The Academy: Book 2 (71 page)

Robert King stopped on the third step from the floor and did not speak. The metal device that Jamie wore around his neck flashed a green light, and the David spoke in a metallic voice, “Mr. King would like to speak with Mr. Palmer.”

The Boss turned, still not having said a word, and he and Jamie ascended the stairs. Asa looked around the room at his teammates, not knowing what to do. “Go,” Jen urged him. She looked frightened. Asa got up from where he sat and clambered up the stairs.

Robert King led the way outside, and then down one of the Town’s cobble stone paths. Asa jogged to keep up. Robert King did not turn around to see if Asa was following.

The crowd was deafening from above the Moat’s water, as the spectators anxiously awaited the championship. They were stomping their feet a rock song with heavy bass. Asa could feel the noise in his chest.

Robert King turned off the pebbled road and walked up the stone stairs to one of the London-style stone buildings that characterized the Town. Jamie held the door for him and The Boss went inside. Asa came in a second later, wondering what Robert King could possibly want to speak with
him in private for. He opened the door for himself and went inside.

As
a had never been into this building before. It looked like a newsroom, but a very tidy one. There were high ceilings, and the initial room was spacious with big windows looking out onto the Town. It was much warmer in here than outside. Robert King moved down the rows of hundreds of desks until he spotted a clean one that he found appropriate. He pulled the chair back, sat down, and motioned with his hand for Asa to sit across from him.

Jamie leapt on top of the desk, and stared at Asa, who was still wondering what this could be about.

Could it be about what happened last night? How would Robert King know that we went and spied on the Multipliers? Could he know that I know where they are hidden? Could it be possible that he has found out about Teddy?

Then an even scarier thought came into his mind:
What would he do if he found out about Teddy? If he tells me that he killed Conway and Mama for housing a Multiplier, I’ll lose it; I’ll just lose it!

Asa’s hands were sweaty as he gripped the back of a leather chair and pushed it over so that it was facing Robert King. Like everything else in the Academy, the chair was luxurious; Asa guessed that in the pre-Wolf Flu world, the chair would have cost five hundred dollars. Now, there was no way to guess. Products were much more expensive now than ever.

Or at least they had been,
Asa thought to himself, taking his seat.
I’ve been in the Academy for a year now. The outside world could have changed dramatically.

Robert King took off his sunglasses and sat them down on the wooden table. His
pupils were so dilated that the entire visible area of each eyeball, from eyelid to eyelid, was black. It was obvious that Robert King had just injected himself with a heavy dose of Vipocrit before coming here. The eyes reminded Asa of owl eyes, or insect eyes. The Boss’s eyeballs moved around in their sockets, but still, Asa could only see black. The only indication he had that they moved came from the way the light reflected off their glossy surfaces.

When
Robert King spoke to Asa, his country accent was gone, just as it had been when Asa and Jen spied in on his office. Asa suspected that this was due to the Vipocrit, which made its users have increased muscle tension, as a side effect. The increased tension was something that Asa had seen in both Robert King and Teddy, after they injected. Robert King’s head jerked to the right. An accent from Southern U.S.A. was caused by a loose mouth, and since Robert King was unusually rigid, his accent was gone.

“Where is Stan
Nuby?” The Boss asked Asa.

“Stan?” Asa asked.

Robert King’s mouth twitched. He nodded very slightly and then watched Asa with his enormous pupils.

Asa felt naked, vulnerable. He knew that while Robert King was high on
Vipocrit he was thinking at an inhuman speed. Asa wouldn’t be able to mentally keep up. He wondered,
What does Robert King know?

Asa responded: “I don’t know where he is. He didn’t show up this morning.”

“LIAR!” Jamie said from atop the desk, with the help of his electronic device. He showed his teeth to Asa.

“Hush, Jamie,” Robert King said. His expression relaxed as he looked at his primate. “Let daddy handle this.” He pet Jamie on the head, and Jamie cooed
and then nibbled gently on The Boss’s fingers.

Robert King looked at Asa
and then said something very unexpected. “Palmer, do you know what makes a god a god? There are three things.”

Asa cleared his throat.
Why did he ask that?
Asa had been brought up in a Southern Baptist town, and he had been exposed to the idea before. “I know that some people say it’s being all knowing, all powerful, and all good.” Asa thought back to spying in on Robert King’s meeting with Volkner, and recalled that Robert King had spoken with Volkner about similar subject matter. The Boss had said things that day that indicated he thought he might be a God.

Robert King spoke fast—it was a side effect of
Vipocrit: “Very good, Palmer. Very good. Time for a harder question. Which of those, if any, do you think are the most superfluous to being called a God?”

Asa looked around the room at the desks and up at the industrial ceiling.
Surely Robert King didn’t call me here to have a theological discussion,
he thought. He answered, though. It had been something he thought about before. “I suppose all-loving would be the most superfluous. I don’t think that you have to be good to be a god. You just have to be powerful.”

The corners of Robert King’s mouth twitched. “What about all knowing?”

