The Academy: Book 2 (67 page)

             
Bruce winced and answered immediately. “Yes! Yes!”

             
Allen smiled. “Very good. You’re a quick learner. Now, here’s the question: If you don’t…” Allen paused, thinking of the best way to word what he was thinking, “cooperate, you will be punished.”

             
“Okay,” Bruce whispered. It wasn’t a question, but Bruce was so keyed up and anxious that he couldn’t help but respond to everything.

             
Allen continued: “Would you rather be punished by being killed, or would you like to be turned into a Multiplier?”

             
Bruce’s eyes widened. Asa didn’t think that he expected the question. “Ummm.”

             
“One second, Bruce.” This time, Allen pointed the gun at Bruce’s face. His blue eyes looked so cold in that instance that Asa believed Allen could tear Bruce’s head off without blinking his iceberg eyes.

             
Asa’s nerves were on hyper drive—he was thinking at an incredible pace.

             
In that time, he came to the conclusion that if, in fact, Allen knew that Jen and Asa were hiding under the desk, Asa wouldn’t be able to tell. It seemed that Allen had no trace of a conscious, and so his facial expressions and mannerisms wouldn’t betray a plan to kill Asa and Jen after he was done with Bruce.

             
Suddenly, a certain, terrible thought crossed Asa’s mind:
He knows we’re under here. He’s going to kill Bruce, make an example of him, and then come interrogate us.

             
What to do then? Leave? How?
Asa didn’t see any other option but to sit at this point. He wondered if Jen had a plan.

             
“Kill me,” Bruce whispered. For a moment, the fear disappeared from his face as he met Allen’s eyes. “I’d rather be dead than like you.”

             
“Okay,” Allen said. He did not mind the insult in the lightest. He was behaving in a completely clinical way. He pressed the gun so hard up against Bruce’s chin that it drew his head back. “This is going to be your last question, Bruce.”

             
“Wait!” Bruce said. “I have a question for you.”

             
Allen looked mildly interested. “Go on.”

             
“What happens to me if I cooperate?”
              Allen smiled. “I see. You are quite the strategist, aren’t you, Bruce? You seem to see that…”

             
CLICK

             
Allen pointed the gun at Bruce’s foot and pulled the trigger. “Ooooh, you are one lucky son of a bitch! I’m out of bullets! I asked a question. I said, ‘You are quite the strategist,
aren’t you, Bruce?
”

             
Bruce’s eyes were wide. “I am a strategist, I AM! I’m sorry for not answering!” He broke down and started crying again.

             
“No reason to apologize, young Mr. Thurman. I’ll let that one go. How does that sound?”

             
“Good! GREAT!”

             
Allen smiled. “Excellent.” He took a handful of bullets out of his pocket and began to slide them into the clip as he spoke. “As I was saying. Being a strategist, you would like to know what your options are before I ask the next question. That’s smart. Very smart. I don’t know why you would cooperate if you saw no gain. Here’s the deal, Bruce. If you cooperate, I give you my word that I’ll let you go, without further harm. Now, of course, I could be lying, but you’re not really in a position to be choosy. And, of course, you might be wondering why letting you go would be a good option for us; it may not make sense to you why a group of Multipliers would let you go in this situation.”

             
Allen returned the clip to the handgun and put a bullet in the chamber. “We are in a great position to let you go, Bruce. We don’t need you. We have plenty of Multipliers here to do what we intend to. And, I believe that if we let you go, you’ll be a good little boy and not tattle on us.”

             
Bruce was nodding fervently.

             
“Besides, if you did tell people that three Multipliers shot your foot off, or whatever you might tell them, it won’t matter. We have a mission that we will complete tomorrow night. The wheels are set in motion, and nothing will stop us now.”

             
Asa suspected that Allen was lying about letting Bruce go, but there was no way to know. Something in Allen’s inflection made Asa believe that he would kill Bruce no matter what.
But does Bruce sense that?

             
“Is that pretty clear, Bruce?”

             
Bruce nodded, and then his eyes moved over so quickly that Asa almost missed it. For just a flash, Asa believed that Bruce glanced over at the desk with regret in his eyes.

             
He’s going to give us up,
Asa thought.

             
Jen must have thought so too, because she squeezed Asa’s hand tighter.

             
Ned licked his lips with a black tongue. His expression was now one of hunger, not one of pain. Rose was overcome with a fit of tremors. Her body was shaking in sporadic, repetitive motions and Asa wondered if she was experiencing some kind of overdose. Still, her eyes were locked on Bruce. She was dripping Salvaserum from her bloody mouth.

