The front of the school was crowded with students and faculty alike. A policeman stood by the main office, hands in his pockets, monitoring the activity and warding off anyone who came by. While most kept their distance, the area was alive with talking, very animated.

Bomb threat? Did someone die? Nathan could feel the questions without even hearing what they were asking.

Jay and Rocky stood together near the back of the crowd. Silas was with them, looking toward the students and beyond, to the front doors of the school.

Nathan had to circle around to even see what was going on near the front doors, finding police at the front, blocking off access to anyone going out without permission. Occasionally, someone came inside, people who had been standing out front. It left lots of room for speculation.

Nathan wasn’t sure why they were letting anyone out front at all.

Since the bell had rung, most of the teachers that were near the front door were warding off students.

“Go to class,” they said.

Some of the students were breaking away. The bell rang again, indicating they were all late for homeroom.

Teachers took to ushering kids away from the front of the school and to class before they all got detention. They formed a line and shooed with hand motions, getting them to move.

Silas broke away from Jay and Rocky and jogged over to Nathan. “I can’t get into the main office. Jay said there’s a rumor going around they put Mr. McCoy in custody.”

“Any reason why?”

He shook his head. “And no sign of Mr. Hendricks. I don’t know what the hell is going on with the Jeep. North’s in the office with Mr. Blackbourne. We’re getting an Academy lawyer in there. A few other people might be on the way, too.”

Academy people. When police got involved, it took more resources to straighten it all out. Nathan put his hands into his pockets and stood there, looking on toward the front doors. Despite the teachers shooing away other students, they seemed to ignore Nathan and Silas standing, for the most part.

“We can’t stay right here,” Silas said. “The teachers might avoid us, but the police will wonder why we’re standing around.”

“Should we go to the office? Can we help Mr. Blackbourne or North?”

“No. We can’t get to them. I’m not sure we should.”

“He’ll call if he needs us,” Nathan said, although he didn’t have a phone. “Where are the others? Where’s Kota?”

“Kota left with Gabriel. They’re out looking for Hendricks, although they doubt they’ll find him.”

“Luke? Where’s he?”

Silas blinked and shrugged. “I know he’s here. I just don’t know where. It’s been crazy since we arrived.”

Great. “Maybe we should be looking for him.” He remained stationary for a moment as a teacher moved from outside to the office, looking pale faced. Nathan suspected he was asked to go inside and answer questions. “We also need to know how his Jeep got there. Any cameras?”

“Victor’s working on that. They’re going through footage.”

Nathan could go through it, but maybe Victor didn’t need another person working on it. And unless they were willing to admit they had cameras installed in the school, then there wasn’t much chance they could turn it in as evidence.

“Let’s look for Luke, I guess,” Silas said.

Nathan retreated from the chaos at the front of the school. Silas joined him, and they took a long route around the school, crossing through the cafeteria and then on through hallways. Eventually they got to a stairwell. Most of this side of the school was empty, except for the classrooms.

Silas said nothing during this time, looking at his feet as they walked around. Now that they’d left the crime scene area, they couldn’t return unless they had a purpose. Mr. Blackbourne and North being in there alone irked at Nathan. He hoped it was going okay.

“How’d it go getting a cousin in?” Nathan asked.

“Hmmm,” Silas said, sounding sour.

“Can’t get one to come?”

“He’s wanting to call in a whole family.”

Nathan chuckled. “Do it. He’ll get lots of people to help.”

Silas shook his head, smirking. “It won’t deter him. He’ll want me to manage.”

“Get a cousin to do—”

Suddenly, Luke appeared at the top of the stairs ahead of them. His hair was pulled back in a clip. Once he saw them, he stopped, sat flat down on the very top step and flopped backward, spreading out his arms. He stage whispered, “Save me! I’m so tired. Get me out of here.”

Nathan took the stairs two at a time to get to him. He sat down on the top step, leaning over to check for any injuries. Luke had on all black from the night before and was barefoot, but he looked okay. “Are you hurt somewhere I can’t see?”

“No,” he said in an exhale. “I’m just exhausted.”

“What have you been doing?”

“I’ve been hiding,” he said. As he breathed, his chest lifted and fell. His hair was in a black clip, but a lot of locks had fallen out and brushed against the floor. “They’ve been all over this place since the smoke bomb. I’m not exactly dressed for an interview.” He sat up on his elbows. “I’m starving.”

Silas slid his bookbag around. He fished in it and presented a protein bar to him. “Will this work?”

“For now,” Luke said, sitting up and taking the bar from him. He ripped open the edge with his teeth and then took a big bite. He talked as he chewed. “Did you know there’s not a single place to sleep in here besides the nurse’s station? Even the couch in the main office is too short. All the floors suck.”

