Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (15 page)

“Two,” Red countered.

“I’ll do it for one,” bid the man
standing next to them. He probably had no idea what he was bidding on, but
would’ve given up a kidney for guaranteed food.

“Two,” agreed the Tibetan,
unhappily.

“Attention everyone,” Herk said,
with an idea. “We need to cannibalize everything we can from this plane and
share equally between the teams.”

They found ten aluminum-looking
blankets, about twenty-three bags of pretzels, and an ice bucket. The groups
even divided up the four metal doors from the stewardess cart. Red opted for
the bucket over a third blanket or salty pretzels. She said, “We can use it to
make blocks for an igloo.”

“That snow won’t pack at this
temperature,” explained the Tibetan. “We’ll have to start with blocks of ice we
carve with the metal door and our knives.”

Red’s team volunteered to leave the
craft next, in order to have the most light available. As they left, the former
Seal left them with a final thought. “We need to lose five more people to make
everyone fit in the classrooms next semester. I’m authorized to continue this
exercise until we meet that requirement. Tonight will reach twenty below zero
Fahrenheit. That’s
Gott in Himmel
for you metric freaks.”

Herkemer was the only one to laugh,
because he knew exactly who’d said that when the instructors reached that
deserted wasteland.

“I am sitting here, warm in my
tent, watching with binoculars. If any of you ladies get scared or hungry
tonight, do your classmates a favor and quit early.”

The first night in the Mongolia foothills was brutal. Red’s
team found a suitable camp site sheltered from the wind and dug in. They were
under a leafless, gnarled tree, but no one had an ax. “My wire could’ve cut
through that,” mourned Herkemer.

The whole journey, the Tibetan had
been bobbing his head to his iPod. “We got three days; pace yourselves.”

After they snapped off a few thin
branches and collected coarse brush for burning, Red asked, “Anyone know how to
start a fire?”

Risa suggested, “They told us we
couldn’t use our guns. They didn’t say we couldn’t use the gunpowder.”

“Brilliant,” Red praised. “What
about the tinder?”

“That’s why you pay the big bucks,”
said Tenzin as he pulled out a disk of straw and manure.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Red
complained, squinting at the offering in the fading light.

“Yak—just like home. It’ll burn for
hours. I brought two.”

Herkemer reported, “East team:
shelter complete, fire complete, and we’re about to eat.”

“Roger.”

Red scanned the area with her
extended senses and found a familiar mind—Zeiss was watching her team. Once she
knew his location, she contacted him through the goggles. “Z, whatcha doing?”

“I just made hot cocoa with real
Swiss chocolate, but I can’t drink it yet because it’s too hot.”

Red cursed. Then she complained,
“You could’ve warned us.”

“Are you calling to quit or report
an injury?”

“No.”

“Please keep the channel clear for
those who are,” the TA snapped.

She suggested what Zeiss could do
with his rules, but Risa grabbed her microphone. “Shh. His shovel and lessons are
the main reasons we’re the first team done, chica. Don’t shoot the gift horse.”

Red grumbled a little more as she
handed out one and a half ration bars to each of her three friends to eat,
keeping the same number for herself. They all consumed their meal slowly except
the Tibetan. He finished as quickly as possible so he could bundle up again and
listen to his music.

“What are you listening to?” asked
Risa.

“Well, my family is Buddhist. When
I got to Academy, I had no friends, so I listened to a lot of music from home.
I asked at BX if they had more, and the lady pointed me at this. It’s good
stuff.”

He held out an ear bud to Risa. When
she heard the tune, she burst out laughing. “Nirvana!”

“It helps pass the time,” he said,
eyeing her ample chest. “I will share one with you tonight if you spoon with
me.”

Risa reared back. “Maybe if you
were cute, and this were a real concert.”

Tenzin shrugged. “Heat is heat.
What is it to you if I enjoy it more? These wires only stretch so far and night
is very long.”

“If no one else wants to,” Risa
agreed, reluctantly.

The other three slept in a
sandwich, Red in the middle. Soon, she was the last one on the team still awake.
When she made another mental sweep, Zeiss was still there, standing sentry. She
drifted off, imagining how Swiss hot cocoa tasted.

After the team was asleep, the TA
went back to his tent. The former Seal greeted him. “You take Poppa Bear duty
seriously.”

“How’s the body count?” Zeiss
asked.

Rogers smiled. “The north team made
too much noise by the cliff and got buried in the snow. They lost their fire
and are freaking miserable right now. They might kill each other.”

“Why don’t you offer them some of
my hot cocoa? Pour a little of your Bailey’s Irish Crème in it. Someone will
take the bait.”