“What about it?”

His mouth twitched again. Asa thought that The Boss was getting slightly angry, but he didn’t know what the cause was. “Do you have to be all knowing to be a god?” The Boss asked
, his voice raising.

What is this about?
Asa wanted to scream. “I guess so,” was what he said.

Robert King looked up at Jamie for a moment,
who was cleaning his feet with his tongue. “What if someone was very smart, and knew everything that he or she
needed
to?” Robert King asked. “Would that qualify?”

Asa was becoming very uncomfortable with this line of questioning. He answered in the way he sensed Robert King wanted him to. “Yes. I think that would qualify.”

Robert King sighed, as though relieved. “I have become functionally all knowing when it concerns the Academy, Palmer.”

Asa’s heart began to thud in his chest. Robert King paused for a moment, looking at Asa. He looked at Asa’s hair, his eyes, his mouth,
and his body shape.

“You look just like your father,” Robert King said.

“I never met my father,” Asa responded.

Robert King cocked his head. “Don’t you think it’s odd that I know what your father looks like?”

Asa flushed red. He had been told that his father had helped create the Academy in Conway’s confidence. It was a secret. If Conway hadn’t divulged information, Asa would still think that his father had been a truck driver. Asa answered fast, trying not to get Conway in trouble. “Sir. I-I-I thought that you had information on everyone. You research the Academy candidates so well. I just assumed, I mean, I don’t know…I thought that maybe you had seen a picture of him or something?”

Robert King raised his eyebrows. “You don’t think that I’ve met your father?”

Asa’s face was hot with embarrassment and fear. “No.” Asa laughed. “My father didn’t know any billionaires.”

“I’m a
trillionaire,” Robert King corrected.

“Oh. Yes, sir.”

Jamie lay across the desk on his back and Robert King stroked the long, fine hairs on the chimp’s belly, contemplating what to say next in his fast working, drugged brain. “I know that Stan met with you before leaving yesterday, Asa. Like I said, I have becoming functionally omniscient when it comes to the occurrences within these five mountains. I know a lot more than you think I do.”

It took a great effort for Asa to maintain a somewhat calm appearance. He felt like hyperventilating. He remembered the story Teddy told of Robert King killing everyone involved in making
Vipocrit. He remembered how terrible Volkner had looked during the meeting with Robert King. He was emaciated and missing toes. Asa also remembered that he was looking at the man responsible for the Wolf Flu, an illness that had killed Asa’s mother and billions more.

I’m looking at the most deadly person in human history,
Asa thought, and shuddered.

He wondered what Robert King could mean by
saying,
I know a lot more than you think I do.
There were a slew of things that Robert King could mean by that.
He could know about Teddy,
Asa thought.

He could know that Conway, Mama and I have been hiding and feeding a Multiplier in Conway’s basement.
The Boss would kill Mama and Conway for sure. There were strict ways in which the Academy was supposed to deal with a student who was bit by a Multiplier, and for good reason. Robert King did not want the crows to think that he had broken Edmund Palmer’s contract. Asa remembered how angry The Boss had become when he spoke with Volkner. He had spoken to Volkner about the internet video of Robert King’s clone being killed because of what the crows released.
That must have been terrifying for The Boss. He must have realized that it could have easily been himself that was shot.

But surely Robert King would have done something by now, had he figured out about Teddy,
Asa thought.

He then wondered if Robert King was aware that he and Jen had spied in on him while he was meeting with Volkner in his office.
He could have cameras up. He has enough money that he could pay thousands of people to monitor cameras all day long.

Asa met Robert King
’s stare as steadily as possible. He hoped that The Boss was bluffing.
Surely he can’t know everything,
Asa thought.

But he does know about Stan meeting with you,
Asa reminded himself.
And he knows about Stan leaving.
Asa wanted to groan. He was almost positive that Stan was dead.

Robert King went on: “For reasons that don’t concern you, but that I believe you may be aware of, I cannot offer you an unfair disadvantage when it comes to this institute.” He stiffened, and Asa thought that he was imagining his clone being killed. The crows had written out a pre-recorded message that was from Asa’s father, and delivered it to the news stations
earlier in the semester. The message detailed some of the workings of the Wolf Flu, which Edmund Palmer must have known about before he died. Asa knew that the crows would not have released the message to the media if Asa had received more fair treatment in the previous semester.

The message had made a difference,
Asa reflected.
No one has specifically targeted my Winggame team, and in all of my classes, I have started out on par with all my other classmates.

He remembered back to last year, when the Academy had given him the mutated, enlarged Blood Canary. Asa hadn’t experienced anything of the sort this semester.
Robert King was afraid of what else the crows might tell the news stations.

“However,” Robert King continued
, breaking Asa’s train of thought. “I am allowed to offer you unfair advantages, or things that could help to keep you safe. Asa, I have reason to believe that you are in danger. And I want for you to stay in my quarters tonight, in King Mountain. You could stay there for the next few weeks if you wanted.”