The Academy: Book 2 (62 page)

             
He felt incredibly guilty for not warning her about the Multipliers, and considered going after her.

             
“No,” he whispered. “That wouldn’t make sense.”

             
The reason I broke up with her was so that we wouldn’t be as big of a target for Multipliers trying to kill us. The last thing I need to do is traipse off into the woods after her. And, even if Multipliers are out in the woods and are killing her right now, what am I going to do about it? They’re stronger than me, faster than me, and they outnumber me. If she is going to die, she is going to die.

             
He groaned.

             
He considered going and talking to Teddy. Teddy was a good person to talk to with problems like these, especially since he was locked up. He had all the time in the world to think about different problems in his cell.

Asa
rubbed his temples. His head was pounding.

             
The door pressed open behind him, and Asa shrieked. He jumped away from the opening, and was crouched low, ready to defend himself when Roxanne walked in. She shut the door behind her, but kept her distance. “Asa? Is everything okay?”

             
“No. Everything is
not
okay,” he said. “We need to have a team meeting.
Now.”

Roxanne instant messaged the team, and they all dropped what they were doing and flew to Viola’s dwelling. Last time Asa called a meeting he had been visited by a rogue Multiplier who warned of an attack on the Academy. The Sharks came in wearing faces of concern. They didn’t speak much as they took their seats, and Viola poured tea for anyone who wanted it. Asa just drank water. His hands were shaking enough as it was, and he didn’t need any extra caffeine.

              “I guess that we can all fly together over to the Lab after this for our Winggame meeting,” Bruce said.

             
Mike Plode was still taking his seat, but everyone was present. The door was locked.

“We won’t be having a team meeting,” Asa said. “Multipliers are planning to attack us tonight at the Lab.”

              Gabby spilled her tea at the news, and Viola promptly stood and began to wipe it up with a towel. Gabby wanted to help, but Viola insisted that she stay seated. It was probably best that Gabby didn’t try to hobble around on her one leg when she was so nervous.

             
As Viola poured Gabby some more tea, Asa told his teammates about Stan’s confession. Despite the heaviness of the situation, relaying the story made Asa feel revived.
I love these people.
Jen grabbed Asa’s hand under the table.

             
When Asa was done, Viola drummed on her lips with her metallic, explosive fingernails. “So that’s why Stan was always so beat up. It makes sense now—the black eyes, the broken wrist, all the different bruises.”

             
Asa nodded.

             
“How do we know that Stan was telling the truth?” Jen asked. “He’s always hated Asa—maybe he just wants him to leave the Academy.”

             
“I don’t think so,” Asa responded. “He seemed pretty convincing. He really looked scared. His eyes kept moving towards the door. He seemed pretty paranoid, and he even threw up in the toilet. If he wanted to punish me in some way, he could have killed me while we were alone—he’s strong enough, at least.”

             
Asa wondered if Stan was still okay.

             
“So are we going to leave the Academy?” Viola asked.

             
“No!” Boom Boom said, his green eyes flashing. “Don’t you remember my point about standing our ground? If we leave, they’ll just have a better chance of taking over the Academy; and if the Multipliers take over the Academy, they’ll then take over the world. Best thing would be to stay where we are.”

             
Viola crossed her arms and shook her head.

             
“I think that Mike is right,” Bruce said. He ran one of his huge hands over his short black hair. “I mean, think about it, we don’t even know where Allen, this Multiplier that Stan has been meeting with, is from. What if he’s from the Academy? Think about it. The Multipliers in the Academy want Asa to leave so that the contract with his father is broken, but they can’t force him out, or the crows will do their thing and tell the news stations about the Academy. So what if some Academy Multipliers are using some kind of a scare tactic to get Asa to leave? It would make sense for Benny Hughs too, who you also said was involved. He’s taken on the role of unofficial coach of the Wolves, and so maybe he doesn’t want Asa playing in the Winggame Championship tomorrow. All Benny cares about is his legacy anyways, so I wouldn’t put it past him to work with the Multipliers in a scheme. Maybe he wanted to make Stan think that Multipliers are going to come and kill Asa so that he’d leave and not get to play in the championship tomorrow.”

             
Lilly Bloodroot stared down into her cup of tea with her large, glossy, purple eyes. She watched the cup of liquid like it was a television, and Asa wondered if she was hallucinating. She spoke so low that it was barely audible; “what about Carmen?”

             
“Did you say Carmen?” Bruce asked.

             
“Yeah, Carmen. The Multiplier Hunter. She came to warn Asa about the Multiplier attacks, and she asked him to leave. Do you think that she is working for the Academy also?”

