“Then give me a demonstration,” Anastasia invited. “I have a a bit of a surprise planned for you, too. Shall we see whose is better?”
25
“Mr. Windsor?”
“No need to be so formal, Katya. Please call me Gerald, both of you. We aren’t in class, and you’ve earned the right.”
“Alright, whatever,” Katya said, tossing her hair. “Are we safe with you?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Katya said, sighing. “Your protocol, teach. Can you do anything notable? It’s my job to keep this kid,” she said, jerking her thumb at Alex, “safe. So I’d like to know if you are going to be any help. Because, you know, I could have found the infirmary on my own.”
Mr. Windsor laughed pleasantly, ignoring Katya’s contemptuous expression.
“Not to worry, Katya, I’m not going to be entirely useless to you. I do have abilities of my own, you realize. However, I don’t think you need to exercise such vigilance, not while we are on campus, anyway. It may not look like it, but we have things well in hand, here.”
“Really?” Alex cut in. “Because, no offense, but it doesn’t really look that way.”
“Of course not, Alex,” Mr. Windsor said cheerfully, glancing back at him. “The Director plays his cards close to his vest. Since the attack started, we haven’t lost anyone on the campus. Things in Central proper may have gone poorly,” he said, a shadow briefly crossing his face, “but, for the moment, here, we are still in control.”
They walked along silently, across a sidewalk that was mercifully free of the bodies that had littered the road to the Academy. Alex could see now that Mr. Windsor was right — there was superficial damage to a number of buildings, and there were scattered signs of battle, but he saw no evidence of the chaos and savagery that seemed to be consuming much of the surrounding area. As they walked along the path, the streetlights in front of them flickered to life, and then shut off again after they passed underneath them, a mobile island of yellow light that led them across the silent campus. It had been such a long day that Alex barely even noticed, and even when he did, he didn’t have the energy to question it. Then, abruptly, he came up with another, much more urgent query.
“Mr. Windsor?” Alex asked. “Did you know where Eerie is? If she is okay?”
“I know where she was, which was on campus,” he said carefully, obviously considering his words. “She came back yesterday. I haven’t personally seen her since the attacks started, but if she’s still here, she’s fine.”
“Why was she here?” Alex asked, stepping across a section of chaotic sidewalk, buckled by some sort of upheaval. “I thought she was supposed to be coding down in Central.”
“She was,” Mr. Windsor said curtly. “Circumstances changed. If you want to know more about it, you’ll have to ask her. She’s entitled to her privacy.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Alex demanded, balling his fists at his sides. “Don’t fuck around with me. Is she okay?”
“In all seriousness, it’s none of your business. And watch your language, Alex.”
“He’s been like that all day,” Katya said sympathetically. “He lost Girl A so now he’s going to mad dog everybody to try and prove that he’s really serious about Girl B. It’s really tiresome.”
He thought about arguing, and then told himself he didn’t have the energy. He told himself that he was too worried about Eerie, and maybe part of that was even true. But he wasn’t completely sure she was wrong. Katya didn’t blame him for what had happened to Emily, but she might be the only one who felt that way right now. He dreaded the larger, public reaction once the events of the break became common knowledge. He might even doubt it himself. Was that really why it was so important to him that he find Eerie? Because of the way it would look to other people? He hoped not. Nevertheless, he couldn’t say that he was certain.
“Is that so? Well, I’m certain that everything will eventually be resolved to his satisfaction,” Mr. Windsor said, as they rounded the main lecture hall and their goal came into view. “Fortunately, the Director didn’t send me to answer questions. My job is to make sure that you find your way into the infirmary.”
Alex didn’t wonder why they would need the help. There was a person standing in front of the infirmary, amongst the wreckage, and everything about his body language said he planned on trying to stop them. Alex couldn’t begin to imagine what had happened in front of the infirmary, but gouges were torn in the concrete and the facade of the building had collapsed. A water main had been breached, and the area was scattered with puddles and sinkholes. In the distance, a downed electrical line sparkled and danced, and a fire alarm wailed on endlessly.
There was no need for Alex to ask for an introduction. After all, Alex knew him by name, and he remembered that same man preventing him from visiting Rebecca in the hospital. Suddenly, he had a very good idea why.
“That sounds like a hard job,” Alistair said cheerfully, walking casually amidst the water and wreckage. “Your boss is shafting you. You should complain.”
“I’m afraid not,” Mr. Windsor said politely, clearing his throat as he moved to stand between Alistair and Alex and Katya. “The Director isn’t the type to listen to that sort of nonsense.”
“Then maybe you should find yourself a new boss,” Alistair suggested helpfully.
“Again, I will have to disappoint you. Though not as much, I hope, as you have disappointed me.”
“Don’t take it personally, Gerald,” Alistair said softly, almost apologetically. “Do yourself a favor and back down. Everyone knows you used up the last of your power binding Mitsuru all those years ago. That’s why you retired to teach. How are you going to stop me without a protocol?”
“It was never my job to stop you,” Mr. Windsor said dryly. “All I was instructed to do was to distract you until Miss Aoki could arrive.”
“Oh, please,” Alistair laughed. “You don’t actually expect me to… oh, no. Oh, dear. Hello, Mitzi.”
Alistair probably meant to turn around. Alex guessed that was what he intended to do, before Mitsuru came out of the shadows behind him, an enormous knife held in a reversed grip, edge out, slashing at his unprotected side. Alistair sighed and stepped casually out of the way. Alex was confused for a moment, and then he remembered with a terrible, sinking feeling that Alistair was a powerful telepath, capable of reading Mitsuru’s intentions before she moved. Unless she was much faster than Alistair was, she would be incapable of hitting him.
“Mitzi,” he said, moving his head to the side of an ice-pick style stab. “I was hoping we would have an opportunity to talk. Naturally, I thought that you would join us, once you saw how much of what we’re trying to do makes sense. Can we talk this over?”
“Don’t call me that name,” Mitsuru hissed, her hair wild and disheveled, her face contorted with rage. She kicked at his midsection, and then followed up with her blade, moving forward the whole time, striking and hunting for openings. “Never call me that again.”
“Mitsuru,” Alistair said urgently, stepping backwards so the knife passed just centimeters from his chest. “Mitzi, calm down. No one was actually trying to kill you. That was for show. They were supposed to take care of Alice and Xia, not you.”
Mitsuru threw a leg kick, but without any real force behind it, and in return caught a right hand from Alistair to the forehead that she didn’t manage to duck. She brought up her left knee into the meat of his thigh, but he slapped it aside. Mitsuru had to scramble to parry a knee of his own that he threw on the opposite side. Stepping past it, moving inside, she drove the point of her knife forward with both hands, aiming for his solar plexus, but he drifted, frustratingly out of reach of the trembling point of her blade. Mitsuru stepped back and gasped for air.