“Great. How are we going to prove it’s him, then?” I look over at the tablet, the face making my stomach twist painfully again.
With another glance at Philip, I realize he’s gone pale as a ghost. But he’s not looking at me. He’s looking past me.
I slowly turn, and a block of stone forms in my stomach. Josh and Alex are leaning against the open doorway. I didn’t even hear it open. The sight of them almost makes me double over.
“What are you guys doing here?” asks Josh.
Rand steps in front of me. “Just project stuff.”
Josh strolls closer. “You’re on my team. I can’t have you sharing our secrets.”
“I’m just here to make sure you don’t disturb my friends.”
Josh makes a show of leaning sideways to look at Philip and I. Kai moves to stand a step behind Rand. “You mean them?” He points to me and then Philip.
Philip is shaking. I walk around the table to stand next to him. I put a hand on his shoulder and whisper, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” He doesn’t flinch or acknowledge me. I’m not even sure he’s breathing.
But Rand isn’t moving, either. Kai glances back at me.
Alex comes to stand beside Josh.
“No way,” I say loudly. I come around the table and wedge myself between Rand and Josh. I push backward on Rand. “It’s not worth it.”
Josh has just pushed my last button today. “I don’t know exactly what your issue is, but you need to think about your future before you say or do anything else right now.”
A horrible sneer spreads across his face. “I am thinking about my future. One without any of you in it.”
Alex hasn’t moved, and I can tell by the expression on his face that he’s conflicted. I understand his dilemma. I’m stuck between wanting to defend Rand, and not wanting to get in trouble.
“What about Alex?” I say to Josh, an idea forming.
His eyebrows knit together. “What about him?”
“What will happen to him if you start a fight with us? He’s obviously loyal to you and will protect you. But then what? He goes down with you? Even if he never hits Rand, he’ll get suspended just as fast as you will.”
That makes Josh take a step backward. Still scowling he says, “We won’t get suspended. Our parents have connections.”
I laugh. “Connections? You think that will help you here? Do they know the president of the New American Republic personally?”
His scowl deepens. “Of course not. But they do know officers very high up in the academy. Nothing will happen to us.”
I glance sideways at Kai. His shoulders are tense, and he looks ready to pounce to defend me. I need to diffuse this situation before we all get in trouble.
“Is that why you think you can act like this all the time? Because you have connections?”
Silence.
“Well one of us really does have parents who are personal friends with the President. And we don’t go around breaking academy rules. You might not believe me, but it’s in your best interest that you do.” I step closer to Josh. “Because I don’t boast, and I don’t like fighting. I’m not saying all this to one-up you. I just need you to realize that you’re not the only one with contacts. But right now, we’re on academy grounds. We’ve pledged to abide by its rules and policies. Those include spacer laws. All of us are expected to obey them. No matter who we know.” I ball my hands into fists and match his stance.
“What’s going on in here?” a deep voice booms.
Rand has a sharp intake of breath a half a second before I recognize the voice.
All six of us turn to Commander Svell, standing in the doorway. Behind him are several security guards.
Alex pales and his shoulders sag. Josh takes a small step backwards.
Commander Svell looks directly at me. “Miss Toland?”
Josh’s jaw grinds as he stares intently at the floor. I know Rand and Kai are somewhere behind me, and I think Philip is hyperventilating. “Nothing, sir. We were just discussing our school projects and had a bit of a disagreement on one of the guidelines.”
Commander Svell strolls toward us, his hands behind his back. “And what guideline is that? Maybe I can help ease your concerns.” He looks directly at Josh as he steps past him.
My mouth is suddenly dry. It’s one thing to try to avoid getting in trouble, but it’s a whole other ball game to lie to the commander.
“Whether or not the teams can confer with one another, sir,” replies Kai. His voice is calm and even I believe him. I think back at the last half hour and realize Kai hasn’t lied. Just left out the angry and tense parts.
The commander looks at us each in turn. We nod. I can see Philip in my peripheral vision nodding rapidly.
“Is that so?” He turns to Alex, who looks like a breath of air will knock him over.
“Yes, sir,” Alex manages to say. Color is coming back into his face, but unfortunately it’s in the form of a blush. His face soon matches his hair.
“If it leads to tense scenes like the one we have here, I would recommend that you do not talk to other teams about your projects.” He turns in a circle so he can once again look at each one of us.
We all nod again.
He faces Josh. “Why don’t you and Mr. O’Neil head to your next class?” The two don’t argue and are out of the door before Commander Svell has fully turned toward me.
He waits until he hears his security detail close the door to the classroom. “Miss Toland, you seem to find trouble no matter where you are.”
I frown. “We were in here first, commander. We’re not looking for trouble. They found us.”
“I believe you. You have enough of your own trouble right now. Right?” He walks over to where Philip is now sitting in one of the stools, hugging his tablet to him.
Commander Svell looks back at me. “And where is your tablet, Miss Toland?”
“My tablet, sir?” I swallow.
“Yes. We’ve received another message on it and tracked you down here.”