             
Bruce shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

             
Asa considered this. He hadn’t thought of the possibility that Stan had been meeting with Academy Multipliers that were working under false pretenses. The idea made him feel edgy, like everything around him could be part of a big mind game.

             
Boom Boom waved his pale hands in the air; green veins could be seen through his palms. “This is too farfetched. Let’s walk through this. You guys are proposing that Multipliers from the Academy have been threatening Stan for months, pretending that they were from outside of the Academy, on the shaky hopes that Stan Nuby, the same guy that killed his parents, would start feeling guilty and come talk to Asa. No. That doesn’t make much sense to me. Wouldn’t it make more sense if the Multipliers that Stan’s been meeting with are actually from the Hive?”

             
Bruce was nodding. “You’re right. I don’t think anyone could have counted on Stan acting on a conscious.”

             
“And they didn’t really need to do anything to get Stan to leave the Academy; he made that decision on his own, because of his bad grades,” Mike said.

             
Viola stood up and shifted one of the logs in the fireplace with a metal poker. She then went around and refilled everyone’s drinks. Asa would have helped her, but he got the impression that she liked being a hostess.

             
Roxanne shifted, crossing her legs. “I bet those Multipliers will be pissed when they go to the Lab tonight and find an empty classroom.”

             
“Yeah,” Viola agreed, taking her seat. She had gone pale.

             
Asa spoke: “I think the question now is, what are we going to do? We know that Multipliers are planning on attacking us tonight in the Lab, but where do we go from here? If we don’t show up, then don’t you think they’ll come looking for me elsewhere? Can we really plan on running forever?”

             
Mike Plode was smiling in the corner. “Asa’s right. We need to do something about this.”

             
Roxanne was twirling her hair around her index finger. “Why don’t we tell someone? You could go tell Conway, and he could plan some kind of an ambush. Maybe he could get a group of graduates together and they could be waiting to attack the Multipliers in the Lab tonight.”

             
“We can’t make this official,” Asa said. “Where is Conway supposed to say that he got the information from? We can’t rat Stan out; they’d kill him. I just wouldn’t feel right about that.”

             
Roxanne held her hands out. “Well then, what’s our other option? We’ve already decided that we can’t sit around and do nothing. We can’t run away from the Academy. And God knows we can’t fight them.”

             
“Why not?” Boom Boom asked. “It’s going to have to happen sooner or later, isn’t it?”

             
Roxanne looked like she didn’t know how to respond.

             
“Look,” Mike said. “There are eight of us. How many do you think they’ll send to take us down? Ten?”

             
“You can’t be serious,” Viola said.

             
Mike raised his voice: “I don’t think we really have another option.”

             
“But
fighting
them? Really? They’ll destroy us, you know that!”

             
An image of Volkner stabbing through a student’s skull in class last semester came into Asa’s mind. “I agree,” he said. “I think that we need to think this over, and consider our options more carefully. Unless we have better weapons, I don’t think that a confrontation is a good idea.”

             
“You too, Asa?” Mike said. “I know that it sounds scary, but I think it’s what we’ve got to do. Look at it this way—we can either attack on our own terms, or wait for them to come and get us. We just don’t have any other option to consider.”

             
Jen crossed her ankles up on the table and blew a lock of blond hair out of her eyes. “I can think of another option.” She had a devious smile on her lips.

             
“What’s that?” Bruce asked.

             
“We’ve already said that we don’t want to waste this information we have, that we want to do something proactive with it. And I agree. I also agree with what I’m hearing a lot of you guys saying—which is that it would be foolish to try to fight the Multipliers. But there’s another option.” Her smile grew. “We could spy on them.”

             
“Spy on them?” Viola asked.

             
“Yeah. A couple of us could go into the classroom in the Lab, hide somewhere, and see what happens.”

             
Viola scoffed. “And what do you think you’ll learn by doing that?”

             
Jen shrugged. “You never know what you’re going to learn when you go spying on someone. When Asa and I went and spied on Robert King’s office, we didn’t really have any expectations, and we learned about the Hive.”

             
The fire cracked in the corner, and everyone was quiet as they considered what Jen had said.

             
“I think she’s right,” Asa said. “I think that’s our best option.”

             
“I don’t know,” Roxanne said. “That sounds really dangerous.”

             
Mike Plode laughed in frustration. “Have you not been listening? No matter what decision we make, we’re in real danger. The only thing we can do is make the best decisions with what we’ve got.”

             
Asa was surprised to see Viola nodding in agreement. “I think that’s a good idea, Jen. Though it makes me nervous, I think that we could use some more information about what we’re dealing with.”

             
Asa looked at his armband. “It’s four o’clock now, and practice usually starts at eight. If I’m going, I want to get there really early so that the Multipliers don’t see me come in.”