Red Hourglass (6 page)

Training under Mr. Soo Onn brought out Mimi’s fierce desire to win. She started giving two hundred percent every session, and she was hard to beat. Her petite frame allowed her to be quick and agile, and she threw herself into every kick, strike, and move. The intensity of her exertions meant that she always had bruises on her arms, hands, legs, and feet.

Mimi’s sheer determination made her impossible to defeat some days. When she was sparring with other people, I noticed that she didn’t just hit her opponents, she struck at their very souls. It was like her mind overtook and conquered her opponents’ minds. Sometimes when we were sparring, her power was like the waves of the sea, washing over me again and again until the flame of my resolve to fight was extinguished. I realized that her physical prowess and mental strength made her lethal. If I wanted to win, I had to learn from her and build my mental strength.

Mimi and I were sparring one day and I started fighting as hard as I could. I was tired of losing. Every time she knocked me back, I went for her with everything I had.

Instead of being impressed, Mr. Soo Onn wanted more. “Janet, you call that fighting?! I want to see more force! More force!”

I landed a strike and a powerful kick, knocking Mimi off balance. Rage flared up in her eyes and she launched into a savage counterattack. She started kicking me in the stomach, hard. I began blocking her kicks with my forearms and stepping back. She was fast and relentless and I couldn’t get in any strikes or kicks. She used a sweeping kick to knock my legs out from under me. I crashed to the floor and she jumped on top of me.

“Stop! Mimi, STOP!” Mr. Soo Onn grabbed her right arm and pulled her off me before she could punch me in the face.

Mimi’s killer whale eyes were glowing with fury as she struggled with Mr. Soo Onn.

“That’s enough!” Mr. Soo Onn threw her down and pinned her to the mat with his foot. “Class dismissed! Go off Janet … now!”

That was the day I realized that Mimi had a problem with self-control. If she got mad enough, she couldn’t differentiate between training and real life. I remembered overhearing Ms. Ellen say that the White Queen found Mimi wandering around Chinatown in New York City. That’s all I knew about Mimi’s past. It was an unspoken rule that we didn’t talk about our old lives, but I guessed that Mimi’s rage gave her flashbacks of bad times on the streets.

* * *

I was a bit nervous around Mimi after the attack, but she intrigued me. She was either in full control and unbeatable, or out of control like the berserkers I was reading about in history class.

After our next training session, I asked her if she wanted to have lunch in the cafeteria. We got our food and sat down at a table by a window.

“Why is the sky blue?” Mimi asked, picking up her sandwich and looking out the window. Her sandwich was the size of her face.

“I don’t know.” The childlike question from this tiny killer whale made me more interested in her. I wanted to understand her like a specimen. “Why do you ask?”

“The sky and Earth separate humans from immortality. We’re only transient beings on this plane of existence.” Mimi sounded very Zen-like as she nibbled on her giant sandwich. “If we ever hope to understand more … about reality … we need to ask questions.”

I contemplated what she said. It sounded similar to something I’d read about Buddhism or Taoism. I figured she must’ve been reading too many books about Eastern metaphysics.

“Well, the sky is blue because it’s blue,” I said matter-of-factly. “We’re here because we’re here. Things are always changing, and it just doesn’t matter anyway. So why ask?”

“Out of all the animals, only humans have the self-awareness to question things. That’s why we must keep asking.”

She was quite a thinker, very philosophical, like a wise old sage. I had to give her that. I took a bite from the apple on my lunch tray.

“How long do you think it will take us to graduate?” I asked.

“I don’t know. … A few years, maybe? Or when an assignment comes?”

“Maybe we’re too young to go on missions now.”

“How old are you?” asked Mimi.

“Seventeen. You?”

“The same. I only got here a few months before you did. We’ll reach the
age of majority
when we’re eighteen … that’s what one of my teachers called it … and then we can sign legal documents. But we won’t be able to drink alcohol until we’re twenty-one. I think agents have to be able to go into bars and stuff.”

“That makes sense. Anyway, I suppose we still have a lot to learn before we’re ready to be agents. So in one, two, three,” I was counting with my fingers, “four … well, in three and three-quarters years I’ll be able to drink.”

