Night School: Resistance (Night School 4)

The next day was Saturday but this was no ordinary weekend. As word spread of Jerry’s betrayal, the atmosphere at the school grew increasingly anarchic. Teachers avoided students. Students simmered with rage, as if all their instructors were guilty by association. They felt betrayed.

Allie knew just how they felt.

The senior Night School instructors remained absent – busy, Allie suspected, with Jerry. She passed Dom in the corridor at one point but the tech didn’t notice her as she hurried by, a laptop bag over her shoulder, oval face intense.

Night School training had not been resumed. In fact, all normal school activities had ground to a halt. No one studied. Students gathered in whispering clusters, sharing rumours, which grew wilder as the hours passed.

‘I heard Nathaniel’s coming here,’ Allie heard a tall, blond boy say. They were in the common room and he was at the next table, playing chess with a group of friends. As he spoke, he moved a pawn. ‘And Lucinda’s giving him the school.’

‘That’s not what I heard,’ a dark-haired girl replied.

They were all, Allie thought, about year ten. She’d seen them around but they weren’t in any of her classes.

‘What did you hear?’

She lowered her voice so far Allie had to strain to make out her words. ‘I heard Nathaniel’s going to raid the place to get the science teacher back. That he said no one would stop him.’ She studied the shocked faces around her with grim satisfaction. ‘He uses guns.’

Allie knew she could have stepped in and told them they were wrong but … were they? What did she know, really? Jerry hadn’t told her much of anything.

Besides, the other rumours were even worse. Jerry and Zelazny were in it together. Six teachers had fled overnight, taking student records with them. Nathaniel had placed cameras in the school and watched their every move.

Given all of that, Allie wasn’t at all surprised when Katie dropped down on the sofa next to her and fixed her with a determined look.

‘I’ve been picking my way through the gossip,’ she said by way of hello. ‘Is it true you spoke with Jerry Cole?’

Allie tensed. She’d had this conversation many times today and she wasn’t wild about having it again.

She glanced around to make sure no one was listening, but the chess players were far too involved in their own conversation to notice, and the other students were too far away to hear.

‘Yeah,’ she said cautiously. ‘I talked to him.’

‘And he really confessed to being Nathaniel’s guy?’

Allie nodded.

Katie exhaled audibly. ‘Jesus. I can’t get over it. He just …’ She waved her hand and her pearl and diamond ring glimmered. ‘He never seemed like anything other than a typical trustworthy boring science geek. It’s super creepy to think the whole time he was …’

‘Watching us,’ Allie finished the thought. ‘I know.’

If she’d expected Katie to pick a fight or somehow diminish the impact of what Jerry had done – what Allie had been through in the last few days – she was wrong. Katie seemed just as shocked as the other students were. Just as demoralised and angry.

‘The rest of the gossip sounds like bollocks to me,’ Katie said. ‘No other teachers are involved, are they?’

Allie shook her head. ‘Just Jerry.’

‘They’re quite sure?’ Katie pressed her.

‘Lucinda and Raj …’ Allie tried to decide how to put it without mentioning the MI5 connection. ‘They were very thorough.’

The redhead seemed satisfied by this. ‘If Lucinda’s involved they would have gone straight to the top,’ she said. ‘What happens now?’

‘They’re setting up a meeting with Nathaniel.’

Katie arched one perfect russet eyebrow. ‘Let me guess. You have to be there. Because Nathaniel’s obsessed with you and your brother.’

Allie gave a tired shrug. ‘Welcome to my world.’

Across the room, someone laughed. Allie glanced over, wishing she thought anything was funny right now.

Tapping one perfectly manicured nail against the smooth skin of her knee, Katie considered this.

‘It isn’t though. Your world, I mean,’ she said. ‘It’s mine.’

Allie gave her a puzzled look. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘You don’t really know these people,’ Katie explained. ‘But I do. I’ve known them all my life. Nathaniel’s been a friend of my parents since I was little. He was at my eleventh birthday party.’

The very idea was so stunning, Allie couldn’t disguise her shock.