“Damn, Z, you’re evil.”

“So I’ve been told.”

****

During the second day, the wind
blew out several fires. One of the north team surrendered in tears.

As Red’s team searched for food and
combustibles, Tenzin found a hole and said, “Maybe fox, maybe mice. Need bait.”

Red peeled off part of her half
energy bar. She held her slingshot at the ready and crouched twenty feet away.
When the white fox came out, she marveled at its beauty. As it searched the
area for signs of the intruders, little pups scampered out of the hole after it.
Her heart melted and she lowered the weapon. Before she could object, the
Tibetan grabbed her slingshot and killed the mother fox. Then he stunned two of
the pups while they sniffed her body. Red tackled the hunter and shouted while
the other pups scattered.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked
Tenzin.

“Just celebrating,” she lied.

Toby skinned the dead foxes and
found herbs for seasoning in addition to the pretzel salt. Risa cooked them on
a spit over the fire. Soon, their team had an abundance of roast meat and
gloated about it over the radio. Red refused to eat the meal, trading her
portion for more energy bar fragments. Unable to watch the horror, she crawled
back into their bed hole. That afternoon, her team kept warm building up the
shelter walls.

Meanwhile, a member of the west
team climbed a dead tree and a branch snapped under his weight. Zeiss had
alerted the medical crews before the west team even realized what had happened.
When they found out that the helicopter was heated and had soup, two more
members of the north team opted out so they could ride along.

By dusk, Red came out of her funk
and chatted with the others. She cringed when she saw Toby remove the sock from
his hand and check it by firelight. “You’ve got freezer burn,” she exclaimed,
opening the emergency channel.

“It’s called frostbite,” said the
biologist.

“You’ve got to get help!” Red
exclaimed.

Rogers’ voice came over the line.
“Say again; is this a request to drop?”

“Negative,” Toby said firmly into
his microphone. Off the air, he explained, “I only have to outlast
one more
person
, Red. I can do it.”

“You could lose fingers and then
you’d be off the team for medical reasons.”

Toby shook his head. “My call.”

Over the radio, she declared the
symptoms and long-term effects of frostbite. They went to sleep early in an
effort to get out of the piercing wind. By the morning of day three, one more
member of the ill-fated north team dropped. Only one member from that group
remained: a pretty-boy by the name of Captain Llewellyn. If it weren’t for the
scar on his upper lip, he could’ve been a movie star.

“And that’s a wrap,” said Rogers. “Everybody come in from the cold.”

****

On the plane ride back to
civilization, Rogers rode with the students. “Congratulations, one and all. You
know that you have what it takes to survive hell. I have a special thanks this
trip, to the best assistant the devil ever had, the Z-man.”

Everyone cheered. The former Seal handed
out cigars. Red gave hers to the Tibetan on the condition that she never see
the fox killer again.

Red sat next to Llewellyn because
he was cute; she stayed because he was a pilot. A quick mental peek at him tasted
like chocolate-covered caramels. “Call me Lou,” he insisted. She tried to flirt
like Risa, asking him questions and gushing to keep him talking. In the top
three of his class in flight school, he loved rock climbing, motorcycles, and
anything dangerous. “I’d planned to spend my holiday partying with my
teammates. But that didn’t work out.”

“You should meet
my
team,”
she suggested. Pointing across the aisle, Red said, “The one with the gauze
mitten is our biology guy, Toby.”

Tapping Herkemer on the shoulder,
she began, “This is . . .”

“We’ve met,” rumbled Herk.

“Be nice,” she warned.
The Teddy
Bear had hackles.

“Don’t drink from his flask,” warned
the Polish team member. “You might end up on a hotel bed with no memory of how
you got there.”

“Hey, Zdenka drank from a lot of
flasks that night,” Lou said with a throaty chuckle. Herk glowered. “Besides,
Red isn’t like a
girl
.”

The comment froze all objections in
her throat.

“I hear she can fly, shoot, and
hunt better than me.”

When her throat thawed, she wanted
to cry. Her voice only cracked a little. “Then we’d better not introduce you to
my roommate. She can assemble the grill she cooks on. Where’s Zeiss?”

“Ask the man in winter camo,” Herk
said, still steamed.

She was grateful for the chance to
leave the seat. Rogers told her, “Z rode to Sydney with the washouts. He wanted
to visit a friend at the hospital there.”

Her insides felt colder than the
night in Mongolia. “Who?”

“The artist who scored Horvath. I
hear he was the victim of some hate crime; they beat him pretty badly. He might
be out of the program.”

“Where do we refuel?” demanded Red.

