House of Korba

  Silas and I jogged toward the estate, going through the open back door. The lights were mostly off. I’d heard there were tours available early on to those going to the homecoming dance, but they were cut off once the dance started to keep everyone in one spot. The only part left was the bathrooms, which were on the side of the house and lit up, along with a couple of Academy people watching it.

  My feet met with the hardwood floor. In the dimmer lights, the place gave off the illusion of being a real home, feeling less like a museum.

  Silas reached for my hand. “No matter what happens,” Silas said, “no letting go.”

  I agreed. I squeezed his hand in return. Silas was here with us. He might actually be staying. I wanted to hang on and make sure I wasn’t leading him into something worse.

  We walked quietly, listening now to figure out why we were here. Volto had called it a favor.

  As we moved through the rooms, I eventually heard a voice. I squeezed Silas’s hand again, pointing in the direction it was coming from.

  We crouched, keeping to the deeper shadows. The spaces were lit up by normal lamps, so there were spots that were a bit dark.

  As we approached, I started to recognize Mr. Hendricks’s voice.

  “...realize what you’ve done?” There was a distinct stamp of a hard sole against the hardwood. “You’ve got the police making inquiries. They’ll...”

  “They’re not going to let you off the hook, this time,” a voice grumbled.

  But I knew that voice too well, and hearing it made me stop in my tracks, not wanting to go any further.

  Silas tugged me forward, until we were peeking around a door.

  Mr. McCoy stood in the front entrance, his hands on his hips, wearing dark slacks and a suit coat. His mustache was thinner now, like he’d shaved it and now was re-growing it. His focus was sharp. I could only see Mr. Hendricks’s back.

  “I thought we were getting rid of the little shits that got too nosy,” Mr. Hendricks said. “The plan was to do it slowly. Not all damn week.”

  “It would have given them more time to catch on,” Mr. McCoy said. “You said to work tactically. I did. Did you see them scatter? Those Academy punks didn’t know what to do with themselves. He won’t dare bring in any more Academy kids.”

  He thought there were more? Mr. Hendricks thought I’d been in the Academy before. Somehow he’s associated Arthur and others with being involved, too. I didn’t think that was true. Mr. Blackbourne would have said something.

  Silas had his phone out. I thought he was going to make a call, maybe let the others know what was going on, but instead, he pushed a record button. I could see the timer ticking off seconds as it recorded.

  Silas was brilliant. I didn’t have a phone at the moment to be able to do anything.

  “The police are too close,” Mr. Hendricks said.

  Suddenly we had our answer: Mr. McCoy must have been behind the bomb threats. He knew the protocol. He knew how to get away with it. Somehow he was able to get to the students, and trick them or threaten them to call them in all week.

  He’d been so close, and we never knew.

  “So? Let them. They’ll be investigating those guys. Point a few fingers. Put kiddie porn on their laptops or something. Whatever it is, get the police to find it.”

  Mr. Hendricks grumbled.

  “Hey,” Mr. McCoy snapped. He took a step toward the principal. “Whatever you’re up to? I don’t even want to know. I’m doing this to get those Academy people out of our school, and get my job back.”

  “We won’t have jobs at this rate,” Mr. Hendricks said, his voice altered slightly, though distinctly. “Next year, I’ll be lucky if I have any decent students left. It’ll be a prison, not a school.”

  It struck me that the change in his voice was like when my sister would lie. When she did, she lowered her voice. While Mr. Hendricks didn’t do that, his voice did alter. I didn’t pick it up before, because I wasn’t sure exactly what might be a lie. But now, I knew Mr. Hendricks talking about being around next year was a lie, because of his plan with the superintendent and the other partner, they weren’t planning on coming back after the year was over. One more year. That’s what Mr. Hendricks had muttered under his breath.

  I’d figured out how to distinguish when Mr. Hendricks was lying.

  “Was the fog machine ploy really necessary?” Mr. Hendricks asked.

