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We followed Trinity's voice to an empty classroom on our left. She stood inside, hands on her hips, facing Winston, who was holding a smaller student against the chalkboard. How he had actually found a student smaller than him was beyond me.
“Cadet Miller was just offering to help me do my homework.” Winston smiled at Trinity wickedly.
“I’ll bet he was.” Trinity’s blue eyes flashed and her angry face was about as red as her hair. “It looks like you’re doing more forcing than he’s offering. Let go of him!”
I scanned the hall to see if I could get the attention of a teacher. The hall was loud as students rifled through their lockers preparing for their next class period, but most of the teachers were already in their classrooms.
“I wasn’t hurting him,” Winston said, releasing his grip before turning to Trinity. As soon as Winston’s back was turned, the frightened student slipped between Matt and me and disappeared into the crowded hall. “We were just negotiating a business proposition. This wasn’t any of your concern.”
“The real truth is you’re just a bully.” Trinity shot back.
“I’m not the bully around here!” Winston shouted, taking a step toward Trinity. “You are. You think that because your dad’s a teacher, you can get away with picking on the new kid.”
I tried to catch Trinity’s eye as I drew my hand across my throat in a signal to let it go. She didn’t even seem to see me, and I didn't dare leave Matt alone with Winston while I went to track down a teacher
“I’m not picking on you,” Trinity choked out, her clenched fists dropping to her sides. “You were picking on Cadet Miller.”
Behind me, Matt behind me snorted like a bull about to charge. If I didn’t do something fast I would have a full-fledged brawl on my hands.
“Cadet Miller?” Winston stepped forward and got in her face, even though Trinity was still slightly taller than he was. He seemed to be trying to make up for his shortness with meanness. “I already told you we had a business agreement.”
“Back off, Winston.” I struggled to control my own anger as I stepped next to Trinity. I kept my voice low and threatening and hoped Winston would get the point. “Don’t you have anything better to do than to pick on a girl?”
“She started it,” Winston whimpered. He took a step back and glared up at me as Matt stepped in to back me up.
“Whatever,” I snapped. “Matt and I saw the whole thing. Get lost.”
Winston seethed for a moment. Then he looked at me with a nasty glint in his eyes and said, “I heard what happened to your parents, Cadet McCully. You should be glad. Dead parents can’t chew you out for failing school.”
The room grew very quiet.
Dear, Lord! I closed my eyes and stood stiffly, clenching and unclenching my fists. Help me to control my temper. Help me not to give in to his goading!
“You horrible little...” Trinity gasped beside me.
Taking a deep breath to force myself to calm down, I opened my eyes and looked at Winston. He was chuckling to himself as if he had just told an amusing joke. I tightened my fist and fought the urge to wipe his smug grin right off his face.
“You think that’s funny?” Matt took a step toward Winston with his fist cocked. “I’ll show you something I think is really funny, you monster!”
“Don’t, Matt,” I whispered, putting my arm out to hold my friend back. In spite of Winston’s nastiness, I was aware that our Christian testimony in front of Trinity was at stake here. I wasn’t going to blow it.
“But, Scott.” Matt waved his fist at Winston, who only looked at him with defiance, as if daring Matt to hit him. “He...”
“That’s just what he wants – a reaction,” I continued in the same even tone, “I’m not going to lower myself to his level. Let’s just go to class. Come on, Trinity.”
Taking Matt by his still upraised arm, I turned to lead my friends back out to the hall just as the bell rang. We were going to be late for class, but at least we had avoided a fight. For now.
“Sure, walk away, McCully,” Winston called after us. “I knew you were a sissy!”
“Keep walking,” I advised through clenched teeth. I tugged at Matt’s arm, but there was no way I could hold him back if he allowed Winston to get to him. “Remember your testimony and just ignore him.”
“How can you stand to be seen in public with such a wimp, Cadet Marshall?” Winston changed his target to the one who seemed to be reacting. “I’d be embarrassed to admit he was my friend!”
“That’s enough!” Matt roared, tearing his arm from my grasp and rushing back toward Winston.
Trinity gasped as Winston dodged Matt’s punch and ducked behind the teacher’s desk.
“You tried to hit me!” Winston shrieked. “You took a swing at me. I never hurt anyone.”
“Oh, great,” I muttered, stepping between the howling Winston and the now embarrassed Matt. “Knock it off, Winston, you’re not hurt.”
“He tried though. If I hadn’t ducked, he’d have hit me!” Winston continued to holler. His screams would finally bring the teacher I’d failed to find earlier.
“I’m going to Superintendent Hinkly,” Winston threatened Matt, his voice closer to normal volume as he stood from behind the desk and jabbed his finger at Matt. “You’re the real bully, trying to hurt a smaller student.”
“You started it. Besides, I didn’t even touch you,” Matt protested and then appealed to me. “You can vouch for me, can’t you?”
“Explain that to Superintendent Hinkly,” Winston sneered. “You can’t keep me from telling him what happened!”
“Not even going to try.” I shrugged. I was going to call his bluff. He wouldn’t dare go to Superintendent Hinkly.
“You’re not?” Winston actually looked disappointed.
“You’re not?” Trinity repeated, stepping away from the classroom door toward us.
“But, Scott,” Matt said, looking at me with confusion. “Superintendent Hinkly will...”
