The Academy - First Days (38 page)

“I mean
she’s absolutely clean. We’ve got a birth certificate and a social security
card, and even those are sketchy. That’s it.”

That didn’t
sound right. “Medical records?”

“None. Not
one. She’s got a shot record on file with the schools she’s been with, but the
corresponding doctors don’t have her on file. She’s not on health insurance.
They don’t claim her on their taxes. She’s even missed every school photo day
since kindergarten.”

Mr.
Blackbourne’s lips parted. “Do you mean--?”

“She’s a
ghost,” he said. “We’re double checking on the birth certificate, but our first
answer on that has come back as negative. It’s a fake. Your bird doesn’t
exist.”

Mr. Blackbourne
fell back against the booth seat, his palms resting on the table top and his
eyes wide. “Could she be… I mean, could she have been kidnapped?”

“We want to
check DNA from the family and find out. I’d like to know before conducting a goose
chase. But if the DNA checks out and she’s theirs, then…”

“I know,”
Mr. Blackbourne said. He didn’t like to interrupt someone older than himself
but he couldn’t help it. It was too much to say it out loud. A ghost bird was
rare among the Academy.

Ghost birds,
or dogs, were kids without much history to their names. It wouldn’t take much
to erase their existence completely. A slipped fold of bills across a school
secretary’s desk could erase a transcript. Medical records and federal records
were complicated. Without a medical history, a dental record, or a police
record, it wouldn’t take much to make Sang Sorenson completely invisible.

She was
priceless. 

That also
meant that if she qualified, Academy teams would be hounding her to join with
them. This is what Phil meant when he said he hated to bring this up. He
wouldn’t want to see Kota’s or the others’ hopes for Sang dashed when another
team swooped in and took her.

They were
already at a disadvantage for being an all dog team. The Academy rarely gave
outright orders to any team families, mostly only strong suggestions. To go
against a strong suggestion though, like not letting a girl into an all-male
team, often meant adding heavily to a team’s financial and favor debt.

“Does anyone
else know?” Phil asked.

Mr.
Blackbourne was about to answer, but their food arrived. This meant following
decorum and eating in silence as if they were hungry. The anticipation of
countless questions etched in their faces as they forced themselves to swallow
fries and burgers.

“No,” Mr.
Blackbourne admitted finally when he’d cleared a reasonable half of his plate.
“There’s no one else working with our team right now. No contractors, either.
Your team and mine only.”

The older
man nodded. “That’ll keep her a secret for now, but only for so long. This
recent incident didn’t help.”

Mr.
Blackbourne nodded. Sang’s involvement in the fight nearly risked her Academy
career before she knew it existed, including her severe advantage they’d just
discovered. Luckily he had been able to talk Greg’s family out of a lawsuit or
pressing charges, but only with the promise that Sang could also press charges
for sexual assault and attempted murder. The fall over the balcony could have
killed her if she wasn’t trained, and most of the witnesses said Greg had
pushed her over, that along with several phone and security videos. With the
new information, he’d have to destroy them permanently now. It was a risk if
Greg’s parents changed their minds. They’d have no video proof.

“Which
reminds me,” Phil said. “She was taken to one of our hospital wings. X-rays,
you know…”

“I will
incur,” he said absently, reciting the familiar line for taking on Academy
family members’ financial and favor debts. Only official Academy members could
incur. He knew if he didn’t, his other team members would have done so later.
He simply wanted the matter closed now.

Phil nodded,
as if expecting this. “You haven’t taken a debt personally since you started
with us. You and Sean Green, the youngest ever to pay off both financial and
favor debt. Our youngest graduates ever for that matter.”

“I’m still
in the positive,” Mr. Blackbourne said. Academy debt meant little to him. He
could easily refill his accounts on his own. He would ensure his foothold in
the positive side for several years, possibly his entire life, by the end of
this school term. That is if he managed to get his team through this year at
public school without too many more incidents.

“You’ll have
to be more careful.”

Mr.
Blackbourne nodded, pushing his plate away. “I trust we can keep this between
our families?”

“You have my
word,” Phil said. “I can’t promise she won’t go unnoticed. Your team is
observed carefully, especially now that they’re readily exposed. She’s bound to
be detected by the others.”

“It’s a risk
we’ll take,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He didn’t begrudge anyone wanting to take on
Sang for their team. He still knew little about the girl himself. What he had
to go on was Kota and the others, who seemed determined to include her as part
of their family. He knew with their particular team, it was probably because of
her private family life. They’re team was built on broken family problems. He
suspected Sang was the same and thus why Kota was desperate to include her. He
wanted to save her from something. If they fully adopted her, they would have
to find out what the problems were and eliminate them.

Mr.
Blackbourne wasn’t sure if they realized she was also a potential future
candidate for official Academy membership.

And if that
was true, and she was qualified, he had to review the case of that other team
that had a group of dogs and a singular bird. He made a mental note to give the
team a call, but he wasn’t sure how to approach the group without alerting
others about Sang’s existence. He didn’t know them personally. Any Academy team
would be curious about a single bird a team didn’t want to share.

