The Academy (46 page)

Emily shrugged, and then smiled weakly at him. Alex felt uncomfortable, as if he had suggested something inappropriate, and he regretted it, a little. He was sure that she would refuse, and why wouldn’t she? Emily actually wanted to go to the Academy, after all. Who was he to interfere, because he was bored? But, he had to admit that he was so very, very tired of homeroom.

“Wait a couple minutes, and then meet me outside by the drinking fountain.”

He hadn’t even noticed her write the note, but it was unmistakably hers, purple pen and a little circle instead of a dot over the lower-case ‘I’. He tried to catch her eyes, but she had already stood up and quietly excused herself, as if she was headed to the bathroom. Alex sincerely hoped that no one but him noticed her blushing as she did so, but the combination of an amused look from Anastasia and an elbow digging into his side from an indignant Vivik disabused him of any such notion.

“Dude, what the hell?” Vivik hissed at him. “What are you doing?”

Alex gave him a lame smile and then went back to staring blankly at Mr. Windsor, doing his best to ignore Vivik’s fuming and Anastasia’s smirk. It was a long four minutes, but that was as much as he could give it. He excused himself as quietly as possible, stepping over Vivik’s legs, ignoring the way the Indian kid looked at him. Vivik’s crush on Emily, Alex told himself firmly, was not his problem.

Emily, he reminded himself on his way out of the classroom, was his problem.

She was waiting for him by the drinking fountain, her smile fragile and uncertain. She looked nervous, and kept sneaking furtive glances back toward the classroom, as if she was worried that Mr. Windsor would come out after them.

“I’m sorry,” he said, walking up to her with his hands buried in his pockets. “I don’t know why I made you do that. All our stuff is still in the classroom, too, so Windsor is bound to notice.”

Emily shook her head, and Alex was fascinated by the motion of her blond ringlets as they bobbed along with the gesture.

“He won’t say anything,” she said, reassuringly, putting her hand on his arm, “and Vivik will collect our stuff at the end of class.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Alex said glumly. “I think he’s probably mad. He likes you a lot, you know?”

Emily sighed and frowned.

“I know, silly. Of course I know.”

She said it gently, but Alex felt like an idiot. Somehow, he couldn’t remember that Emily was empath, she seemed so normal. Of all the people he had met in the Academy, he thought, she was the most like a real person – not that he was entirely sure what he meant by a ‘real person’ in the first place.

“He’s been like that since he showed up, last session. Maybe I shouldn’t have been as friendly with him, but, well,” she fluttered her hands helplessly, “everyone was being so
mean
to him, what else could I do?”

Emily sighed again, looking unhappy, and Alex racked his brain futilely for a change of subject.

“Anyway, what’s done is done,” Emily said, tightening her grip on his arm and guiding him gently away from the classroom. “We should make the best of it. Let’s go somewhere, okay?”

Alex let himself be led along by her, obliging when she linked their arms. He was very aware that the side of her chest was pressed against his arm as they walked, and he found it difficult to think about anything else. That was probably why he missed it, the first time she asked.

“What?” Alex said, shaking his head and trying to focus on the girl next to him. Or, rather, on her face, and the words she was saying.

“I asked if there was anything you wanted to do,” Emily said, obviously repeating herself.

“Uh, not really,” Alex admitted, “I hadn’t actually thought about it. I’m sorry; this is lame, isn’t it? I just wanted out of there.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Emily said, clutching his arm and snuggling closer. “I don’t mind. I was going to say, that if you don’t have anything in particular that you wanted to do,” she added shyly, “we could go back to my place and hang out. I know it was weird last time, but Therese will be working all day, and she won’t get back till late. I could make us lunch or something…”

Alex might have been slow, he was prepared to admit that, but he wasn’t stupid; at least, he didn’t think that he was stupid. He’d already opened his mouth to agree when he noticed a tall figure in black walking the opposite way on the sidewalk, close enough to them that he could see the toothy grin, and his heart sank, and he didn’t bother to say anything at all. Emily waited for a moment, then nudged him when no response was forthcoming, then finally looked over at him in annoyance, in time to see Alice standing in the path in front of them, arms crossed across the scrawled ‘Emperor’ logo emblazed across her t-shirt, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a broad smile affixed to her face.

“Well, well,” Alice chuckled. “And here I thought I would have to go all the way to Mr. Windsor’s class to find you, Alex Warner. You must have gotten out of class early, huh? And Emily Muir, you must have been helping him find the Administrative building, right?”

“Oh dear,” Emily said, one hand coming up to cover her mouth. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Miss Gallow.”

“Yeah,” Alice agreed tolerantly. “I get that a lot. Thanks for bringing him this far, Emily. If you hurry back, you should have plenty of time to make it back to class before lecture is over.”

“Right,” Emily said, nodding helplessly, then slowly backing away, giving Alex a sad look before she turned away. “Maybe I could bring your books by, later, okay, Alex?”

“Sure,” Alex said, licking his lips nervously, somehow afraid to take his eyes off of Alice Gallow even to say goodbye.

Alice stood there, until Emily was out of sight. Then she slapped Alex’s shoulder and laughed uproariously.

