SIR!” RACHEL SHOUTED, LEAPING TO her feet. “Permission to speak?”
Again, all eyes turned backward, as the soldiers began to whisper among themselves.
“Cadet, I didn’t ask for questions,” the colonel said, giving her a hard look. “This isn’t a training exercise.”
Cadet? He’d never called them that before, especially not Rachel, his favorite student.
“But, sir, there’s no need to put anyone in danger,” Rachel said quickly. “If they can see the future, they’ll know you’re coming. Turn us over to them, like they asked, and let us handle them. We’ve got the power to take them down—I know we do!”
A few of the soldiers began to laugh quietly but immediately went silent at a look from the colonel. Rachel, meanwhile, set her jaw and kept her eyes on her mentor.
“Cadet, you and Liang will not be involved in this operation and only attended this briefing for information’s sake. Given that these UMUs are after you, you’ll both be confined to quarters, under guard, until the objective is completed,” Colonel Charles said.
“But, sir!” Rachel started to object, only for the colonel to interrupt.
“You have your orders, Cadet. Am I in the habit of repeating myself?”
Rachel blinked, then shook her head. “No, sir,” she said, dropping back down to her seat, not looking at either Jia or Fort.
Confined to quarters, under guard? Was the colonel that worried about the Time students getting to them? That wasn’t a comforting thought, that someone with bad intentions might be able to reach them here. Fort shivered at the idea of what they might do, before something else occurred to him.
What if the guards weren’t there for protection so much as to ensure Rachel and Jia didn’t try anything on their own? After all, it wasn’t just Fort who’d gone off to the Dracsi dimension. And Colonel Charles didn’t seem exactly thrilled with Rachel, either.
All in all, Fort wasn’t sure which interpretation was worse and didn’t especially want to find out.
“Cadet Fitzgerald,” Colonel Charles barked, and Fort quickly turned his attention back to the colonel. “You will be facilitating travel to the Carmarthen Academy for our squads. Guards will be assigned to you during the operation, and as soon as the squads have reached their destination, you’ll be confined to quarters as well. Do you understand your orders?”
Fort gritted his teeth. “Yes, sir,” he said aloud, while inside, his mind whirled with objections.
Rachel wasn’t wrong. Sending the soldiers over would just get people hurt, or worse. And some of those people might be his friends! Why shouldn’t Fort, Jia, and Rachel go? Of everyone at the Oppenheimer School, Jia and Rachel were the best at their respective types of magic, which meant they could handle almost anything between the two of them. And with Fort there to teleport them in and out, they wouldn’t be in any danger. After all, what could a bunch of kids who could see the future do against Rachel’s fireballs or even Jia’s Healing magic?
At the front, Colonel Charles began moving around the room, giving individual assignments to squad leaders. As Fort watched, lost in thought, something smacked into his shoulder, and he turned to find Rachel staring at him from behind Jia’s back.
“This is wrong,” she whispered. “Sending these soldiers into danger is a horrible idea, especially when we can handle this. So be ready, Fort. We’re going over there.”
“Really?” Jia whispered, turning to look at Rachel. “You’re going to disobey an order?”
Rachel’s cheeks turned a bit red. “I break the rules all the time,” she said, crossing her arms.
“The rules, sure. Direct orders, never.”
“Orders are just a different kind of rule,” Rachel said, but she didn’t sound thrilled about it. “Yes, they ensure the proper functioning of the military, and without them there’d be chaos. And when we disobey orders, it puts lives in danger, obviously. So, you know, there’s that.”
“Is there a ‘but’ coming anytime soon?” Jia asked, raising an eyebrow.
Rachel gritted her teeth. “Fine, I don’t disobey orders usually, and for good reason! But we can’t mess around with this. I’ve seen what happens when soldiers get sent to dangerous places. My mom and dad have come back from missions with injuries, once almost …” She trailed off, then shook her head. “We’re not going to let the soldiers get hurt when we can handle this, and better than they can, because we have magic.”
“Not to mention they might accidentally attack Cyrus and Sierra,” Fort whispered.
“Okay, so what’s the plan then?” Jia asked. “Those are basically six Cyruses over there. They’re going to know ahead of time anything we try to do.”
