“Mmm-hmm. You understand that we can’t have members of the opposite sex in our rooms or even up to the floors.”
“I do. And I’m sorry, it was a misunderstanding. Officer Glenn has reminded me of the rule.”
Foster scrolled further. Then his face fell into a scowl. He turned the tablet so both Brendan and Officer Glenn could see. It was a body camera still of Charlotte that Officer Glenn had taken.
“Where is she?” Foster said.
Officer Glenn stumbled over his words. “I…thought I only needed him to sign off on the code of conduct release. I didn’t need her, so she left.”
“She left? Where?” Officer Foster leaned in on the other guard.
“She walked off. Maybe she’s in the student restaurant. I didn’t think I needed to bring her in. The rules state—”
“You idiot. You know we were looking for her.”
“Can I go now?” Brendan asked.
Officer Foster rounded the desk. He clamped a hand on Brendan’s arm and pulled him out of the chair. “Where did she go?”
Brendan tried to twist free, but the grip was strong and only grew tighter. Pain began to radiate up the arm. “Let me go,” he tried to say in an authoritative voice, his father’s voice, but it came out broken and weak.
“You were with her before. Where does she go?”
“Officer Foster, that’s no way to treat one of our students,” the headmaster said. Brendan hadn’t heard him come in. “Good evening, Mr. Garza.”
Officer Foster released him and Brendan took a step away. His arm hurt.
The headmaster gave a nervous-looking Officer Glenn a pat on the shoulder. Officer Foster hadn’t taken his eyes off Brendan.
“Mr. Garza, it seems you’ve made yourself an acquaintance who is not a student here. She’s a trespasser on school property and is responsible for several acts of vandalism. She’s in need of psychiatric care, so surely you can understand our concern for the school and for your safety. Finding you in her company is troubling for us. You were involved in one unfortunate incident that we have been able to navigate and put behind us. For us to be able to get past this, we must insist on your cooperation.”
Brendan’s mind raced. He considered the exit, only a few paces away. The headmaster wouldn’t be able to stop him, but he wasn’t sure about Officer Foster. And what then? They would call the police if he ran. The school had assumed limited custodial guardianship over him. He had nowhere to go. But Charlotte’s warning remained fresh in his head.
Don’t let them keep you there.
The headmaster smiled and cocked his head ever so slightly, in the condescending way of teachers and policemen when speaking to impetuous youth. “You’ll help us, won’t you Mr. Garza? So where does she go?”
Brendan found it impossible not to get hung up on the question’s wording. It implied she went somewhere only to show up again. How could they not find one student, or not-student, that kept reappearing on campus? All eyes were on him.
“I don’t know,” Brendan said. “I ran into her in electronics lab one evening. She helped me finish an assignment. I saw her again tonight, and we were talking about everything that’s going on, and schoolwork. She has some sort of trigonometry test she’s taking that she’s nervous about. I can’t help her with that as I’m just in geometry.”
“You’re lying,” said Officer Foster. “She’s not a student here, she doesn’t have any classes to be worried about. Where did you meet her?”
“Check your reports. I got into the electronics lab after late lab hours. She was there first. This was a few nights ago. You might even have camera footage of that. We didn’t break anything. I climbed in through a window.”
The headmaster looked at Officer Foster and he nodded. “We have a report. We didn’t know it was him.”
“That makes three incidents, Mr. Garza,” the headmaster said. “I’ll remind you we have a legal obligation both to your mother and the school to balance. Your activities put us at a crossroads.”
Brendan almost blurted, “Send me home.” But he clenched his teeth. He had to know what Charlotte was all about. Who was she? Where did she go? He cleared his throat and spoke in as calm a voice as possible. “Mr. Appleton. I don’t know the girl. She approached me, and we happened to run into each other. I don’t know who she is or what she’s doing if she’s not a student. She must be lying about everything she’s ever said. I also appreciate being at this school and am trying to do my best to follow the rules and not make work for your security team or for you. If you give me a chance, I’ll do better.”
A smile warmed the headmaster’s face. He twisted his ring as he pondered the student before him. “That’s the right attitude, and it’s a start. I’ll warn you that if circumstances on campus weren’t so critical, this conversation would go a different direction. But you and your fellow students have been through so much, and the events of the outside world complicate things. Tell me again that you don’t know this girl and have no idea of where to find her.”
Brendan was glad he could answer truthfully, as he doubted he could lie convincingly under these circumstances. “I don’t know her. I don’t know where she is or where she goes.”
The headmaster nodded. “We’ll get past this, Mr. Garza, and I thank you for your cooperation. But if you see anything suspicious or see her again, your first step will be to call Mr. Foster on any of the school phones or message the security office with your tablet.”
“Am I free to go?”
The headmaster and Officer Foster exchanged looks.
“There’s one more thing,” the headmaster said.