  “Wasn’t me,” Mr. McCoy said. “That was someone else. Maybe you can blame that on those little shits. I just did the display board. That’s why I had you call in the security team. Distract them so they weren’t looking at the board. I was about to call in the bomb threat when all that fog rolled in.”

  “What do you need now?” Mr. Hendricks asked. “I’ve got to get back to this thing. I told you we shouldn’t mess with Middleton.”

  “I’m not here to mess with it,” Mr. McCoy said. “I scoped out Mr. Blackbourne and he’s where he said he’d be. He’s been tapping at his phone, and talking into a mic. I scoped out the area, and he’s got more of his gang there. I identified some of them and I’ll be able to start following them. Maybe we’ll find out where this Academy is after all. It was just like you thought: Someone would be around watching his back.”

  “Good,” Mr. Hendricks said. “We’ve got them. Just a matter of time.”

  There was a sudden crash behind us. The back door opened. Footsteps echoed.

  My heart raced into a panic, and I pulled back, tugging Silas along, not wanting to get caught.

  Silas didn’t move. He kept watching them. I leaned into him, to look again out at the foyer.

  Mr. McCoy was already walking away. Mr. Hendricks was turned, staring down a different hallway than the one we were in. He started off in that direction, walking toward the noise.

  Mr. McCoy went through the front door.

  Silas immediately, backed up, stepping into the corner. He sent a message, texting furiously into his phone. I saw it before he sent. He was having Academy members follow Mr. McCoy.

  When Mr. Hendricks yelled at students who had stumbled into the house to check it out, Silas and I made our escape out the front door after Mr. McCoy.

  Out on the front steps, Silas’s phone lit up. “They’ve got him,” Silas said when he glanced at it. “They’re not capturing him, but they’re going to follow him to see where he’s staying. We’ve got him. If he’s not hurting anyone, we’ll be watching him to figure out what their next move might be. We want to catch Mr. Hendricks, too.”

  “How did we not catch him before? And who did do the fog...”

  “Oh that was me,” Volto said into my earpiece. “And you’re welcome, by the way. He was going to pin the scoreboard on your friend Karen, you know. She was next on his list.”

  A chill ripped down my spine. Karen! She could have gotten expelled or arrested.

  “Thank me later. Oh and by the way, thanks for your phone. I’ll hang on to it. Nice pictures, by the way.” Again there was the sound of him hanging up.

  I ripped my mask off, breathing in the cold night. I was fuming, a mix of terror after seeing Mr. McCoy and that Karen had been threatened.

  “What?” Silas asked. “Did he say something?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We should find the others.”

  “Parking lot,” he said. “They’re still there. I think they found something.”

  This time Silas scooped me up and we hurried. Mr. McCoy was being followed by the Academy. We’d found out who was doing the bomb threats. Maybe we were in trouble, but we’d done it!

  Volto helped, in his own way. I did owe him. I’d have to sort it out later. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as we thought.

  Silas had me on his back as he jogged to the parking lot. I scouted, and then pointed when I spotted different the colored masks across the lot.

  As we got closer, Kota was leaning into a car, which I recognized it as his old one. I was surprised to see him, since he was supposed to go after Mr. Blackbourne, but
maybe they had changed direction. Victor was checking out the underside. Luke had the trunk open. North had the front hood open.

  “What are we doing?” I asked.

  “Checking for traps,” Silas said. “Or GPS units.”

  “Or evidence,” Kota said.

  He pulled out a red cup that had been inside. He backed up, looking inside it. “Was this in here before?”

  “It’s my flower,” I said. I patted Silas’s shoulder for him to put me down.

  Kota passed the cup to me, I looked in. The flower looked bigger now. I dug in, trying to gently pull it out.

  Before, I was pretty sure there had only been one flower in bloom. Now, less than a week later, the flower had been joined by five more, looking like a bouquet. It was why Mr. Blackbourne had given it to me in the cup. It’d continue to grow, providing my own little flower arrangement similar to what was inside Middleton Place.

