Nava, of course, was unreadable. ‘You just like the view.’ She reached for the padded cuffs holding Kyle’s ankles down and about forty centimetres apart. ‘Whatever had him is gone, and I suspect he has need of the analgesics. I did hit him quite hard.’
Courtney and Mitsuko began working on the other cuffs. Kyle decided he deserved some answers at this point. ‘Okay, so why did you hit me? With a saucepan, of all things.’
‘It was a good, solid saucepan. Solid metal with a bolted-on wooden handle. I figured it would knock you out.’
‘Yes, but–’
‘What’s the last thing you remember?’ Courtney asked.
‘Uh… I was doing a patrol. Heading toward your block. And…’ He frowned. Then his eyes widened. ‘That thing. It possessed me?’
‘Do you normally use Sleep and Agony spells on your captain?’ Nava asked.
‘I don’t know either of those.’
‘Apparently, it does.’
Kyle turned his gaze upon Courtney, who was now holding out a pill and a glass of water. ‘Are you–’
‘I’m unhurt. Okay, so now I know what Agony feels like, I’d be quite happy if I never got hit with that again, but Nava bashed your head in before that thing could do anything worse.’
‘It seems to like using someone with a close relationship to its victim to attack them,’ Mitsuko said. ‘If Nava hadn’t thought there might be a problem, the two of you might be in the same positions as Lambert and Candide Stenger.’
‘And now,’ Courtney said, turning to the foot of the bed, ‘Nava is going to explain how she knew.’
‘She’s not,’ Nava replied. ‘She doesn’t know how she knew.’ She held up a hand to forestall a response from Courtney. ‘When Lambert Stenger took us to see the artefact, I had this weird feeling of unease as soon as I entered the lab. I figured, okay, it’s a weird, black, somewhat ominous object with slightly disturbing carvings on it.’
‘But you’re never nervous or uneasy,’ Mitsuko said. ‘You’re not afraid of anything.’
‘Not true, but I’ll admit that I don’t react to threats the way most people do. Still, I felt weird around the artefact and I got the same feeling when you arrived with Kyle for the meeting, Courtney.’
‘That’s why you were so quiet?’ Mitsuko asked.
Nava nodded. ‘I didn’t connect the two feelings until the meeting was wrapping up. It was more intense in Suki’s apartment… And then it went away when Courtney and Kyle left. I theorised that I was somehow sensing the whatever it is. The spirit. So, I left and caught up with Courtney on the way to her apartment, sneaked in behind her, and waited. At best, I was going to end up being a voyeur.’
‘You know Invisibility?’ Kyle asked.
Another nod. ‘Turns out, I wasn’t just a pervert. That feeling came back when Kyle turned up, and when he started attacking Courtney, I got a saucepan from the kitchen. And the rest is history.’
‘So, where is it now?’
‘No idea. It’s not here. The feeling vanished not long after I knocked you out, but it could’ve gone anywhere. I can tell when it’s close to me, but I’ve no way of searching for it aside from searching the entire campus.’
‘And no way of doing anything to it if you found it,’ Courtney added. ‘Let’s hope Lambert Stenger or Chess can come up with something tomorrow, because right now, I think we’ve established that we have an unkillable, psychotic murderer walking the campus who could be pretty much anyone at any given time.’
235/5/22.
Nava was expecting it, so it did not come as a surprise when Darius spoke up as soon as she stepped through the door. ‘What is she doing here?’ Because she was expecting it, and because she did not care, Nava continued into the room and took a seat at the table.
‘Nava is here at my invitation,’ Mitsuko said, ‘and that of Courtney. She has a unique talent which makes her exceptionally useful in this current emergency. Therefore, if you can’t keep a civil tongue in your head, Vice President Darius Miller Fosse, you are not required here and can leave.’
‘What unique talent?’ Darius was not backing down entirely. His tone was sullen and a bit defensive.
‘For whatever reason, perhaps a quirk of genetics, Nava is sensitive to the entity we are dealing with. She can tell when it’s nearby.’
‘That’s–’
‘That saved my life last night,’ Courtney said. ‘We’re as sure of it as we are of anything in this case. We may also need her firepower to defeat this thing, so she’s staying and, as the president said, you can leave if that bothers you.’
‘As vice president, I need to know what’s happening,’ Darius stated, lifting his nose rather imperiously.
‘You could read the minutes,’ Mitsuko said flatly. Then she continued before he could protest. ‘Now, I did call this meeting in order to brief the student council on what’s happening, so let’s get started. We have established within a reasonable margin of surety that we are dealing with some form of immaterial entity. For want of a better word, a spirit. This spirit is capable of possessing people. It uses those people to commit crimes, namely murder by torture. Thus far, it has not actually succeeded in killing anyone, but its intent was clear.’
‘That’s a… quite fanciful story, President,’ Marie Royce said. ‘Are you quite sure about this? It sounds like the plot of a horror vid.’
‘Oddly enough, it possibly is the plot of a horror vid, but it’s also the best hypothesis matching the evidence we have. Mercia Reynell has examined the literature on mind control methods and can find nothing matching the symptoms experienced by the victims. However, there is a match to be found in literature. Mel, have you finished your analysis?’
‘Well, enough to say that the stories match the experiences of Kyle and Lambert Stenger,’ Melissa replied.
‘Wait,’ Naomi Himura said, ‘Kyle Maynard was taken