Phil
collected the check, pulling out cash and dropping the price of the meal, plus
a reasonable tip. The Academy was normally very generous, except when they were
trying to be forgettable. “I don’t suppose you’ll consider a merger.”

Mr.
Blackbourne’s eyebrows scrunched together. Merging teams? “You’re kidding.”

Phil
chuckled as he shoved the receipt into his wallet. “Don’t dismiss us old dogs.
Ours might be a little out dated but we’re a lot like your team. We already
work together. I think we’d get along well.”

“I’ll bring
it up at family meeting,” Mr. Blackbourne said, but he was pretty sure Kota and
the others would decline. They appreciated the Academy for what they could do
for them, and the promise that it held over their heads, but they were close
knit, like many of the individual teams. They wouldn’t like to merge without a
good reason. Larger groups meant it was harder for personalities to get along
with each other. Working indirectly with other teams on occasion wasn’t bad, as
both teams could go home at the end of the day. A true team was around each
other constantly, and you needed to be able to not just tolerate, but
appreciate your entire team’s company. “But to be honest, you’ll likely just
have to find your own ghost bird.”

Phil
laughed. Mr. Blackbourne knew it was highly unlikely someone Phil’s age would
be a ghost. Most men and women, by the time they were adults, got stuck with
college transcripts, marriage certificates and a number of federal incidences,
if not records. Tax records alone were nearly impossible to eliminate. The work
simply wasn’t worth it.

Phil got up
from the table and Mr. Blackbourne followed him out the front door. They stood
together, looking out into the parking lot, and beyond to the downtown
Charleston streets. Traffic was subdued. The ocean breeze picked up around
them, stirring fallen leaves to dance in the street.

“So,” Phil
said as he fished his keys from his pocket. “Are you adopting this little bird
into your family now?”

Mr.
Blackbourne had a lot to bring back to his team members, but he considered also
not telling them as well. He’d tell Sean Green, of course. He told him
everything. Together they would make a decision for the whole group.

But should
they expose Sang as a jewel, possibly to be negotiated with? He wondered how
close Kota, North and the others were to her. With Sang, they could eliminate
all their debts right now, including Kota’s and Gabriel’s, whose debts were the
most severe.

He had a
feeling, though, that Kota would resist this, and he was pretty sure the others
would, too. He recalled the way Kota held her after the fight, how the others
gazed at her during classes when they temporarily forgot they were being
watched. He knew they held hands through the hallway. He’d caught himself
gazing at her in that same way on occasion. Three years’ age difference wasn’t
much, but right now, it was two years too many for him to ever consider trying
to get close.

At least for
now.

No. It was
too late. Sang’s allure had already won them over. Sang was growing on his
family. If they wanted to keep her, they’d have to win her over, too. The
Academy was a choice. Your team was a choice. You could always leave, always
choose another team, or work alone at will.

If they
wanted to keep her, they’d have to earn her trust and loyalty. Mr. Blackbourne
knew the answer to whether they would try.

He could
already hear the resounding voices of his eight companions if he tried to ask
what he should do.

“I am
willing,” he told Dr. Roberts, repeating the lines that made her adoption
official. “And my team will incur.”

T
HE
E
ND

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Books by C. L. Stone

The Academy Series:

Introductions

First
Days

Friends vs. Family (Coming Soon!)

Other C. L. Stone Books:

Spice
God

Smoking
Gun

Turn the Page for a Sneak Peek of Book Three in The Academy
Series, Friends vs. Family. 

READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE NEXT BOOK IN THE ACADEMY SERIES

T
he
A
cademy

Friends vs. Family

Year One

Book Three

by C. L. Stone

S
ecret
L
ives

I dreamed a wind swept through, laced with fire and blinding
anyone that it came across. I was tied to a tree, unable to dodge it no matter
how I struggled. All I could do was wait what was coming for me. Part of me
felt like I deserved it.

“
S
ang?” a voice woke me from my dream.

I sat up in bed, shivering, confused. It was dawn. My alarm hadn’t
gone off yet.

A knock sounded at the door. “Sang?” my father called. “Are you
awake?”

Was something wrong? Was he going to the hospital with my mother?
I kicked back my blankets, my heart rattling hard against my half-asleep body.
My father never came to my door unless something was wrong. I swallowed back my
fears, smoothing my t-shirt on my body as it had crept up my stomach while I
was sleeping. When I was decent, I opened my bedroom door, peeking out.

My father loomed in the hallway, dressed in dark slacks, white
collared shirt and tie. A suit coat hung off of his arm. If he was going to the
hospital, he wasn’t going to be wearing that. He peered in at me with his dark
eyes.

I opened the door more, tilting my head. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m going on a business trip,” he said. He nodded toward the
stairwell, to the direction of his bedroom, where my mother was likely still
sleeping. “I won’t be back for a couple of days. I need to make sure you get
your mother to eat something while I’m gone. You know how she gets when she
doesn’t.”

I nodded. Since I was about nine years old, my mother had been
sick. She first went in for a sinus infection but came back weeks later with
bottles of morphine for an illness I wasn’t privileged to know about. She’d
never been the same since, traversing in and out of hospitals almost as often
as I went to school.