***
Brendan waited outside his room while Officer Glenn and another of the rank-and-file security guards, both wearing nitrile gloves, examined everything he owned. A strange nervousness came over him. He knew there was nothing to find, yet his mind went to all the movies and shows he had ever seen where drugs and contraband and murder weapons were tucked into an unsuspecting dupe’s home. The guards were careful and thorough and took longer than he imagined possible. A crowd formed in the hallway, just his neighbors at first, but soon enough Vlad and Soren were standing by and watching the action with Brendan.
Poser’s door stayed closed.
When the guards finally finished, they had his room back into something approximating good order, the bed neater than before, his clothes arranged on hangars and shoved against one side of the closet. Officer Glenn gave a reassuring nod as he and the second guard left, almost friendly but not quite apologetic.
Officer Foster had Brendan enter the room. He followed and closed the door. The space was tight.
“You need to know you’re on our radar,” Foster said.
Brendan nodded and made the best show of compliance. But Foster didn’t leave. He leaned closer. Brendan could smell sweat from the man’s uniform and traces of an astringent deodorant that failed to mask the man’s body odor.
“I know you’re a special case. All of you children have to be handled with extreme care. As head of security, that’s my job. But don’t think for one moment that I believe that you know nothing about the girl. I don’t trust you, Mr. Garza. So don’t think that because you have a free ride with the school that you have immunity from following the rules.”
“I understand.”
“I don’t think you do. You’ve wandered onto some thin ice. If you don’t come clean and tell me all you know about her, there won’t be any help for you.”
Brendan had suffered through these kinds of interrogations before. He rated Foster at a six out of ten, with points removed for odor and predictable threats. But he doubted the man was empowered to exercise any follow-through. Something about the man’s eyes made him hesitate. They were set a little too hard, and Brendan wondered what sort of psychological screening went into the school’s hiring of security staff.
“Like I told you, I don’t know her. Do we need to do a polygraph?”
Foster bristled. Hi
s eyes flicked over his shoulder to the door. Brendan’s fellow students were still outside and could perhaps hear them if they spoke loud enough. If they were in a private setting, Brendan guessed the man would have struck him.
There came a knock at the door. Officer Foster opened it. Nurse Dreyfus stood there, a bright smile on her face. She peered around Officer Foster, her smile broadening once she saw Brendan.
“This doesn’t concern you,” Foster said.
“All the students’ welfare concerns me. Is your interview with Brendan over?”
Foster stood in silence for a moment before brushing past her without a word.
“Did…did we have an appointment?” Brendan asked.
“No. I was just passing by when I heard Officer Foster’s voice. But you appear stressed. Would you like me to contact your counselor?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Very well. Please come by to see me if you’d like. Sometimes talking about our problems is the first step to finding a solution. Student life can be stressful, especially here away from our family.”
“Thank you.”
Once she left, he closed the door. He exhaled sharply and sat on his bed. Why did they want Charlotte so badly? The charge of vandalism sounded vague, and there weren’t mental hospitals nearby that he knew of. And how hard would it be for them to search the campus? It’s not like a student could actually disappear. She had to be somewhere. And had Charlotte sent the nurse? If she hadn’t, the nurse either had impeccable timing, or she was committed to foiling Officer Foster’s pursuit of Brendan.
Vlad and Soren entered without knocking. Soren appeared more nervous than usual, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Vlad just wore a half smile that grew the slightest fraction when he saw Brendan.
“They haven’t found the girl yet,” Brendan said. “But they saw us together and grilled me.”
“What’s to grill?” Vlad asked. “Unless you know something you’re not telling us.”
“No. It’s just getting weird. How can they not find her on campus? She’s here somewhere. What’s eating you guys?”
“Follow us up to our dorm’s roof, and we’ll show you.”
***
As they hiked the steps of the east dorm, Brendan asked, “So to what extent are we being watched?”
“We’re children of rich parents,” Vlad said. “Of course they’re watching us. Security has body cams.”
“Well, we seem to get away with a lot. I’ve run into Charlotte a few times now, and they only spotted us at the dorm. Maybe their surveillance isn’t as robust as we suspect.”
“Unless she’s invisible,” Soren said.
“Well, there’s that.”
They stepped out onto the roof. The flat surface between the boxy roof vents and the structure above the elevator was covered in a ridged tile. The school brochures had mentioned that many of the campus’s buildings had solar rooftops. It was still warm in the evening air, but a cold breeze was blowing. They could hear the whine of the elevator through the duct outlets. Music and voices from below blended into a soft murmur. Brendan looked up at all the stars.
“So, what do you have to show me?” he asked.
Soren led them over to a corner of the roof where a pair of telescopes were set up on tripods. A laptop computer was linked to both. Brendan leaned in for a look.
“Pretty cool.”
“I know,” Soren said. “I’m doing a unit in astronomy as extra science credit.”
Brendan put his hands on one of the tripod arms to move it.
“Don’t!” Soren pushed between Brendan and the equipment. “You’ll change its alignment with the computer.”
Brendan backed up. “Sorry. I just thought I’d look. Did you find something?”
Soren took a moment to check the equipment as if it all had been unsettled. He shot Brendan a reproachful glare.
“Soren,” Vlad said. “Tell him what you told me.”
