by C. L. Stone
Mr. Blackbourne’s face shifted into a frown. “Stealing her is not a good idea. We can’t just rip her out.”
“Why not?” North asked. “We don’t have time for plan A and I don’t particularly want Mr. Sorenson to get away with this. And I don’t want the Academy to tell us it’ll be in her better interests if we allow her to work with other teams so she has a choice. Fuck that shit. She’s ours. We found her. She’s with us. Let’s just call the cops on Mr. Sorenson and be done with it.”
Mr. Blackbourne glanced at Dr. Green.
Dr. Green sighed. “You’ve got to tell them.”
“Tell us what?” Gabriel asked, nearly jumping to his feet.
Mr. Blackbourne touched briefly at his tie. “We’d rather not expose Miss Sorenson to any authorities.”
Kota’s eyes narrowed on him. “Whatever you’re worried about, she can take it. She’s strong. She won’t…”
“It’s not about her emotional state, although that is a concern,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “We don’t want to expose her because she’s a ghost.”
Kota blinked after Mr. Blackbourne spoke, because at first he wasn’t sure he heard him right.
“It’s true,” Dr. Green said, as if understanding everyone’s confusion. “She’s a ghost bird.”
The weight of that idea settled into Kota’s brain heavily, like a stone in a water bucket. He might as well told him Sang was going to be leaving them forever, because it could be true if anyone else found out. “Shit,” he said.
Everyone’s eyes widened, especially Gabriel’s. “What shit? What do you mean shit?” He pointed at Kota with a lean finger, but turned his attention to Mr. Blackbourne. “If he’s cursing, this is bad. What about Sang being a ghost? What does this mean for her?”
“It means she’s valuable to the Academy,” Kota said, his eyes focusing on the table. Part of him, in the back of his mind somewhere, started counting the lines in the wood grain. Counting was how he calmed himself, but in the moment, his mind couldn’t count high enough. “She has no history. No identification. She’s untraceable. She doesn’t exist to anyone. She could walk into a job, and if anyone tried to ID her, they wouldn’t be able to. No one would be able to find her.”
“Yeah she does,” Silas said, speaking up and surprising everyone, because he was usually quiet during these meetings. “She’s got a school ID.”
“Not anymore,” Dr. Green said. “At least not on the school records.”
“What about her birth certificate?” Kota asked, wanting to know all the details.
“Forged,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “They seemed to have copied Marie’s and just changed the date and the name. Same with the Social Security card. She’s never been to the doctor. She’s never been mentioned in their taxes. They gave the schools exactly what they needed, and schools just made her a number. They never look too closely at those things. Dr. Green and I have already collected her old school records from her other schools, and gotten rid of any computer information. All that’s left is what is necessary at Ashley Waters. We’ll get rid of that when she’s about to leave. If we did it now, someone would notice.”
“But what were they going to do if Sang ever tried to get a job? Or get her license?” Kota asked. “She was bound to find out.”
“IDs are stolen all the time,” Dr. Green said. “We know that. But you’re right, Mr. Sorenson hadn’t thought this through. Someone might have discovered eventually that Miss Sorenson’s records weren’t genuine. If she gets her driver’s license, that’d be one solid ID that she could use to get most anything else she needed, up until she tried to apply for a credit card. Either she would have gotten lucky and offices would turn a blind eye and see it as a mistake and issue her new things, or they’d check it out. It might be why he’s really interested in this particular school. She’d be eighteen before she was released. That would give him time to figure out the next step.”
“But now that we have her,” Mr. Blackbourne said, “the ideal situation would be to keep her record completely clean. If possible.”
The new realization settled into Kota, and he sat back. This made it incredibly complicated. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to care about this. Not at the risk of her safety. He knew it would never come to that. They wouldn’t allow Sang to risk her life for the hope of keeping her a ghost bird.
But if what they were saying was true, the Academy would do anything to recruit her. And if their group asked for help and paid in favors to save her, they’d find out for sure.
Mr. Blackbourne nodded quietly as the group seemed to come to understand the full significance. “If we turn to the Academy for help, we’ll expose her for what she is and there’s a strong chance they’ll convince her to join and under their terms. Even if she wanted to stay with us, they’d dangle promises to release all of our favor debts and even put us in the positive in exchange for her working with a team they select. Once she realizes she has the ability to command such a price, and with her sweet disposition, she’d agree to it in a heartbeat. We already know she’d put her own life at risk just to save you guys from a fight.”
Dr. Green inhaled sharply. “If we let the police handle this, it’ll take away one of the most valuable assets…”
“She’s not an asset,” Victor barked.
“You are an asset,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Every one of you. And like it or not, right now she’s worth ten of you.”
Victor’s head jerked back. “We can’t… I mean…” His eyes turned to Kota. “What are we supposed to do?”
“We have to convince Mr. Sorenson to release her to us,” Kota said. He didn’t like this answer. It was against his morals to see Mr. Sorenson get away with anything. At least Mrs. Sorenson had an excuse, being ill. He had none, and practically caused Mrs. Sorenson’s mental state. “If we can do that, we won’t need to turn to the Academy. It’ll buy us time to win her over and to get her to understand how this works.”
