Forbidden (The Seeker Saga, #2) (17 page)

To my surprise, the girls and doctor were already at the front.  They must have been quite a sight when he first saw them:  Four of them, soaking wet, dragging a makeshift litter with two bodies through the dirt.  But he did not seem particularly perturbed.  He was helping bring the two unconscious men inside.

Doctor Frame lifted Mr. Stannis, the heavier of the two, by himself, while Liz, Ashley, Eve and Madison picked up Rob and trailed after him.  I ran to the girls to lend a hand, but five people trying to carry one body hindered more than it helped.  Eventually, I just took Madison’s spot, and we carried an unconscious Rob into Doctor Frame’s examination room.

“You’re lucky I was here,” he said, running a hand haphazardly through his hair.  I remembered that gesture from him the first time I met him.  “The boy’s going to be okay, but this man needs medical attention right away.”  Despite my fatigue, I nearly leapt for joy.  Rob was going to be okay!  We hadn’t failed!  The elation of the moment faded as I realized that we were still far from done.  “I won’t ask what happened, but who is the man, anyway?”

“Our science teacher,” Liz volunteered.  “And it’s okay.  We found him passed out in the yard.”  The lie sounded hollow to my ears, but Doctor Frame simply nodded.

“All right.  You girls look like you’ve been through hell and back.  Are any of you hurt?”  We all shook our heads.

“Just cold and tired,” Liz offered again.  If I didn’t know any better, I would have said she had just batted her eyelashes at the doctor!  Luckily, he was too preoccupied with Mr. Stannis to take any note. 

“Well, you’ll need to leave them to me.  Tracy can show you where you can dry off and warm up.  Don’t go running off into the night, though,” he said. “I’ll need to talk to you before you leave.”

“Sure,” I said quickly, before Liz had a chance to play damsel in distress again.  “Come on,” I told the girls, “it’s just down the hall.”

Everyone trailed after me.  All of us were tired, mentally and physical exhausted, but the night was far from over.  This was just a temporary respite before the real danger had to be faced again.

Chapter Ten – An Unexpected Ally

I brought the girls to the room, where everyone gratefully took the towels and blankets that Doctor Frame had made available. 

“You know him?” Liz asked suspiciously after we’d all taken our seats.  Madison and Eve were huddled together on the sofa, while Liz and Ashley sat on the two chairs.  I sat on the edge of the coffee table.

“Who?  The doctor?” I asked.  “Yeah. I met him when I first arrived.  How did you know?”

“He just seemed familiar with you,” Liz said.  “And unsurprised about us.”

“Well, I don’t know anything about
that
.”

“Why don’t you close the door?” Eve suggested.  “I don’t want him coming in on us unexpectedly.”

I went to oblige, and returned to my spot.  “So, now what?” I asked. 

“Can we trust him?” Madison asked suddenly.

“Doctor Frame?” I asked.  “Sure.  At least, I think so.  Actually, he’s the only person on this whole island I think we
can
trust.”

“What’s his story?” Ashley asked.  “He seems way too young to be a doctor.  And too handsome.”

Liz and Ashley giggled. The next thing I knew, we were all laughing.  I wasn’t sure at what, exactly, but it felt good to let loose.  To relax enough and forget ourselves for a moment, despite our circumstances.  I knew precisely then that these girls were the only people in the world who I would want to face any of this with.

When the mirth finally died down, it didn’t take long before an ominous sobriety to return.  We all knew what we were up against.  And we were smart enough to realize the danger of it.

“So, now what?” I said again.  “Eve?  Can you get us off the island?”

“Err,” she hesitated, “yes.  I mean, I haven’t had time to coordinate it after we found Rob.  I’ll do that now.”  She took out her phone, and started to focus intently on it.  The slight pause did not instill the greatest confidence.  But, her connection was our only shot.

“So that’s it, then?” Madison said.  “We’re leaving?  Just like that?”

“Have you seen anything to change that decision?” Ashley barked. 

“No,” Madison admitted shyly.  “It’s just… this is
home
.”

