Akarnae (13 page)

“Did anyone bring a torch?” Alex asked into the darkness. Like the building they’d just left, the entire Tower was pitch-black.

“No need,” Bear said from somewhere ahead of her. “We’ve got Jordan.”

Before Alex could ask what he meant, Jordan spoke. “I know my way around this place better than my way to the food court.”

“You’d have to,” Bear replied. “This is practically your second home, what with all the trouble you get into.”

“It has its uses,” Jordan said, and Alex felt him grab her hand and pull her forward.

“Wait! Jordan!” she cried. “How can you see where you’re going?”

“I can’t,” he said, still moving her through the inky blackness. “But I don’t need to. The stairs are over here.”

Sure enough, a few steps more and Alex heard a
thunk
when his foot collided with the staircase. He cursed quietly from the pain, before muttering out a grumbled, “Watch your step.”

With only those words for warning, Jordan continued to pull Alex forward, and she concentrated on stepping up the stairs without falling on her face.

They continued upwards for so long that Alex wondered if they were climbing to the moon. The darkness was so disillusioning that she felt as if they’d ascended much higher than the Tower stood.

“We’re almost there,” Jordan whispered as he finally led them onto a flat surface. “Just like our dorm rooms, Marselle’s office is warded against unidentified entry, so I won’t be able to use my gift to get us inside. But I should be able to get us into his antechamber. We might hear something from there.”

“Why do we want to get into the headmaster’s office?” Alex asked. “I thought we wanted to find Jarvis?”

“Jarvis will be in Marselle’s office,” Bear explained. “It’s the only way he could have communicated with the other teachers,
since only the headmaster has primary access to all their Globes.”

“I’ll try and get us into the antechamber but, whatever you do, don’t let go of me,” Jordan said. “And don’t make any noise.”

Alex gripped his hand tighter when he started forward again. She felt the sucking sensation as they walked through a wall, and once more she found herself blinking stars from her shower-screened eyes as she adjusted to the light of the new room, one that must have also been separated from the Lockdown’s darkness.

“What’s taking so long?”

Alex nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Karter’s voice, and Jordan squeezed her fingers in warning, reminding her to stay silent.

“When the Lockdown was activated, it shut down the Tower’s identification protocol. I have to reset the system before we can enter the room,” Doc said. He was standing beside a panel in the wall, fiddling with some wires. “I’m working as fast as I can, but please remember that I’m a historian. Technology doesn’t always agree with me.”

He seemed frazzled as he worked methodically at separating the wires and pressing buttons on the touch-screen panel.

“Take all the time you need, Doc,” Finn said in a tight voice, pacing near the doorway. “We’ll just wait here while
he
walks around the campus like he owns the place.”

“We don’t even know he’s behind this,” Doc murmured into the panel, casting a quick, anxious glance towards the door of the antechamber. “And besides, it’s not like he could get very far out there, anyway,” he added, tilting his head towards the inky blackness shown through yet another transparent door.

“Bah!” Finn grunted, aiming a kick at the wall. “That’s just what he’d want us to think! Not that it even matters—we all
know what he’s here for. I don’t see why Jarvis called us up here when we should be out there stopping him, especially since this Lockdown is just making his job easier! I say we should just go and get the—”

“Might I recommend we continue this conversation when we’re certain no one else is listening?”

Alex hadn’t realised anyone else was in the room and she turned so fast that her neck cricked. Leaning against the wall on the other side of the chamber was a man she’d never seen before. He was very handsome, in a rugged kind of way, with dark hair and a strong jawline showing a hint of stubble. He was dressed all in black, with a cape similar to the shimmering one that Caspar Lennox always wore. A dagger was belted to his waist, but Alex doubted it was the only weapon he carried. Despite his relaxed position, he looked…
dangerous
.

And he was staring straight at her.

“You can never be too careful,” the man added, his dark eyes locked onto hers.

She shivered and gripped Jordan’s hand hard enough to cause bruising.

“Calm down, Ghost.” Finn waved his hand at the other man dismissively. “There’s no one here but us.”