“Did you discover who’s sending the messages, sir?”
He tilts his head as he studies me. “Where’s your tablet?”
I sigh and glance at the others. I slowly walk to the back of the room and open the thick cupboard to retrieve my tablet. I return to the group. “Here, sir.”
14
Philip
The commander frowns. “And why was your tablet in one of the ceramic cupboards?”
I make sure to keep eye contact with him. I can feel Philip wilting in his chair. “I was working on the project and got tired of the pinging from the messages, sir. It was stressing me out. Since we were down here, I figured that Anonymous couldn’t hear us if I put it in that thick cupboard.”
He looks at the others. “Mr. Tang and Mr. James aren’t on your team.”
“As you witnessed, we try to not to go anywhere by ourselves, sir. I needed to speak to Philip about a computer issue, and Rand and Kai came with me. They weren’t spying for their groups as Josh assumed.”
“And did you get your computer issue solved, Miss Toland?”
I hesitate, but nod. His eyes seem to drill right through me. I cringe inwardly.
“And what does your project have to do with accessing public officers’ records?” His eyes flick to Philip, who turns a bit green.
I sigh. “Sorry, sir.” I look to the door. “We couldn’t let Josh and Alex know why we were working with Philip. For his safety we need the story to remain that we were working on our project. And none of this was his idea, sir.”
“And?” He raises one eyebrow.
I close my eyes briefly. When I open them, I step over to Philip. “You’ll be fine. We’ll protect you,” I say as I take his tablet.
His color appears a bit better, and he leans in to whisper in my ear. “Does one of you really know the President?”
I smile and look over at Kai. Philip’s eyes grow wide.
Kai gives me a sideways grin.
He’s closest to us and probably heard my conversation with Philip. I brush past him to stand in front of the commander. I turn the tablet around and hold it up so he can see it.
“Philip did what all your tech people couldn’t. He found my stalker.”
The commander frowns and then looks between the picture and me several times.
“Yes, commander. It’s my father. I haven’t seen him since I was nine. I never thought all these years to look him up on the space net. We figured he was lost somewhere in the borderlands with the Migration just as we were.” I clench my free hand tightly to keep from crying in front of the commander.
“You put your tablet in the cupboard so my team couldn’t spy on you.”
I shift my weight from one foot to the other. The room is so quiet I hear my shoes squeak on the sound-dampening tile floor. “Well, sir, I wasn’t sure what we would need to do to track down this Anonymous. My father. I didn’t want to get my friends in trouble.”
“But you used Mr. Case’s tablet. The data on all school tablets is tracked.”
I swallow. It takes me a second to realize he means Philip. “If we had to do something illegal, sir, it would be me doing it. Not the others. I just couldn’t use my tablet because my father was tracking it.” I look over at Philip. “But Philip found a way to legally figure out who my stalker is. He reasoned that the person needed to be someone who either knew me or could have high enough clearance to access my personal records.”
The commander looks over at Philip. “Smart thinking.” He looks back at me. “How did you narrow it down from the hundreds of thousands that would have access?”
I look helplessly at Philip. This day seems to have lasted forever and I’m not sure I remember everything we talked about.
“Sir, I counted on the stalker having a computer science rating, and access above first class.” He glances at me before he continues. “And I added a final filter that he had to be land-born not spacer-born.”
I frown as the commander addresses Philip. “I understand your first two parameters. But why the last one?”
Philip’s face glows. This geek stuff is his element. I feel like a proud mother as he answers the commander. “I doubted a spacer would know enough to hack into the space net without the proper knowledge, sir. The space net is the most technologically advanced, AI-driven computer system.”
“That’s not common knowledge, Mr. Case,” says the commander as he laces his hands behind his back again. I shiver, as there’s a bit of warning in his tone.
“No, sir it’s not. But both my parents work for space net. I’ve grown up knowing about the AI and studying it.” Philip seems oblivious to the commander’s warning.
The commander looks at me. “He’s going to be very valuable to your project.”
“And the last filter, I didn’t tell Anja about, but I assumed if she had been down here her whole life, that whoever knew her or was after her, might be someone she had contact with sometime in the last few years.”
“You assumed that from the little bit of information I told you today?” I ask Philip.
His face turns a bit pink. He suddenly finds the floor very interesting, again.
“Anja, you know there’s a certain amount of information on the academy tablets about every student here, right?” Rand asks, covering his mouth too late to hide a grin. “He probably read up on you.”
I regard Philip with a frown. He just shrugs.
“It would be nice if I could have a tablet that I could actually use without fear of a stalker or being recorded by security.” I turn toward the commander. “There’s a lot of information on there that I haven’t accessed because of being too anxious about getting these messages.”
“Indeed.” He hands Philip back his tablet and holds out his hand for mine.
I give it to him.
Right there in front of us, he takes off the security square.
“Guess our security team won’t need this on anymore. What will you do now? Have you messaged him back at all? Does he know you figured out who he is?”
I shake my head. “I’m not sure yet. If you can assure me Cam will be safe, I’ll sleep on it and let you know tomorrow.”