“I know it is,” Liz said gently.  “It’s like that for all of us.  But when a fire engulfs your home, you don’t sit there and wait for it to consume you.  You get out.  That’s what we’re doing.  Our home has been destroyed.”

“What are we going to do about Rob?” I suddenly asked.  He had to know what happened.  “We can’t just leave him!”

“What else
can
we do?” Ashley asked.  “He can’t go with us.  He has no business going with us.  Plus, he’s not under any threat.”

“The man who knocked him out is still on the island,” I pointed out.

“He was only after you,” Ashley retorted.  “Not Rob.  Otherwise, I don’t think Rob would still be alive.”

I gulped.  Ashley was probably right.  I never thought it was a conscious decision for the man to leave Rob like that, but as I thought about it, I realized he could have easily killed him had he wanted to.  It seemed, in some strange and twisted way, that the man who started all this had some sort of morals.

“She’s right,” Liz said.  “Rob is in good hands now.  And so is Mr. Stannis.  We did what we could for both of them, and now it’s time for us to take care of ourselves.  Eve? How’s it going?”

Eve grunted.  “He’s not answering.”

“Is that bad?” Madison breathed.

Eve sighed.  “No.  I mean, I don’t think so.  Give it time. It’s only been a few minutes.”

My mind was still on the topic of Rob.  “If Rob wakes and finds us gone—”

“That’s how it should be,” Liz put in.

“Right,” I said.  “But still…  I don’t feel right just abandoning him like that.  After what he did for us.  After what happened to him because of us.” 
Because of me
, I thought in my head.  “He can’t just wake up and find us gone without an explanation.  We owe it to him to at least say we’re safe.”

“How do we do that?” Ashley asked.  “Write him a letter?”  She snorted at the idea.  “Besides, it’s better if nobody knows where we’ve gone.  That way, we can’t be traced.”

“Maybe not,” I answered.  Suddenly, I had an impulsive idea.  “What if,” I said, thinking out loud, “we
tell Doctor Frame
?  He can pass the message on for us!”

“Nuh-uh! No way!” Ashley protested immediately.  “Tell him what?  That we’re leaving the island?  That we’re breaking all the rules of this place?  He
works
here, Tracy.  He can’t know that!”

“We can trust him,” I insisted.  “He’s not like the professors or the other staff.”

“And what
are
the professors and other staff like, Tracy?” Ashley questioned.  Her voice had a little heat in it.  “Before today, we had no idea Chris’s dad was in on it.  We had no idea a
professor
here could have such malicious intent.  We thought the best of everybody, and look where that’s gotten us.”  She sighed, rubbing her temples.  “The truth is, we don’t know
anybody’s
intent.  The person who seems trustworthy today might end up betraying us tomorrow.  We don’t
know
, so it’s a better idea
not
to trust!”

 “Not to trust
what
?” Doctor Frame said smoothly from the doorway.  I had been so focused on Ashley that I didn’t even notice him come in

“Uhh… nothing,” Ashley gulped.  “Just gossiping.”

“It seems like there’s a little bit more than that,” Doctor Frame said.  He came inside and closed the door behind him.  “It’s not every day that five girls come running here with two unconscious bodies.  Carried—on a
litter
, no less.”  He made his way to the middle of the room, and I could just
feel
the tension rise.  It was so thick you could suffocate.  Rain pounded against the window, and I could see a reflection of the room, and of all of us, in the glass.  Doctor Frame took all of us in a single sweeping glance, and then exhaled audibly.  “Listen, something is clearly on,” he said.  “There are too many coincidences for there not to be.  Tracy, I didn’t see you, but weren’t you in the clinic just a few months ago?”

“Two months,” I said breathlessly.  “How did you know?  You weren’t here.”

“There was quite an uproar among the staff when you came in that night.  You might not remember, but I was on duty then.”

“You were?  Why didn’t you come see me?”

“Another doctor had care of you,” he answered smoothly.  Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he added, “Why?  Did you want me to?”

