Bleary-eyed, the boys dressed and together they stepped out into the hallway. A line of kids stood waiting, hands by their sides. They were all—except Cormac and Ghost and a little farther down the line, Kate—wearing the same shimmering bodysuits.
“Good morning, fresh meat!” shouted the army guy, clearly addressing Ghost and Cormac. “My name is the Bear. When I say four minutes, I mean four minutes, not … ” He looked at his stopwatch. “Six minutes and five seconds.” He grinned. “You’ve just used two of tomorrow’s minutes, so tomorrow morning, everyone has two minutes to be outside their door, standing at attention.”
The boys straightened up, squaring their shoulders.
“Now follow me!” shouted the Bear, marching down the corridor.
A small, stocky boy beside Ghost turned to him with narrowed eyes. “Thank you!” he spat in a heavy accent. Ghost recognized him—the helicopter pilot. He had a shaved head and hard, cold eyes.
But Ghost had met worse than him in the favela. “No problem, my friend.”
The boy seemed confused for a second before turning and marching down the corridor with the rest of the recruits. From the circular room, they took the South Tunnel, leading toward the exit. This lifted Ghost’s spirits, because although for the most part Renkondo was bright, warm, and fresh, it felt unnatural to be deprived of sun and sky.
But instead of continuing straight ahead toward the exit, they turned right into a gigantic cavern carved out of the rock. Ghost remembered passing it the previous day. It was easily the size of a small football stadium. The center of the cavern was filled with all sorts of wooden equipment, like soldiers might use on an assault course. Pillars of sunlight streamed in at different angles through holes in the ceiling, lighting the place up like spotlights.
A gravel path ran around the edge of the cavern, and on it stood the Bear, hands on hips, waiting.
“The first part of your training is fitness,” he barked, “and you’ll do that every morning with me. Do at least three laps, and as many as you can after that.”
From a rucksack at his feet, he removed a clipboard and pen. “Well, what are you waiting for?” he bellowed.
The group took off running. Concentrating on not tripping over in the tight bunch of runners, Ghost moved closer to the inside of the track because that meant shorter laps.
Cormac joined him. “You OK?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t sleep very well.”
“Nightdream.”
“Nightmare?”
“Yes.” I hope that’s all it was. That voice, Miguel’s voice, had seemed so real.
A boy pushed between them, sending Ghost stumbling. The stocky boy who’d spoken to Ghost outside their bedroom looked back and smirked.
“What’s his problem?” asked Cormac.
“Ice Man got into bed on the wrong side.”
Cormac laughed. “Where did you get all these sayings?”
“I have a book,” replied Ghost. “1,001 English Phrases.”
They completed their first lap, the Bear marking his clipboard as they ran past. By the second lap, the group of runners had started to spread out, some beginning to lag behind, others joining the Ice Man up at the front. Instead of running, one girl bounced past them like a kangaroo. Her muscular legs propelled her forward in fifteen-feet bounds. The boys stared in amazement.
After completing the third lap, most of the group pulled out, falling onto the ground with exhaustion.
“Pathetic!” barked the Bear.
Of the runners remaining on the track, Bouncy Girl and Ice Man were in the lead, but Kate wasn’t far behind them. Ghost wasn’t a great runner, and was starting to get a stitch. By the end of the fourth lap though, his side was killing him.
“I’m out,” he panted as Cormac hesitated beside him. “You go on.”
Cormac nodded, not a bead of sweat on his face.
Ghost left the track and collapsed on the ground as Cormac shot off toward the front of the group. Those seated around Ghost gasped at Cormac’s speed as he overtook Kate, Bouncy Girl, and Ice Man. By the fifth lap he had passed the other runners so many times that they all dropped out in frustration, until he was the only runner left. He sped around the track like a racing car until the Bear finally called him in.
“Beginner’s luck, I’d say,” said the Bear. “Let’s see how you do tomorrow.”
