Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,73
that Doctor Ambrosius had relinquished. One was older than the other by at least a decade, dark-haired and powerful, though he could not by any stretch of the imagination be called handsome; he was the one who took over the mic. The other was blond, tall, and catlike; the way he moved gave Spirit the impression that he never stirred an inch without planning every step in advance.
“Good morning, fellow dwellers in the halls of Oakhurst,” the older man said genially. He had a deep, gravelly voice. “I’ll be sure and make this short enough so that you don’t get bored, and stretch it out long enough that you get to skip your first classes.”
There was a scattering of laughs. Spirit frowned a little as she watched and listened. The man reminded her of something or someone—but what, or who? He spoke without any “ums” or hesitations, however, so he was obviously used to speaking for an audience.
“I’m Mark Rider. Some of you may already know Breakthrough, or at least, know our products. Thanks to Oakhurst, when Teddy and I graduated from here, we had everything we needed to make ourselves into as big a success as we wanted—and we dreamed big.” Rider nodded a little at the murmur of appreciation. “We were grateful. So today we’re bringing that success back to the people that gave it to us. Now, what the outside world will know is this: Breakthrough is moving its HQ to Radial and entering into an historic partnership with Oakhurst Academy. We’ll be building and installing a brand-new, state-of-the-art computer facility here, and Oakhurst will be adding game design courses to the curriculum. Those of you with free time will be invited to become beta testers for Breakthrough, and for any of you who want a job with us after you graduate Oakhurst, or after you graduate from college, it will be there waiting for you.”
There was an outburst of wild applause at that, and Spirit could hear people whispering excitedly to each other. Mark Rider held up his hand. His class ring glinted brightly.
“Of course, that’s just what the ordinary world will see. But—as we all know—Oakhurst transcends the ordinary world. The first skirmishes of the war we’ve anticipated for so long, the war that Doctor Ambrosius trained us for, have broken out. Here. The enemy has come to the place where the next generation of magicians is trained and hardened. Obviously, his plan is to kill our future.” Rider’s face lost that professional smile. “We aren’t going to let him. And we’ve come back to Oakhurst to make sure that our side wins this thing. Our first order of business is to make sure that Oakhurst Academy is safer than the Vice President’s ‘undisclosed location.’”
There was a nervous laugh. Rider put his smile back on again. “This is not our first rodeo, kids. Breakthrough has security on its campus that would make the Secret Service bleed with envy, and we’re going to duplicate it here. We’ll be putting in new protections, and we’ve designed a whole new set of computer games to help train you—the world’s first Magic Simulator. The time is at hand; and when the enemy shows up for the first real battle, Oakhurst will be ready!”
More cheering.
“Of course this means that your classes will be changing; some will be dropped, others added. For the time being, we’ll keep up your academic and career classes—my hope is that we won’t have to change to full combat training for you, that we Alumni will be able to handle things and keep you safe, and this will all be over in time for me to welcome the next generation of Oakhurst graduates to my Developer Teams.” He grinned. His teeth were extremely white; somehow they looked like wolf teeth. “So now I’ll introduce to you some of my staff and family who will be the ones implementing that change. First, my lovely wife, Madison Lane-Rider, who will be replacing Ms. Lindsay Holland.”
He made a little beckoning gesture as Spirit blinked in surprise at the abrupt announcement that Ms. Holland was—gone. A supermodel-beautiful red-haired woman in a tailored suit moved across the stage in a catwalk strut, giving a professional smile to the audience, and ended up at Mark Rider’s side. She didn’t take Mark’s hand, nor did they kiss, which Spirit had half expected. She took a pose with all her weight on one foot, one hand on one hip, the other relaxed at her