“This college is proud of our reputation for developing young women of the highest possible calibre so as to be well prepared for their next phase of life. Dishonesty and a lack of integrity are two of many aspects of life that we neither encourage nor condone. I considered informing the police, but as the victim of this heinous crime was the first to acknowledge, our hard-pressed constabulary are busy enough without taking the time to deal with our little crises. The girls concerned will find it hard to locate an alternative place of education, as I have made it quite plain in their records that they have been expelled for dishonesty.
“Your personal property is your responsibility, and we remind you of this as often as we can. On this occasion an item of jewellery was locked in a locker and those concerned broke in and removed it. They claim it was a prank, but neither I, nor Miss Trehearn, nor indeed the victim appreciated it as such. A sense of humour is a valued asset in this day and age, but so is wisdom. One must learn what is funny and when it is funny. To undertake such an activity is neither funny, nor frivolous. I need not say any more than if you respect each other, and each other’s property, then you will be respected in turn. The next time an act of dishonesty occurs, the police will be called. Do I make myself clear?”
She waited for all the girls to stand and reply that they understood. She then walked out.
Miss Trehearn walked over to where Keira stood.
“Here; hopefully you won’t need it, but I thought I’d give it to you anyway,” she said, passing the girl a heavy-duty combination padlock.
Later, Keira was in her room, working on her laptop. She left her door open, as was the custom. If you didn’t want to be disturbed, then you closed your door. It was a simple system, so other girls knew when to go visit a friend, and when their friend didn’t want a visitor.
Shannon appeared.
Hi, Kay, you all right?” Shannon liked Men in Black, so tended to use people’s initials as nicknames. No one else bothered.
“Fine. Thanks for helping earlier,” Keira said.
Shannon eased her bum onto Keira’s bed.
“No problem, that Fiona was a right twat. Her daddy is even richer than mine. See, proved a point, you can’t buy class.”
“I still don’t know why they did it,” Keira said.
“Jealousy, pure and simple. You see, you’re too bloody nice and everyone likes you. You look good, you do well in everything and, shit, girl, some people hate people like you.”
“I thought you said everybody likes me?” Keira teased.
“You know what I mean,” Shannon grumbled. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to design a computer program that will make studying languages like French easier.”
“Are you serious?”
“French is a different language to English. We have far more words in English, because we rob all other cultures and languages with impunity. We then use those words as English, without a second thought. French, obeys far more strict rules, with only a few exceptions, while English break all the rules all the time.”
“You’re not even studying French,” Shannon observed.
“I know; I’m doing IT, so this is why I’m working on this. I speak French, so I can use the language to assist my IT course.”
“How many languages can you speak?” Shannon asked, guardedly.
“Why?” asked Keira.
“I thought I heard you speaking to that Korean girl yesterday, in her language.”
Keira cursed herself for being careless.
“A couple,” she said, casually.”
“I speak two; English and bad English,” Shannon said, laughing at her own joke.
Keira smiled to acknowledge she identified it as an attempt at humour.
“So, what’s so special about that thing round your neck?” Shannon asked.
Keira’s hand automatically went to her torc.
“I have no idea. It’s not that valuable, I think.”
“You value it. You looked terrified when you found it was missing.”
“It’s been in the family a long time. I would hate to lose it.”
“I’ve never seen you take it off before; may I see it?”
Keira didn’t want to get a reputation of being churlish; neither did she want anyone to think the torc was more special than she wanted it to appear.
She reached up and undid it, passing it to her friend in its ‘C’ shape.
“It’s lighter than it looks; what’s it made of?”
“My granddad found it during the war. I think it was part of a plane that was shot down.”
Shannon nodded, turning it over in her hands.
“There’s nothing on it,” she remarked.
“I know. I think it’s some form of alloy, but it’s quite a bit stronger than aluminium.”
“It could be very old; say from a lost civilisation; like Atlantis or something like that,” Shannon suggested, having seen the TV series on the previous evening.
“That’d be cool. I think it might be rather more old-looking if it was from way back then.”
“It might have magical powers; like from a wizard or witch.”
“Didn’t you know? I’m a superhero in my days off!” Keira joked.
Shannon laughed and tried to open it. She failed, but went red in the face with the effort.
“It’s fucked!” she announced.
“No, it’s fine. There’s a knack to it,” Keira said, taking it from her friend and placing it back around her neck.
“How did you do that?” the Irish girl asked, frowning.
“Ah, that’s a secret,” Keira said.
“Oh, come on; you can tell me!”
Keira took the torc off and showed Shannon, but no matter how hard she tried, the girl couldn’t make the torc become pliable.
“It’s jinxed!” she said.
“No, it’s special. It’s like it belongs to me and me alone. No one else can open it or wear it.”
“That’s daft.”
“It might be, but like the sword in the stone, it could be a sign of something.”
“Like?”
Keira shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Your granddad found it, where?”
“I have no idea, it was in a box of old war stuff; you know, bayonets and old bullet cases, stuff like that.”
“Didn’t you ask him?”
“He was dead before I found the box.”
“Oh. Still, you ought to take it to the British Museum or somewhere like that. It could be worth a fortune.”
“Then they’d take it off me and I’d never see it again. Sorry, but it’s staying right here. I’ll give it to my daughter when she’s old enough.”
“You might just have sons.”
Keira just smiled.
Sixteen
“Okay, where the hell have you been?” Shannon said as Keira clambered in her bedroom window. The time was a little after three in the morning.
Shannon sat in the dark, actually in Keira’s armchair.
Keira cursed under hear breath, but hoped that Shannon had not actually seen much.
“What you don’t know, you can’t tell,” Keira said, enigmatically.
“That’s the third time this week!” her friend said accusingly, as she watched Keira undress out of her dark clothing. There was a thud of something heavy as it fell onto the floor.
It was Sid the Snake’s gravity knife. Keira had forgotten all about it. She had meant to hand it to the police, but with all the excitement, it had slipped from her mind.
Shannon picked it up and stared at it for a moment, frowning.
“I thought you were out seeing a boy, but, this; what the fuck is going on?”
Keira folded her clothes neatly and put them away, unselfconsciously naked. Then, she slipped her nightdress on.
“Believe me, you don’t want to know,” she said.
“What’s this, then?” Shannon asked, holding up the knife.