“So we improvise,” Rachel said. “They’ll never see it coming.”
That didn’t sound exactly right, but Fort let it slide, considering he was on Rachel’s side.
“We also have no idea what that dome does, or what else those students can do,” Jia said. “Not to mention that this is the whole reason why we’ve been making weapons for the military, so they can use them in missions like this. Since, you know, they’re the adults here, and we’re just kids.”
“Kids who just rescued Fort’s dad from a dimension of ancient evil monsters,” Rachel pointed out, nodding at Fort. “Granted, that was a horrible idea, but still, we did it.”
Fort sighed. Harsh, but fair.
“And almost let the Old Ones return in the process,” Jia said. “Look. You’re the one who taught me how fun it is to break some rules. But in those cases, we were the ones in danger. Who knows what will happen if we mess up here? Sixty million is a lot of people to hurt by accident. And this is the TDA’s job. They know how to handle this.”
“Yeah, by ‘any means necessary,’ ” Fort whispered, not even liking saying the words out loud. “That’s how they’ll handle it. You think they’ll hold back if Sierra or Cyrus gets in their way? Rachel’s right, Jia. We need to go.”
Jia sighed, as up front, the colonel began to dismiss squads from the room. “This is a bad idea. I just want that said.” But then she slowly began to smile. “Still, I was going to suggest the same thing from the start.”
“What?” Fort said, staring at her in confusion.
“I just wanted to make sure you both knew what we were getting into,” Jia said. “Rachel, disobeying an order? That’s huge.”
Rachel gently nudged her with her shoulder. “I knew you were in. So we’re going to need to move fast, if we want to beat the TDA there. Fort, can you teleport us to the school right now? Do you need a picture of it?”
“No, I—” Fort started to say, but stopped as he saw Colonel Charles begin to make his way back toward them. As he walked, his look suggested he’d already guessed what they’d been talking about, and he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.
“Did I ask for questions, Cadet?” the colonel said as he reached them, turning his angry gaze on Rachel. “Or were you just trying to embarrass me?”
Rachel seemed surprised by this. “Embarrass you? Not at all. I just wanted to—”
“Not at all, sir,” Colonel Charles said, leaning in so close that Fort could see the red in his eyes from lack of sleep. “Do you have any idea what’s going on right now, Cadet?”
Rachel looked away. “Sixty million people are in trouble, sir.”
“And that’s the least of my problems,” the colonel hissed. “China wants their book of Healing magic back, so they can build up their own defense against the Old Ones. And do you know why? Because they don’t think we can cut it!”
“That’s ridiculous, sir,” Rachel said, turning back to him. “The TDA is ready for anything!”
“I agree, but our track record says otherwise,” Colonel Charles growled, standing up again. “Even the president thinks we haven’t proven we can handle a magical attack—given how badly we’ve failed over the last two. So he’s thinking about shutting us down for good. Not to mention that every news station worldwide has been showing video of a dragon flying over half the world’s major cities for the last two days!”
Fort winced, looking away. He’d been teleporting D’hea around to keep the Old One away from people while trying to think of a plan, and it hadn’t exactly been his greatest idea.
“I’ve been lenient in the past,” the colonel continued, still focused on Rachel. “Especially with you, Cadet Carter, given your talents for Destruction magic. But I don’t have that luxury anymore, not with everything that’s happened. The world’s eyes are on us, and we cannot fail again. If we do, and they shut us down, who will protect the world, Cadet? Our people would be defenseless, and I for one will not allow that to happen! Do you understand?”
Rachel nodded, staying silent.
He glared at her for a moment, then stood back up. “Any one of you who even thinks about disobeying my orders is gone, cadets. No more second chances, not for anyone, not anymore. I don’t care who they are.”
“Sir, I just think we could help—” Rachel started to say, but the colonel whirled on her abruptly.
“Did you not hear a word I said?” he shouted. “You are the last person I want help from right now, Carter! Those UK students asked for you three specifically for a reason. That means I need you as far from this as possible, for your sake and ours! Are we clear?”
Rachel nodded, staying silent.
“Are we clear?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” she said.