“I don’t ever want to leave this place.” Mimi looked down at her plate.

“Why not?”

“This is my home now. The world outside is hard … and cruel.”

“Everyone has to leave home one day. When I finally left mine, it was the happiest day of my life.” I recalled being behind Max on his motorcycle, riding along the winding country roads. I loved my freedom.

“I don’t like killing.” Mimi put down her sandwich.

“Sometimes it’s the only solution. Bad people make the world uglier than it has to be. When we’re agents, we’ll be protecting the weak and helpless. And we both know that’s going to mean killing people who deserve to die.”

“Killing is bad,” said Mimi, chewing on her fingernails.

“Not always. Think about it. Not killing can be bad too.” I was trying to reassure her, but no one would ever convince me that my stepfather didn’t deserve to die.

“According to Buddhism, we should only defend ourselves, not kill.”

“Killing is part of self-defense. Sometimes it’s kill or be killed. Do you want to be killed?!”

“No,” said Mimi. She started picking at her sandwich as she digested my words. “I guess I’d have to kill anyone who was trying to hurt us.”

I couldn’t believe that I’d managed to convince Mimi that killing was the solution.
I must be learning something in that negotiation class
. I smiled to myself.

“Uh oh,” I said, “I’m late for the Art of Negotiation. I’ve gotta run. See you in yoga class tomorrow.”

“See you,” said Mimi as she stared up at the ceiling.

Ms. Jefferson

I ran up to the fourth floor and tried to slip quietly into room 401.

“Nice of you to join us, Janet,” said Ms. Jefferson. She was standing next to a whiteboard in the front of the room, tapping her dry-erase marker on her hand.

“Sorry,” I said. I got a huge whiff of perfume as I walked by Ms. Jefferson and went to a desk at the back of the class.

She was a tall blond woman with a supermodel body. She could’ve stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine.

“Janet, this isn’t the first time you’ve been late. If you want to stay in this class, it won’t happen again.”

“Yes Ms. Jefferson.”

“Well, class, let’s continue. As we’ve been discussing this semester, negotiation is about getting the best you can out of a deal. In order to negotiate effectively, you have to know what you want out of the deal in advance. In other words, you have to set goals for your negotiations before you start.” Ms. Jefferson wrote “GOALS” on the whiteboard with her black marker. “Tell me class, what are some goals that we can negotiate for?”

“Money,” said a student.

“Good,” said Ms. Jefferson. “We negotiate with our bosses for more money. What else?”

“Fame,” said another student.

“Yes. People negotiate with the public for fame and glory. In exchange for their attention and affection, you have to be a worthy performer. And in order to keep their attention, you need to keep performing and treat your audience with respect.”

“What about love?” asked another student. “How do we negotiate for that?”

“Ah, love,” smiled Ms. Jefferson. “This is perhaps the one thing everyone hopes for. But in order to get love, we have to give it freely.”

“Why?” the student asked.

“Love is either there or not. When we’re talking about love between two people, it’s more of an exchange than a negotiation per se. Both parties must be willing to give it freely. Whether we’re talking about love between friends, romantic partners, a parent and child, or whomever, there needs to be a two-way street that allows love to flow freely in both directions. That’s the best way to keep the love we find.” Ms. Jefferson put her marker on the ledge of the whiteboard and gave us a handout. “Now, let’s do some role-playing. Pair up and work through the examples on the sheet. Switch roles after each scenario so that everyone negotiates from both strong and weak positions.”

After class, I pondered what Ms. Jefferson said about love as I strolled through the hall.
Most people want more love, but they don’t usually give it freely
.

I heard heels trotting up behind me. Ms. Jefferson passed me in a hurry, giving me another whiff of her strong perfume. I looked at my watch. I was late again. I rushed down the stairs to my next class.

* * *

I went back to my room after dinner. As I was sitting at my desk doing homework, I glanced out the window. There was a long line of black limos snaking up to the mansion. I figured that the White family was having a party.