  I leaned with my head against Silas’s chest. My body rattled. The show was over.

  This time, while we didn’t have all the answers, we were finally completing the job they’d been sent to do. One step closer.

  I was afraid as much as I was happy for them. I was happy to see they were finally getting ahead of Mr. Hendricks.

  I was afraid because it was all happening so quickly, and I wasn’t sure if I would need more time to join the Academy.

  Because after today and tonight, I was sure I wanted in. I couldn’t picture doing anything else. I couldn’t imagine not being a part of this team. Despite the flaws. Despite the boys occasionally treating me like a delicate snowflake, I was part of something, and it was bigger than all of us. I’d finally found the thrill of a successful mission where the puzzle pieces came together.

  And after Silas had almost been threatened with deportation, I knew Mr. Blackbourne was right. We had to work together to keep the family together.

  My family.

  ~A~

  Silas Korba hadn’t been on trial in years, but he knew the routine. When he was eleven, he’d participated in his own, although he hadn’t known it to be a trial at the time. Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green had stood beside him as they listed reasons why Silas was someone they’d like to train and should be included on their team.

  It had been the beginning of his Academy career, but it came with a price, because his debt was going to be significant. Both Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green were willing to pay anything, even at the risk of depleting their own positive favor counts to make sure Silas Korba stayed with them.

  Silas smoothed his palms over the suit coat he wore. Because he was in an office building, he had to look like he belonged. He checked his phone quickly, temporarily distracted at the new background—the picture of Sang’s smiling face—and tapped to check the text message from Mr. Blackbourne. It was coded, something they’d managed to work out quickly for this event.

  Top floor, roof.

  The roof was above the twelfth floor. Silas made a face. So high up. Not that he disliked heights, but it was a cold day and the wind would be stronger up there. That’s probably why they were heading up. Wind could deter listening devices.

  Silas passed a security checkpoint, waved at them, and tried not to look at the badge he carried, a fake one that would allow him access into the building. He took it off, put it in the palm of a security guard, and then walked through a metal detector. When he was cleared, he retrieved his tag and continued on his way.

  Twelve floors up, he walked down a hallway, and found the door marked roof entrance. He went through it, trying not to think too much. He knew this trial was for him, about his future in the Academy. A lot of it had to do with how he handled his brother, and the number of favors it would take to ensure he and his father stayed in the country, and that Theo would be taken care of. Despite what his father had said, the Academy would probably seek justice in their own way by providing Theo with mental help and keeping him contained.

  The price would be steep, but the Academy had ways to handle it. He might end up in the same mental facility that Muriel had gone to. At least he’d be out of trouble, and his own family wouldn’t have to worry about him.

  Outside on the roof, the wind had picked up. The ground was a grit concrete. There were no chairs. They couldn’t pull some up here without it looking funny. They would use the location to avoid too much surveillance, randomness helped with not being tracked.

  He stuffed his hands into his coat pockets and tucked in his shoulders, bracing himself.

  All trials were comprised of the same parties: his team, plus five randomly selected members from other teams, presided over by a manager who had collected all the data.

  Their manager today was Dr. Roberts. He’d been the closest to the team with the recent activities. He had no say in the outcome, and only provided the evidence, making sure everything was treated fairly and without bias.

  Silas joined North, quietly stepping up beside him. Everyone except Sang was there. When it came to a trial, everyone had to be included.

  Sang was at Kota’s house, staying up in Kota’s bedroom while his mother and sister were downstairs. It was as protected as she could be with the rest of them occupied at the trial.

  Silas’s heart lifted thinking about her. She’d told Mr. Blackbourne they were together. He hadn’t had much time to have his own conversation with Mr. Blackbourne, but he knew that would come soon.