“Sir,” Jia said, her voice shaking slightly. “About the book of Healing magic: Rachel and I have been working on new spells, just using spell words we already know and trying different combinations. It’s possible you could give the Healing book back to China, and that we’d still be able to—”
“Give up Healing magic?” the colonel asked, his eyes widening. “That’s literally all we have to fight off the Old Ones, Liang! Our books go nowhere, not as long as I’m around. Do you hear me?”
Jia nodded, her eyes wide.
“And you, Fitzgerald?” the colonel said, turning to Fort. “No brilliant suggestions from you?”
“I’m just worried about Cyrus, sir,” Fort said, not looking up. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“Oh, don’t worry—that won’t be a concern,” the colonel said. “As of tomorrow, you won’t remember any of this. Last night, while you were still in the medical ward, I put through all the paperwork I need to expel you.. You’re heading home with your mind wiped as soon as this operation is complete.”
“What?” Fort shouted, leaping to his feet, but the colonel pushed him back into his seat.
“You unleashed an Old One into our world, and almost killed my sons! Both of them!” Colonel Charles leaned in close once again, his eyes burning with such an intense rage that Fort actually shrank back, not quite sure what the man might do. But the colonel abruptly pulled away and turned toward the front of the room, his fists unclenching as he took a deep breath, apparently trying to calm himself down.
Calm was the last thing Fort was going to feel, though. Colonel Charles thought he’d almost gotten Gabriel and Michael killed? Fort had saved Gabriel, after his ex-roommate had tried to join his brother, Michael, at the Old One’s side! Without him, the colonel would really have lost both his sons. And all of that had been because of Gabriel to begin with. How could the colonel blame Fort for that?
When the colonel turned around, he did look less angry on the surface, and even forced a small, shaky smile. “Fortunately for you, Fitzgerald, I need your magic,” he said. “And that means you’ve got an opportunity here. Do as I say, exactly as I say, and I’ll send both you and your father back home.” His eyes narrowed. “But disobey me even once, and I’ll personally find reasons to keep your father here for as long as I want, just to be sure he didn’t bring back any magical diseases or anything from that other realm.”
Fort’s mouth dropped open. “What? He’s fine. Dr. Ambrose even said—”
“Well, don’t worry. You wouldn’t remember you’d found him,” the colonel said, giving Fort a long look. “Can’t have any memories of the school in that brain of yours, now, can we? The last thing you’d know about your father is that a monster took him.”
Fort’s whole body went as cold as ice, and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “No,” he whispered. “You wouldn’t. You couldn’t!”
“Maybe not,” the colonel said, shrugging his shoulders. “It would be very extreme. But if I were you, I wouldn’t take that chance, especially considering what you did to Gabriel. So best follow orders, do you understand?” And with that, he stood back up and yanked his uniform down to straighten it. “I said, do you understand me, Cadet?”
Fort could barely think, barely breathe. Out of nowhere, he could suddenly feel the miles of rock above the Briefing Room, as if they were pushing down on him, crushing him with their weight.
For the briefest of moments, Fort considered teleporting the colonel somewhere far away, like the Sahara Desert or the Arctic. Even the moon, maybe.
But wherever he sent him, it wouldn’t be far enough. The colonel would find his way back and just think of a worse punishment, if one even existed.
For all Fort’s magic, it was the colonel who had the real power. He was in control here at the school and had both the government and military to back him up. Even if Fort did teleport the colonel to the center of the earth, whoever was next in line would just step up and continue whatever the colonel had ordered. There was no way to fight them all.
Which meant he had no choice, as horrible as that was.
Fort stood up and saluted the colonel, his hand shaking as he did. “Sir, yes, sir.”
“Good,” the colonel said, then turned to Jia and Rachel. “Cadets Liang and Carter, you’ll be escorted back to your dorm in a moment. Fitzgerald, you’ll be brought down to the Deployment Room at that time. Until then, you’ll all be kept under watch.” He waved two nearby guards over and turned to them. “If any of these children show even the slightest hint of using magic, taser them and contact me immediately.”
“Yes, sir,” the guards said, then looked at each other uncomfortably as Colonel Charles strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him so hard it reminded Fort of a jail cell door closing.