Anna nodded. “I believe that this evening will suffice. You’ll be available?” she asked Greyson.
He nodded to indicate that he would be.
“That settles it, then.” She stood to see the administrators out. “Thank you both for coming. I should have more details about the setup of the SpyCorps initiative and how the Academy can be involved later on.”
Wells moved to sit in front of Anna Elizabeth after the door closed behind the administrators. “SpyCorps?”
Anna nodded. “I played your role down a little. Do you want the responsibility? I know it’s asking a lot.”
Wells’ indecipherable eyes bored into hers. “Let me speak with ADAM about the girl, then I’ll give you my answer.” He looked off to the side. “What about the rest of the Corps? Where are you planning on recruiting them from?”
Anna smiled brightly at him. “Oh, that’s completely up to you. Herding diplomats is my thing, recruiting the spies is all yours.”
Wells smiled and rubbed his hands together. “I know just where to start.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Etheric Academy, Administrators’ Office
It was a little crowded in front of the twin desks.
“Well?” Diane asked. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”
Masha piped up. “Ma’am, please don’t punish the others. They were just trying to help Mischa and me fix our mess. We’re sorry for the damage the rabbits caused, and for the damage we caused catching them.” She hung her head.
Tina shuffled awkwardly between Halli and Maxim, trying to make room for her shoulders as Diane raked them all with a stern look.
“Hmmm. We’ll get this over with quickly since Dorene and I have a graduation ceremony to prepare for.”
Dorene spoke up. “Yes, we do. Max does not need a mess down in the basement distracting him while we’re putting it all together. You will all go to his office and collect the supplies you need to return the basement to its former state.”
They all nodded.
“Off you go, then,” Diane told them. “Max is waiting.”
They began to shuffle out, heads down.
“Not you, Masha. We would like a word.”
Masha looked back in alarm.
“Don’t look so worried,” Dorene told her, pointing to a chair. “Sit. We want to talk to you about what you’re going to do when you leave the Academy.”
“What I’m going to do?” Masha let her confusion show. “I’m going into the Guardians.”
The sisters smiled.
“What? What’s funny about that?”
Dorene slid a manila file over the desk toward Masha. “Take a look.”
Masha took the folder, narrowing her eyes at the red stamp reading Eyes Only on the front. “What is this?”
She opened it and was shocked to see that the first page had her picture in the top left corner. “This is my file? I thought only ADAM had access to those?”
Diane narrowed her eyes. “How do you know about the files?” She shook her head. “Never mind, I suppose that’s the sort of thing that brought you to ADAM’s attention in the first place. Skip the bio. Go straight to the back section.”
Masha flipped through as asked, coming to her application to the Guardians. “Yeah, I already filled it out.” Something caught her eye on the last page. “Dean Hauser? What’s she got to do with it? And who is Greyson Wells? He has no rank, so he’s not a Guardian. How can he be my CO?”
The administrators shared a look Masha was only too familiar with. It was the same look she and Mischa shared when they knew something and couldn’t wait to spill.
“Not your commanding officer, Masha,” Dorene told her with a wink.
Diane added her own. “Your handler.”
Masha dropped the file like a hot potato. “Handler?” She was silent for a moment as the implication of the word spun her world on its axis. “As in, my spy handler?”
The administrators nodded.
“I... I do not need to enlist in the Guardians?”
Diane shook her head. “You will still be enlisting. Dean Hauser is expecting you in her office at seven pm. She will explain everything then.”
Dorene smiled. “But you have a basement to clean before you meet with Dean Hauser.”
“Oh, yeah.” Masha jumped up, barely able to contain herself. “Right away!” She turned back at the door, grinning from ear to ear. “Thank you, thank you both. This means... It means so much.”
They waved her off.
“Nonsense!”
“This is what we do.”
“Now go!”
Masha went.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Etheric Academy, Alpha Class Dormitory
Yana was torn. She held up two dresses for Tina, Halli, and Mischa to judge.
“I cannot decide which one to wear for graduation,” she told them. “I know it’s only going under my robes, but I want to feel special.”
“What about this one?” Tina dived into her closet, rummaged around, and held a dress up.
Yana made a moue. “It’s a bit puffy.”
Tina pulled out another. “How about this?”
Yana shook her head. “No, too blue. I’ll look like an Alice.”
That made Halli giggle. “I think you’d look more like Cinderella,” she teased.
Yana huffed. “It cannot possibly be this difficult to choose a dress nobody will even see!”
Mischa looked up from filing her nails. “I know what we should do.”
Tina, Halli, and Yana waited for her to reveal her solution.
Mischa smirked. “Let’s go shopping!”
Masha returned from the bathroom. “Did I hear someone say shopping?”
“I can’t think of a better way to spend our birthday, can you?”
“Besides,” Yana added. “We have our final robe fittings later today, so we should make the most of the day. We should see what the boys are doing after we’re done with the fitting.”
Halli snickered. “The boys have planned their own day. It involves video games and pizza.”
Tina looked over from where she was putting the dresses away. “Pizza? I could go for some pizza.”
