The Academy (18 page)

“Only about a thousand,” Steel said.

“I can field one at a time.”

Steel and Kaileigh exchanged looks: bewilderment, excitement.

“I realize,” Randolph said, “that all this can be overwhelming. I’m more than happy to send you back to your dorms to think about it. But I will ask that you not only not speak of it with your friends or parents, but that you not speak of it to each other. We cannot afford this to reach any ears outside the Program—and for your reference, that is how we refer to it. You may only discuss the Program inside my home for the time being. Do we under—”

“Yes,” said Steel.

“Let me leave you for a moment.” Randolph left the room, shutting the door behind him.

“So, this can’t be for real, right?” Kaileigh said. “I mean it’s got to be some kind of major hazing ritual to involve a teacher and all—and I certainly fell for it—I mean I actually believed the guy—but there’s no way something like this is actually going on and they’re asking us to be part of it. I mean, right?” Her eyes begged Steel to agree with her.

Steel said nothing. He felt sorry for her because he knew that on some level she’d been blocking out all their discoveries, that she would far prefer to deny anything was going on than to face the consequences of her own involvement in it. Whereas he suddenly felt that a burden had been lifted. It was as if all his suspicions had been confirmed and he felt powerfully good as a result. He exhaled like someone who’d been holding his breath in a contest.

“Steel?”

“I wonder what happens if we turn him down,” he said. “It can’t be good.”

“But it’s a joke, right? An elaborate hoax. Right?”

He ignored her. “And I’m not sure what it means that he’s told us ahead of the others. My father warned me. I’m
so
stupid because I paid no attention at the time. But he warned me. He said I had to hang in there
until Thanksgiving
, that everything would be clearer after the break. I thought it was just typical Mom-and-Dad stuff: ‘Patience is a virtue’ and ‘Good things come to those who wait.’ But now I think it was my bad, that he was trying to tell me to chill until after the break. He probably knew I would be invited into the Program at some point, and he knew me well enough to know that I’d see things that would bug me.”

“He sent me here to be in the Program?”

“Think about it,” Steel said. “Think what we did in Washington, D.C. last year. With basically no training and having no idea what we were doing, we pulled that off. Obviously, people were going to hear about that. And obviously, the right people did. On top of that, you can do languages and sound like other people. That’s got to be of value. And obviously, stuff like that is what got us invited to go to school here.”

“What do we do?”

“We decide to join or not,” Steel said. “By ourselves, because neither of us can ever look back and think that the other person dragged them into this.”

“You actually think it’s
real
?” Her voice cracked. “Face it: Victor and Reddie are going to come through that door laughing their butts off.”

Steel answered by simply meeting eyes with her.

“Oh, come on…” she gasped. “You can’t be serious.”

“Totally.”

“He made it sound like we’d be…
spying
.”

“Not exactly. I think it’s more like they would put us into some place where a lot of embassy kids go, and if you happen to hear something important, you report it.”

“That’s called spying.”

“He made it sound like the older kids like DesConte and Reddie Long do the heavy lifting, not kids our age,” Steel said.

“It still sounds like spying to me.”

“In a way, I suppose. But I think there are a lot of definitions of spying. And I think the point is: who’s going to hurt a kid? A foreign country is not going to hurt a kid, and it would be way too embarrassing to accuse a kid, to admit that some thirteen- or fourteen-year-old was able to spy on you. It’s basically genius, if you ask me. If the kid doesn’t break any laws, then what’s anyone going to do about it, and I can see how grown-ups wouldn’t take the same precautions with kids as they would with other grown-ups.”

“It’s totally random.”

A knock on the door silenced them both. Randolph entered, but not the other kids. Steel thought they must be in the house somewhere, but he saw no sign of them.

“Have you had a chance to discuss it?” Randolph said.

Neither Kaileigh nor Steel answered.

“The assignment I have you in mind for is over the long Halloween weekend. We will have to move very quickly. Training. Study. Both of you would be operational.”

“Do we get our parents’ permissions, or what?” Kaileigh asked.

“No, Ms. Augustine. You are in our charge. Your parents signed a contract upon acceptance of admission. Do you think we could do this for as long as we have without protecting ourselves? Don’t worry about your parents, Ms. Augustine. We are not putting you into any harm. We are just enlarging your skill set, preparing you for the possibility of service to your country when you become an adult. The CIA, NSA, FBI, Homeland Security, and a dozen other agencies all recruit Wynncliff graduates. You will find yourself invited to attend the nation’s premier colleges. I doubt you’ll get much complaint from your parents.”