Rogers held up a hand. “Just a
minute, young lady—”

“Never mind, I’ll upload directly
from the nav computer,” she said, flipping her goggles into override mode.

Her entire team, minus the Tibetan,
wanted to go with her to the hospital. As they ran to catch the next jet on the
tarmac, Herkemer spotted their club’s adviser, “Z! You dog.” The Polish tech
grabbed him in a bear hug.

Zeiss explained, “I had them hold
the plane for you when I heard you were following me.”

“How’d you do that?” Risa asked,
curious.

Rather than cite his newfound
clearance, Zeiss muttered something about, “People are always willing to help
out hero astronauts.”

Everyone expressed their thanks,
except Red. “What happened?”

At the urging of the stewardess,
they all took seats. The TA sat beside Red in first class. He held a finger to
his lips. “Not in front of the civilians.”

Her glare could’ve melted steel. When
the man beside them left for the bathroom, Zeiss said, “They were able to
reattach Sojiro’s ring finger. They couldn’t locate the index finger; Horvath
combed the whole flight deck.”

“Who?” she demanded. When he kept
reading his pad, she fumed, “Damn your rules.”

His normal shell slipped. She could
feel that he was just as concerned and angry as she was. Underneath it all was
a ragged torrent of guilt that he couldn’t talk about. The intensity shocked
her into downshifting. “What’s so important on your pad?”

“Email from Sojiro. It’s . . . personal.”

Something on the screen was causing
him pain, like a thorn in his paw. He hadn’t bathed or shaved in days. This was
a completely new side to him. “May I?” she asked.

Zeiss handed the device over.

Z,

The island will be closed for the next two
weeks. Trina will have to tell you why. She’s amazing once you get to know her,
a shining light. The badge you gave me brought her just in time.

I told Trina how to access your computer so you
wouldn’t have to wait. The results are enclosed. I hear this is going to be as famous
as Einstein’s light bending experiment once you write it up.

Love,

Sojiro

“Why is this bad?” she asked,
confused. “It sounds like you’ve made your career.”

“Read between the lines. There’s
been an unprecedented security lockdown. Someone waited until we were gone to
attack our friend. Why?” When she shrugged, he added, “I was assigned to find some
very bad people. Because I spent time on my own pet project and dinner parties,
I didn’t catch them in time.”

She shook her head. “Your rules
saved his life. You’ve done everything you could to help all of us.”

“Can I get that in writing?” he
joked.

Meekly, she admitted, “Z, you’re
the solution, not the problem.”

“My relationship to him put him in
danger.”

Red bit her lip. “It’s a little
deeper than that. Only one special sort of person would ever look at Professor
Horvath and call her a shining light.”

“He’s Active?” Zeiss guessed. “Why?”

“They use the Collective
Unconscious page to teach people how to guard very important secrets, even
under torture. They’ll train Sojiro to enter deep theta state at will,” Red
explained. The other passenger returned and she clammed up for the rest of the
trip.

Trina was sitting in Sojiro’s hospital room. Everything was
stark white and he had four different monitors blinking at different rates.
Before the girl even entered the room, Trina said, “Hi, Red.”

Sojiro sat up, excited. “You came!
Oh, Red, your colors are gorgeous. You’re like an itty bitty rainbow.”

Even with the bandages hiding much
of his face, she could see the swelling. This was the baby fox all over again.

“Drugs,” mouthed Trina. “How did
you get her here so soon?”

Zeiss grumbled, “I pretended it was
a secret and made it a race.”

Red wanted to object, but everyone
else was laughing. Trina’s hug took some of the sting away. Her aunt whispered,
“I’m glad you’re safe.” To Zeiss, she said, “According to Rogers, you earned
that bonus.”

“Keep your damn money, I want to
know who did this to one of our own.”

“Easy,” the professor said with
stern compassion. “I’m not the enemy, and there are little ears around.”

Red leaned back. “I think that’s
the first time I’ve ever heard you swear.”

“I’m sorry. That was
unprofessional. But I haven’t had decent food, sleep, or hygiene in three
days.”

“Don’t apologize; I like it. It
proves you’re human for once,” Red said with a smile.

Herk whispered, “It’s Christmas
week. Stop with busting balls. I will watch the comic book hero. The three of
you talk, argue, or spank someone; I don’t care which. But this is place of
quiet healing, yes?”

Red opened her mouth to suggest
something but quashed it when Risa gave her the ‘Mom’ look. Sighing, Red
followed her aunt and TA down the hall.

Meanwhile, Risa pulled out a deck
of cards. “Why don’t I teach you boys a new card game? It’s called
Cara
.”