“It’s not even lunchtime yet,” Mischa exclaimed. “How can you think about pizza.”
Tina shook her head sagely. “It’s pizza. How could you not?”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Open Court, Arcade
“And the crowd goes wiiiiild!” Todd accompanied his victory yell with a lap of the floor.
Maxim shook his head at the younger boy’s antics, putting his Coke down on the table. He spoke loudly for Craig to hear him over the noise of the arcade machines. “He reminds me of you. Same planet-sized ego and heart of gold.”
Craig winked. “If you can back it up, there’s nothing wrong with shouting about your awesomeness. That kid is a shit-hot pilot already. If I had a choice between big-head there and some stranger with all the ego and none of the skills, I know who I’d pick to fly me out of a war zone.”
Nestor climbed out of the flight simulator with a face like thunder. “Hey, quit dancing! I want a rematch!” he yelled to Todd over the noise.
Craig nodded at Maxim’s cousin. “Him, too. I was talking to a buddy of mine who works on the flight simulators and he said the two of them hold records that even the pros haven’t been able to beat.” He scratched his cheek absentmindedly. “So, how’s your dad doing?”
Maxim grinned. “Really well. He’s going to be out of Medical soon.”
Craig clapped Maxim on the back in congratulations. “That’s great, dude! Where will he be staying?”
“With my uncle, for now,” Maxim told him. “When he’s had time to adjust to station life he might get a place of his own.”
Craig frowned. “You won’t go with him?”
Maxim shook his head. “He doesn’t want that. I told him I would defer my basic training to take car
e of him, but he refused outright. Said he would rather spend the rest of his life in Medical than negatively impact my future.”
“Wow. That’s like, deep, dude. But you have two months before then, right?”
Maxim nodded. “Yeah, Commander Silvers gave me the time to reconnect with my father. But it’s graduation first, and I’m more nervous about that if I’m honest. I want my father to be there. And I feel stupid in the robe.”
Craig jumped up and fished a tablet out of his fatigues. “Hey, about that… I had a message telling me to report for a robe fitting. I already left the Academy, so why do I need robes?”
Maxim shrugged. “I have no idea. Did you ask?”
Craig shook his head.
“You wanna go and find out? I have a fitting later today. We all do.”
Craig waved his tablet. “I’ll ask Meredith.”
Meredith’s cool voice came from his speaker. “How can I help you, Craig?”
“Hey, Meredith. Do you know why I’ve been scheduled for a robe fitting today?”
There was a pause before Meredith answered. “You are scheduled to graduate tomorrow, Craig.”
Craig frowned. “I thought I already graduated?”
“Technically, yes,” Meredith replied. “But the Academy administrators insisted that you get to take part in the ceremony.”
Maxim grinned. “The guys are going to love that. I’ll make sure Dwayne gets a photo of you in your robe.”
Ron and Aleksei came over with four baskets of buffalo wings. “What’s that?”
Maxim pointed at Craig. “He gets to graduate with us tomorrow.”
Ron high-fived Craig. “Awesome! So what do you guys want to do until then? I had a message from the girls saying they would be here shopping today. They want to know if we want to go for pizza after the fitting?”
Maxim scooped a wing from his basket. “Sounds good to me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Open Court
The seating area of Reap What You Sew was full of excited chatter since students from a few different schools were there, waiting their turn to have the final fittings for their graduation gowns.
Tina, Yana, Halli, and the twins had snagged a low couch in the corner by the store window so they could see when the boys arrived. The couch was an island in a sea of shopping bags of all sizes and colors.
Tina shook her head. “How are we going to get all this back to the Academy? We should get an antigrav pallet.”
Mischa snickered. “We did more than retail damage today. It was more like retail annihilation. We should wait and see if the boys offer to help before we get a cart. It makes them feel needed.”
Tina made a face. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“Shouldn’t they already be here?” Halli fretted. She looked up as the bell over the door tinkled and Ksenia came in with Jaden and Kris. Ksenia made a point of glaring daggers at the twins before joining her friends. “Ugh.”
“I know, right?” Masha agreed. “She gets on my last nerve. I don’t even know what her problem is.”
“I do,” Tina told them in a hushed voice. “I overheard my mom saying that she couldn’t accept Ksenia onto her staff because she wasn’t the right fit. She recommended that she join DipCorps instead.”
Masha made a face. “Oh, Misch. Poor you!”
Mischa smirked. “I’m heading into the shark tank. You don’t think a little guppy like her is going to bother me?”
Tina dissolved into giggles, which spread until the five of them were reduced to clutching their middles, helpless to stop.
They were so busy laughing that none of them noticed Ron and Aleksei arrive.
“What’s so funny?” Aleksei asked, picking his way through the bags to sit down on the couch.
Yana wiped a tear from her eye. “The idea of Mischa getting her hair wet!” She hooted.
The boys looked at each other and shrugged as a large group of students from another school exited the fitting rooms noisily.
“The others are here,” Tina announced, looking out of the window as the noisy students filed out. Maxim and Craig stood to the side to let them out before coming into the store to join the others at the couch.