“No, I… I mean, um,” I stuttered, “I don’t really know how to answer that.”

“I was there, too,” Liz interrupted, almost as if she were boasting.  “I came in that night as well.”

“I remember,” Doctor Frame said.  “So, two of you came here two months
ago.  Why? Nobody could say.  The next day, one of the most distinguished professors here leaves the school without a word—and takes his son with him.”  His eyes met mine. He held his gaze.  I blinked.  How did he know about all that?  “Oh?” he asked.  “You look surprised.  You didn’t think anybody else knew?”

“I… I didn’t know.”

“Everyone knows, Tracy. But, not many people connected the events.  Not even me.  Not until tonight, anyway.  Wasn’t
Chris
one of the first people you met here?”

All I could do was stare.  “How did you know that?”

“I saw you guys walking together before any of the other students arrived.  Call it a hunch, but I think it’s more than just coincidence that he left with his dad the morning after you were admitted to the clinic, unconscious.  People don’t just run from the academy. Not like that.  And the headmaster paid you a visit a few days later.  That’s unprecedented.  It cemented the suspicion in my mind.  And now here you are, with four of your friends, hauling in two bodies, out cold?  It doesn’t take too much brainpower to understand something fishy is going on.”

I looked at the other girls for help. They were just as spellbound as I was.  Eve met my eye and mouthed, “
Who is this man
?”  If the doctor had connected events, who else had?  Was everything really so transparent?

Doctor Frame exhaled again, and rubbed a hand through his hair.  “I’m not going to ask you
what
it is, Tracy.  There’s the Hippocratic Oath and all that.  But I do want to tell you that I can help.  If you need me to.  If any of you girls are in any danger, you can tell me.  If not – if it’s just my mind playing tricks on me – and I sincerely hope it is – then you’ll be happy to know that both of your
friends
are going to be okay.  But, I suspect there’s something deeper than that.”

I bit my lip.  Could I dare tell him what was going on?  Could I trust him?  “Why did you come back to Oliver Academy?” I asked spontaneously.

It was his turn to be surprised.  “You mean after I graduated?”

“You were a student here?” Liz gasped.

“Yes,” I said, answering both of them at the same time.  “Why did you come back to the island?  You could have gone anywhere else.”

The answer that he gave was more frank than any I expected.  “The whole time I was here in high school, I always felt like there was something going on here.  Something none of us kids knew about.  Beneath the veneer of this prestigious boarding school was some sort of secret.  Something dark. Maybe, something dangerous.  It was just a feeling I got from a lot of the things that went on around here.  When I finally graduated, and nothing happened, I just felt like there was no closure.  My suspicions about this place never left.  Even when I went to med school, I couldn’t shake it from my mind.  When I finished learning about medicine, Oliver Academy was still humming along as usual.  But I felt as if I had to return. I had to find out what was causing that feeling.”

I took a deep breath.  Doctor Frame’s answer was so honest. It confirmed that I could trust him.  And his opinion was so similar to my own that it was shocking.  I made the decision right there and then.  What I was about to do went against everything the girls warned me about.  But I knew we couldn’t handle the danger by ourselves.  We needed an adult on our side. We needed someone with experience – even if that experience wasn’t that much greater than ours.  Doctor Frame was the only adult I could trust.  “I know what caused that feeling,” I began.

Liz gasped. Eve glared dangerously at me. But I had to take the lead.  I had to take a chance.  And so I explained, amid admonishing glances from all the girls, everything that had happened to me from the moment I fought Chris in the cave.  I left the crystals out of it – I couldn’t talk about them anyway because of the oath – but even so, I was able to paint a descriptive picture.  I told him about the man attacking me in my room.  About Rob saving me.  About dragging the attacker into the caves because we didn’t know what else to do.  I told him about today. About coming to my room only hours ago to find two men rummaging through my stuff.  I told him that the men were after something. At this point in my recounting, I lied. I told him we
didn’t
know what the men were looking for, but that we suspected that we could find the answers at Harvard.