Cormac sat on the ground between Ghost and a red-faced Kate.
“Show-off,” she said. But Ghost could see she was as impressed as everyone else.
The Bear led them back to the dining room for breakfast. Cormac, Kate, and Ghost sat together at a table laden with pickles and fish.
Kate’s nose wrinkled. “Don’t suppose they have Cheerios?”
“What are Cheerios?” asked Ghost, filling his plate.
“Never mind,” she replied, reaching for some fish. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
“But it’s fish,” added Ghost.
Kate laughed before shaking her head and biting into the fish. Her facial expression changed from caution to pleasure. “Actually, it’s not bad.” She poured herself a glass of water. “So, guys, what do you think of the place?”
“I think it’s cool,” said Cormac.
Ghost didn’t answer.
“Don’t you think it’s all a bit weird?” said Kate. “As if there’s something they’re not telling us?”
“Yes!” Cormac put down his cup. “I was thinking the same thing!”
“Explain,” said Ghost.
“Well,” said Kate. “They say the purpose of the Black Lotus is to keep this sword from the Empire, right?”
The boys agreed.
“But you saw it. It’s just a sword. What could be so special about it that they need an army of ninjas with superpowers to guard it?” Kate paused. “There’s more to this than meets the eye.”
As Ghost was trying to make sense of this new phrase, the Bear and the other teachers entered the dining room. He called out names from his clipboard and escorted a group of students out. One by one, the other teachers did the same, until there was just Cormac, Ghost, Kate, and the technology teacher, Ami, left.
This morning, Ami wore a figure-hugging bodysuit that rippled with a thousand colors as she walked. When she stepped closer, Ghost smelt her perfume—a rich vanilla fragrance.
He bowed low. “I’m Ghost.”
“Pleased to meet you. From Rio de Janeiro, right?”
Ghost nodded eagerly.
Ami turned to Cormac. “And you must be Cormac, from Ireland?”
“Yes,” said Cormac.
Kate bowed her head. “I’m Kate, from New York City.”
“Ah,” said Ami. “Times Square is my favorite place in all of America.”
Kate smiled.
“Anyway,” said Ami. “Your next class is with me.”
She led them out of the dining room and down the corridor past the metal door with the keypad and “No Entry” sign.
She stopped outside a wooden louvered door, and looked at them with eyes as dark as her hair. “When I call, come in and find me.” She opened the door, disappeared inside, and closed it again.
Eyebrows arched, Kate glanced at Cormac and Ghost. It seemed like she was about to say something when Ami called out from the room.
Ghost pushed open the door and entered a gray room with a black-tiled floor. Five changing cubicles, like those in a department store, lined the far wall. Their curtains were open, revealing a coat hook and wooden stool in each. Apart from a large mirror on another wall and a red suitcase in one corner, the room was empty—no Ami, no other exits, and nowhere to hide.
Ghost’s first thought was that Ami must be like him—she could turn invisible. And he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Glad to have a kindred spirit? Or resentful that someone else in the world had the Bleaching too?
Cormac stood in the middle of the room looking around, dumbfounded. Kate nodded toward the suitcase.
“I’m not in the suitcase.”
The three kids spun around in the direction of Ami’s voice, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m in the middle cubicle.”
Ghost walked closer, scanning the cubicle for some sign of a hidden doorway. As he reached the cubicle, the interior undulated, and Ami emerged from the wall. He could see her only because she was moving, but her suit had taken on the exact color of the wall. To the unsuspecting eye, she was invisible.
She pulled down her balaclava-like hood and shook her dark hair free. Now that she’d stopped moving, her head seemed to float in midair.
Ghost remembered the way the suits had made the shinobi in the forest disappear. He didn’t think they would have worked so well indoors.
“Please tell me we get to wear one of these suits,” said Kate, her blue eyes big and bright.
