Orphan of Mythcorp (17 page)

“
But what about Knox—”

POOF!

Blinding pain as something smashed against my
forehead. I found myself lying on Dex’s stoop. My shin was wrapped
in a bandage beneath my jeans. Beside me lay the long plastic case
and my backpack, which, on inspection, I discovered contained the
mysterious manuscripts.

With some effort I sat up.

“
What just happened?”

‘
I think you just got bamboozled by a
wizard,’ Castor said. ‘Listen, pus-pot, I got some intel on your
boy Sanson. So do let’s blow this joint before any more voodoo or
demonic tussling goes down.’ He adjusted his tattered Iconocop
jacket and inspected the plastic case. Hey moron, what’s in the
case?’

I pulled the thing over and set it on my lap.
After making sure Nimrod wasn’t lurking in the tree-line or on the
street, I clicked the hasps and lifted the lid. Instead of a gun or
pool cue or trombone, a mean looking dark blue cane made of twisted
bones lay nestled inside. It was topped by a crows head with a pair
of purple gemstone eyes that managed to catch the sparse light
coming from the neighbor’s house.

“
Whoa,” I ran my fingers along the cane
reverentially. “This is sick.”

Castor loomed over me so closely his legs
were phasing into mine. ‘Holy hell—I recognize that.’

“
You do?”

He nodded. Up close you could see his network
of scars. ‘That’s the sword-cane that killed the president of
Mythcorp—the first time, anyway.’ A contemplative expression, then,
without another word, Castor vanished.

How come every time someone explained
something, it only prompted more questions?

It was still pouring out, but at least the
fires were extinguished. I stood, leaning on my father’s cane.
Before limping out into the puddle-strewn street I glanced back at
Dex’s door. My name had been carved into the pentagram thingy,
added to the List of the Unwelcome.

“
Great.”

As I walked, Marie talked, explaining how the
cane was demon-forged and that there was a small button on the back
of the crow head I could press to release a stream of potent
energy. I moved my finger over to the button.

‘
Well don’t do it now, you idiot,’ she
said. ‘It’s probably not charged after all these years, but if it
is, you’ll draw attention.’

The walk down the street was performed in
mute ambivalence: I might have possible answers in my hands and I
now possessed a dynamite cane-sword, but my collection of aches and
pains was still raging.

I took a slight detour onto Alpha to avoid
the ambulance and police cars milling around the prostrate
firemen.

‘
So,’ Castor had reappeared about a
half mile away from the house. He was mock-limping beside me now in
his dry uniform. ‘Are you done pining after dear old deadbeat dad?
Ready to hear about Sanson? Cause you should probably know, he’s
helping that Ash-hole take over the school.’

“
What?”

Sanson

Next day I sensed the Sanson family chill
following me around like yesterdays bad news. I got the sense I
wasn’t the only one feeling the chill; people were swerving around
me in the halls—even more than usual, practically pulling u-turns
to avoid me.

But despite the chill and the tape on my nose
I was in a good mood.

So it was a bit of a shocker when I walked in
on Ash talking with Mrs. Deem just before third period Internet
History. Ash was sitting on her desk, his little feet swinging as
he talked, Mrs. Deem listening raptly. When I walked in she didn’t
even raise her head from their huddle.

I tried not to stare as I took my usual seat
in the back. I needed a distraction: checked my thermal, checked my
chrono, inspected my fingernails. They never grow. A minute passed.
Ash and Mrs. Deem laughed and then the little guy tapped our
teacher on her shoulder before receiving the piece of paper she
offered. He headed towards me in the back as First Bell rang and
the yahoos started filing in. Mrs. Deem proceeded to set up today’s
lesson on the plasma-projector up front.

“
What was that all about?” I asked Ash
while everyone else jabbered away.

He smiled and lifted his folded hands from
the paper she’d given him. It was a colored-pencil drawing of— “Is
that you?” I asked. Ash nodded. “Why did she draw a picture of you
teaching class? That’s weird.”

“
I asked her to,” he said. “I ask all
my friends to draw pictures of me.”

Mmhmm. “You haven’t asked me.”

“
You are my partner. Now, to answer
your question, I was asking Alice about our classmates. I’ll bet
you’ll never guess who Lexi’s father is.”

