“You can scan the thoughts out of a scribble?”
“Or a doodle, even if it’s drivel.” Andy punched another button on the scanner.
“Psi Fighters,” a voice boomed over the sound system hidden somewhere in Andy’s tech room walls. “I have—”
Andy hit the button again, and the voice stopped.
“Why did you stop it?” I looked around for speakers I knew I’d never find.
“Honey.” Andy put his arm around me, growing unusually serious again. “There’s something you have to know. If we had gotten this message from Amos Munificent in time, we may have been able to save him. But he wasn’t trying to warn us about a danger to himself. He was telling us that Scallion’s mission isn’t what we believed.”
“How do you know what’s in the scribble?” I was beginning to feel very uneasy.
“I scanned it when I touched it. You’ll learn how. It’s a lot like scanning minds, and you know how to do that.”
“I hate scanning minds. It hurts.”
“This won’t be a field of daisies, either.” Andy punched the button.
“—new information,” Munificent’s voice boomed out. “Nicolaitan has infiltrated the high school more deeply than we believed. I’ve confirmed that the apprentice who goes by the name of Scallion is a student there. I have also learned that he’s searching for the Morgan girl. Nicolaitan knows she is back. He believes she attends the high school.”
“You okay?” Andy asked.
“What?” I had a bad feeling that I was missing something very obvious. “Wait, the Morgan girl…he means me?”
Andy nodded. “After we rescued you, we put you in hiding. All traces of your existence evaporated. It was like six-year-old Lynn Morgan never existed. With your parents dead, it was the best way to protect you. Nicolaitan had assumed that we sent you far away. But he must have seen something in Munificent’s mind.”
“What sort of something?” I asked.
“If you hadn’t brought me this memory, I couldn’t have pieced it together, but it makes sense now. Remember the memory of Munificent’s murder, when Nicolaitan asked him about the Morgan girl? He kidnapped you ten years ago. He should have given up and moved on by now. I underestimated how much he hates us. He wants you because you are the only Psi Fighter ever taken alive.”
“I was six. How hard could it have been?”
“That’s not the point. He believes he can unlock your mind and learn the location of the Academy. Then he’ll send his Knights to destroy us. That’s always been his goal. Something caused him to resurface. He must have pulled a fragment from Munificent’s mind somehow. A fragment with you in it.”
“Mr. Munificent acted like he knew me at the assembly,” I said, suddenly in terrible fear. “If Nicolaitan read Mr. Munificent’s mind, he knows who I am. I have to get home. Andy, we have to protect my family!”
Andy took me by the shoulders. “We don’t know whether he knows your identity. Munificent only knows Rinnie Noelle because your dad consults with the police force. He doesn’t know you’re the Morgan girl. He thinks she disappeared.”
“She is correct,” a voice barked from behind me. I jumped into Andy’s arms and nearly knocked him over. The Kilodan stood only feet from me.
“Why would you sneak up on me when I’m already frightened out of my skin?” I snapped.
The Kilodan let loose with an electronically altered laugh that made the Joker sound sane. “I’m training you to control your emotions.”
“Not doing a very good job of it,” Andy said as he peeled my arms from around his neck and sat me on the floor.
“Munificent may not have had knowledge of your true identity, but Nicolaitan does,” the Kilodan said. “He has a long memory, and will have retained fragments from the kidnapping. What he does not know is your current identity. He knows the Morgan girl has Psi Fighter abilities, but he has not yet linked her to you. We must be cautious. He has eyes everywhere. But as long as you don’t use the Mental Arts while unmasked, he’ll never make the connection.”
My heart was in my throat. “I just did.”
Chapter Twenty-one
The Spring Fling