The Panamanian girl didn’t mention
the fact that each word in the game that they had to call out was a Spanish
term of endearment or flattery. She often let Herk win the hand so he’d have to
say the words.

****

Trina found a spare room and
ordered her bodyguard to keep eavesdroppers away. She turned on the faucet in
the bathroom and motioned the other two to step in. They obeyed, but the room was
tiny. Zeiss stood in the tub, and Red sat on the toilet.

The professor ordered Red, “Set
your media blocker to maximum.”

The girl tapped her goggles and
released some blocker dust under the door.

“Who did it?” the young people
asked at the same time.

“Merrick was the one we’re supposed
to blame.”

“That prick,” growled Red. “He
won’t get away with it. He’s a Rex. That’s automatic forced Ethics formatting.”

“No one will testify and there were
no cameras,” Trina explained. “There have to be at least two witnesses.
Besides, I’m convinced Merrick was manipulated.”

“That’s bullshit!” the girl railed.

Zeiss blinked. “You didn’t get the
whole ring. You want the muscle to lead you to the other members.”

“They were good,” Trina admitted.
“The cell wall snapped the trail off clean. But nobody’s perfect.”

“Cell?” asked Red.

“We found an active terrorist cell
at the Academy, and they weren’t afraid of me,” Trina explained. That got the
girl’s attention. “However, Z here terrified them. The cell leader met with him
every week and had a journal of notes about him. He said if Z ever devoted his
full resources to the security effort, he’d crush them like a bug.”

“
Mein Gott
,” Zeiss muttered,
sliding back against the white tile. “Solomon?”

“See, Red. He just needs a one-word
hint and he knows. Does that worry you?”

“Shut up,” begged the girl.

“How will we protect the boy?”
asked Zeiss.

The professor smiled at the
wording. “He’s only a year younger than you. But we’ve laid the groundwork for
traumatic amnesia.” When Red scoffed, her aunt added, “Seriously, he had a
reaction to the morphine. During the evac, he had brain swelling.”

“How did they infiltrate?” Zeiss
demanded.

“We recruited Solomon for his mind
and his publications, but we didn’t have his fingerprints before he accepted.
Most innocent people who haven’t been hired by a bank don’t have a print record,
or didn’t before drivers’ licenses required them in the US. But in Ethiopia, a man who didn’t drive . . .”

“Photos?”

“We found a few from graduate
school, but between plastic surgery and online document replacement, we never suspected.
We were looking for a hacker.”

“And Solomon never turned on his
computer,” said Zeiss.

“From forensics on his bones and
teeth, we traced his true origins to Somalia.”

“They hate our guts,” Red noted.

“Total economic collapse will do
that,” Trina countered, staring at the girl.

The women glared at each other,
each daring the other to broach another secret.

Zeiss covered his face with his
hands. “I played Go with the man every week.”

“He obsessed over you. They had
people following you, trying to find dirt. Not only did they bug your office, but
they had
my
security footage of every minute of your public time on the
island.”

“Holy shit,” whispered Red.

“What did I say?” the TA said,
agonizing, going over every conversation in his head. “What did he hear that
made them attack Sojiro?”

“Nothing,” Trina said. He collapsed
inward with relief. “Solomon called you a machine. Every time you met, he was
afraid you knew his secret and were just toying with him. Even their talents
couldn’t read you. There were only two slips and they weren’t yours.”

“Talents?” asked Red. “More than
one? Who?”

“We don’t know,” Trina repeated. “That’s
why we need Merrick free. And because Z gets that, we need him working this
case. We think Solomon was right. If he ever concentrated his efforts, our boy
here could crack it.”

Red shook her head. “He just made
the biggest break-through of his career, and I need him for the Sirius
Project.”

“
You
need him?” Professor
Horvath asked angrily. “Who do you think made those two slips I was talking
about?” The girl paled as her aunt said, “We’ve picked up traffic from our
enemies desperately researching two terms: project eighteen and whale-level
security.”

To prod the girl, Zeiss said, “Red’s
team is convinced eighteen is the minimum number of talents needed for an
expedition. I could tell that from the simulations, but she never trusted me
with the rest.”

“Talk,” Trina ordered her. “Why
eighteen?”

“The artifact expects pages to be
missing,” whispered the girl. “It has a built-in redundancy. You can get by
with only two out of three. The UN was preventing us from reaching the goal, so
I worked around them. I found a loophole for half-sized trainers.”

“You pulled PJ, our head of
development, into a half-baked scheme that could spark a world war?” Trina
said, barely controlling her rage. She leaned over to the girl’s ear and
whispered, “Give me one reason I shouldn’t bounce you out of the program right
now.”

