The Intuitives(63)

Ammu looked directly at Sam when he said this, and she held his gaze for a moment, acknowledging the deeper meaning behind his words.

“Take the remainder of the day to rest,” he told them. “You have earned it.”





33


Cloak-and-Dagger



By mid-afternoon, they all ended up in the gaming room playing HRT Alpha: Year One to keep their minds off the strange events of the morning. Sketch had teamed up with Rush against Daniel, Kaitlyn, Mackenzie, and Sam, filling out both teams with bots to play five on five.

Grid has killed Bot 2. Tick-Tock has killed Bot 1. The south generator has been damaged.

“Why are our bots so stupid?” Sketch pouted.

“’Cause all bots are stupid,” Rush said. “If you didn’t want to play with bots, you should have played on the other team.”

“Yeah, but then I couldn’t play with you, though,” Sketch pointed out, and Rush laughed.

“Life is full of tough decisions. At least I’ve got one player I can count on, right?”

“Right!” Sketch agreed. Rush caught the boy’s proud grin out of the corner of one eye and smiled.

“Oh, get a room. Damn lovebirds, squawking up the channel.” Sam’s voice floated over their headsets, and Sketch giggled. Since they were just playing to hang out, Rush had set up the system to let both teams hear each other.

Rush has killed Tick-Tock.

“Poor Tick-Tock,” Rush taunted back. “Killed by a lovebird. How embarrassing for you.”

“Mwa-ha-haaaa,” Sketch crowed, doing his best impression of a maniacal, evil genius laugh, until he cut it short with a gurgling death gasp, still in character.

Grid killed Sketch, flashed on the screen, and they all laughed—even Daniel, who was so quiet over the air that Rush couldn’t help but think of Stryker.

“Rush?”

“Yeah, Sketch, what’s up? Want me to pick you up at the spawn?”

Rush killed Disco. Rush killed Gears.

“When do you think we’re gonna have to go back downstairs?”

“I dunno, man. Probably tomorrow.”

“I don’t like it down there.” Sketch’s voice was quiet now. He hadn’t fully understood the tension in the room that morning, but he had certainly felt it. The rune over Ammu’s chest had dimmed considerably, Rush’s armor had glowed with faint, red lines of agitation, and even Daniel’s usual cascade of color had been muted somehow, as though viewed through a hazy, gray fog.

“Me either,” Daniel admitted, which were the first actual words he had spoken over the comm link all afternoon.

“Can it, guys,” Rush warned them. “Let’s just play.”

Rush killed Tick-Tock. Rush killed Bot 1. The central generator has been repaired.

Grid killed Sketch. Rush killed Grid.

“I don’t think Ammu—” Sam started, but Rush cut her off mid-sentence.

“Everybody offline!” he barked. “Now!”

He ended the game, whipped off his headset, and leaped out of the chair. Sketch stared at Rush in terror, his armor’s usual blue markings all replaced by angry red slashes, its usual silver hue transformed into a deep, almost bronze gold.

Rush strode toward Sam in long, quick strides, but Mackenzie intercepted him and stood defiantly in his way, the great, golden bear staring him down.

“Oh, for God’s sake, I’m not going to hurt her,” Rush said, sounding exasperated rather than furious. “Come here. Everybody, come here. Huddle up.”

Sketch watched Rush for any signs of violence, but while his armor still glowed in the same ominous colors, he seemed relatively composed. Sketch moved toward him with the others, but he stayed behind Mackenzie, just to be on the safe side.

“We said we weren’t going to talk about that stuff,” Rush said in hushed tones once they were all together. “We agreed. And we have no idea what they might have done to these consoles. For all we know, they’re listening to everything we say on there.”

Sam hung her head, feeling stupid. She should have thought of that.

“Let’s just go talk upstairs,” Kaitlyn suggested.

“Yeah, cause they couldn’t possibly have bugged our suites,” Sam countered. She might have been caught unaware once, but she wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

“She’s right,” Rush whispered. “We’re probably safe here in the middle of this huge room, but we can’t stay here. It would look suspicious if someone came in and we were all just standing around like this.”

“What about your workshop?” Daniel asked Kaitlyn, and everyone turned to him in surprise.

“Hey, that’d be good,” Kaitlyn agreed. “There’s no way they’d bother to bug it. Even I’ve only been out there the one time.”

“Like I said,” Rush growled, sounding even more frustrated, “we agreed not to talk about this stuff at all. We don’t need a place to do it. We need to stop doing it. I’m not messing up my invitational.”

“And I’m not letting this go,” Sam argued, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her hips defiantly. “Yesterday, Ammu wanted us to open that thing. Today, he didn’t. I want to know why.”