“Well, sure. It’s just kind of weird. I’ve been up here the last three nights doing some nebula imaging. I started this last week. But on all three nights, even though the weather is perfectly clear, everything got dimmer.”
“Dimmer?” Brendan asked. “You mean the sky?”
“The stars, planets, the nebulae. Actually dimmer. I thought it was a software or lens problem. I checked everything, worked on it every chance I got. But the problem hasn’t gone away. It’s not like I can call customer service.”
Brendan looked up. The stars looked like stars. “Seems fine to me.”
“With the naked eye, sure. But here’s my readings.” Soren woke up the laptop and opened a spreadsheet with an array of numbers. “I’ve recorded my alignments, times, and brightnesses. And suddenly, everything just got dimmer.”
“I don’t know what to say. Maybe there’s some high-level haze. I’m not an astronomer or a weatherman. Look, it’s been a long day, and I’m tired.”
“Show him what you showed me,” Vlad said.
Soren hesitated. When Vlad took a step closer towards the telescopes, Soren spread his arms protectively. “Okay, I’ll show him. Let me do it. Brendan, take a look through the eyepiece.”
Brendan squinted and looked through the shorter of the two telescopes. The number of stars increased so dramatically he had to back off and look at the sky with his naked eye.
“That’s incredible!”
“Yeah. But if you look at the monitor screen, you’re pretty much seeing everything the scope sees. It’s easier to watch as the telescope orients itself on something and then you go to the eyepiece. But now I’m going to switch to the weaker scope and its infrared.”
“Looks darker.”
“Yeah. On a small telescope, it’s more of a novelty setting. For general use, you can take some cool photographs if you’re at a high enough altitude. But check this out.”
Soren loosened one of the tripod’s knobs and tilted the telescope down until it aimed at the top of the closest school building.
“What are you doing?” Brendan asked.
“The real question is what was he doing when he made the discovery,” Vlad said.
“It’s not like I’m looking at the girl’s dorm,” Soren said.
“That’s what concerns me. Let Brendan have a look.”
Brendan crouched to check the monitor. “It’s the admin building.” The visible part of the building was a light shade of gray, except for the top floor, which was white, appearing to be too bright for the monitor to properly render. “So what are we looking at?”
“Heat,” Soren said. “The top floor only.”
Brendan went to the edge of the roof. The admin building looked as it always had, with only a few lights on various floors. He returned to the monitor.
“Maybe the headmaster just cranks his AC.”
“I thought of that. Let’s move the scope around on all the other buildings and houses in the distance.”
Soren pivoted the telescope around, finding several different views. Some buildings had brighter spots, but none as bright as the top floor of the admin building. He focused on a home some distance away. Something bright pulsed on the monitor, a churning white fluctuation that radiated light.
Brendan watched it for a moment. “That’s a barbeque.”
“Yup. It’s hot. So is the admin building’s top floor, hotter than anything produced by a furnace, unless the school has a boiler that fills the entire top floor.”
The door to the roof opened. Lucille and Henry walked out, and Henry headed straight for the telescopes. “Cool.”
Soren interceded. “Don’t touch them.”
“Relax,” Henry said, looking closely at the thicker scope. “I would never harm a beauty like this. Is this the model with the ninety-millimeter refractor?”
“One-thirty.”
“Oh fancy. My dad and I track asteroids back home in Hawaii.”
Lucille did a quick tour of the roof as if to check whether anyone else was up there. “I ha
te to interrupt the geekfest, but it doesn’t look like you’re stargazing with all that equipment. Henry, stop drooling on the telescope.”
Henry gave a final appreciative nod and then went to the edge of the roof. He worked up a wad of spit and released it.
“What do you want, Lucille?” Brendan asked. “You shouldn’t be up here.”
“What, am I not good enough for your club?” She made her own examination of the screen and telescopes.
“No. Security watches the dorms, and they don’t allow female students above the lobby level.”
“Yeah, I heard you got busted.”
“From who?”
She didn’t answer. “So, what are you doing? The girl’s dorm is in the other direction.”
“I wasn’t watching the girl’s dorm,” Soren said.
“We can confirm that,” Vlad said. “More’s the pity.”
Lucille studied the monitor. “Spying on the good people of Dutchman Springs, then. Classy. Looks like they’re having a barbeque.”
Vlad and Brendan exchanged looks. “Show her,” Brendan said.
Soren turned the scope back to the admin building. He repeated his explanation, but this time he stammered over almost every word. Lucille’s short skirt, V-sweater, and intense eyes kept distracting him, until finally he stopped looking at her altogether, speaking to the monitor instead. Lucille listened and nodded.
“Could it be residual heat from the sun?” she asked.
Soren looked like he might burst, so Vlad took over. “Not this late. We’d see the rest of the buildings glow like that. And not that hot, not even on the hottest day would it read that high.”
“Well, I’m sold. Sounds peculiar enough. So what’s the plan?”
They were interrupted by another wet throat sound from Henry as he released a second salvo.
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 13