“Are you trying to tell me that my parents are spies?” she blurted out.

All color had left her face.

“I am certainly saying no such thing,” Randolph said, though his face implied otherwise.

Steel thought back to Kaileigh’s saying her father was an art dealer, constantly traveling. What better cover for a spy? She’d processed this as well and seemed ready to cry.

“I’m in,” Steel told Randolph.

Kaileigh snapped her head in Steel’s direction, her jaw set forward in angry disbelief.

Steel’s attention remained on Randolph. “What do you mean ‘operational’?”

“Your Third Form year is typically devoted to training,” Randolph said. “You don’t usually go operational until Fifth Form abroad, though there are always exceptions. You two are the exception.” He winced a smile.

Kaileigh continued staring at Steel as if she expected him to reverse his decision.

“How do we get out of the Program if we don’t like it?” she asked.

“An excellent question,” Randolph said. “The answer to which is a little tricky. A process exists. A procedure. For now, that’s all you need to know.”

“Do you get to stay at the school?”

“Very, very few are recruited into the Program, Ms. Augustine. Those that decline enrollment—and there have been precious few, I might add—often end up transferring to other schools. Fine schools. There is some minor debriefing involved. Parents are part of it, of course. Certain documents are signed and processed.”

“Nondisclosure agreements,” Steel said. He’d once heard his father talking about a legal document that prevented a person from saying anything about a specific topic.

“Something akin to that,” Randolph conceded, “yes.” He grimaced, put off by the current line of discussion.

“You’re saying that if I refuse, I’ll be expelled,” Kaileigh said.

“Transferred,” Randolph said. “And with the highest of recommendations and often a full scholarship. To some of the best, most prominent schools. I assure you, we’ve never received a complaint. Ms. Augustine, should you, with your parents’ guidance, opt out, believe me, you will be very pleased with where you end up. I…we…don’t want you feeling any pressure. As I said, typically we wait until second session. Our current situation requires drastic measures. There you have it. You must not feel obligated in any way. The Program is an extra burden on students. There’s additional study involved. Training. More of your time is required. The decision is not to be taken lightly.”

Kaileigh mulled it over.

“I would like to know, Mr. Trapp”—Randolph turned, addressing only Steel—“how it was you discovered us in the first place? It was you in the pipe room, was it not? Blind luck? Did you stumble upon the tunnels somehow, or what exactly was it?”

Steel nearly answered him directly. But at the last second, he held his tongue. “I think,” he said, “it might be better discussed at another time.”

Randolph furrowed his brow. “I see.”

“But no, not blind luck.”

“Then we have a problem in the conduct of our operations.”

“Not one that others would uncover,” Kaileigh said. “It’s that brain of his.”

Steel bristled.

“It’s of major significance to me,” Randolph said.

“I’m in,” Kaileigh said, interrupting them. “I’m willing to do this as long as I have a way out if I don’t like it.”

“Of course,” Randolph said, though Steel detected for the first time that, if not lying, he was at least stretching the truth. “Excellent. Excellent!”

Randolph must have given some signal, though Steel did not see it. Reddie Long entered the room carrying two thick documents, one bearing Steel’s legal name, the other with Kaileigh’s.

“You may read through these agreements now, at your leisure. Once you’ve signed them, we can discuss your first…assignment.”

Steel turned directly to the final page of the document, pulled out a pen, and signed it without reading a word.

Kaileigh looked at him as if he’d committed high treason.

“What?” he said. “I’m in. In is in. A contract is not going to change that, and honestly, I don’t want to know what it says. It’ll just freak me out.”

Kaileigh began reading the first page. She glanced up at Randolph, over at Steel, and then turned to the last page. She signed.

“You are now, by signing these documents, sworn to secrecy. It is a secrecy not to be taken lightly. Federal charges can and will result if any of what you learn or are told, going forward, were ever to leak. Do we understand one another?”

Both kids nodded.

Reddie Long collected the documents like there was a fire in the room. A moment later he was gone.

“Welcome to the Program,” Randolph said.

For the next few weeks, Steel and Kaileigh found themselves living double lives. To their new friends and teammates, they were Third Form students with busy schedules. To Mr. Randolph, DesConte, Reddie Long, and a limited number of other students, they were the latest recruits into the Program.

There was a great deal to learn, and the instruction often came after the second curfew check at 11 p.m. They would take the tunnels to the chapel and then sneak across to Randolph’s house and sometimes stay as late as 1 a.m.