“Superintendent Hinkly will want to hear both sides of the story.” I cut in and turned to look Winston in the eye. “If you want Superintendent Hinkly to hear about your behavior toward Cadet Miller, go right ahead.”
Winston looked at me. His mouth worked frantically, but no sound came out, and his face flamed to a deep red.
“I’ll get you guys later,” he finally managed to snarl as he shoved past us into the hall.
“Thanks, Scott,” Matt said, letting out a relieved sigh.
“No problem.” I smiled at my friend. “Just try not to let his taunting make you lose your cool. He’s just trying to make trouble.”
“I want to thank you, too.” Trinity stepped forward and smiled warmly at me. “I’m glad you stood up for me.”
“It was nothing,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment. My face grew warm in spite of myself. “Just helping out a friend, that’s all.”
“Man,” Matt groaned as he glanced down the empty hallway. “That bully made us late to class.”
Parting quickly, we hurried to our separate classes. Perhaps if we were lucky we could avoid any further confrontations – at least for the rest of the day.
As soon as dinner was over, Matt and I hurried to our room to prepare for the night’s activities. Many of the students left for home as soon as the last bell rang on Fridays, so I hoped that it would be easy to escape the nearly empty campus.
After lights out, Matt and I stepped out of our room into the carpeted hall. Our unit commander had already checked on everyone to make sure that each cadet was in bed, so the hall was empty, but even the slightest noise could bring a curious cadet out to investigate.
We slipped down the stairs and glanced carefully out the front doors before opening them. The doors could always be opened from the inside, in case of an emergency, but were diligently locked at curfew. I jammed a wad of paper tightly into the latch to keep it from locking us out. Not even students could get in after lights out. My heart pounded nervously as we quietly slipped out of the building.
We ducked into the bushes on the side closest to the fence. I peered through the branches, timing carefully how long it took for the student watchman to make his rounds. Once I was sure the coast was clear, I nodded to Matt, and we dashed across the lawn to the fence and scrambled over. JJMA wasn’t really built with security in mind, and the fence was almost more of a warning. We quickly hid in the trees on the other side of the fence as the watchman made his way back.
Once soon as he was gone again, we continued toward the park. In less than fifteen minutes, we were standing underneath a lamppost at Catonsville Community Park. The ease of our escape made me feel elated – and nervous. If anyone noticed that we were gone, getting back in would be nearly impossible, at least not without getting expelled.
“I guess we won’t have any trouble identifying Hayes,” I commented as I looked around the empty park. “No one else is out here at this time of night.”
Matt looked around at the dark outlines of trees and benches and shifted his weight. “I’ll be glad when we get back to the Academy. It’s just a little creepy out here at night.”
I nodded my agreement. “We’ve already come this far; we can’t turn back now.”
It was past midnight and I was beginning to wonder if Hayes had changed his mind when a shadowy figure walked toward us and stopped just outside the light of the lamppost.
“Which of you is the McCullys' kid?” the figure asked.
“I am.” My heart raced as I recognized the voice as the one I had heard on the phone. I took a step closer to the shadow. “Are you Hayes?”
“Yes, listen carefully. I’ll tell you all I know. Then I’ll leave, and you never saw me. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Your parents were looking for the Snake. Wanted to keep him from stealing a weapon.”
“What kind of weapon?” Matt interrupted roughly.
“Supposedly it sends out some sort of radiation that causes electrical devices to short out,” Hayes answered. “Anyway, I was going to be in on the job and was supposed to tell them when the heist was going down, but they never showed up.”
“Who’s the Snake?” It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine that the same person who wanted the weapon had caused the crash to keep my parents from getting in the way.
Hayes was silent for a moment. I wasn’t sure if he was debating whether to give that important a piece of information to a pair of teenagers, or if even he had no idea.
“Hey, you guys!” a whiny voice called from the darkness.
Hayes jumped, muttered something about a trap, and disappeared into the shadows.
“Wait!” I shouted into the darkness, before whirling in anger toward the voice that had interrupted us just as I was about get a lead on my parents.
“If that’s who I think it is,” Matt seethed. “I’m going to kill him!”
Winston stepped into the light of the lamppost.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, not even bothering to hide my irritation..
“I overheard you two talking about your little meeting earlier today.” Winston grinned. “You think you’re great detectives, but you never even noticed that I was following you!”
“We have a perfectly good reason for being out here tonight,” I said evenly. Blowing up at Winston would not bring Hayes back, no matter how tempting it was choke the little weasel right now.
“That’ll come in handy when you try to explain to Superintendent Hinkly,” Winston answered. The shadows from the street lamp emphasized the evil grin that spread across his face. “Unless...”
“Unless, what?” I said tightly, forcing myself to sound calm.
“Unless you let me help,” Winston said. “I can play detective just as well as you.”
“No,” Matt said sharply. “I’d rather take my chances with Superintendent Hinkly.”
“You two can’t hog all the fun!” Winston whined. “It’s not fair!”
“This isn’t a game, Winston,” I said through clenched teeth, rage boiling inside me. The events of the past two days were pushing me to a breaking point. “We don’t need your help.”
“You’re going to need someone’s help,” Winston said vindictively, “after I turn you in to Superintendent Hinkly.”