It was only when Ami moved, stepping out of the cubicle, that they could see her body again. “The suit is called a shinobi shōzoku. It is made from millions of tiny mirrored beads. Each bead is weighted and reacts to the earth’s gravitational pull. Regardless of the wearer’s position, the mirrored surface of each bead faces sideways or downward, but never upward. Therefore, the suit always reflects the environment around it, never the sky. It will camouflage you anywhere. But it only works if you stay still. As soon as you move, you become visible again.”
She walked over to the red suitcase, unzipped it, and removed another beaded suit. It changed from red to gray as she pulled it out. Kate let out a squeal of delight.
Ami checked the label inside before handing it to Kate. “Your shōzoku has been custom-made to fit you perfectly.” She handed one to Cormac. “Each is lined with ballistic fibers, which makes it highly resistant to bullets and blades.” She handed one to Ghost.
He examined the beaded suit. Cormac and Kate were clearly more excited about their new clothes than he was. Because Ghost didn’t need a special suit to turn invisible. That was his skill, the thing that made him different from all the other kids here. But if they could all now turn invisible too, how was Ghost going to shine like Cormac had done earlier?
Ami handed them each a pair of boots made from the same beaded material, and pointed toward the cubicles. “Now, get changed.”
In the cubicle, Ghost pulled the curtain. This suit couldn’t really make someone invisible. It was just a trick. Ami had said that you had to stay still for it to work. Ghost was the only one who could truly disappear. Perhaps he’d just have to work harder to outshine the others.
He undressed and changed into his new gear. He marveled at how well the suit fit him. Normally, Ghost hated new clothes, but these felt different, more like a second skin. He put his arm on the seat of the wooden stool and watched the tiny mirrored beads change color from gray to pine.
Pulling back his curtain, he found Cormac and Kate looking at themselves in the mirror. They looked good, especially Kate, the tight-fitting suit accentuating her trim, athletic figure.
Ami showed them how to remove the hood from the back of the suit and fit it over the face so that only their eyes showed.
“The cowls have integrated earpieces and microphones to allow you to communicate with any shinobi in a two-mile radius. To activate the comm, you must tap the small disc on your chest twice. Remember, whatever you say into the comm will be heard by every shinobi. Comms can also be detached and used without the shōzoku.”
She unclipped the comm from the cowl and held up the earpiece and microphone, which were connected by a wire.
“Detached, it is activated by a tiny button on the microphone.”
They each practiced removing and replacing their comms.
Ami then pulled a transparent mask up from the neck of her shōzoku and sealed it around her face like a ziplock bag.
“Once the mask is sealed, it supplies oxygen from chambers in the suit. When not in use, these chambers automatically replenish. It is very effective underwater or in smoke or gas, but the oxygen supply is limited to five minutes, so be careful. You will hear a beep in your comm when you have one minute left.”
Ghost pulled his mask up and mimed walking on the moon. He tapped the disc on his chest and said, “One small step for man.” He made a crackling noise like static and pointed at Kate. “One big step for woman.”
Everybody laughed, even Ami.
“There are hidden storage compartments all over your shōzoku, designed to hold specific pieces of equipment that you will receive during training. Whenever you can, practice using your cowl, comm, and mask so that when you need to use them, they’ll be second nature to you.”
“I thought ninjas dressed in black?” said Cormac.
“They dressed to fit in with their surroundings,” replied Ami. “In the snow they wore white, in the forest they wore green, but mostly they dressed like the people around them. For night missions, however, they did wear black.”
She held up her wrist and turned down the sleeve of her shōzoku, revealing a small button inside. “In night mode, the magnetized beads turn their reflective surface inward.”
When she pressed the button, the mirrored balls shifted and the shōzoku morphed to black.
Everybody oohed.
“For now, get used to the suits. They are your uniform. You must wear them every day. And don’t worry about washing them—they’re self-cleaning.”
They brought their old clothes back to their bedrooms, and then separated. Kate, because she wasn’t from the Empire, joined a Japanese class for beginners. Cormac took an intermediate Japanese class, and Ghost joined an intermediate English class with four other kids. One of his classmates was Ice Man, whose real name turned out to be Kristjan.
