Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,72
waited with the others while her purchases were examined for contraband—she half expected someone to say something about all the thumb drives, but no one did; they didn’t even give more than a cursory look inside the little white plastic bag from the computer store. She was really glad when they sent her off to the main building.
Muirin tailed her all the way to her room, chattering about nothing; as soon as they were out of sight of teachers and proctors, she held out her hand and Spirit passed her the white bag. Muirin blew her a kiss, and dashed off with it. Spirit got into her room and dumped her purchases on the bed.
A red sweater, some candy, a lipstick, two books, and a magazine. Everything but the magazine had been on sale, but she’d always been used to shopping carefully. Before.
She frowned and picked up yet another thumb drive. She hadn’t bought this. And it wasn’t anything like the thumb drives Muirin had bought. For one thing, this wasn’t in a blister pack. For another, it was in a brushed-metal case, not plastic. There was a little logo and a single word across the bottom just above the indicator light. IRONKEY.
Maybe it was already in the bag at the computer store. But she’d handed the whole bag to Muirin. It must have fallen out. If so, it was too late to return it, and there was no way to tell them she had it. Well, she was too tired to look at it now. She tossed it in a drawer and went to bed.
She woke to someone banging on her door; blearily she opened her eyes and saw it was just two minutes before her alarm was going to go off. “What?” she yelled, fighting her way out of the blankets.
Kelly opened the door and stuck her head in. “Special Assembly before class, in the Auditorium,” the Proctor said, and closed the door again.
Special Assembly?
She dressed with a little more care than usual—this might be a kind of inspection, and she didn’t want to take the chance on failing it; that left her a little behind, and the others must have already gotten breakfast, because there wasn’t any sign of them in the Refectory. She ate in a hurry—everyone else was bolting their food, so she figured that was a sign she’d better, too. The cold air hit her like a hammer as she went outside and hurried toward the Auditorium. And it was dark. She couldn’t help but think that if there was going to be an ambush by the bad guys, this would be a good time for it; either while they were all in the open, scuttling to the Auditorium, or even better, once they were all in the Auditorium.
When she got there, she got another surprise; no “free seating” this time, they all had assigned seats in alphabetical order. A proctor consulted a list and sent her to hers just as Doctor Ambrosius came out on the stage, and the house lights dimmed.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, casting his gaze around the room. “Some of you are already aware of our generous Alumnus donor, although you don’t yet know what he is giving us. I won’t spoil his surprise, but I will tell you this. After the incursion of those unwelcome visitors last week, Oakhurst put out a call for help, and the generous Oakhurst family has responded. We will be receiving both visitors and new residents today; I would like you to be on your best behavior and prove to them that the quality of Oakhurst students has not diminished over the years.” He cleared his throat, and scanned the audience again. “We will be playing host to students who graduated and went on to greatness, experts in protection and defense both arcane and—well, given the level of technology involved, I could not in good conscience call it mundane, so let us just say arcane and physical.” He smiled, grimly. “And let those who oppose Oakhurst beware.”
Well, everyone was surely awake by now. Spirit found herself sitting bolt upright in her seat.
“Now, if I may, let me introduce our benefactors: the CEOs of Breakthrough Adventure Systems and graduates of Oakhurst, Mr. Mark Rider and Master Theodore Rider. The microphone is yours, Mark.”
Astonished applause broke out across the room as two men in suits so perfectly tailored to them that they looked like second skins strode across the stage and took over the microphone