“Hunter’s right, Finn,” Karter said, his eyes darting around the room. “We should watch what we say until we know what’s going on.”

Finn mumbled to himself but it was clear he was outvoted so he slumped against the wall to wait.

The silence was unbearable. The dangerous man—Hunter? Ghost?—still hadn’t taken his eyes off Alex. She could feel sweat beading on her forehead and she was sure everyone could hear her frantic heartbeat. She squeezed hard on Jordan’s hand again, hoping he would get the message that they needed to get out of there.

Before he could respond, Alex was pushed back as the room began filling with people who literally appeared out of thin air. All of her teachers arrived within seconds, along with some other people Alex had seen around the campus but didn’t know.

She pressed herself closer to the wall when everyone in the cramped room began speaking at once.

“What’s happening—”

“Is it—”

“Why haven’t we—”

“Does anyone know if—”

“SILENCE!”

Like most people in the room, Alex jumped at the unexpectedly loud noise. Who would have thought that the quiet historian had such a powerful set of lungs?

“Unless anyone else here knows how to override the Tower’s security system,” Doc said, “I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep the noise down. I’m finding it rather difficult to concentrate.”

The new arrivals mumbled their apologies and started up quiet conversations. Since no one seemed to know anything, Alex decided just to focus on the people closest to her, much like it appeared Jordan and Bear were doing. From what she gathered, Karter had just asked Tayla and Maggie why everyone had arrived at the Tower all at once.

“Jarvis called us,” Maggie said, waving her Communications Globe. She still held a bow in her free hand and had a quiver of arrows strapped to her back. “He asked us to come straight away to discuss the situation.”

“I guess he didn’t realise we’d be locked out of the office,” Tayla said. “I had a spare period and was in the staffroom so I don’t know what happened outside. Were you in the middle of a class, Mags?”

Maggie nodded. “When the Lockdown first activated, the entire campus was blacked out; even the sun couldn’t pierce through the darkness. I was teaching an Alpha class—it was pure luck that no one got shot. But when the secondary protocol kicked in, the Lockdown dispersed back into the buildings only. I moved my students to the nearest lit classroom and waited with them until I was called here. How long has Doc been at the control panel?”

“Not long,” Karter said. “He’ll have it figured out soon enough.”

“All done,” Doc called out, as if on cue. “We just have to wait for the system to reboot.”

Alex noted the teachers’ relieved expressions but her attention was caught by one man in particular. Or rather, it was caught by the fact that one man was
missing
. The man who had been staring at her the entire time was no longer leaning against the wall.

She glanced frantically around the room before she found him standing beside Professor Luranda. Wondering if she’d imagined the whole staring incident, Alex moved her gaze away from him, but she froze when she heard him speak quietly from across the room.

“That boy, the one whose gift can make him invisible,” he said to Luranda, “did you have him in your class just now?”

Alex felt her heart skip a beat.

“Jordan Sparker?” Luranda straightened her multi-coloured coat. “Yes, I had the entire third year class.”

“Was he in your lab when you left?”

“Of course he was,” Luranda said. “All my students were accounted for. Sparker in particular, since I know all too well his penchant for troublemaking. When I left, he was sitting up the back of my room with his head bent over a textbook.”

“I see,” the Hunter man said, his eyes flicking over to Alex and her friends for a fraction of a second. “That
is
a relief.”

He almost looked amused.

“We’re in!” Doc called when the door finally opened.

“Well done, Doc,” Jarvis’s voice carried in from the next room. “I forgot that you’d be locked out, but well done indeed.”

Alex took a step forward and tried to get a glimpse inside the headmaster’s office as the teachers streamed through the door. From her limited view, she could see that it looked like a boardroom, with a large rectangular desk spanning the length of the room. The best part was the far wall which was completely transparent and looked straight out over the entire academy.

“All right everyone, please take a seat,” Jarvis called as the teachers continued to pour through the door. “We have a delicate situation on our hands and we must deal with it immediately to ensure the safety of everyone residing on the academy grounds.”

Alex took another step forward, not wanting to miss anything he said.