Ghost had seen kids in Rio heading to and from school, and he’d always wondered what it would be like. He couldn’t believe he was now actually going to school—though he suspected most schools weren’t like this one.
It turned out that learning English in a classroom wasn’t nearly as much fun as practicing it on English-speaking tourists in Rio, while secretly removing their wallets and purses. Cormac had been right—after an hour of grammar exercises, Ghost never wanted to see a classroom again.
When class was over, he met his friends for lunch in the dining room.
“So, Ghost,” said Kate, “how was your first lesson in a classroom?”
“Boring,” said Ghost, plunking his tray of food down.
Cormac and Kate laughed. Over lunch they chatted about the teachers they’d had, the other students, and the bizarre school where they were now pupils.
“I’d love to get a proper look around,” said Cormac.
Ghost agreed. “Lots of tunnels we haven’t been in yet.”
“Maybe we can explore later,” said Kate.
But their afternoon was so busy they didn’t get a chance. They had a history lesson with Makoto, followed by a Japanese culture lesson with Miss Taneka, and the day finished with more physical training with the Bear.
By the time Ghost sat down to dinner that night, he was too exhausted to even think about exploring. It seemed the others were too.
“We’ll do it tomorrow,” said Cormac. “All I’m fit for is bed.”
“Me too,” said Ghost, nodding. “I’m cat tired.”
Kate laughed.
“What?” asked Ghost.
Kate shook her head and smiled. “Nothing. I’m cat tired too.”
The days were jam-packed with activities—physical training, mainly, but plenty of classes too: botany, security, meditation, and first aid. Cormac hated the Japanese classes because they reminded him of his school back in Ireland. Ghost was moved up to the advanced English class and he was becoming more fluent by the day, though he still mixed up a lot of the phrases from his book. Kate loved the history classes. In school she’d learned only American history, so the history of the Empire was new and exciting to her. And, now, relevant.
But even so, at the end of the fourth day they still weren’
t ready to give up on the idea of exploring the school.
“We don’t have a spare minute in the day,” said Kate.
“True,” said Cormac. “But there’s always the night.”
Kate frowned at him. “We’re not allowed out of our rooms.”
Cormac shrugged and looked at Ghost. “Are you up for it?”
Ghost nodded.
“But what about the cameras?” asked Kate.
“We’ll avoid them. They’re not in every tunnel.”
Kate hesitated. “I don’t know. I’d hate to see what the punishment is in this place.”
“It’s fine,” said Cormac. “Myself and Ghost will go.”
“Jeez!” said Kate. “I can’t let you two go alone. God knows what trouble you’d get into.”
Cormac smiled. “So we’re all in?”
“I guess so,” said Kate.
* * *
CORMAC AND GHOST LAY IN the dark, fully dressed, waiting for Kate. Voices quieted, doors closed, and silence descended on Renkondo as everyone went to sleep. It reminded Cormac of nights in the Hinin House when he’d done the same—waited until all lights were out and the place had fallen silent, before stealing out of the window. Those nights running up walls and skipping across the rooftops while Ballyhook slept were the only things he missed from his old life.
He reached for his mother’s crucifix before remembering it was gone. He’d never forget the day she gave it to him.
He was about seven years old. His father was gazing out the window of their small cottage by the sea when suddenly he pulled the curtains closed.
“What is it?” asked his mother, rushing into the kitchen.
“Kats,” said his father. He knelt down in front of him. “I love you, son,” he said, kissing Cormac on the forehead. He hugged his wife and dashed out the back door.
His mother held Cormac’s hand and together they watched the front door. There was a loud knock and a gruff voice shouted, “Kyatapira!”
His mother opened the door to three men in black uniforms. “Where is he?” one of them barked.
“He’s not here,” she replied.
The Black Lotus Page 6
