Operation Tenley

  Pennie frowned. How was this scene in Laraby’s memory? How did he know Tenley Tylwyth?

  “We cannot confirm that Fair One lara b3 enlisted Renegade Weathers here,” the Higher-Up announced after tapping his tablet a few more times.

  “Because I didn’t!” Laraby threw his hands up. “Like I already told that Administrator down there, I’ve never enlisted Renegade Weathers for the protection of my client, or for any other reason. Ever. I protect my client with my tools, as archaic as some of them are. I didn’t even use those in this circumstance. My client was not in any danger.”

  The Higher-Up agreed. “From this report, your Fairships, not a single one of his tools was used to manipulate the flying device.”

  “Frisbee,” Laraby corrected him.

  “Frisbee.” The Higher-Up nodded, making the change in his tablet.

  Lord Fairship looked pleased. “This is good news. We should remind you anyway that using Renegade Weathers is a serious bending. Although Renegade Weathers may come across as harmless, they are still a part of Mother Nature’s army, however estranged. They can turn on us and your client at any moment. Our Fair Force does the best job they can of dissolving these Weathers before Mother Nature can recapture them, but it’s quite difficult and requires a substantial amount of USE.”

  “I understand, your Fairship.” Laraby stood. “So may I go?”

  “There is still the matter of threatening an Administrator,” Lady Fairship said.

  “It was his fault!” Laraby argued.

  “Be careful, Fair One lara b3. If security is called, this will count as your third red flag,” Lady Fairship warned.

  Laraby dipped his head. “Your Fairships, if I may, Rule 2938 in the Manual states that any punitive action given by an Administrator requires a review before being implemented.”

  The Higher-Up nodded regretfully. “He is correct, Lady Fairship. Would you like me to add this to your calendar? I can see you have a little time after dinner.”

  “No,” Lady Fairship said. “I’m afraid I have a previous engagement.”

  “Very well, which is …” The Higher-Up started to click on Lady Fairship’s calendar.

  “Which is something that I’d rather not discuss here.”

  “I’m afraid I won’t have time for another review today either,” Lord Fairship said. “Asteroid Golf.”

  “Your Fairships,” Laraby said quickly. “Becoming a Lieutenant Fair One has been my goal for as long as I can remember. These red flags will prevent me from reaching it. I am sorry for the incident with the Administrator. But if you will please allow me to keep my perfect record, I will gladly volunteer to tutor rookies with their Manual exams.”

  Lord Fairship turned to the Higher-Up. “I’ll allow it,” he nodded. At Lady Fairship’s look, he said quietly, “We are short of Lieutenants as it is. Any aspirations for a rise in ranks should be welcomed.”

  Lady Fairship tightened her mouth but stayed silent.

  “Thank you, your Fairships.”

  “We will need you to stay while we move onto the next Fair One,” Lord Fairship said. “Let’s hope we find good news here too.”

  “Let’s hope,” Laraby mumbled, sitting again.

  A red laser dot appeared on Pennie’s forehead. She tipped her head back to see it.

  “Please refrain from facial movements and sit flush against your chair, Fair One penn 1,” the Higher-Up ordered.

  Pennie scooted back and froze. The dot travelled the same way it had on Laraby’s head, ending on her temporal lobe, just below her left ear.

  The screen blinked on again. Pennie turned her head to look at it. The screen went fuzzy.

  “We need you to please keep still,” the Higher-Up repeated.

  “Unless you’d prefer a skull cage?” Lady Fairship offered.

  Pennie shook her head but stopped when she realized she shouldn’t have.

  The screen blipped on again.

  Tenley Tylwyth stands in the middle of the quad passing out flyers. “Vote for me, Tenley T!” She smiles at her fellow students, none of whom pay any attention to her. Tenley remains undeterred. “That’s right, people. I’m running for America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen. And I need your vote, Hadley Beach!”

  The school bell rings.

  Tenley looks over her shoulder, affording her a peripheral view of the Frisbee heading straight for her. She blows out a quick breath and watches as the Frisbee heads off in the other direction … until something even bigger comes flying toward her. A boy. She steps back just before he lands on her. The boy hits the cement with a hard thud.