             
“I’m going to give you three seconds for this question, Bruce. If you take more than three seconds to answer, I’m going to step aside and let Rose take over. If you decide you won’t answer, I’m going to step aside and let Rose take over. If you give me an answer that I don’t believe, I’m going to step aside and let Rose take over. If, though, you give me something that satisfies me, I’ll get up and leave. I hope that’s clear.”

             
“Very clear.”

             
“Good. Here’s the question: Where is Asa Palmer?”

             
Asa felt his throat tighten. Even from across the room, he could see beads of sweat on Bruce’s forehead. In light of the question, Asa was beginning to wonder if Allen was being honest in his intentions;
Maybe he doesn’t know I’m under here—maybe he will really let Bruce go.

             
Jen was squeezing Asa’s hand so hard that his fingers were turning numb.

             
Once again, Bruce’s eyes betrayed him. He looked right at the desk with an expression of worry and regret. Asa thought that the emotion those eyes conveyed was,
I’m sorry about this.
Asa realized that he wouldn’t hold it against Bruce if he revealed where he and Jen were hiding.
He has Roxanne to worry about. And he’s going to be a graduate next semester if he lives through this. He has so much to look forward to. And if he lies, it will all be over.

             
A rolling nausea crept into Asa’s abdomen as he thought about what it would be like to tell Roxanne about Bruce being killed. He couldn’t imagine the hurt on her face—he couldn’t imagine seeing the tears. At that moment, he wanted Bruce to give them up—he didn’t want anyone else to die on his behalf.

             
Bruce inhaled before answering.

             
“Go to hell,” he said, and than he spat on Allen’s face.

             
Allen’s lips curled up in anger; this was the first hint of emotion he had shown during the entire encounter. He wiped Bruce’s saliva off and stood up. Rose was dancing on her feet with excitement. “Very well,” Allen said. “Do what you want, Rose.”

             
Asa closed his eyes; he couldn’t watch. He heard Bruce scream one last time, and he heard Rose growl from her chest. There were sounds like a struggle, and then what sounded like leather being torn apart. These noises went on for twenty seconds. After that, Asa never heard Bruce’s voice again, and there were just the repetitive ripping sounds.

             
Slow tears rolled down Asa’s face.

             
Asa sat there for a long time, listening to Rose tear hungrily at Bruce’s dead body. There were sounds like a dog lapping up water—he believed this to be Rose drinking Bruce’s running blood.

             
The grotesque noises stopped, and Asa opened his eyes. Rose got to her feet, still trembling. “Thank you, Allen.”

             
Allen smiled. “It was a pleasure watching you work.”

             
Asa tried to not look at Bruce, but couldn’t help it. His body had slid five feet over, and there was a line of blood on the floor where it had been dragged. The body was mutilated. Rose had taken off most of the skin on his face, and torn open his abdomen so that his small and large intestines were exposed.

             
Ned stood up. He was still dripping blood, but he looked much better. Multipliers heal remarkably fast. “I think that I can walk now, if you want to go, boss,” he said.

             
“Wait,” Allen said. He looked around the room, and a chill went up Asa’s spine. “There is one more thing.” Allen stepped over Bruce’s carcass and took steps towards the desk. Asa had to use every ounce of willpower he had not to cry out—to scream in horror. Allen was four steps away, three steps, two steps—his black shoes that had been shined so well were speckled with Bruce’s blood.

             
Allen was now standing right in front of the desk. Asa looked up. He heard Allen’s fingers come to rest on the top of the wood. There was a scraping sound.

             
He’s going to tear the desk away from the wall.

             
But then, he was leaving. He began to walk back towards the exit. There was now something in his hand. “I want to take this notebook,” he told Rose and Ned. “I don’t know what good it will do, but there might be some things of interest to the Hive within.”

             
Then he walked out.

             
Rose followed, weaving to the right and left as she drunkenly exited the room.

             
Ned was the last one out. He was clutching his bullet wound, which was still dripping blood. He reached up, flicked the lights off, and then followed Allen and Rose out of the Lab.

32

The Multiplier
s’ Hideout

              All was quiet and dark underneath the desk. Asa’s ears were buzzing. Jen was as still as a statue beside him.

             
Out in the foyer, there were odd, stretching shadows; the moon had come up while the Multipliers were in the classroom, and was shining blue-silver light into the windows. Asa could see Bruce, lying dead.
But thank God the lights are off,
he thought. Bruce’s corpse was reduced to a heap of shadows in the dim light.

             
Asa and Jen sat still for twenty seconds after Ned turned the light off. In that time, Asa wondered if they were actually gone, or just waiting in the foyer for them to come out. He wasn’t convinced that Allen didn’t suspect that someone else was hiding in the classroom.