chapter 34
“So let me get this straight,” Alex said as he placed a few books on the shelf of the little three-man room in New Aubrey House.
“That’s the vampire shelf,” Sid said, and Alex realized that the books Sid had picked up over the past weeks on his favorite subject were indeed taking up half the space. The Vampire Encyclopedia made an appearance, and something called Our Vampires, Ourselves. Alex nodded and took his own books, textbooks all, and placed them on the next shelf down.
“Get what straight?” Sangster answered. The instructor was leaning in the doorway, his hands in his pockets. He had a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses on, as though he needed them inside.
Paul was lying on his bed across from Sid’s and Alex’s bunks, flipping through one of Sid’s magazines. He restated Alex’s question. “They committed them?”
“Committed is a strong word,” Sangster replied.
“But that’s it,” Alex insisted, turning back. He ran his fingers along the window that looked out into the trees. “The story is the girls went crazy.”
“We had ten debutantes who all tried to ice their very highly placed parents at a public gathering,” Sangster said.
Paul indicated his shoulder, where his T-shirt had been pulled up to accommodate a large white bandage. “One of them took a chunk out of me, too.”
“Yes, you’re grievously wounded,” Alex said.
“I should get time off for that,” Paul muttered.
Sangster continued, “It’s kind of a big deal; made Page Six back home.”
“I’m sure,” Alex said.
“The story will be that they got swept up in a cult. They’ll all be under observation for a while. That should be the end of it.”
“That’s terrible,” Alex said, frowning. “They were victims.”
“Yeah.” Sangster nodded quietly. “But honestly? Thanks to you they’re alive, and so are their parents. If we have to come up with a story to cover the sensational stuff, it’s still better than explaining the assassination of ten ministers from ten different countries. Every meeting those ministers attend in Geneva will be heavily secured, and yet their own children provided an opportunity to get to them. I’d expect to see copycats. We’re lucky they failed. Anyway, it won’t be so bad. The young women will spend some time in the Alps, and in six months it will all be forgotten.”
“So Ultravox knew that the meeting was coming up here in Geneva,” Sid said, “and the ball for the young people was—what would you call it?—the softest target. They even threw in an attack on your researcher, Professor Montrose, to throw you off.” Sid took his vampire encyclopedia off the shelf. He sat on his bunk and let it thud beside him. “You know what I think? I think you guys need to stop thinking things are over so soon.”
“Yeah, that’s inexcusable,” Sangster said. “We were so obsessed with our database that we thought the enemy was watching the same thing. But these ten ministers were all working on Info Treaty—they were advocating a new policy for sharing electronic biographical data, to help fight human smuggling. Modernizing birth certificates, death certificates, that sort of thing.”
“What does that have to do with vampires?” Alex said.
“What, you never saw Highlander?” Sid said. “Someone lives a long time, they can use a stolen birth certificate to reset their birth date.”
Sangster nodded. “Records like that are useful to the Scholomance. So modernizing them would make their normal operations tougher. This assassination would have struck fear in the hearts of men, plus it would have been more effective than lobbying.”
“Go back,” Alex said, waving his hand. “You said ten.”
“Sorry?”
“Ten debutantes, but there were twelve—Minhi was spared, so that leaves eleven that should have been shipped off to cult rehab.” Alex looked at the teacher, trying to search the eyes behind the sunglasses. “Vienna.”
“What about Vienna?” asked Minhi, who came alongside Sangster just then. She was carrying a backpack and had her hair pulled back under a cap. The weather had turned chilly and she was wearing a puffy coat.
“We’re taking care of Vienna,” Sangster said. “The moment she saw the other debutantes start responding to Ultravox’s messages, she ran with her father and locked him in a stateroom. Then she got as far from him as possible. She was afraid she might not be spared the vampire’s voice curse and she’d wind up stabbing him.”
“The Scholomance has been really rough on her,” Alex said, feeling helpless. “They used her brother’s injuries to get her to betray her fellow students, and permanently changed her with that scarf. I’m not surprised she was afraid the worst would happen.”
Sangster agreed. “Well, she waited at the stern and handed herself over to the Polidorium at her first opportunity, and we’re trying to get some other help for her.”
Alex understood. They—the Polidorium, with Montrose—were helping Vienna with the scarf.
Minhi nodded, looking down. “Her stuff is still in her room,” she said. “I was wondering where she was.”
“Anyway, this place is looking great,” Sangster said. “Now that it’s livable maybe we can start working on the real Glenarvon.”
Alex’s heart sank at the thought. He kind of liked “Glenarvon-LaLaurie.”
“Don’t look so crushed,” Sangster said. “Otranto said months, but I’ll be surprised if it’s this year.”
Sid cleared his throat and said, “Mr. Sangster, I hate to cut this short, but I have to go work.” He had a yellow pad and a bunch of pens. He looked miserable.
“Pumpkin Show?” Sangster said, looking at his watch. “So tonight is the last one.”
Sid nodded, suddenly looking kind of pale. “It’s the first one I’m doing without using the book.”
“Who needs it? Anyway, I was just stopping by.” Sangster had an apartment now, in another wing of the house. Alex had heard it was about the size of three of these student rooms. “You guys have made good guests,” Sangster said. “Very good guests.” And with that he was gone.