Confronted by Verne about the late-night sojourns, Steel could tell him only that he was being hazed by upperclassmen and that any report to the faculty would get him into big trouble. Verne accepted the explanation—rumors were rampant among Third Form students about the existence of secret societies and clubs, and all were eager to be invited into one or more of the groups. Only now did those rumors begin to make sense to Steel: stories had been invented to counter the truth of the Program; the administrators had figured out a way to create so much speculation about what was going on at Wynncliff that if the truth ever surfaced, it would be discounted along with the dozen other stories circulating around. “It’s a school for student spies.” Oh, sure.

As the Halloween weekend approached—Friday afternoon through Sunday—Steel grew increasingly nervous about the exact nature of the assignment. On the Thursday night before the break, he and Kaileigh were due at Randolph’s for a final briefing. By prior agreement, they left their dorms early and entered the tunnels. Steel led Kaileigh in a new direction: toward the library instead of the chapel.

“Where are we going?” she questioned.

“Someplace we can talk,” he said.

They traveled another fifty yards in the tunnel before Steel stopped at a ladder.

“The science lab,” he said.

They climbed the ladder and settled into a utility room, much like the one in the basement of the administration building. He switched off the lights so no one would know the direction they’d come from.

“What do you think about the Program?” he asked.

“I’ve wanted to talk to you so bad,” she said. “It’s almost like—”

“They’re keeping us apart to make sure we don’t talk too much.”

“Yes!”

“Do you have any clue what we’re supposed to be doing in Boston?” he asked.

“No. You?”

“Not really. Randolph has me memorizing all sorts of scientific stuff. Tons of it. He quizzes me on it. And they’ve created this kind of fake identity thing—my
role
, as they call it—which makes me think it’s going to be weird. I’m supposed to be poor and I’ve been in a lot of trouble.”

“Same here! Exact same thing! They’ve got me talking like trailer trash and working on Spanish, Farsi, and Russian.”

“Farsi and Russian?” He tried to think that through. “Oh! And he had me memorize hotel floor plans, city maps, and stuff like that. You think we’re going to steal something?”

“I didn’t think we ever actually break the law, right? We just listen and stuff like that. So that doesn’t make sense. How do those two things fit together?”

“Got me.” He wished he could see her face in the dark. “What about Penny?”

“He knows something is up.”

“You think?” he asked.

“Yeah. He’s got to. We’ve barely talked to him since, you know, that night. And who knows what he sees on those cameras of his? He could know more than we do. I thought about telling Randolph about him.”

“But you didn’t,” Steel said, seriously concerned.

“I’m not busting Penny,” she said. “He helped us out a ton. And I like him, and they’d probably expel him for what he’s done. And besides, I think he’ll be recruited at some point. He must have been invited here because of how techie he is.”

“I suppose,” Steel said.

“You don’t think he’ll get us into trouble, do you?”

“I think we should both agree on a story to tell him. Our being hazed by a secret society works the best. I think we just tell him that and apologize for the last couple of weeks.”

“I suppose.”

“Are you scared?” he asked.

“About tonight? A little, I guess. Or worked up is maybe more like it. It just all seems so—”

“Weird?”

“Yeah.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s gotta be important. Otherwise they wouldn’t have rushed us.”

“He made it sound like they needed us. Like the older kids couldn’t do it.”

“We’ll find out, I suppose.” Steel reached out and took her hand. She squeezed his strongly. “We’re cool, right?”

“I’m glad that whatever it is, I’m doing it with you,” she said.

“Yeah, me too,” he said.

“A good team.”

“Yeah.” He waited a second, his heart beating so strongly he wondered if she could hear it. “So here we go.”

Randolph paced his study as if rehearsing what to say, Kaileigh and Steel facing him in uncomfortable chairs. He had a projector on the table and a screen set up in the corner. He stole a look at them several times, causing Steel to wonder if he’d reconsidered allowing them to participate.

“How do you feel?” he finally asked, turning to face them.

“Fine,” Kaileigh said.

“Ready,” Steel answered.

“That’s the spirit, Mr. Trapp,” Randolph said.

He rattled off something in a foreign language at Kaileigh, and she answered in the same tongue, sounding far more foreign than Randolph.

“Brilliant,” he said. “Excellent, Ms. Augustine.”

“Whatever it is, you can tell us,” Steel said.

Randolph found it in himself to smile openly. “You think?”

Steel nodded.