“Did you see who left North’s car out front?” Nathan asked.

“No,” Luke said. He swallowed his bite. “But it wasn’t here until sometime early in the morning, after a few people had shown up to unlock the school. Apparently, people dismissed it at first as someone who was breaking the rules not parking out front. When the police, who had been here all night, finally went to check it out, they found some smoke bombs inside.”

“Maybe whoever drove it is still here,” Silas said.

Luke lifted his hands in an I-don’t-know shrug. “If it was Volto, and he drove it up, he did it without the mask,” he said. “It would have been too suspicious. I couldn’t get out. Well, I could have, I think. Mr. Blackbourne thought it was too. Between the cops snooping around and Volto being out there...” He stopped and took another bite. “And I think he wanted me to stay here and watch anyway.”

Made sense. “Maybe we should go back to the music room.”

“Someone needs to go,” Silas said. “Dr. Green might get called away for this or for class. Someone’s got to keep Marie and Sang out of this and make sure Danielle finishes her test.”

“I need sleep,” Luke said. “I’m seeing double. Can I sleep? Where’s Kota to give me a time out?”

Nathan chuckled and stood up. With what Luke was wearing and being barefoot, it wasn’t like he could go waltzing around school, anyway. He needed to change and rest while he had the chance. Who knew what would happen next. “Guess I’ll go to the music room. Take Luke home?” he asked Silas.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Silas said. “I’ll stay with him. You go back.”

Nathan went back down the stairs, taking a different way to avoid the police at the front again. He kept his head down, slowly walking the halls as he went.

The only lead they had was that it was smoke bombs. North’s car loaded with a few smoke bombs for a supposed prank wasn’t going to land anyone in jail. Was this just because North had reported it stolen?

Or did they see it as connected to Mr. McCoy, who had been reported missing? From that, it was a springboard into the chaos happening in the office? Between McCoy and Morris and others on edge, it only took one nut to crack before the police might find some actual school violations on their part. It was likely the police would talk to a few people and hand this off to a school board and a single investigator working with a lawyer to see where any laws were broken.

They’d be working with a school board they all knew was corrupted. The superintendent was in on Hendricks’s schemes.

Mr. Hendricks avoiding the place made it all worse.

As he walked, he heard someone coming from the other direction. Voices in an otherwise empty section of hallway. He caught a blue uniform turning a corner.

He ducked into a nearby restroom, pushing himself against the wall. He waited for whoever it was to pass, ready to leave if someone came in. He didn’t need to hide, but he didn’t want to be the lone student out of class during a time like this.

The footsteps seemed to slow down a little. The voices continued.

“I don’t understand,” a voice said, and Nathan was pretty sure it was Ms. Wright. “What are you asking me?”

“You’ve been in contact with Mr. McCoy,” the other person said, and Nathan guessed it was the officer. Female. Her voice gravelly. “Your records show you’ve been getting texts and emails from the phone we picked up on him when we brought him in.”

“He was giving me information about the school,” Ms. Wright said. “About operations...But I thought it was Mr. Hendricks. That’s the phone number I was given.”

“Mr. McCoy had a missing person’s report filed for him for months,” the officer said. “And you’re telling me you had no idea that was him?”

There was a long pause from Ms. Wright. “I’m pretty sure this is where I talk to a lawyer. I’m not answering any more questions.”

“You aren’t in trouble,” she said but she sighed. “But you’ve the right to one. Probably best you make your call and get one out here.”

Nathan remained where he was after they had walked on. He breathed in, held his breath for a few seconds before letting it out between his lips.

It’s all going down. There was too much happening for the Academy to contain. Too many people. Extended too far.

Maybe they shouldn’t be here. They should get Sang away from here. There was a risk her name could be brought up.

Nathan brushed his palm against his mouth and chin, wiping at his lips with his fingers. When he was pretty sure the area was clear, he left the restroom and returned to the music room.

They had a few minutes left of homeroom still. Sang was by the piano, hovering over a phone with Dr. Green.

The phone was on. A voice was coming from it. Nathan crossed the room quietly until he was close enough to hear what was being said.

Kota was speaking. “Police are at Mr. Hendricks’s house, too, but it looks like he hasn’t been here. Neighbors don’t recall seeing him.”

“Is there one of us in the squad?” Dr. Green asked. By us, he meant someone in the Academy.

“Yeah,” Kota said. “It’s where I’m getting the information. After all this, Hendricks might have flown the coop.”

“You don’t think he’s going to bother showing back up?” Dr. Green asked.