“Yes, I can assure you Cam and Mr. and Mrs.…” He pauses. “…Chao will be safe. And further, now that I know who this is, we can let the SIA know to keep an eye on him. He won’t be allowed to come down to Earth.”
“But won’t that tip him off before I contact him?” I clutch my tablet to my chest.
“No, we’ll do it behind the scenes, so it doesn’t alert him.”
I automatically look at Philip, who looks deep in thought. “Can they do that?”
Philip snaps his head up. “You’re asking me?”
“Yes.” I grin at him.
He glances over at the commander before looking back down. “Yes, but it’s still possible it might tip him off. But I can’t think of any other solution.”
“Thank you.” I look over at the commander. “Sorry. It’s just that Philip has helped me with this issue in just a few minutes, whereas the security people have been working on it for over a week with no ideas.” I shrug. “Security just thinks differently than a teen computer whiz. They were probably getting lost in the weeds, where Philip seems to have a natural instinct with computers.” I glance at Philip. “It could be all your experience with the AI tech.”
The commander pulls from his pocket a smaller, sleeker tablet and taps a few commands into it. “I’ve moved you up to the Year Two computer science classes, Mr. Case.” He nods, smiling.
If it’s possible for Philip to get anymore pale than he already is, he does so now in front of the commander. “Are you sure, sir?” he asks quietly.
“Miss Toland seems to have confidence in you.”
I shrink a little.
“And besides, I saw your scores in your prep school classes and I’m surprised they didn’t place you higher from the beginning.”
A smile slowly spreads across Philip’s face. “I didn’t know that was possible, sir. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, I think you better all get some time in the sims before dinner.”
We don’t have to be told twice. The four of us hurry past the commander and down the corridor. As we wait for the lift, I study Philip. He’s smiling, but his gaze is far away, like he’s trying to figure something out.
I snap my fingers in front of his face. “You all right, Philip?”
His eyes slowly refocus on me. “What?”
“I asked if you were all right.” I chuckle.
“Oh, yes I’m fine. Better than fine. I just realized I won’t be in any of Josh’s computer classes.”
I frown and hesitate to step into the open lift. “Wait. Has Josh been bugging you in class, too? Is that why you were so afraid of him finding out you were helping us? I thought it was because of our reputations.” I point to Kai and Rand and back to myself.
He studies his shoes. Then he takes a deep breath before looking back up to me. “I went to the same prep school as him.”
“Were you friends?”
He lets out a small, dry laugh. “No. The only time even back then he paid attention to me was when he was making me do his assignments for him.”
“Seriously?” I glance at Rand. “We didn’t have anyone like that at our school. Does he still do that to you?”
Philip grins darkly, which is honestly a bit unsettling. “Not anymore. I’m not in any of his classes now.” He steps into the lift. The rest of us follow.
“Good, I’m glad. And if you need anything, you let any of us know.” I look to Rand and Kai, and they nod. “And still, be careful, Philip. Stay out of Josh’s way.”
His smile fades. “I know. I still see him at lunch and in the corridors. He’s going to ask why I’m not in his classes.”
“At lunch and anytime you see any of us, join us,” offers Kai.
I smile at him. “Great idea.” I look back at Philip. “Besides, I
owe you for all you’ve done. You can’t imagine how relieved I am to finally know who my stalker is.”
A small, natural smile brightens his face. “I’m glad I was able to help. And didn’t get in trouble.”
“That is a plus. Join us for sim time?”
Philip nods vigorously and we get out on the sim level.
It’s crowded today, and we stop just outside the lift.
“Which ones do you need to work on, Philip? I’ve been through almost half, but we need to get Kai caught up before our first round of testing.”
He looks a little uncomfortable. I can’t hear his answer as he mumbles it into the loud room.
“What did you say?” I step closer.
Philip’s face reddens. “I haven’t done any of them.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Because of Josh?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you not to?”
“No, he was just always here with his group when I would come up. They would say things to me, so I left. I didn’t want him to do anything to me.”
“Do? Like what?”
“They just like to rough me up, push me around.”
I stare at him. Although he’s not very muscular, he’s lean and tall. Maybe even a bit taller than Rand.
I snap my mouth shut. “We won’t let that happen. Come on.”
Rand and Kai flank Philip and me as we cut through the crowd. I head for the sim where Kai first started. Kai grabs my hand and squeezes as he spots Josh’s group. They’re several sims over, but I know they see us.
Most of our classmates have already completed at least a third of the sims. That leaves the first ones free. I stop before the flight sim. “We’ll take turns. Philip you start here, and Rand will go do one. Kai and I will stand watch and do homework right here, so no one bothers you. All right?”
Philip visibly relaxes. His shoulders aren’t hiked up to his ears and he stands to his full height. “Thanks. All of you.” He grins and climbs into the sim.
“I’ll be right over there,” says Rand. He points to a sim past Josh that’s empty.
“Impressive. You’re up to the Mars hoppers?”
Earthlight Space Academy Boxset Page 30