The TA intervened. “It’s my fault,
sir. I was assigned the club, and I didn’t push them enough. I should’ve . . .”

Trina told him to shut up in
German, using a tone that was normally followed by a bullet.

“I
have
to go to the
artifact,” Red said, tears streaming down her face.

“No!” Trina bellowed. “That
fragile, young artist
has
to learn how to cope with nightmares, the
possibility of kidnap, the loss of one finger, and diminished capacity in the other.
Your other friends
have
to learn techniques to keep them from being
tortured for the meanings of those phrases.”

Red was sobbing and shaking. “I’m
not making it up. The artifact told me. I have to go or we can’t claim the
inheritance. If I don’t go, it flies back where it came from, unopened.” They
could barely understand her through the sniffles. Zeiss unrolled some toilet
paper and handed it to her. Trina looked Tasered.

“You were infected,” the professor
guessed. The girl nodded. “We have to get you back to the island
immediately
.”

“Is anybody going to tell me what
infected means?” asked Zeiss.

“No,” both women said at once.

“Then I’m not hunting your spy,” he
asserted. “I work for Mr. Fortune, no one else.”

Both women smiled. Red said, “Z,
they work as one. Call him.”

Zeiss hit speed dial. Daniel picked
up on the first ring. “Everybody’s back safe. Professor Horvath wants—”

“Do it,” said the billionaire.

“But—”

“Conrad, we’re one.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be back soon,” said
the TA, hanging up. “I’ll have to call my family and make excuses. The airline
tickets and presents . . .” He stopped, deciding that his behavior was
unprofessional.

Trina put a hand on his arm, “We
consider you family now, Conrad. Know that.” Her blue eyes locked onto his and
he felt her sincerity. “I have to stay here till Sojiro’s stable enough to
return. He needs the company of our kind if he’s going to adapt to being Active.
I’m sorry you won’t be able to visit with your mother this holiday. She’s
getting the best treatment Fortune Pharmaceutical can provide, the same drugs
we synthesized for Daniel and me.”

“You have the symptoms, too?” asked
Red, concerned.

“You know the syndrome can be transmitted
by link-bond. When it kills him, I won’t be far behind.”

The girl almost tackled her with a
forceful hug. “You can’t leave me!”

Zeiss crept out into the hall,
closing the doors behind him.

Trina stroked Red’s filthy hair.
“The universe doesn’t bow to your will, child. You may bend people around you
like a black hole bends light, but even you do not decide this.” Her Dutch
accent was back.

“Who’s going to teach me about
boys? About everything?”

“Ask.”

“He doesn’t even know I’m a girl.”

“No one could be so blind. Tell him
how you feel.”

“Even if he’s older?”

“Your father was much older than your
mother.”

“I don’t know if he’ll agree to
settle for being co-pilot.”

Trina reared back a little.
“Pardon?”

“I have to be the pilot. He’ll need
to be backup and sensors. Not every guy can take orders from a woman. Mom got
lucky. And some of my team doesn’t like him.”

Trina frowned. “Who are we talking
about?”

“Llewellyn. He makes me feel all
gooey inside. He tastes
so
good. How do you convince a man to like you?”

The professor squeezed her lips
tight to avoid a smile. “I had to get advice from my sisters on that. I’ve only
ever dated Daniel.”

“What? You’re a goddess.”

“The shyest one of nine sisters.
Your mother set me up.”

“That’s not fair,” Red complained. “Can’t
I just get implants?”

“No, too many health issues. My
advice is to just hang around near this boy, listen, and be yourself. When
you’re sure he’s the one and feels the same about you, talk to me again.”

“How do I know he’s the one?”

“Does he risk a bullet just to be
near you, give up his inheritance to live with you in a cheap apartment, and
stand up to his family when they hurt your feelings? Are you willing to do the
same for him?”

“Wow. That’s pretty extreme.”

“Mira, when you bond, it’ll be
permanent. That person is going to get a treasure beyond compare, but you have
to tell him what he’s in for
before
you get physical. Not just the
threats on your life, but the fact that you’re psi-infectious.”

“Fine.”

“And no more secrets from family.
Next time, even more people will pay.”

The girl huffed. “On one
condition.” Trina raised an eyebrow. Red was in no position to make demands. “I
want Sojiro to be put on the short list for the Mind-Machine Interface page.
That way, he can stay in the training program and draw, despite his finger.”

Her aunt drew her close one last
time. “After he makes it through his first page, we’ll see if he’s willing. Not
everyone has the strength.”

“He’ll adapt,” said Red. “I know
it.”