“We have to find out the truth, first,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “I won’t ask any of you to go into this blindly. Whether or not Mr. Sorenson raped anyone, he still had a child with an underage girl. Who knows if there might be more. We already know he’s not beyond trying to smother secrets.”
Dr. Green nodded. “And we need to keep her where she is for now until we figure it out. We can’t let the police in on this. And if we want to keep her with us when the Academy finds out, we’ll have to figure out how we can get the Academy to let us keep her with our team.”
“I don’t want her in the Academy,” Kota said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“We may not have that choice,” Dr. Green said. “They’ll find out eventually and they’ll want her, and she’s already interested. You can tell just by looking at her.”
“We need to get to work with her,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Stay near her, build her confidence. Trust building has to start now. We might be able to circumvent any long term damage her mother has done to her. You also, though, have to give her a little time alone. Filling her life up only distracts her from processing what has happened to her and puts off the inevitable. There’s a strong possibility she’ll want to fly solo. We want to avoid that. She’s already shown signs of avoidant personality.”
“What does that mean?” Nathan asked.
“Emotional distancing,” Dr. Green said. “She shows some social isolation. She thinks it’s her versus the world. If we want her to feel connected to us, we’ll need to break through that. She might continue to keep things to herself for a while.”
“What do we do?” North asked. He crossed his arms over his chest. “We have three months to figure out what happened to Sang’s mom, try to convince her dad to release her to us, do our Ashley Waters job, and somehow convince the Academy and her that she should stay on our team, with or without her officially becoming a member. They already don’t want birds on dog teams.”
“We’re working on it,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “We don’t know what will happen.
Let’s focus on finding out the truth.”
Dr. Green cleared his throat. “At any rate, we’ve got a lot to do with her right now. We’ll have to help her adjust to living alone in that house.”
“She won’t be alone,” Silas said.
“No, she won’t,” Kota said. “If we back off now to give her space, she might feel we’re abandoning her, too.”
“It’s too late to back down, and I doubt any of you would, anyway,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
“This is what I thought we should talk about as well,” Dr. Green stated. “I know you boys are trying your best to make her feel included. Goodness knows, she needs it. You have to take it slow with her, though. She’s already admitted that she’s never really been touched or hugged or anything before.”
Mr. Blackbourne nodded. “I think it’s best we establish ground rules now. The first one should probably be no intimate contact of any kind. No dating. Nothing romantic.”
The surge of rejection toward this idea reverberated, surprisingly, from the others in the group around Kota.
“I don’t approve,” Victor called out, using the more formal method of rejection established by the Academy.
“I don’t approve,” echoed Gabriel, in a louder voice, as if trying to establish he felt even stronger about it than Victor. Their eyes locked on each other, and Kota recognized the challenge in their faces.
“I more than disapprove, I reject it entirely,” North grumbled.
Mr. Blackbourne pushed a palm to his forehead. “Good god, don’t tell me it’s already happened.”
Stares zoomed across the table, accusing and daring anyone to speak up and say they’ve done anything to Sang. Kota, most of all, wanted to know exactly what his friends had been up to. He’d dismissed the hand holding, because he did it, too. He dismissed it when she sat in their laps, because he felt a comfort in it. He’d done it with her, so he couldn’t blame the others for doing it. His Academy brothers were friends, yes, and sometimes they shared brotherly hugs. Touching Sang was different. She wasn’t a sister or someone out of reach. She was beautiful and sweet and willing to please. When she was near, it was difficult not to reach for her and hang on to her. He didn’t do it all the time because he didn’t want to scare her.
It was also addicting. The more he touched her, the more he wanted to touch.
He wasn’t so sure he wanted her to share more intimate touches with the rest of his family. When he looked around the table, though, the rage in the others’ eyes established more than enough proof of something Kota had been worried about since they had brought her in.
Mr. Blackbourne nearly jumped to his feet from the stool, pushing his palms to the table to lean on it. “I can’t believe this. This is exactly why we never, ever bring a bird into a dog group. I’ve warned you. I’ve warned all of you.” He lifted a finger into the air to take stabs in Kota’s direction. “You. I’ve warned you about this.”
“I know,” Kota said, lowering his eyes at the table. “She needed us, though.”
Mr. Blackbourne huffed. “Yes, she needed us.” The frown deepened and his critical eyes bore down at the others. “None of you understand what this means, now. You brought her in without thinking. You’ve moved too fast. Now you all will have to focus. It’s bad enough that she’s at risk for hero worship with any of us, or all of us. She could equate what she believes to be real feelings of love for helping her. That would be dangerous enough for her at her present emotional state. What we don’t need is countertransference on top of it.”
“That’s not what... I mean that’s not how...” Victor said.
“Spit it out, Mr. Morgan,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
Victor frowned. “I’ve already asked her out,” he said flatly, his chin lifting to the air. “She said yes.”
“Did she say yes or did she divert to figure out what answer you wanted and did whatever would please you?”