Tina raised an eyebrow at Craig. “Are you still on leave?”
Craig nodded. “I have until after graduation. Apparently I’m taking part even though I already left to join the Guardians. Something to do with the administrators not wanting me to miss out on the experience? Commander Silvers agreed with them, so here I am.”
A man holding a long tape measure came out from the fitting room. “Etheric Academy students? This way, please.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Etheric Academy, Lobby
Max pushed his cart through the lobby, heading for the auditorium to take care of last-minute preparations for tomorrow’s graduation ceremony.
His thoughts were filled by the students who had come into this building as children and would leave tomorrow as adults.
How quickly time passed!
They had come such a long way since he’d brought them here on the Academy’s opening day. The culmination of their growth appeared to have happened almost overnight.
He, smiled fondly, remembering Tina covering her nerves with snark, Yana’s fear making her as quiet as a mouse, Ronnie’s lack of confidence in himself. He remembered how the Romanovkan kids had barely spoken any English. Now they cursed as well as any of the others when they thought the adults weren’t listening. He saw great things in Maxim’s future especially.
He spotted little Bai Hu and Todd Grimes huddled over their tablets in their customary spot beneath the twinkling galaxy and called a greeting. The boys looked up and waved.
A chatter of giggling girls weighed down with brightly-colored bags burst into the atrium from the main entrance, followed by the boys a few minutes later.
Max smiled warmly and trundled toward the auditorium as the future of the Empire piled into the lobby squabbling over who was to carry what.
___
Tina huffed as she hurried to catch up with the other girls before the door shut.
“Ugh, whose idea was it to build all these steps?” She didn’t want to admit it, but she may have gone a little overboard with the retail therapy.
She sucked in a breath once she was safely through the door and reaffirmed her grip on her bags. Ron came up behind her and reached out to take her load, but she snatched the loot away. “I can carry my own things, thank you.”
Ron held his hands up. “Only trying to help.”
Tina smiled to show him she wasn’t mad. “I’ve got it.” She caught the door to the lobby with her shoulder and followed Halli and Yana inside.
Mischa held her bags out. “Here, Ron, you can carry mine if you like. I have no problem with chivalry.” She dropped the bags at his feet and flounced out of the atrium and into the lobby.
Ron stood rooted to the spot with his mouth opening and closing.
Masha sashayed past and winked at him. “Wasn’t quite the gesture you were going for, eh?”
Ron looked balefully at the masses of bags. “You could say that.”
Masha walked through the doors, laughing and Ron closed his mouth as Maxim and Craig came up the steps with bags of their own.
“What have you got there, Ron?” Craig asked with a chuckle. “Looks a bit sparkly for your tastes.”
Ron scowled as he struggled to pick up all the bags. “Mischa’s swag, and why girls even need all this stuff is a mystery to me. I offered to take Tina’s bags—don’t ask me why when I should know better—and when she refused Mischa dumped all these on me.”
Craig snickered and came forward to relieve Ron of his burden. “I’ll take them. Where are the girls headed?”
Maxim gave Craig a questioning look. “You’re ready to talk to Mischa?”
Craig shrugged and made his way to the others in the lobby.
“Oh, you made it.” Tina blew out a breath an
d set off toward the stairs to the dorms. “Good. Now can we please dump our bags and get some dinner before the cafeteria closes for the night?”
Todd came over. “I asked Chef Van for takeout. We were just waiting for you to get here.”
Tina dropped her bags and wrapped her arms around Todd in one fluid motion. “You are the best brother in the whole galaxy.”
Todd squirmed free and turned back to Bai Hu. “You okay to finish up while I get the food?”
“Is it pizza?” Bai Hu asked.
Todd winked. “You know it is.”
Bai Hu grinned. “Then I will wait here until you return. Meredith’s update will be happening soon.”
Todd returned to the lobby a short time later with a bag full of carry-out pizza boxes in each hand.
Bai Hu was just packing up when he reached their spot.
“You ready, buddy?” he asked.
Bai Hu nodded and slung his backpack over a shoulder. “There is something off with the galaxy tonight. Meredith must be busy, because it did not update at the expected time.”
Todd glanced upward. “It didn’t? Huh.” He shrugged and held up one of his bags. “Let’s go and eat. We’ll come and see if it’s updated on our way home.”
Bai Hu looked one more time before following Todd up the stairs to the dorm.
The girls were by the sofa when Todd and Bai Hu got there.
Todd held the insulated bags aloft. “Pizza delivery, get ‘em while they’re hot!”
Tina threw the boots she was holding up to show Halli onto the sofa and rushed over to relieve Todd of the pizzas. Everyone came over to sit at the table while Tina shared the boxes out. The air was filled with a rich cheesy aroma and the sounds of a meal being enjoyed.
“How are you all feeling about tomorrow?” Todd asked between slices.
Tina grinned. “I feel like I want to sing and puke at the same time.”
Halli pointed at Tina. “What she said. And I don’t even have to give a speech!”
Tina paled. “My speech!”
Alpha Class_Graduation Page 15