  The screen froze.

  Pennie looked pale.

  “Now your Lordships,” the Higher-Up said without turning the lights on. “If we slow this same scene and magnify the Frisbee, this is what we get.”

  The Frisbee, just before reaching Tenley’s head, comes to a complete stop, hovers, flips over, and zooms out of frame in the opposite direction.

  The lights returned.

  “It was me!” Pennie blurted out. “I used my iWind to interrupt the Frisbee’s trajectory. It was heading straight for my client’s left cheek. I should have let the Frisbee stay on its course. Seeing it again, like that, up there, I can tell that it was not, well probably not, an attack by Mother Nature. It looks more like, you know, normal daily activity, which I know we are not meant to interfere with. I’m a rookie your Fairships, I guess I overreacted. It won’t happen again. I’ll take the penalty.”

  Laraby frowned over at her. She was talking a mile a minute. The Higher-Up frowned at her too and then clicked on his tablet.

  “Give us a moment, Fair One,” he said.

  “What’s your problem?” Laraby leaned into her while the Higher-Up and the Fairships conversed in a huddle. “Why are you talking so fast?”

  “I’m not. I wasn’t.” Pennie tapped her feet.

  “Unfortunately,” the Higher-Up turned back to them. “Despite what you’ve just told us, we cannot find any evidence of your tools being used either, Fair One penn 1.”

  Pennie stood. “What? No, I definitely programmed the iWind—”

  “Sit,” Lady Fairship said. “Perform the deep memory excavation,” she instructed the Higher-Up.

  “Your Fairship,” he argued, “may I remind you that the deep memory laser uses five hundred times the USE that review lasers do. I would suggest that we don’t waste supply on smaller matters.”

  “She’s lying,” Lady Fairship turned to Lord Fairship. “We cannot have Fair Ones telling lies. This is a perfect example of what I was saying at our last meeting.”

  “I’ll allow it.” Lord Fairship nodded to the Higher-Up.

  Pennie sat forward. “Please don’t waste the USE on me.”

  “Sit back, Fair One,” the Higher-Up told her.

  A red dot appeared on Pennie’s prefrontal cortex.

  “Fair One lara b3, you may now leave,” Lady Fairship said.

  Laraby stood. Pennie glanced over at him but this time when she moved, intense pain shot through her forehead. “Good bye, Fair One,” Laraby said, before turning to the Fairships and bowing. Without another word, he walked out from under the spotlight.

  “Laser’s ready,” the Higher-Up said. “Fair One, please state your identity.”

  “penn 1.”

  The same scene they had all just watched started over again.

  7

  Fair City

  “It appears as though the client has discovered her element.”

  “I can explain,” Pennie said.

  Lady Fairship’s lips curled into a snarky smile. An image of Tenley Tylwyth blowing away the Frisbee remained frozen on the screen.

  “How long has she been aware?” Lord Fairship asked.

  The Higher-Up tapped his screen. “It looks as though her first usage was at six months old.”

  “Six months?” Lady Fairship gasped. “The client has known
since she was a baby?”

  “Show us, please.” Lord Fairship sat back in his seat.

  The screen blipped on again.

  A baby sleeps soundly in her crib under a mobile of sparkling fairies. For a moment, nothing happens. But then, the baby rolls onto her side and loses her pacifier. She starts to fret and stir. She locks eyes on the pacifier and blows out a quick breath. The pacifier starts to rock back and forth. Once it builds up enough momentum, the pacifier rolls back into the baby’s open mouth. Immediately, the breeze stops and the baby settles back into a deep sleep.

  The lights snapped on.

  “My goodness, that is early,” Lord Fairship said.

  “It’s your duty to report early elemental activity, Fair One.”

  Pennie swallowed. “It could have been the natural wind that moved the pacifier.”

  “The window was closed, Fair One penn 1,” Lord Fairship pointed out. “Lady Fairship is right. Why didn’t you report this?”