“She said she wanted to,” Victor countered, but his voice wavered. “She can tell me what she wants or doesn’t. She’s done it before with me.”
Mr. Blackbourne narrowed his eyes at him. “She’s hungry for attention. A certain kind, at least. She doesn’t know what is too far because she’s socially inept. I’ve seen what she does. She’s done it to me, too. She’ll fix those eyes on you and lets you touch her, even if she’s uncomfortable or unsure, because she doesn’t want to disappoint you. And from the looks from your brothers here, I can tell she’s done that to everyone.”
Jaws became firm, more stares, mostly toward Victor, for daring to cross a line they themselves had probably told themselves they wouldn’t. Not yet. Not when she’d gone through so much. Kota felt the heat rising to his face, knowing that while he pushed those same thoughts from his mind, he was always thinking of it.
And he couldn’t blame them. She was beautiful, sweet, and they’d all be idiots not to want to get closer.
Mr. Blackbourne didn’t have to say it. They could go on dates with girls they met if they wanted to. The problem usually came from the girls they asked out. Academy members often had to disappear because of Academy business, sometimes for as long as a week, and had to lie to cover that up. Most girls couldn’t understand and didn’t trust them. Often enough, the guys were flat out too busy to date anyone.
They could date other Academy girls, as many Academy members sometimes resorted to doing, but most of the local Academy girls weren’t to his taste. He’d dated a couple, but it was short lived. He knew the others sometimes had done so, on and off, but they mostly had the same reaction.
And there were so few Academy girls that they were often taken.
Now they had Sang. Sang was an exception. She knew about the Academy, and she willingly accepted their absences and excuses. She was the only one who had gotten so close. Part of it was because she needed it. And she was so vulnerable. One look at her and you could tell what she wanted without her saying so. Didn’t she say she was lonely the night before and stayed with Nathan because of it? She preferred to be with them, even when given the choice to be alone. That meant something, Kota knew. Kota wondered if she would have gone to him if he had been around.
If she had an avoidant personality, like Mr. Blackbourne said, she was breaking through it. She was starting to call them for what she needed. She didn’t reach for his hand, he always had to reach for hers, however, she seemed to be warming up to them. He thought showing up at Nathan’s house when she felt lonely showed she wanted to break through that isolation.
“This is the problem,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He jabbed his finger at the table to make his point. “Supply and demand. There’s nine of us and one of her. What happens when more than one person develops feelings, and possibly false feelings, towards her? I’ll say what. Anger and resentment and jealousy.”
“That’s not what’s going to happen,” Gabriel grumbled.
“It’s already happening,” Mr. Blackbourne snapped, striking his finger in the air at Gabriel. “You’re already fighting over who gets to spend the night with her. You’re breaking cover while on missions to text her or respond to her calls. That girl has the power to cause us to crash and burn. Everything we’ve established, all the things we’ve done, and it can be over in a moment because of her.”
“We don’t have to let it happen,” Dr. Green interjected.
“No, we don’t have to let it,” Mr. Blackbourne’s voice rose. “Because it’s stopping right now.”
“We’re not getting rid of her,” Kota said.
“That’s not what I mean,” Mr. Blackbourne flashed those silver eyes at Kota’s face. “I mean everyone being mature about this and not taking things too far with her.”
“If we stop some things, she’s going to notice,” North said. “We’ve been holding her hand. I know the rest of you do it. If we back off of that, she might not understand.”
“This is what’s going to happen,” Mr. Blackbourne barked, his order-giving voice dominating over the others. It was the voi
ce Kota often tried to replicate. “You follow the rules, or you bow out of anything to do with her on a group level. It’s the only way this can work out. As I see it, there’s only one option. Stop where you are, and don’t go any further with her.”
“How the hell do you come up with this shit?” Gabriel called out. “What do you mean?”
“It’s really simple, Mr. Coleman. No one is allowed to become romantically involved at all. Unless you want to risk scaring her, you’ll stop at whatever place you are with her. And you’ll have to deal with the others still holding her hand and going from whatever level they’ve already established.”
“You mean sharing her?” North said, his head reeling back as he glanced around. “With all of us?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “If you can all agree to share her attention, it might be the only way for her to trust us. You also can’t date anyone else right now. She’s too susceptible. It’s a complicated situation now and bringing another bird into the picture could make her back off permanently.”
To Kota, that wasn’t a problem. Ever since he’d met Sang in person and gotten to know her, she was all he’d thought about. He’d taken fewer side assignments just to be around her. He wasn’t interested in anyone else.
Dr. Green stood next to Mr. Blackbourne. “It’s too early to try to date her now, anyway. Feelings are running wild because she’s new, she’s vulnerable and everyone wants to try to protect her and include her. She may discover she doesn’t want to be with us later. That’s her choice. If she chooses to stay with us, you’d want to make sure it is her true desire to stay with us and not because she feels it’s her only option.”
Mr. Blackbourne nodded. “Unless we’re willing to approach the Academy and they want to draw her into another group. If they were going to do it, they’d need to do so right now to start establishing trust. I’m not totally opposed to it if it means her safety is assured, but I have a feeling I’d be outvoted in this.”