I curled up on my chaise longue to do my reading, but I couldn’t help thinking about Ms. Jefferson. She looked like she spent most of her free time working on her appearance. There was no ring on her ring finger, so I assumed she was single.
Had Ms. Jefferson successfully negotiated for everything she wanted out of life
?
With her looks and figure, why was she a teacher
?
Was she a former agent
? I couldn’t wait for my twenty-first birthday so I could go on my first mission.

I was sore from training and decided to take a shower before I went to sleep. As I fell into my comfy bed I hoped, like Mimi, never to leave this place—at least not for good.

* * *

There was a new girl in yoga class. She was wearing a light-green top and black yoga pants on her long, lean body. She had blond hair and an infectious smile. There was something fairy-like about her. It was as if she would grant three wishes and then magically float away on a puff of wind.

Mimi was also in the class. She was humming to herself as we did the poses.

Yoga was a relief from intense martial arts training. The stretching and breathing were exactly what my body needed to heal. I decided to integrate some of the exercises into my daily routine.

“Hi, I’m Janet,” I said to the new girl after class. “Are you new? I haven’t seen you before.”

“Oh, you’re the Red Hourglass! I heard my mom talking about you. My name’s Vanus.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes, the White Queen is my dearest mother.”

The White Princess was here before me. Unlike her mother, she was a free-spirited bohemian green fairy. I felt a twinge of envy.

“Are you going to the cafeteria?” I asked.

“No. I have to meet Ms. Jefferson for my private lessons.”

“How long have you been taking private lessons with her?”

“About a year now. She’s an excellent teacher … a great asset,” said Vanus. “Today’s session will be the last one this week. Her boyfriend picks her up every Friday morning. She spends the weekends with him.”

“She has a boyfriend?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen him waiting for her in his car.” Vanus leaned over and whispered in my ear, “He drives a big black Maserati.”

“Well, Ms. Jefferson’s definitely practicing the art of negotiation with her boyfriend.”

“She’s certainty got it right.” Vanus’s eyes twinkled and a big fairy smile spread across her face. “I’m off now. See you later.” She glided out the door.

I was even more curious about Ms. Jefferson now. A swarm of questions was buzzing through my mind.
How did she end up at the Academy
?
What motivates her to share her knowledge with us
?
Does she want to marry her boyfriend
? I wanted to see her boyfriend and his fancy car. I wanted to know where they went and what they did.

Mimi tapped me on the shoulder. “I’m hungry.”

“Me too. Let’s go eat.” My stomach was growling and I nuzzled Mimi’s hair as we walked to the cafeteria.

Just as we sat down with our food, I heard the sound of plates smashing on the floor. I turned around.

An agent had swept a stack of clean plates off the end of the buffet. She pushed her way through the crowded cafeteria and jumped onto a table in the middle of the room.

“I’ve killed the traitor Raven! I have her tattoo!” She was holding a bloody, fist-sized patch of skin between her fingers.

The students gasped as she turned in a circle. She made sure that everyone got a good look at the black raven tattoo.

“Raven tried to run away with her target-cum-lover! I got her! I got her good! Be loyal to the White Queen … or else!” The agent began cackling like a mad woman and pulling out her hair.

Four agents jumped on the table and restrained her. She was still laughing as they carried her away, leaving fistfuls of hair on the table.

Her maniacal laughter sent tingles through my skin. “Mimi, was Raven the dark-haired senior who always wore black dresses?”

“Yeah”

“And who was that?”

“Misty. She was Raven’s best friend.”

“My God. She killed her best friend?” I was shocked.

“It looks like it, but she probably had no choice,” said Mimi. “Traitors aren’t tolerated. The White Queen will put up with a lot, but you better not betray her … if you want to live.”

“But to kill someone, just because they fall in love and want to run away? Isn’t that a bit
harsh
?”

“Raven had a job to do. We only target bad people. She shouldn’t have fallen in love with her target.”

“But Misty was her best friend. And aren’t you against killing unless someone’s being hurt?”

“Betraying the White Queen hurts her, and rules are rules,” said Mimi. “We only serve the White Queen.”

“Yeah.”

That’s scary
. Falling in love can mean betraying the White Queen … and death by your sister.

Unofficial Mission