“He didn’t just appear—”
“Next.”
“We make weapons from thought.”
“Do Knights do that, too?”
“Yes, they can do everything we can do. Kathryn, there’s no way to know if Egon can make Psi Weapons, just like there’s no way to know if I can, unless he actually makes one. Knights are sneaky, and vile, and deceptive. They won’t do anything that draws attention to their alter egos. The only obvious thing about them is that they’ve always hung out with the wrong crowd—the Huns, the Nazis, anybody who is bad news. That’s their cover. Puts the attention on the crowd instead of the Knight.”
Kathryn drummed her fingertips on her open algebra book. “So our profile is as follows—highly skilled martial artist, master of stealth, the ability to make weapons from thought, and totally impossible to distinguish from the lunch ladies they hang out with.”
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“It’s a well-known fact that lunch ladies are nasty. Who else would serve that stuff to innocent children? They are totally the wrong crowd.”
“Our lunch ladies are nice, and the cafeteria food is good.”
“That’s their cover! Add them to the list of suspects.”
“Egon doesn’t hang out with lunch ladies. He doesn’t fit your profile, Kathryn.”
Kathryn cocked her head, closed one eye, and squinted at the ceiling. “Let’s examine the facts. Fact Number One—Egon is famous for being one of the youngest mixed martial artists to be undefeated. I’m sorry, a Knight wouldn’t flaunt the fact that he is a world-class cage fighter. That would draw unwanted attention to his alter ego. Egon doesn’t fit the profile, Rin.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“Fact Number Two—the Knights are mysterious and secretive. A real Knight wouldn’t stand out. He would be the last person we’d suspect.”
I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. The downside to being a crime fighter is that everyone is a suspect, even guys who are totally crush-worthy. Peeking out between my fingers, I said, “So have we established that, while Egon is an interesting person, he’s not a person of interest?”
“We have. Back to the drawing board. The un-obvious drawing board.”
A face we hadn’t talked about popped into my head. “Hey, what about Dr. Miliron?”
“Seriously? We just concluded it wasn’t a teacher. Why would you make me re-conclude?” Kathryn thought about it for a second, then snapped her fingers and pointed at me. “You might just be on to something, Rinster. He’s too weird to be real. Omigosh! He’s the head of the Class Project. Rinnie, that means he’s connected to Mason and the drugs. He’s our man!”
Suddenly, it made perfect sense. “You’re brilliant! I should have seen it. I mean, he’s so completely out there that nobody would ever suspect him. He’s as far from Mr. Obvious as you can get. Just the opposite of somebody who reeks of darkness and corruption, like Mason.”
Kathryn’s head snapped up. “Mason. What do you mean?”
“Well, Mason’s a complete jerk and obviously evil, but he’s not deceptive. He doesn’t cover up anything. He knows his dad will protect him. But Dr. Miliron does absolutely nothing that would make me believe he’s anything but a goofnut.”
“Rinnie, I’m going out on a limb, here. Are you afraid of Egon?”
I thought about Egon sitting next to me at the assembly and got warm. “Afraid? No. I don’t think it’s called fear, Kathryn.”
“Think about it—Egon might not be the apprentice, but he’s a mixed martial arts expert. And he’s not just extremely good, he’s a prodigy. So let me ask you this—is a Psi Fighter, with all your Mental Arts mumbo jumbo, afraid of an amazingly tough, but otherwise completely normal kid?”
“No, of course not. He’s no match for one of us. Hey, are you saying I’m not completely normal?”
“Implied it, didn’t say it. Back to the question. Can Egon defeat a Knight?”
“Umm, no, he wouldn’t have a chance.”
“Well, Mason is scared to death of him. Why would he openly cause all that havoc and devastation, yet be a little goodie-two-shoes around Egon?” Suddenly Kathryn’s eyes grew wide and she screamed like she’d just won a shopping spree. “That’s it!”
“Shhh!” Mrs. Simmons hissed, turning toward us from her desk. Kathryn gave her a double thumbs up.
“Apparently I missed something,” I whispered.
Kathryn grabbed me by the shoulders. “You said the Knights are experts at making lies look like the truth, right?”
“So?” I gave her a looking-at-you-over-my-glasses-even-though-I-don’t-wear-glasses look.
“Mason uses tiny lies to make the real truth look like a big lie. He gets away with all sorts of hinky doings right out in the open, but then pretends to be afraid of Egon. You know what that means? I know what that means! That means Mason’s not who we think he is.”