Chapter 25

 

I’D BEEN THROWN curveballs before but even I blinked at the way Harrison greeted me the next day. I was sitting in my cupboard of an office. It looked like one of those storerooms that people shoved unused gym equipment into. It had a window, which was nice but the walls were bare brick, cement, and still blobby looking in places.

It was as if whoever built it was in a rush to leave. I didn’t blame them, I felt the same way.

It was weird that stone and brick made up a lot of the buildings. They weren’t the timber frames that I’d come to expect outside Oppidum. That pointed to a European influence if Oppidum’s Welsh roots were anything to go by. It made me want to ask Frei about it.

I shook my head at the funny need to know her better. Sometimes things turned out opposite to what you would have figured in the beginning. I was glad about the change with Frei but I still wanted to help her. I told Nan, hoping she could hear, about it. I meditated on it in prayer, but without my burdens I felt like I was missing something. Like I knew there was somebody on the other side of the line but I couldn’t hear them. All I could do was keep talking and hope.

Normal folks had it hard.

I was torn from my thoughts by the sound of high heels chipping my gym floor. I scowled, wondering when I’d started to think of it as my place.

“Samson? Ah, there you are,” Harrison said as if I’d be any place else during the work day.

“You need me for somethin’?” I kept my voice as respectful as I could but after witnessing her irritation when the kids didn’t fail, I had no time for her.

“About yesterday . . .”

I sat back in the chair and folded my arms. If she was going to chastise me for it, she was going to see why a certain Doctor Serena Smarty-pants Llys had once found me so prickly.

“Well done.”

That made me stare like she had performed a ballet in a mascot outfit. “’Scuse me?”

Harrison nodded. “Wonderful work. Dislike selling to Crespo, too cheap.”

Didn’t stop her from selling five of Frei’s group though.

“He get much luck yesterday?” I tried my best to unclamp my teeth but it was no good. Either she’d think I was in severe pain or planning to string her up.

Harrison took a step backward, confirming the latter. “Five from Locks alone but she has a difficult task, you understand.”

“So there’s . . .” I raised my eyebrows for her to answer how many of the age group were left.

“Twenty-one.”

“What happened to the other two?” Frei had told me before we arrived that there were thirty. Harrison had said that Crespo had taken seven. Even with my inability at math, I know that meant we were missing two . . . somehow.

“Sawyer’s group. Shame they turned on each other. Terrible mess of the floor. He’d been so pleased too.” She shook her head, I could tell more about the mess than the loss of two young lives.

It took all the resolve I had not to hang my head. I couldn’t. I wasn’t meant to care. I was supposed to be a vicious criminal. “Don’t care. Mean, mean vicious criminal,” seemed like a constant dialogue in my head.

“Lost some good money then.”

Harrison nodded. “But he doesn’t have your skill with them. Slaves rarely have that kind of intelligence.”

Her tone made me frown. “What do you mean?”

Harrison glanced back to the gym and then to me. A gossip. She reminded me of Mary Goss from back in Oppidum which made me want to poke her.

“When they . . . lose their edge . . . the owners send them to train others before selling them off to men like Crespo.” She glanced at the door. “Locks is the exception of course. No doubt he would have preferred her close.”

“You think?” I smiled as best I could without snarling. I wanted to say, “No, she didn’t end up as nobody’s mistress. She became a hero. She saves kids. She cares. In spite of what you did to her, she still cares.” Instead, I tried not to growl and stared out my window instead. Didn’t help much, it needed a clean. In fact, somebody had written in the thick brown gunk covering it, “clean me.” Probably Jed.

“I can’t imagine why he would want her stuck here. She’s the best. A waste if you ask me.” Harrison sighed, her nasal voice grating at me. “Megan is probably behind it.”

“So what’s the issue between her and Sawyer?” My curiosity wanted me to dig deeper about Megan. Frei said she would be trouble but I didn’t want to ask Harrison. I didn’t want her to think I cared too much. Frei and Sawyer was a safe topic. Anyone could see what he thought of her.

“Oh, one of her legendary moments.” Harrison crept closer and perched on the edge of my desk with a reverent grin. “He’d been sent to steal something by his owner Forsythe . . .” She glanced at me as if to check I was keeping up. “They fell out over a poker game.”

“Makes sense.” Nan was intense about her card games. I guessed criminal folks took that one step further.

Harrison nodded. “So, Sawyer breaks in. He sneaks to the bedroom only to bump into Locks.” She shook her head with a smile. “Locks was there to steal back the winnings that Huber had lost.”

The thought made me smile too.

“Sawyer tried to attack her. He was found hours later hanging upside down from the balcony.” She chuckled. “No one knew how she pulled it off but needless to say Forsythe got rid of Sawyer that same day.”

I had a feeling I wouldn’t find the next part so funny. “So what happened to him?”

“Sold,” Harrison said with a wave of her hand. “Spent years cage fighting for Crespo. Too old now of course.”

“So he’s bitter and twisted?”

Harrison nodded. “But he’s always been bitter and deranged.” She stood up and tapped her ever present tablet. “She’s got some tales that Locks.”

“No wonder he wanted to hold onto her.”

Harrison nodded again. This time with enthusiasm. “If I had that kind of money, I’d buy her myself.”

She’s worth more than you could ever understand, I thought as I smiled up at her. As a human being alone, she’s priceless.

Still, Harrison would never understand that. To her I was talking about some pedigree animal with a bit of spirit.

She fired another “Well done” my way and tottered off as I stared at the brickwork.

Two things rolled around and around in my head. One, we’d lost nine kids somewhere along the line. Two had died and seven had been sold into who knew what.

I still had all eight from my year group. Frei had lost five which left her with five. Sawyer had one left, and Jones two. Renee and Owens had five. Two of those were the supposed genius Kevin and Miranda the love-struck super nerd. We were only half way through the term.

I had a feeling that Frei had known the pass rate for the year all along. I could understand why she hadn’t told me. It was one of those horrible realities that you best understood if you were living it.

Who, in modern society, would ever believe such places like this still existed? Who would listen? She said that’s why she hadn’t told Renee. That Renee would go after these people. That Lilia would go after these people. I wanted to go after them myself but I knew from Serenity how things weren’t clear cut. Guards there did despicable things. I’d learned not to speak out. I’d learned to stay quiet.

I couldn’t let my group get shunted off to who knew where, I couldn’t. No matter if Jäger stood in my way or not. There was no way I could keep my mouth shut and watch it happen. It wasn’t in me.

In the deepest core of my being, I prayed that would never ever change.