“I think so too,” Randolph said. “Very well. Mr. Trapp, I’m assuming you will remember everything I’m about to tell you. Ms. Augustine, you may not take notes. I’ll ask you to put the pen down. Thank you. Mr. Trapp can remind you if necessary. Do I have your attention?” This last bit was directed at Steel, who nodded.

He faced Steel and spoke slowly.

“The operation will be this weekend during our Halloween break, as I told you before. We…our government…is not the only one that understands the usefulness of younger partners—operatives such as yourself….”

Steel loved being called that.

“We have gained intel—
intelligence
—that there are secrets being passed between the Iranians and Russians. The nature of these secrets is unknown, but we never leave such things to chance. As it happens, the exchange is to be made between two minors such as yourselves—the daughter of the Iranian deputy ambassador, and the son of a Russian consulate general.” He tripped a remote control, and the photographs of a boy and a girl appeared on the screen. “Memorize these faces, Mr. Trapp.” A moment later he changed slides. “This is the Armstrad Hotel, downtown Boston, and the temporary residence of the Iranian ambassador. The embassy is currently undergoing renovations, thereby making the ambassador’s hotel suite foreign territory and therefore off-limits to our law enforcement or military. We believe the exchange will take place inside the hotel suite, out of reach of U.S. law. Are you with me, Mr. Trapp?”

Steel nodded, saying, “It’s like the hotel suite is part of Iran, as long as they’re in there.”

“Precisely.”

“So we can’t do anything to stop what goes on.”

“Exactly.”

“Including them giving each other stuff.”

“And by using minors,” Randolph continued, “they further tie our hands. The ambassador’s family members are, like the ambassador himself, immune from prosecution. Even if we caught them, we couldn’t do anything.”

“That’s why you’ve had me learn some Farsi and Russian,” Kaileigh said. “But how does it work?”

“Very good, Ms. Augustine! Yes, indeed. The children are being used as cutouts—that is, they very likely have no idea what it is they are exchanging. We assume they will meet at a Halloween party, a fund-raiser scheduled in the hotel on Friday night by a law firm. It offers them good cover. They will proceed to the suite and make the exchange. From there on the information is protected by immunity and they are untouchable.”

“Then…what can you do?” Steel asked.

“It’s what
you
can do,” Randolph answered. “The two of you.”

“We’re going to take their places,” Kaileigh said. “The phrases I’ve been working on…I’m speaking to someone…who? A guard maybe. Someone who can let me in to—”

“The suite!” Steel said. “I’ve memorized the hotel plans.”

“You see?” Randolph said. “You two are the perfect choices.”

“But if I’m to imitate the girl, I’ll need—”

“To meet her,” Randolph said. “To hear her speak, to see her move. That’s correct. That will happen at the party. From there, the two of you will change costumes—we have reliable intel that the Russians have ordered an Aladdin costume for the boy, and the Iranians a Jasmine for the girl. All of that has been worked out. The complication comes from what we call a ‘wild card.’ That is, specifically, the possible involvement of a third party. There’s a group of delinquents working the Boston hotels—stealing from guests. We know that this group has targeted the fund-raiser I spoke of. They’ll be in attendance Friday night as well. If we’re to prevent them from interfering, which will be the responsibility of Mr. DesConte and Mr. Long, we need to identify them
ahead
of time. This is the first leg of your assignment. Early Friday evening you will attempt to identify the woman in charge and follow her to get a look, if possible, at her team. If that isn’t possible then you’ll follow her operatives to the Armstrad and identify them there. The point being, we must know who her operatives are if we’re to stop them. If they were to steal the information—which we believe will be contained on a thumb drive—we could have an international incident.”

“You mean
we
are stealing some thumb drive?” Kaileigh said, objection in her voice. “I thought you said we didn’t do that kind of thing, that the older kids did that kind of thing, and only when necessary.”

“It’s okay,” Steel said, eager for the assignment.

“Once the party has begun, your assignment, Ms. Augustine, will be to assist Mr. Trapp in getting into the suite. Mr. Trapp’s assignment is to examine and memorize the contents of the thumb drive, identify the purpose of its contents, and to advise me of such. If there is to be any intervention, it will, indeed, be left to other operatives.”

“Victor and Reddie,” Steel said under his breath.

“You needn’t concern yourselves with anything beyond your immediate assignments. You are well aware of the rules. We’ve discussed them in detail.”

“Yes, sir,” they said, nearly in unison.

“If we had other operatives available, believe me, they would—”

“It’s because of our size, and her language, and my memory,” Steel said, interrupting. “These other kids…we can pass for them.”

“Let’s hope so,” Randolph said, “or the operation is doomed before it begins.”