Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead - By Jason Henderson Page 0,12

believed he had something to offer. But would he be working with the Polidorium if he was no longer attending school nearby? Did they value him enough—and that was the way he was thinking of it, as though he were a really great car—to find some excuse to keep him around if he wasn’t in school here? The answer had to be absolutely not. No organization was going to just take in a fourteen-year-old. If the school was gone, or he was gone from the school, he was as good as gone to the Polidorium.

“You’re not my parents,” Alex said when he finally decided on his line of reasoning. “I’ll decide if I’m at that school.”

Sangster clawed at his own forehead. “If the Scholomance is serious, serious enough to try to get rid of Alex, then he’s important to our mission.”

Armstrong turned to Carreras. “As much as I hate to say it, I agree. Look, they’re already gonna try to kill him every chance they get, so that’s nothing new.”

“Yeah,” said Alex brightly. “That’s nothing new.”

Armstrong seemed to think of a new angle. “Could this be about Montrose?”

“What’s Montrose?” Alex asked.

“That would be the man behind Chatterbox,” Sangster said. “And I have no idea if it’s related or not.”

Carreras nodded and finally said, “We need to find out what this Voice is up to. Alex stays with the school—wherever the school is.”

Alex opened his hands, Whaa? “I just said it’s my decision. . . .”

“Very good, sir,” Sangster said.

The supplies Sangster and Alex had to get were actually bigger than the van: a trailer full to the brim of cots and bedding, which they loaded from the dock of a store warehouse in Secheron with the help of various workmen brought in at Otranto’s behest.

When they left the warehouse, Alex saw that they were headed out of town. “This isn’t the way back to Village Hall,” he observed as Sangster drove.

“We’re not going back to Village Hall,” said the instructor.

“Where are we going?”

“Someplace safe.”

Twenty minutes later the van fell in line behind the caravan of buses pulling down a long, manicured drive that Alex recognized. He read the stone sign as they passed it on the driveway.

“LaLaurie School for Girls,” he said thoughtfully. “Of course.”

“Our sister school. It’s temporary,” Sangster said, “just long enough to see what kind of damage the fire caused and get us back open. But this was the only place available.”

Sangster drove around the buses and parked in the circular drive at the front of the mansionlike building. Alex blinked in wonder at a strange vision. A line of ten or so old-fashioned oil lanterns threaded out the entrance, held aloft by women and girls in uniform coming down the wide front steps. The light from the lamps danced across the courtyard and his heart leapt at the warmth of the gesture.

As Alex got out of the van, he paused.

Standing on the steps before him, holding up a lantern like a beacon at sea, was Minhi Krishnaswami.

“Welcome,” she said.

Chapter 4

Javi and the other RAs were drafted into the service of handing out bedrolls and pillows, and the boys all fell into line. Alex, Sid, and Paul took the bedding that was offered and walked, dazed and exhausted, following like ants into the gymnasium of LaLaurie.

They trudged in silence up into the building. Alex had thought previously that LaLaurie was like “Glen-arvon with more flowers,” and now, as his shoes echoed on the tile floor and he and Paul caught sight of one or two girls looking past doors that led up into stairwells and private rooms, LaLaurie reminded him of “Glenarvon except not on fire.”

“We are in foreign territory now, mate,” said Paul.

“Did you get to talk to Minhi?” Alex asked.

“Just for a moment,” Paul responded. “She had to get the hot chocolate.” Minhi had led the first group inside while Alex and his friends got into line.

Minhi was their friend already. She had come into their lives like one of the manga characters she loved, bending back Bill Merrill’s ear to stop a fight that Alex actually would have won anyway. She had defused a violent situation and introduced herself as “Minnie-with-an-h,” and they had instantly liked her. Besides all that, she had loaned Sid a stack of books. And then she and Paul had been kidnapped by vampires. The time in captivity had brought her close to Paul, and over the past month the gang—Paul, Sid, Minhi, and Alex, the four who shared the