Harsh Lessons (30 page)

Was he ill?  Maybe that was why his breath smelled so strange?  His clothes, too, smelled weird: smoky, but not wood smoke.  Something more acrid.

‘I didn’t give you a fever.  I’m perfectly well.’

He laid his hand back on her shoulder, and his other arm snaked around her waist, pulling her close.  ‘Yeah, you perfec'.’  He bent his head down, moving his lips towards hers.

She pushed his head away.  ‘Stop that!  I don’t want to kiss you.’

The hand on her shoulder slid down her front, over her left breast, and gripped it, while his other arm tightened, pulling her closer.

No fighting
, Mother had said.  But what was she supposed to do?  Just let him slobber all over her?  Surely even a normal girl would fight? 
Surely?

She trapped the fingers of his right hand and twisted, moving in against his arm.  Bending it out and down, she forced him to follow it, finally locking his elbow at her waist.

First Tara, now this.

No fights
.

She let go of his finger and stepped past him, fists clenched in frustration.

‘Ow!  That real' hurt, li’l bitch!’

‘Touch me again and I’ll do more than
hurt
you.’

The stupid grin was back.  ‘Tough sliv, eh?  I c’n show you some better moves.’  He thrust his hips forwards, then stepped in close.

Leeth snapped.

Her palm struck the jutting jaw, twisting his head with a sharp crack.  He collapsed, boneless, to the floor.

To lie very, very still.

Uh oh
.  She froze, hand covering her mouth, hoping he’d move.  But even when she held her breath, she couldn’t hear his breathing.  Shutting her eyes she listened harder.

She couldn’t hear his heartbeat, either.

Oh, no!  Mother’ll
kill
me for this!  And it was
all
his
stupid fault, too!
  She was going to be in so much trouble.  They’d probably cancel the whole rest of her training exercise just 'cause of this.  Even though she’d
warned
the idiot, despite Dojo saying you should never give your enemies an advantage.

And the police would need to try to find out who killed him, and everyone’d be cross, and going all, “a normal girl wouldn’t kill anyone,” and “we told you specially, not to kill anybody!”

Her teeth ground at the unfairness.  This dummy had ruined everything! 
And I won’t get another chance to do this training for six whole months!

Unless…?

She tilted her head.

Unless they thought he’d died by
accident?
  He
had
been swaying, looking unbalanced.  Maybe….

She looked at his shoes; at the stairs.

Bending down, then, she loosened the fastenings and slid one foot most of the way out of its shoe before hoisting him up by his armpits as high as she could, carrying him to the stairwell, his toes dragging the floor.

She was still studying the angles; judging how his head would have to strike the ground, when behind her, the lift dinged its arrival.  Quickly throwing him shoulders-first down the flight of stairs, she darted silently up to Emma’s apartment.

She was
so
not gonna tell anyone about this!  It might even mess up her plans to sneak out and hunt The Breaker, instead of “socializing” with the other drama students at night.

Breakfast the next morning was French omelets, with orange juice for Leeth and for Emma, some blend of tea Leeth couldn’t even pronounce.

‘We had some excitement here last night.’

‘We did?’ Leeth asked.  ‘I don’t remember it.’

‘Not us.  The building.’

Leeth looked more puzzled.  ‘How does a building get excited?’

Emma rolled her eyes, then saw the girl wasn’t joking.  ‘It’s a turn of phrase, Leeth, meaning there was some excitement in the building last night.  You remember Mr Hengist, apartment 5A?’  Leeth looked blank.  ‘He insisted on helping carry some of your bags for you, when we were moving you in here.’

A great light seemed to dawn on Leeth.  ‘The ticking man!  Now I remember!’

It was Emma’s turn to look puzzled.  ‘The ticking man?  As in, ticking bomb?’

‘Why would a bomb
tick
?’

‘Never mind.  He’s not ticking any more.  Last night, he fell down the stairs and broke his neck.’

While Leeth tried to work out the correct response to that – pretty sure “good” was not a normal answer – Emma continued.  ‘It turns out, he’d been partying with Mrs Li, in 6B.  Quite hard.’

‘Huh.  Hard partying.  How’d they find that out?’

‘Cam footage from the foyer; access codes.  Not drunk when he entered the building, but high blood alcohol levels in his blood, even though he hadn’t entered his apartment last night.  Turned out Mrs Li had keyed for his prints to have access to the apartment she and her husband shared.’