“
I’ll bet you’re right.” He was calling
our teacher by her first name now?

“
He’s a US senator. Isn’t that
fascinating?” he beamed as he slipped the drawing in his bag. I
couldn’t help noticing that there were several other drawings
already nestled snug inside.

Satisfied that his pretentious colored-pencil
likeness was safe, Ash placed his folded hands on his desk and
gazed up front at Mrs. Deem. “As it happens,” he whispered, “Lexi’s
father is one of the last of the old guard who worked to legalize
Mythcorp’s many products in the early days, and he even lobbied to
reopen Mythcorp after the Purge. I think he could be useful to us.
What do you think?”

“
What do I think?” This relationship
was getting too zany for me. Class had started; Mrs. Deem droning
on about the evolution of Pentium processors. I leaned over to
whisper to Ash. “What exactly is inside of Mythcorp that you want
so badly? And don’t say ‘something to help you, Sanson,’ because
it’s getting obvious that you have a whole other agenda going on.”
You’d think he’d get snarky in response to my snarkiness, but oh
no, not Ash, not the littlest Morai.

He gazed over at me, his white eyes all
sinister as usual, clashing with his innocent smile. “I want
answers. I know they must be inside Mythcorp. And to get there, I
need to meet Lexi’s father, Mister Montaigne. Make it happen,
please.”

“
Make it—” I leaned back in my seat.
Put my hands up. “Make it happen? How the heck am I suppose get
some sen—” a couple yahoos turned at the frequency of my voice. I
sat still, looked up front at Mrs. Deem and lowered my voice to a
murmur. “How am I supposed to get some senator to meet you? You
can’t even leave the school, and why would he come here? No
offense, but who are
you
?”

“
None of that matters,” Ash said, calm
as an empty swimming pool. “All you need to do is get in tight with
Lexi.”

“
Get in tight with—” it was getting
tough trying not to sound shrill. “How?”

He shrugged. The Morai seem fond of this
gesture. “I’m sure I don’t know. But you’re clever, and if you want
to get into Mythcorp to get your curse lifted, then I’m sure you’ll
find a way. Lexi waits for her ride after school under the Willow
tree up front. That might be a good place to start.”

An hour later I was slurping Nanex beside Ash
at the Morai lunch table. Lamorak had nodded at me when I sat down;
a couple of the others gave terse little nods as well, including
Pellinore and Ga-Wayne or Gerwin, or Gerkin, or whatever his name
was.

They were a quiet bunch, talking in a low
buzz, never looking around. Which gave me an idea. I got up and
wandered over to the Goth table, trying not to let the putrid
stench of yesterdays veggies make my nose crinkle. God knew this
was going to be hard enough without coming off as some lame-o
acting like she stinks. In addition to her usual posse of Misty and
Missy, Lexi was sitting with Mindy and Minnie and some chick named
Joe who wore black magic-marker-cross tattoos on her arms.

I marched right up to this Goth party and
then completely forgot my plan. But at least I’d made it to the
table so five Emo’s could stare at me with five pairs of
mascara-lathered eyes, all while fingering trays of uneaten
food.

I could hear the clock counting down. At
least I couldn’t blush.

“
What do you want?” Misty or Missy
asked, diddling with her braid.

“
Um.” Suave Sanson, suave. “I was
hoping wishing I could speak with . . . ah . . . Lexi?” I yelled
her name; it just sort of burst out of me when I finally remembered
it. I did a little foot move as if I were stubbing a butt. “So ah,
can I speak with her . . . I mean with you, in private parts—I mean
in private.”

Kill me now—again.

Luckily I didn’t happen to have a baseball
bat in my hand, or I’d have been smacking myself in the head with
it. Talking to girls was harder than breaking into a government
building and surviving a demon attack. As I waited for the chicks
to stop giggling, my thermal beeped.

“
What is that?” Minnie asked, leering
at my wrist.

I pressed the OFF button. Body temp was down
to 60. Stress causes the nanites to trigger the release of hormones
to keep the Nanex from flowing too quickly and giving me an
aneurysm. And the harder the nanites work, the quicker they
deteriorate and the quicker my body temp drops.

The Curse.

