Fracture

When she looked up, she saw Isabelle was waiting for her to say something. Trying to appear calm, Allie cleared her throat, but could only manage one word.

‘How…?’

‘The guards don’t patrol any more,’ Isabelle said simply. ‘They hide and watch. They communicate using a new system Raj brought in. It’s changed everything.’

Even as Allie absorbed this bit of information – nodding like a normal person – in her mind the same words were circulating on a vicious loop.

… watched all the way. You were watched all the way. You were watched…

Isabelle was still talking but Allie only barely heard her. ‘You must have seen them using microphones – they have tiny earpieces. It’s the first technology we’ve allowed on campus in more than five years. It has changed the way we work.

‘Very few people know this, Allie – the Night School instructors know about the tech but they don’t know about the change in instruction for the guards. Only Raj and I and his guards know. And now you.’

‘But… I don’t… Why…?’ Allie wanted to ask why Isabelle had her followed. Why no one had warned her this might happen. Why she’d been left so exposed when she’d trusted Isabelle to look out for her.

The headmistress thought she was asking something else. ‘We haven’t allowed technology – computers, phones, anything – since Nathaniel hacked our system five years ago. He gained access to all our files, student records, instructor information, Night School plans, guards’ names and addresses, schedules – everything.’

‘So why change now?’ Allie asked dully. She wasn’t sure she cared. But it seemed the obvious question.

‘A recent Cimmeria graduate is a tech designer – young and innovative. He says this system is hack-proof. And after what happened with Jo and you… We knew things couldn’t continue as they were. We had to find a better system. That’s why the guards patrol less frequently. That’s why you don’t see them as much. They’re trying a different tactic. And so far it’s working.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Allie searched Isabelle’s face for clues that she’d done this out of malice, but all she found was weariness.

‘No one knows. And I’d like to keep it that way. Until we know who the spy is, I need you to promise me you will tell no one about this. And I do mean no one – not Carter, not Rachel. No one.’

Allie felt blindsided. Isabelle was asking her to betray her friends. The people who’d got her through the last few months. Who’d stuck by her when she’d melted down after Jo’s death. Who’d been dragged into hell because of her family.

‘I can’t do that,’ Allie said. Isabelle’s breath caught but Allie didn’t give her a chance to speak. ‘I’m sorry, Isabelle. I just can’t. Those days are over. I’ll decide who I trust from now on.’

‘You could be making a very big mistake…’ Isabelle said. But then the first student walked into the room, glancing at them curiously as he made his way to his desk.

Her eyes alight with disapproval, Isabelle straightened. But when she spoke her tone was as calm and professional as if they’d just been discussing Allie’s marks.

‘I need you to come to my office after classes today so we can discuss this further.’

‘I can’t.’ Allie spoke without thinking. ‘I’ve got a meeting with…’

Her voice trailed off. She was supposed to meet the others to talk about their plans. She couldn’t tell Isabelle that… could she?

Isabelle’s reply was sharp. ‘“Can’t” is not a word I want to hear from you right now, Allie. I’ll expect you there.’

As the headmistress strode away, her shoulders stiff, Allie sighed. The others would have to meet without her.

Still, when her classes ended that day, Allie didn’t head straight to Isabelle’s office. Instead, she intercepted Rachel in the hallway of the classroom wing.

‘Help me,’ Allie said. ‘I have big problems and I need you to solve them.’

‘Have you been doing calculus again?’ Rachel asked sympathetically.

‘It’s worse than that.’ Allie lowered her voice. ‘It’s Isabelle. And other things.’

‘Boy things?’ Rachel said hopefully.

When Allie nodded, Rachel’s warm brown eyes lit up. ‘At last! Interesting problems worth discussing.’ She steered Allie down the corridor. ‘Walk this way. The doctor is in.’

As they picked their way through hallways teeming with students, Allie spoke in quick quiet tones. She told her the basics about her meeting with Isabelle, leaving out the bit about the new security system and the spying it involved. That could wait.

‘She didn’t tell you anything else useful?’ Rachel asked. ‘Like where’s Eloise? And who else do they suspect?’

Allie shook her head. ‘Not much. We ran out of time. Anyway, she was more about the shouting and the threatening.’

‘That’s always nice.’ Smoothly, Rachel dodged a junior student running straight at her. ‘Everyone likes a bit of threatening.’

Watching the boy run laughing back to his friends, Allie envied his freedom to just be a kid. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt that innocent and happy.

‘Totally,’ she said, her tone weary.

It had been a long day already, and she still had to go and talk to Isabelle again. Allie pressed her fingertips against her forehead.

‘Are you sure she didn’t say anything else bad?’ Rachel watched her with concern. ‘You look like someone punched you. Did she punch you?’

‘No one hit me,’ Allie said. ‘Not, like… physically, anyway. Look, I should go…’

‘Oh no, you don’t. We haven’t talked about boys yet.’

Ignoring Allie’s protests, Rachel hustled her across the first-floor landing, out of the classroom wing and into the main building where classic statues stood in perpetual graceful postures. They slipped behind a statue of a young man with a ridiculously frilly jacket that jutted out over his behind, and sat down on a stone bench.

Tucked away in the quiet nook, they were hidden from view.

Rachel leaned back against the wall with a contented sigh. ‘This is my happy place. Now. Tell me.’

Her voice halting at first but strengthening as she went along, Allie told her about her talk with Carter, deciding she felt only friendship-love for him, and then what happened with Sylvain.

‘I blew it… I blew it… again.’ Leaning forward, she pressed her hot forehead against the cold marble curve of the statue’s heel. ‘Oh, Rachel. Why do I feel like this? Why is it all so confusing?’

Rachel’s voice was gentle. ‘Allie, Carter was your first love. The first one is always the worst.’

‘Oh, but why did he kiss me?’ Allie said, miserably. ‘It made everything so much worse.’

‘It sounds like you’re not the only one having trouble getting over it.’

Allie couldn’t argue with that.

‘What are you going to do about Sylvain?’ Rachel said. ‘What does your heart tell you to do?’

Allie sagged back on the bench. ‘My heart is telling me to find out who helped Jo’s killers and just stay away from all boys until then.’

Rachel looked thoughtful. ‘You can’t use Jo’s death as an excuse not to make decisions about your own life – you know that, right?’

Allie blinked at her. ‘I’m not… am I?’

‘Aren’t you?’ Rachel asked.

‘Allie Sheridan!’

They both heard the voice at the same time. Someone on the landing was calling her. But no one could see them in their hiding place.

‘Who is it?’ Allie hissed.

‘I don’t know. I’ll take a look.’ Rachel climbed up to look over the statue’s flying coat-tails. Standing on her toes, she craned her neck to see. Then she looked back at Allie wide-eyed. ‘Jules. Mayday. Mayday. Dive. Dive.’