‘Is three people having sex together, normal?’ Leeth asked, interested.

‘What?  What three people?’

‘Mr and Mrs Li, and Mr Hengist.’

Emma stared at her.  ‘Mr Li wasn’t there.  Mrs Li was having an affair with Mr Hengist.’

‘Oh.’   She nodded.  ‘So, three people having sex
isn’t
normal?’
 

Chapter 36 

In the morning a few days later, at the station, Leeth Marcie was acting strange.  She kept looking sideways at her and grinning.  Leeth surreptitiously checked herself out, wondering if she'd broken some new dress or makeup code she was unaware of.  But that didn't seem to be it – Marcie seemed more like she was kind of excited. 

And once they were a little way from the station, she took her arm and tugged Jane to a stop, unslinging her backpack from her shoulders.  'Wait a min, I got you something.'

Not quite understanding, Leeth just waited, as Marcie drew out a cardboard tube and presented it to her, practically bouncing.

'Uh, gee, um, thanks.  This'll come in real handy when I, um…?'

Marcie giggled.  'Very funny!  Open it up!'

Oh
.  She smiled, and saw there were caps at each end.  At first, after removing them, it seemed empty, but then she saw there was a sheet of something lining the tube.  Carefully, she extracted the rolled up sheet….

At the flash of red and yellow on the blue background, the "S" in its unique sort of triangle-diamond shape, she realized what it was.  Unfurling Superman's logo, she stared in shock from Marcie back to the poster.    It felt old, too, printed on actual paper.  It had to be valuable.  'What-  I don't…?'

'It's a gift, dummy.  Do you like it?'

For some reason, tears were welling up in her eyes.  Marcie had bought her a
present?

Marcie beamed at her reaction, and then they were hugging, the poster held awkwardly out so she didn't crush it.

'I love it!  Thank you!'

They separated, Leeth holding it up so they could both admire it.  They shared a grin, and Leeth carefully rolled it back up and put it back in the tube.  Where it rested, like a secret code just between the two of them.

Wow.  A present
.  She'd had exactly two presents in her life, before.  Both from Keepie.  Her bow and arrow, and her PowerShot slingshot.  Which'd be a totally simple way to deal with Tara, come to think of it, so long as no one ever found out….

Later, in the cafeteria with her friends at morning “coffee” – which for Leeth, meant two hot chocolates – she overheard some of the other students talking about her.

'
Miki
said the weirdo stared at Jane the whole time.  She said he even got onto the BART with them.'

So, others had noticed the strange guy who’d been following her the last few days?

'Lezlie, you mean.  Figures: weirdos attract weirdos.'

'He was out there again today.'

'Jake said he was waiting there all day yesterday, until classes were over.  Just watching the School….'

When they returned to class, Ms Sorensen was late – and Ms Sorensen was
never
late.  The room was buzzing with speculation by the time she strode in.

'Ladies, gentlemen, I would like to introduce another new student.  He'll be joining us shortly, but I need to speak to you all first.  He is a trauma survivor who has been severely emotionally damaged.  He’s joining us in an effort to reconnect with his inner self.

'Of course it’s with his permission I’m sharing this personal information with you, since you will need to be especially understanding.  Mr Dennis is suffering from an
affect
disorder.  He is quite out of touch with his emotions.  This will make him seem cold and distant.  Even robotic.'

At those words, a strange chill went through Leeth.  And settled there.

'I want no jokes made about his disability.  He tells me he will only need a week or two with us to learn what he needs to know.'

'So, what, we're like his therapists?'  Tara scowled.  'How is that fair on
us
?  We're s'posed to be learning drama, not nurse-maiding nutbags.'

'Tara, I want no jokes or insults.  For each week here with us, Mark Dennis is donating enough to the school to upgrade our audio-visual-cranial systems to cinema-submersive standards.  So: deal.'

Leeth heard a heavy tread, and then the creepy guy who’d been following her stepped into the room.  His eyes scanned across the space from left to right, stopping the moment they landed on her.  For several seconds he simply stood, then his eyes continued.  And came back to rest on Jane.

From the whispers that started up, Leeth was not the only student to notice.

He stepped forward and the room fell silent.