  Mr. Blackbourne stood in the middle, with Dr. Roberts. They were in a quiet discussion, and everyone else remained silent. Silas slid a look to his other teammates. Each one wore a suit, and had hands clasped in front of them, head slightly bowed, reverent and patiently waiting. This wasn’t a time to goof around. Even Gabriel had combed his hair back, looking professional.

  On the other side of the circle, five others were standing by and waiting. Silas only recognized two of them. One was Kevin, from another team. His dark eyes were critical but Silas knew him well enough to know he was fair. He’d have an opinion, but would hear him out.

  Next to him was a little twelve-year-old kid Silas had seen around training sessions. He was pretty sure he was one who he’d helped out a year before in self-defense class. North had led that group at the time, and had used Silas for demonstration. It was a basics class; he was just starting his Academy training. That was one thing about these trials. There wasn’t an age minimum, you only had to be past initiation and a full member. It gave perspective.

  While Silas didn’t know the other three, two men and a woman, he knew he’d probably bumped into them and just couldn’t recall where and what their names were. The concentration of Academy members in this area was pretty high, so there were always new members to meet.

  Mr. Blackbourne split off from Dr. Roberts, joining Kota who stood slightly in front of the others. The rest of their team was slightly behind, as Mr. Blackbourne and Kota would be speaking more than the rest of them.

  Introductions were made, but through the noise of the wind picking up, Silas didn’t catch the names of the kid, and the others.

  “We’re here to discuss several points, but mainly about Silas Korba,” Dr. Roberts began. “This trial is to make sure we’re treating the situation as fairly as possible, and to ensure the further safety of this team and our Academy family. I hope we remember that the ultimate goal is keeping us together.”

  Everyone nodded. It was stated at every trial: Keep the family together as much as possible.

  “Let’s start out by reciting the events of the past few days,” Dr. Roberts said. He held up a sheet of paper. There was handwriting on it, like he’d been keeping notes. “I want to focus on just the Korba family, to make this brief. As of last Saturday in October, Silas Korba was on a different mission when he was notified of a fire that had been set in an abandoned church. An inquiry was made, and Theo Korba, his blood-related brother, was proven to have been home at the time the fire was reported and investigated...”

  Blood brother was a distinct term to use for any direct
family member. Blood friend would have been used for a friend.

  Silas slid a glance over to North who met his eyes. In their quiet exchange, they listened to Dr. Roberts recount the last few days. North frowned, not liking the idea that Silas was being brought in for a trial, not simply a meeting. They hadn’t done this for Nathan when his dad returned and he was transported to Singapore.

  Still, Silas knew why. He’d confessed to Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Roberts that he was the one responsible for Theo getting out of hand. He was guilty of neglect.

  It’d been true what Sang had said. He’d blamed Theo for his mother’s death. While he tried not to, it’d been easier to escape to the Academy, to throw himself into work and supporting his new family. He didn’t think he was mean to his brother, but he didn’t put out the hand of support to him, either. And when Theo started to retreat into himself, Silas found it to be a relief. Seeing Theo less curbed Silas’s own guilt, and the sadness over his mother being gone.

  “...finally,” Dr. Roberts said causing Silas to refocused as he was coming up to the end of the story, “Silas Korba and Charlie Korba left the church together, and stayed behind to report officially what Theo had done. We provided a lawyer to make sure Theo was treated fairly, and to report as accurately as possible. As of now, Theo is in holding under our care, with reports being brought to a judge regarding his mental condition. There will be a private trial, but it seems likely the judge will be agreeing to our requests to relinquish Theo to a mental facility instead of insisting he be deported. He’s got a property damage and arson charge against him, which might require house arrest and jail time depending on the results.” Dr. Roberts turned to Mr. Blackbourne. “Did I cover everything?”

  “I believe that’s all there is,” Mr. Blackbourne said.

  Dr. Roberts folded his paper and put it into his pocket before stuffing his hands into his suit coat. He nodded toward the members of the other teams. “At this time, I’d like to invite you five to ask any questions of Silas or his team.”