“Would you?”

Sang picked up her head, looking to Dr. Green. “Maybe it’s good he doesn’t.”

Dr. Green blinked a few times and shrugged. “It’ll keep the police here longer to wait for him, but it does buy us time to figure out what to do.”

“We need time,” Kota said. “We’ll stay here just in case, but we should open the search net. We need to find out what happened to him.”

“Do it,” Dr. Green said. “Get word out. We’ll be here.” He hung up.

“Ms. Wright is being questioned,” Nathan said as soon as Kota was off the phone. He explained what he overheard quickly.

Dr. Green inhaled sharply and then let it out slow. “This is getting nuts. Okay.” He clapped his hands together and then brought his fingers to his lips, pressing against his mouth quickly. When he released it, he spoke. “Okay, Nathan. Stay here with Sang. Get Danielle on that test. You don’t leave, don’t let them leave with anyone but us. I’m going to the main office. My turn to butt in with Mr. Blackbourne.” He shook his hands off and then picked up his phone. “I’m calling in...hmm...Let me think.” He rambled off a few more incoherent syllables as he crossed to the music room door. He pressed it with his back to open it, completely involved in whatever he was thinking, and disappeared.

Nathan turned to Sang, his shoulders dropping. “Crazy day, huh?”

Sang nodded. She had an arm crossed over her body, her hand holding to her elbow. “I wish I could do more.”

“Maybe it’s good timing,” he said. “We’ve got Marie and Danielle here with us and out of the way?”

She nodded again, although slowly.

Nathan moved to her, close. He cupped her face in his hands and urged her to look at him. “Are you scared?”

“Yes,” she said, and her voice shook as she spoke. She swallowed quickly. “I’m worried about North. About Mr. Blackbourne... About us...”

Nathan leaned in, and he kissed her forehead gently. He left his lips there, brushing against her skin as he whispered, “Would it make it better if I said don’t? We’re not the ones in trouble. Mr. Hendricks is.”

Sang’s arms moved up around his neck. He dropped his hands to her waist and looked down at her.

Her smile was strained. “I’m worried about North being framed for something. I’m trying to figure out how we won’t be involved.”

“Is it about your ghost bird status? Are you worried about that?”

She blinked rapidly and shook her head. “No, but...I mean, that’s not the first priority...” She drifted.

“You’re not being questioned. Not if we can help it. Don’t worry.”

“What about all that money?” she asked. “Your whole purpose for being here?”

He looked into those lovely green eyes for a moment, digging deep to find the right words that would help her understand. Instead of answering directly, he pulled her in, hugging her and holding her close.

She leaned into him, breathed against him. She felt stiff still, but she buried her face in his shoulder.

“Us first,” he said quietly. “Family...”

“I know,” she said.

He pressed his lips to the side of her head, kissing for a long moment. Her hair smelled like that god-awful shampoo Gabriel had given her.

The bell rang, and before he could lose the opportunity, he nudged her until her head tilted up.

He kissed her. Hard and deep, trying to give her some confidence in a single, risky kiss.

She responded, her mouth moving against his. Even her tongue licked at his lips once before retreating.

He missed this. Kissing her in the morning. The times he would wake her up before school to get ready. He missed hearing her in the house, tinkering around with clothes and brushing her hair.

He missed everything about her when she wasn’t around.

He broke the kiss off but continued to hold her close, kissing at her face a couple of times before pulling back. “Don’t worry,” he said. His voice was deeper and raspier than before. “You wait. In a couple of days, we’ll have this all sorted. One way or another. Either we’re still here and we’ll still be on our mission, or it’s over and we leave. Either direction isn’t terrible.”

She breathed in hard enough that her shoulders rolled back and her chest pressed against him. She deflated as she breathed out again. “I need to remind myself of that.”

He pulled away when the door opened. Danielle was walking in with Marie.

He tried to look casual after being close to Sang. He went to the table, overlooking the folders sitting there with their names on them. Sang went to her spot, picking up a pencil.

“Where’s the doc?” Danielle asked. “You know, it’s so hard to take him seriously as a doctor when he used to play football with the rest of you on my front lawn when we were younger.”

Nathan smirked. Lots had changed since then. “He’s in the main office. I’m not sure when he can get back. In the meantime, do the test.”

Danielle rolled her eyes. “Tell me it’s not timed.”

“It’s not,” Sang said. “All he said was follow the instructions.” She opened her folder, but something in her had changed. She was more perked up, her eyes brighter. Maybe she was showing a bit more confidence than before.

If only Nathan felt the same. He wasn’t sure they’d get out of this one completely unscathed.