'It is very good to be here amongst you all.  Much will be learned.'

Leeth’s chill deepened, and she shuddered.  His eyes once more slid to her.  Beside her, Marcie noticed and moved closer, protectively, and Leeth felt her heart swell, warmed.

The man lifted his hand, gesturing as if touching buttons in the air in front of him as he faced Leeth.  Across the room, she heard Tara suck in a breath.

The man tilted his head.  'Why do these four girls,' he said, pointing to Leeth's group, 'have “L” symbols on their foreheads, and tails with penises?'

Leeth heard Tara swearing under her breath.  Turning that way, Leeth saw her squint her eyes as if concentrating, then suddenly all the  “uglifications” vanished.  Tara glared daggers at the newcomer.

Beside her, Marcie gasped.  'Tails?  With
penises?'

Their teacher looked stunned.  'What on earth do you-?'

'They are now gone.  The augmentation streams have closed down.'

Ms Sorensen looked from Mark Dennis, to Leeth and her friends, and finally to Tara.  Who was now pretending to look as surprised as Ms Sorensen.  Leeth heard Marcie growl, and put a hand on her thigh.  'Don't,’ she whispered.  ‘Knowing Miss Wealthy, she'll have done it so we won't be able to prove anything.'

'Yeah,' agreed Sam.  'And she'd probably sue
you
for accusing her, Marcie!'

But how had Mark Dennis seen the pink icons? 
Oh!  He must be augmented.
  And as of this morning, he'd become a student… and Tara hadn't had time to get her hacker to exclude him!

'Does anyone wish to explain Mr Dennis's remarks?' Ms Sorensen asked the class.

'Those four girls,' Mark Dennis pointed once again, 'were augmented with images of pe-'

'I understood what you said, thank you, Mr Dennis.  My question was directed toward the other students. Tara, do you know anything about these obscene augmentation feeds?'

'No idea, Ms Sorensen.  Is Mr Dennis augmented himself?  Could his augments be damaged?  Maybe it was a cross-feed from a porn site he'd forgotten to turn off?'

The class laughed, but quietened immediately at the drama teacher's stare.

'That's enough, Tara.  Any of you, feel free to come and talk to me about this later.  In private.  With confidentiality.'

'If someone has been messing with any students here, Ms Sorensen, I'm sure Daddy and his lawyers will be only too happy to help,' volunteered Tara.

'Fuuuck,' said Sam, under her breath.  'That bitch.'

'I see,' said Ms Sorensen, in response to Tara's smile.  She visibly controlled herself.  'I think it's long past time to begin our lesson.  Mr Dennis, please take a seat.  Let's begin by considering how the body's posture can reinforce and even
trigger
emotional states…'

Mark Dennis chose the seat behind Leeth, which made her skin crawl.  He seemed awfully familiar, somehow.  More than just the fact that he'd been following her around the last couple of days.  Something beyond that.  Something about the dead look in those dull blue eyes.  For some reason, he kept making her think of a Japanese girl, who seemed real familiar, but who she couldn't remember ever meeting.  Jennifer someone?  It was driving her nuts, like an itch in her brain!

Mark Dennis watched her, the whole day.  He seemed to sense whenever she looked at him; his head swiveling around to her.  And each time, he did this thing with his lips that she suspected was supposed to be a smile.

It just made her feel cold.

-

When the Call had returned, three days earlier, Marc Disten had followed.  First to the luxurious, secured apartment building.  Then to the Drama School. Then back to the apartment.  Back to the School.

The girl was not the Japanese girl from the restaurant.  Although she did have a strong resemblance to the girl who had died in the alley.

It was curious.

Disten had decided to get close.  To study his prey and learn more.  Access had simply required sufficient funds, criminal contacts for papers, and finally, a plausible story.

To match and reinforce the false identity, a residence had been leased for some months.  Close by the luxury apartment; ready to take her at once if the girl prepared to leave the area.  And a second lease, for the same period, for a mansion near the school, that would be more suited to what was planned.

The final piece of disguise had arrived this morning – collected from the car dealer after seeing the girl enter the school.  In the wealthy area, the poorly-maintained Ferrari Quattropotenza would have drawn attention by its state of ill-repair, not for its once-considerable value.  Nor would discovery of the Ferrari’s ownership by Marc Disten be wise, given what was to come.