“
N-nothing,” I stammered. Had to make
this quick so I could inject myself. “Can we talk?”

“
About what?” Lexi asked, sounding
exasperated.

The cafeteria had gone silent. I turned and
looked around. Yep, I was the center of attention. I was going to
have to kill Ash now. “Um . . . never mind.” I turned and jogged
out of there. By the time I made it to the hallway my thermal read
59 degrees. I dropped my pack and stooped to my knees. After making
sure no one was around, I ripped the case out of my pack and loaded
the hypospray gun with a vial.

The stainless steel injector nozzle was two
inches from my forearm when a beefy hand grabbed it and tore it out
of my grasp. I looked up into the rubbery mug of Bruno
Groothius.

“
What do you think you’re doing? I need
that.”

Bruno inspected it. “What would happen if I
broke this? Would you . . . die? No, you’re already dead, aren’t
you. So what would happen, do you think?” he asked this of his
goon, a red head I knew to be a pal of Kant’s.

Did these bullies somehow know I was
responsible for Kant’s beating?

I stood, held my hands out in supplication.
“Listen, I know you need to maintain your very important position
as the school’s bully, but if you—no don’t!” I screamed as he made
as if to crack the hypospray gun in two. He stopped and sneered.
“What do you want?”

“
Now that’s no way to deal with his
kind,” Ash’s voice came from behind me. He marched up between us,
little hands folded in front of him. He gave me a glance, his
vacant eyes flicking to my thermal. Then he turned to Bruno,
craning his neck to gaze into the bully’s eyes. “His kind,” looking
at Bruno but speaking to me, “only responds in like. He
needs—”

Bruno shoved Ash, who lost his footing and
landed hard on the floor beside me. Bruno, still gripping my
hypospray, fell onto Ash. “You don’t scare me with those creepy
eyes. You know, ever since you came here, a lot of crazy crap’s
been going down. What do you think, Mike, should we—”

He stopped speaking as, during the whole
time, Ash had been gazing into his eyes. They froze like that,
Bruno leaning over Ash. Then the Morai spoke. “Mike here has been
spreading rumors about your sexual orientation. He’s been telling
everyone what a huge puff you are. He’s been saying that, when
you’re in the locker room—”

“
That’s enough,” Mike snapped. “Shut
your mouth!”

“
Give Sanson his hypospray gun,” Ash
said. “And then maybe you should show Mike why he shouldn’t spread
nasty rumors.”

Bruno tossed the gun at me. With the
beginning of rigidity taking hold, I fumbled it, barely managed to
grab it before it could crash to the floor. Bruno rose and turned
on Mike. They fought. Ash looked over at me. He sat up and cradled
his elbows. By the time the fresh injection of nanites had taken
effect, Ash had all my gear packed up. “Come on,” he said, “we
better run before the Iconocops come to break up the fight.”

The bell rang and the hall filled with
yahoos, who meandered over to the fighting duo. “Thank you,” I told
Ash on the way to the nurse’s station. “Was it true, what you said
about Mike?”

He shrugged, winced. “I don’t know. Could be.
Does it matter? I got to get my arms checked out now. Good luck
with Lexi. Hopefully next time you won’t bomb so badly.”

Oh yeah, Lexi, I’d almost forgotten.

For a while I just stood there,
mulling, pouting as yahoos detoured to avoid me.
Wait
, I thought,
that’s it!
They all thought I was contagious.
That was why Lexi and her fellow Goth’s considered me official
GRODY material.

I swiveled on my heels almost violently in my
haste to catch Lexi. As I turned I slammed into Ava, who’d
apparently been on her way to speak with me.

I dove forward to catch her hand as she fell
backwards. I pulled her up, catching her in my arms. She stepped
back out of my embrace and tugged down on her white t-shirt till it
was situated properly on her petite frame.

“
Thank you,” without looking at my
eyes. “I um, never thanked you for . . . you know, that thing with
Kant. Oh God, does that sound bad? I don’t like how you . . . but .
. . anyway.”

The second bell rang. I was going to be late
for sixth period. Oh well. Looking over Ava’s head, I caught a
glimpse of Lexi’s black dress twirling into Mr. Pribecks room.
Great, another missed opportunity. “Hey Ava, you’re a girl,
right?”