  Pennie started to argue again, but they’d just seen into her deep memory cortex. There was no use lying. “I should have. Doesn’t it make sense, though, that by using their elements early, the clients can better protect themselves?”

  Lord Fairship looked disappointed. “Any client that becomes aware of his or her element before they turn eighteen years old is a direct target for Mother Nature. So in fact, by not reporting her, you are putting your client in more danger.”

  “Were,” Lady Fairship said. “You’re terminated.”

  “What?” Pennie stood.

  “I’m afraid Lady Fairship is correct,” Lord Fairship agreed. “You’ve failed your rookie assignment and there are no second chances. Your client will be scheduled for an immediate erase.”

  Pennie stepped back, hitting her tiny heel against the leg of the chair. “An erase?”

  “Standard procedure.” Lady Fairship raised her eyebrow. “Frankly, it should have been done when the client was still a baby. It’s a wonder that she’s made it this far without being discovered. How long has it been, exactly?” she asked the Higher-Up.

  “She’s known she possesses the Wind element for twelve and a half years, Lady Fairship.”

  “Dreadful. As I keep saying,” she mumbled to Lord Fairship, “some of these Fair Ones cannot be trusted.”

  “Not now,” Lord Fairship warned her quietly.

  “Your Fairships.” Pennie swallowed the lump in her throat. “My client has only used her element a few times. So I wouldn’t say she possesses it, exactly. Her aim isn’t always perfect, if you know what I mean.” Pennie laughed nervously.

  No one else did.

  “It is indeed unfortunate that in a situation like this erasing a client’s existence is our only option.” Lord Fairship clasped his hands. “But you said it yourself; Earth is a dangerous place for the elemental teen. As a thirteen-year-old, your client still has five more years until she no longer requires a Fair One to protect her.”

  “She’ll be safe with me, your Fairship. I promise.”

  Lord Fairship sat back. “We do not make these decisions lightly. However, we must think of the entire human race first. Your client has powers we need and Mother Nature wants. Should she capture your client, she will absorb her—in this case—wind power and use it against us. Mother Nature has scouts searching day and night for elemental teens like your client and the closer they get to eighteen, the brighter they appear on her radar.” He leaned forward. “penn 1, I think you know that bringing her here for us to immediately erase is a much kinder option that what Mother Nature would do to her.”

  Pennie looked away. Lord Fairship was right. Stories of what Mother Nature did to the elemental teens were horrific. Absorbing their power was slow and torturous, and no one ever heard from them again. Still, Pennie thought, Tenley Tylwyth had only five more years until she would be officially trained and enlisted in the Elemental Bureau of Fair Force. Five more years! And there was another reason she couldn’t let Tenley get erased.

  “What about Mrs. Tylwyth?” she asked. “If you take Tenley from her, she’ll be devastated.”

  “You know very well that your client will never even have existed for her mother,” Lady Fairship said. “Every human who has ever been associated with any client we’ve had to erase is stripped of all memory of them.” She turned to the Higher-Up. “This was an entire chapter in the Manual. Put in a request to review all the written Fair One exams.”

  He clicked on his tablet.

  “The decision has been made,” Lord Fairship said, smoothing down his beard. “You will be brought to Administration promptly.”

  “Administration?” Pennie choked.

  “Also standard procedure, penn 1.” Lady Fairship smiled. “Had you turned your client in when you first learned she had discovered her element, you would have been allowed to join the weapons department or cooking staff, or any number of Fair One support systems. Unfortunately, you didn’t.”

  Pennie rushed toward them. “I can’t go to Administration. I won’t.”

  In an instant, two Fair Force dropped down and yanked her arms behind her.

  Lord and Lady Fairship gathered their robes and stood.

  “Please,” Pennie cried.

  “There’s nothing more we can do,” Lord Fairship said.

  “Actually, there is something.” Laraby stepped out from the darkened doorway.

  One of the Fair Force started toward him until Lord Fairship raised his hand.

  “Begging your pardons.” Laraby bowed quickly. “There is one thing that Fair One penn 1 can do to save her client.”

