The Academy by Zachary Rawlins Page A

“You mean their plot hinged on the presence of a dangerously unbalanced lunatic, with designs on the Audits department?”
    Alistair grimaced at the sound, as the door slammed shut behind the fleeing Mitsuru.
    “You’re too hard on her, you know,” he said grumpily.
    “And you’re too easy on her – at worst, I’m hurting her feelings. What do you think you’re risking, codling Mitsuru like that?” Rebecca slapped her hand against the table angrily. “Look, I love the girl, I always have, and I died a little when they put her away, you know? But, they were right to do it. You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”
    Alistair nodded slowly, as if he were half-asleep.
    “She’s dangerous, Alistair, dangerous to everyone around her. Whatever they did to her while she was gone, it didn’t help. I caught her a few minutes ago, trying to operate her Black Protocol. It was pretty gruesome. She can’t control it, she never could – you cannot put much faith in her good nature, Alistair.”
    Rebecca leaned close to him, deadly serious. The mood was so rare on her that he had to look away.
    “What would you have me do?”
    “I support you in this rehabilitation project, Alistair, wholeheartedly. Mitsuru is my friend, whether she deserves the chances she’s getting or not. But, I have to know that you are going to make her do this. You let her fail once before, Alistair,” Rebecca said bluntly, hopping down from the desk. “I haven’t forgotten that.”
    “Neither have I,” Alistair said, his face ashen.
    “She was my best friend, Alistair. You guys were just fucking. It isn’t the same thing, so don’t act like you understand. You were her mentor, and none of this ever should’ve happened, because you should’ve put an end to it before it ever had a chance to become an issue.”
    Alistair gave her only the barest of nods, his expression grim.
    Rebecca opened his office door, and then hesitated there, silhouetted against the light streaming in from the window in the next room.
    “I should have killed you then, but you were too bright to lose.” Rebecca’s voice was soft, but deadly serious. “You promised me that you would fix this, and I’m holding you to that, Alistair. You fuck this up for Mitsuru and this time whatever happens to her, I’m gonna make damn sure happens to you, too. You should remember that.”
    She closed the door quietly behind her without looking back.

Nine
     
     
     
     
     
    Alex tried to discreetly wipe the palms of his hands on the sides of his jeans . He was more than nervous – he felt like an animal on display at the zoo. He was sitting on an overstuffed leather couch on one side of the crowded office, and arrayed in a rough semi-circle facing him were Michael, an attractive woman wearing an Angel’s t-shirt named Rebecca, and two men he hadn’t met before, a pleasant-looking blond man named Alistair, and an older guy named Gaul, who had Mitsuru’s strange red eyes and an even icier demeanor. It was cold in the room, since Alistair and Gaul had insisted that Rebecca open a window if she was going to smoke. All of them seemed to have nothing better to do than stare at him while Rebecca ‘prepared’.
    Whatever Rebecca’s preparations were, from where Alex sat, it looked quite a bit as if she’d gone to sleep, half-smiling, her head cocked to one side, as if she were about to say something.
    “Alex, right?” Alistair said his name oddly, as if it were in doubt. “He doesn’t look like much.”
    “Hey!” Alex objected, confused. “I’m right here, you know.”
    “Alistair,” Rebecca said warningly, eyes still closed.
    “Well, he doesn’t, anyone can see that,” Alistair said sullenly, folding his arms across his chest and ignoring Alex’s defiant glare.
    “Don’t be a brat,” Rebecca scolded, then opened her eyes and smiled at Alex. “Just ignore him, hon, okay?”
    Alex managed a nod. He was now feeling pretty resentful, on top of everything else.