“As many of you might have guessed, we had an unauthorised visitor arrive just after lunch.” Jarvis’s voice was deep and serious. “We can’t be sure, but we believe the intruder was here on a scouting mission. We have no evidence indicating he is aware that what he’s after is here at Akarnae, so it could have been a simple coincidence. But coincidence or not, had his mission been successful, I can’t begin to describe how catastrophic the consequences would have been. Thankfully, the Lockdown procedure impeded his search, and he has since fled the grounds.”

There was a loaded silence before Jarvis continued. “While earlier I was unsure, I can now confirm that our intruder was—”

The last person stepped into the office. The door clicked shut.

“Of all the rotten timing,” Bear whispered. “We were just about to hear—”

“I think you’ve heard quite enough, Barnold,” interrupted a quiet voice that froze Alex and her friends to the spot.

Oh, they were in
so
much trouble.

Twelve

Fear quickly overtook Alex when
she saw the Hunter man standing near the door and staring straight at their ‘invisible’ faces.

“I believe it’s time for you three to return to your class,” he said, before he opened the door to the headmaster’s office and slipped quietly inside.

Alex didn’t know if her knees would be able to hold her up much longer, shaking as much as they were. She had only a second to take in her friends’ equally shocked expressions before Jordan yanked on her hand, pulling her forcefully after him. She barely felt the sucking sensation as they moved through the wall, and then they were sprinting off down the staircase, intent on getting as far away as possible.

The Lockdown must have deactivated while they’d been snooping, since the corridor outside the antechamber was no longer filled with darkness. Knowing that all the teaching staff were in conference upstairs, Alex let go of Jordan’s hand so they could move easier and faster down the Tower staircase.

Only when all three of them had sprinted the entire way back to Gen-Sec did they stop and gasp for breath.

“That was intense!” Jordan said, exhaling with a laugh.

“Who
was
that man?” Alex asked, panting. “And how did he know we were there? He was staring at us practically the whole time!”

“That was Hunter,” Bear said, also trying to catch his breath. “Some people call him ‘Ghost’ since you never know where he is or what he’s doing unless he wants you to know.”

“He’s brilliant,” Jordan added. “We’ll hopefully have him next year for Stealth and Subterfuge. I can’t wait. Bear and I have been counting down ever since we first heard about his class.”

Alex shuddered at the idea of having that man as a teacher. “Why next year?”

“SAS is restricted to fourth years and up,” Jordan explained. “Even then it’s very exclusive, since Hunter only picks a handful of students who he thinks will be worth his time.”

That was good news for Alex. It was unlikely she would still be in Medora for the next school year, but even if she was, she couldn’t think of any reason why Hunter would consider her to be ‘worth his time’.

“But how did he know we were there?”

“Not much gets past Hunter,” Jordan said. “He probably heard us breathing or something.”

“From across the room?” Alex asked in disbelief.

“If there’s one thing you need to remember about Hunter,” Bear said, “it’s this: never underestimate him.”

“Is that so,
Barnold?
” Alex couldn’t help it. Despite the seriousness of their conversation, teasing Bear about his name was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“Uh, yeah, about that…” He pulled the collar of his shirt awkwardly. “I really do prefer Bear.”

Jordan snorted. “So would anyone whose parents had named them Barnold.”

Bear didn’t seem bothered by the ribbing. “At least I came with a ready-made nickname.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“My full name is Barnold Eustace Arthur Ronnigan,” he explained. “B-E-A-R.”

Alex cocked her head to the side. “That works well.”

“I don’t know about you guys,” Jordan interjected, “but I think we should take Hunter’s advice and get inside before Luranda comes back.”

Alex and Bear agreed, knowing that with the professor at the meeting, the danger of being caught had lessened significantly. Well, caught again. Alex still wasn’t sure why Hunter hadn’t punished them when they had to have broken a heap of school rules.

As she followed her friends up the now lit but still empty corridors, Alex was painfully reminded of her aching chest. During the adrenaline-filled Lockdown she’d managed to forget all about her near-drowning in the lake, but now her body was screaming in discomfort. She hadn’t exactly been taking it easy, what with falling out of a building and running all over the campus. If anything, she’d probably done more damage to herself.