  “What is it?” Pennie asked.

  “Page 300,121, Section 10,008, third paragraph: The Right to Delete. In which a Fair One is afforded forty-eight hours to convince their client to willingly delete his or her elemental power, thereby rendering an Immediate Erase unnecessary,” Laraby recited from memory.

  Pennie looked from Laraby to the Fairships and back to Laraby. “I’ll do it.”

  Lord Fairship turned to Pennie. “What Fair One lara b3 is suggesting is a very difficult—”

  “And usually unsuccessful—” Lady Fairship added.

  “—attempt to get their client to give up their elemental power,” Lord Fairship finished.

  “Usually unsuccessful?” Pennie glanced at Laraby.

  “I’m just citing the rules.” He shrugged.

  “It requires a complete surrendering,” the Higher-Up added.

  “A human being does not often volunteer to give up power. Any power. But the power to make the skies rain or the wind blow or lightning strike—well, that’s hardly something any being wants to give up, particularly a teenage being.” Lady Fairship glared at Pennie.

  Pennie stood straighter. “I said, I’ll do it.”

  “You should probably think about it,” Laraby warned her. “There’s a little more to it.”

  “I said, I’ll do it,” Pennie shouted. “I’ll do it!”

  Lord Fairship nodded to the Higher-Up and gathered his robes once again. “Very well. Fair Force will take you to Room Seventy-one. Good luck, penn 1.”

  Lord Fairship disappeared through the wall, and after a last lingering look of contempt, Lady Fairship did the same. The Higher-Up spun away with his tablet, pushed open the door, and disappeared as well.

  Pennie shook her head at Laraby. “You’ve been here the whole time?”

  “I’ve never seen a deep memory laser before. I wanted to watch.”

  “Thanks, Laraby.”

  The Fair Force steered her toward the door.

  “Don’t thank me yet.” He stepped out of their way. “It’s true. A Right to Delete is almost always unsuccessful. Which means there’s a chance you’ve just made the worst decision of your life.”

  “What’s worse than becoming an Administrator?” Pennie asked.

  “There are a few things,” Laraby said.

  Pennie was about to ask w
hat those might be, just before the Fair Force pushed her out the door.

  8

  Hadley Beach

  Sylma Tylwyth, short as she was, could only just see over the huge stack of food she pushed in her cart.

  Tenley Tylwyth pranced ahead of her mother down the Chips ‘n Snacks aisle. Her sash was still draped over her shoulder, “Vote for Me, Tenley T!” on the front and “America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen!” on the back.

  “I thought we’d have lasagna tonight,” Mrs. Tylwyth said, taking the strawberry Be Awesome bar that Tenley handed her and balancing it on top of the pile.

  “Mom, if I’m going to win the ANMIT nomination, I can’t eat lasagna. That’s made in like, Italy or somewhere.” Tenley plucked a jar of peanut butter off the shelf and handed it to her mother. “I have to eat only American food, remember? That was part of my pledge?”

  Mrs. Tylwyth waited for Tenley to giggle.

  But Tenley didn’t look like she was kidding. In fact, she looked like she was making a mental list. “So. This is what I’m thinking: Double-stuffed baked potatoes, those are like totally American, and sirloin tips and corn on the cob. Then for breakfast, pancakes, maple syrup, and Lucky Charms. All totally American.”

  “It’s not the season for corn on the cob, honey.”

  Tenley spun around. Mrs. Tylwyth had to swerve the cart not to hit her. A few cereal boxes and a container of marshmallow fluff landed on the floor.

  “Anything’s possible, Mom, if you want it bad enough. You’re the one who told me that.” She leaned down to pick up the fallen items. “You’re going to be the mother of America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen.” She threw out her hands and pulled her mother in for a hug. “Hopefully.”

  Mrs. Tylwyth blinked back tears. “You know what, honey? I think we can find some in the frozen food section.”

  At the checkout line, the tired-looking but pleasant clerk dropped the magazine she was reading and nodded a warm hello. “I’m sorry, ladies, but this is for twelve items.”