry” over and over, and tried to look it. She even made her eyes go big and round, and pushed out her bottom lip a lot. Before remembering who'd taught her to do that, and stopped doing it.
Finally, they wanted to know why on earth she'd jumped down, since she'd been hidden?
And so she had to explain about seeing that the man with the big gun was being tricked and was all wrapped up by Her, and how she could tell She was attacking Godsson too, from the way he was screaming. So then they
all
had a big argument and she was shouting at them for being so mean to Godsson and anyway she'd helped, because the FBI man was about to shoot Godsson through the window!
They all stopped the argument when she said that – it was weird, like they just paused a trid. Then they all had to look at the security recording. Watching it, it was obvious – and she
totally
looked like a super spy-girl for real when she jumped through the roof! She looked so fierce it even impressed
her
! – but
they
all said the man had just heard her in the ceiling and was lifting his gun up toward
that
, and she was all “Don't be so stupid!” but then
they
were all “Clearly Godsson has man-ipillated her into joining Godsson in his dis-show-tiv fantasy.” They didn't change their minds even after she'd pointed out that as soon as she'd killed the monster, Godsson had cried out real happy and then suddenly was winning
his
battle inside his cell. But no, they were all still like, “that's just a coincidence.”
Even while she'd been so cross with them, though, it'd been pretty cool to learn she'd been hit by a Sleep spell by the feather guys. They'd had to use magic to stop her!
She couldn't wait to tell Faith all about it.
In the end, after arguing forever using all sorts of big words, they'd decided Godsson was just imagining things, and that he'd taught her to imagine the same things. How stupid was that? But Uncle told them how her talks with Godsson seemed to be good for him. Then he'd pointed out that it was all imaginary and no harm had been done, and everyone had to agree, though Mr Angry had grumbled about that.
Even Professor Sanders said he wasn't sure it was entirely safe, though in the end he'd said 'Very well, doctor, but I'll be holding you responsible if anything unfortunate happens.'
It wasn't clear just what they were allowing – was she allowed to keep visiting Godsson, or not? She decided it'd be better not to ask. And to keep sneaking in, even if she wasn't allowed.
Then Mr Angry said something about a dragon. The Director answered him.
'Mr Smith, we know the Dragon
does
still take an interest, from his reaction each time someone suggests relocating our problem. Or terminating it.' He looked at Mr Angry when he said that.
But she was more interested in the talk of a dragon. A
dragon!
How cool was that? The Institute was the best place
ever,
to grow up!
Anyway, in the end they'd all agreed that since there'd been no harm done – she'd wanted to shout at them, then, but her uncle gave her a look that warned her not to – that since there'd been no harm done, this time there wouldn't be a punishment except for being “grounded.” Which meant really having to stay in her room. For a whole week.
-
After all his visitors had left, Director Sanders turned to his screen, and sighed. The man looking back at him quirked an eyebrow up. 'Not bad for a nine-year-old girl, eh Sanders?'
Director Sanders shook his head. 'I was sure you'd have to use your veto, sir. But in the end, I think even Smith was impressed by her ingenuity.'
'What did you think, Sanders, of her story about
She
?'
'Worried, frankly. Neither Dr Harmon nor the three very impressive shamans you found for us this year saw anything incorporeal at any stage. But still, and I can't pin down why I feel this way, I'm worried.'
'And her story of hunting invisible things like that in your grounds?'
'It's a horrifying thought, isn't it? If it were true. Frankly, sir, if it were anyone other than Godsson and d'Artelle involved – and Lord Lao Pi Shen, for that matter – I'd dismiss it out of hand. It's far more comfortable to assume it's just shared fantasizing.'
The man nodded. 'But whether this is some game by the Dragon or not, it is still in his best interests to see Godsson contained. Just as it is for everyone else on the planet. So, whether these annual attacks are real or just Godsson's fantasy, I feel we can still be sure that our containment of him is still effective.'
'So, nothing has changed, sir?'
'I don't believe so. Don't lower your guard, though. Neither of us wants to use plan B, do we?'
'
No, sir
.'
A bead of sweat at his brow at the thought, Sanders signed off and eased back in his chair. Hopefully, next year's anniversary of d'Artelle's death would be less dramatic, if the usual three-yearly rising-then-falling pattern held.
Chapter 16
They'd glued shut her secret door and made her promise not to go up into the ceiling again. But it wasn't till the next day that she discovered what “Grounding” really meant: when she stepped outside her room to go to breakfast, and suddenly sirens were going off.
Her uncle hurried out of his office. And then explained that, yes, for a whole week, she was not allowed out of her room unless it was an emergency. And he'd narrowed his eyes as if he knew exactly what she'd been thinking when she made the mistake of looking happy about the “unless.”
And Faith wasn't allowed to come
inside
, either.
Grounding was
awful.
Her uncle brought her breakfast, and a dombot came and collected the dishes and stuff. Nerida brought her lunch, and for some reason said she hoped she wasn't going to waste “all that food.” Which was weird: why would she have asked for it if she wasn't going to eat it?
But Nerida had brought her own lunch and ate it at the desk, watching while she sat on her bed and had her soymeat, hash brown – yum! – and fish fingers on toast. Nerida just had a salad and a blueberry muffin. At first, she thought Nerida had stayed because she thought she was going to do something weird with her food, but after a little while Nerida started asking about what'd happened the night before.
So she told her, and it was kind of cool how Nerida kept going “No way!” and “You didn't!”, but not like she thought she
really
didn't. It'd actually been fun talking to her. Nerida seemed to get less strange the more they talked. Though not completely not-strange, Sara discovered, when she'd tried to explain about the spirits in the woods and the invisible monsters.
That evening, at the knock on the door at dinner time, she toppled down from the wall, her hands and arms aching from holding herself upside down. 'Coming, Nerida!' she called out as she bounced over and threw open the door.
And found Keepie standing there with her dinner tray. He didn't look too happy, either, she thought. She blushed, annoyed at getting it so wrong, then remembered to step aside so he could come in. He looked sideways at her, with a little frown.
'I thought you and Nerida didn't get on?'
'Oh, she's not so bad once you get to know her.'
He just looked at her, thoughtfully. He must've already eaten, since he only had food for her on the tray. He put it on her desk and made her eat it there, instead of cross-legged on her bed.
She was sure he'd come for some special reason, but for a long while he didn't say anything, just watched her while she ate.
She looked at him, trying to work out if they'd changed their minds and she was going to be in bigger trouble after all, but it was more like he wanted to ask her something. When he finally spoke, though, it was just to ask about Godsson.
'I suppose you and he talk about a great many different subjects, Sara?'
She answered around a mouthful of her seafood omelet – for some reason, she hadn't felt very hungry tonight. 'Uh, yeah. I guess.'
'Adam and Eve?'
She grimaced. 'Yeah. That story didn't make any sense to me, but. A lot of-'
'Has he ever talked to you about Lilith?'
Huh? That sounded like…
'Lily?'
'Never mind: no need to fill your head with fantasy and superstition. Did you ever talk to Godsson about “Her?”'
She never had, ’cause she knew
She
didn't like Godsson and just wanted to upset him. 'No.'
Her uncle frowned. 'What about “Robo”?'
'No.'
Actually, why
hadn't
she mentioned Robo to Godsson? More than once, she'd been
about
to. But each time, she'd just… decided it would be a bad idea. Like Godsson would approve of Robo. Too much.