“I’m sorry,” she managed, a minute later, still out of breath. “I couldn’t help myself.”

“That sucked, Miss Gallow,” Alex said, trying like hell not to sound like he was whining. She looked cheerful enough this morning, but Alex couldn’t totally put all the stories he’d heard about Alice Gallow out of his head when he spoke to her, and it made him cautious. “I hope you actually have something you needed to talk to me about.”

Alice laughed again quietly, then walked over to a nearby low wall, and sat down on the sun-warmed stone, patting a space nearby to indicate Alex should also sit. After a moment of ineffectual and half-hearted glaring, he joined her.

“Pretty self-righteous for someone ditching class to get all cozy with Emily,” Alice observed. “But, yes, not to worry, I am not here to waste your valuable time. Have you thought about what we talked about the other day?”

Alex was about to say ‘no’ when he realized that wasn’t strictly true. He had actually given it a great deal of thought, he just hadn’t come to any firm decisions. He didn’t understand Black Protocols, or anything of the kind, so it had been a bit difficult to formulate an opinion. But, he figured that when it came to Alice Gallow, honesty was definitely the best policy.

“Yeah, I did,” he admitted slowly, considering. “But, I’m not really sure that I have an answer for you.”

Alice looked at him with something that was either amusement or contempt. Either way, it made Alex feel profoundly uncomfortable.

“Emily’s a pretty girl, isn’t she?”

Alice asked the question quietly, from behind her inappropriate smile, kicking the heels of her boots against the stone wall as if they were chatting about the weather.

“What?”

The confusion is his voice had already started to change into worry.

“The girl you were just snuggling with. The blond,” Alice reminded him helpfully. “Pretty, right?”

Alex nodded. It seemed like the safest bet, since he didn’t know what he would have said.

“Pretty helpless, too,” Alice continued on blithely. “I truly hate that, you know. So, what would you do if I decided that I hated her so much that I was going to do something about it, Alex?”

“Is this hypothetical,” Alex asked carefully, “or do you actually hate Emily?”

“Does it matter?” Alice’s voice was like ice-water, sending shivers up his back. “What if I wanted to hurt Emily? Would you try and stop me?”

Alex shook his head and inched away from Alice on the wall. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was sure he didn’t like it.

“Could I?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Alice said firmly. “Either you would try or you wouldn’t. Nobody’s asking you to succeed.”

“Sure,” Alex said, shrugging and doing his best to look unconcerned. “I mean, if I could, and if you were actually going to do that, then sure, I’d want to stop you.”

Alice patted him on the leg approvingly and stood back up. Just like that, the threatening atmosphere dissipated.

“Good enough for me. We were going to put you through the Program no matter what, truthfully, but I’m glad to hear you’re willing. You should probably go back to class, now. Still plenty of time.”

“That isn’t what I meant when I said…”

Alice put a finger up to her lips.

“Shh. How else you gonna stop me, Alex? A strongly worded letter? Make a call to your member of Congress?”

“Wait,” Alex said, scratching his head, “you said something about putting me in a program, right? What are you talking about?”

“Not a program. The Program. You’ll find out tomorrow in your Applied Combat Fundamentals class,” Alice said, walking off, waving without looking back. “Say hi to Mitzi for me.”

Alex watched her walk away, dumbfounded. It was a minute or so before it all clicked into place for him. He was, of course, doomed. But, Alex found that he was still confused on at least one significant point.

“Wait, Miss Gallow,” he called out after her. “Who is Mitzi?”

Mitsuru sat in the middle of a long
, wood paneled room, cross-legged on the floor. Behind her, there were inactive shooting lanes, their battered targets hanging forlornly. In the distance, time was punctuated by the distant pops of rifle training occurring on the range outside. In front of her, on a green cloth, was a matte-black .45 caliber Glock 36 semiautomatic pistol, and Alex bent over it, wiping sweat from his brow and wishing that he had ditched class, or, failing that, could find the damn firing pin that he had set aside only a moment ago.

He didn’t bother to look up when the door opened behind him. He only hoped that it would be something that would interrupt firearms drills.

“Gustav, thank you for coming,” Mitsuru said. “You’re early, but we can go ahead and start. This one’s fairly hopeless when it comes to guns.”

Even Alex wasn’t totally sure what it was that he muttered. So, when he found himself suddenly sprawled on his back, Mitsuru crouching over him with a handful of his hair knotted around her fist, demanding to know what he’d said, it was rather awkward. She’d hit him, he realized belatedly, from the way his jaw ached, but he’d never even seen it. It had been almost like he’d fallen over by himself.

Alex attempted a variety of sullen apologies, and then, after her grip tightened on his hair and brought tears to his eyes, a much more sincere one that seemed to satisfy Mitsuru. She released her hold and stepped off of him, resuming her former position, sitting on the floor.

“I am not Michael. This is not Michael’s class. Michael coddles you and cares for you. I will not. Whatever it is that he has taught you, it isn’t enough,” Mitsuru said flatly, her red eyes cold and disinterested. “You will ask questions whenever you need too, here, and when you do so, you will do so respectfully. Otherwise, I do not wish to hear you speak unless you are spoken to. Do you understand all this?”