Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,69

students looked bored and pretended to take notes. Burke had wandered off to look at something else. Muirin said, “You’ll loan me your notes, right?” then vanished into the gift shop. When they all caught up with her she looked very smug indeed.

The same Oakhurst cars that had picked them up at the train station showed up to get them at the entrance to the museum. Elizabeth attached herself to their group, which Spirit really didn’t mind, although Muirin rolled her eyes a little. Once they were all inside the thing, which was an SUV with an Oakhurst crest in Oakhurst colors that was big enough to need its own ZIP code, Mr. Krandal turned around to look at the five of them in the back.

“Here,” he said brusquely, handing Elizabeth, Loch, Burke, and Spirit sealed envelopes in Oakhurst gold. “Obviously you can’t get a snack or shop without money.” He looked pointedly at Muirin, who had not gotten an envelope. He turned back too quickly to realize she wasn’t looking disappointed, she was smirking.

Spirit opened her envelope. There was fifty dollars in tens in it. She blinked. Her parents hadn’t ever given her very much money at one time, but she knew she had to be in the minority there, because plenty of kids her age had jobs after school. This was probably like the change after paying for coffee to Muirin and Loch.

“Remember, you can’t get anything Oakhurst doesn’t approve of,” Krandal said without turning around. “No Victoria’s Secret. No violent video games.”

“Yes, Mr. Krandal,” Spirit said. Muirin elbowed her and whispered, “Ladies’ Room.” Spirit nodded. Was there anything she could buy for fifty dollars that might be useful against whatever it was that was after them all? A gun? There were guns at the school, and knives, and even real swords. This was all so crazy.…

Maybe she should just … try not to worry about it. After all, the teachers were all being proactive now, and presumably they had a lot more experience at this than the kids did. And this business of Breakthrough coming to Radial … Doctor Ambrosius was certainly happy to see them. Maybe this was a kind of cover for the Alumns to come back and join Doctor Ambrosius! Despite the fact that those Shadows were Alumns …

But no, Doctor Ambrosius surely wouldn’t be that easily fooled.

She worried about that all the way to the mall. The cars dropped them all off, with orders to meet at the entrance where they’d been left at three. Ms. Holland stayed with them; the other two teachers drove off with the cars.

Seeing as it was Ms. Holland who was with them, Spirit worried that she and Muirin wouldn’t be able to get rid of her, but the teacher immediately latched on to Loch. Muirin grabbed Spirit’s arm and babbled something about the Ladies’ Room and hustled her off.

Of course they didn’t go that far, since there was absolutely no one following them. Instead, Muirin virtually hauled her into a hole-in-the-wall computer store.

A computer store?

The guy behind the counter was somehow geeky and gothy at the same time. He absolutely lit up to see two girls coming into his otherwise empty shop. He opened his mouth—

Muirin cut him off. “I’m Desdemona. Have you got my thumb drives?”

The guy closed his mouth and went all wistful. “Yeah, I do. Here you go.” He shoved over six sealed packages of tiny thumb drives marked down to ninety-nine cents. Muirin picked one up and looked at it critically. She looked up and beamed.

“Brilliant!” she said. “I can’t tell they were ever opened!”

The guy flushed and looked pleased. “I get a lot of practice.” Muirin pulled out a charge card and shoved it across the counter at him. Spirit was staggered at the number he rang up, but Muirin didn’t bat an eye. “I don’t suppose I could have your number?” he asked.

Spirit expected Murr-cat’s usual scathing response, but for once Muirin surprised her. “You are totally my type, but Oakhurst is practically a convent,” she said apologetically. “That’s why I needed you to get my stuff this way.”

The guy sighed. “Well, you’ve got to graduate some time, right? And I’ll probably still be here when you do.”

Muirin smiled at him sweetly, and took the bag with the drives in it. She left the store, Spirit following.

“What—” Spirit said.

Muirin shoved the bag at her. “These are yours until we get back to the school. If anyone asks, you got them to