Tina Chan - imperfect

“How was school today?” his mom asked, massaging her temples with her index fingers.

“Oh, you know, the usual. Classes, tests, exams, lunch, more exams, etcetera.”

“No troubles with kids?”

“ Mom. That’s the past. That part of my life is over. I’m doing just fine at school.”

“Just making sure.”

Troop softened his tone, knowing his mom hadn’t meant to sound overbearing. “Everything’s good. Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll fix up some minestrone soup to go with the chicken salad?”

“You’re an angel. I think I’m going to take you up on that offer.”

If you only knew, Troop thought. I highly doubt you’ll look at me the same.

She kicked off her heels and floated out of the room. Troop heated up a small saucepan. While he waited for the soup to simmer, he flicked through the world studies notes Darrel had sent him. Most of the material he already knew, thanks to private tutoring sessions provided by the Company.

His electro-slate vibrated. The caller ID informed Troop it was Bruno calling him.

“Hello,” said Troop.

“Hey. Listen, you’ve got to hear this. Are you listening?”

“Yeah.”

“Jack’s planning a coordinated hack on the school system tomorrow after school, but he wanted to get an okay from you first.”

“Why doesn’t Jack ask me himself? And anyways, he knows he doesn’t need my permission to hack the school system—he knows the rules we play by.”

“Jack doesn’t have your ID number, so he asked me to call you for approval,” said Bruno.

Troop nodded, even though Bruno couldn’t see him do so. That makes sense. I don’t remember giving Jack my number and even his hacking skills are still one step behind the Company’s. The Company had encrypted all of Troop’s personal information; things could become disastrous if they leaked into the wrong hands.

“He’s planning on breaking the system tomorrow but wanted to make sure you were okay with it ever since, you know, the Harold incident,” said Bruno

“Got it. Do you know what Jack is planning to do after he breaks through the system?”

“Mason offered him three hundred points if Jack raised his grade in Physics.”

“Tell Jack to raise Tompkins’ grade in World Studies while he’s at it.”

“Alright. Are you going to help Jack with the hijack? I know I am. Darrel is too. Jack says he needs enough people to overwhelm the system for tomorrow.”

“Can’t,” said Troop. “Tutor session tomorrow right after school.”

Troop could almost see Bruno wrinkling his nose when he replied, “Oh, I see. Is it one of those fancy private lessons?”

“I suppose you could say so.”

“Ludus High isn’t good enough for you, is it? Nope—you’ve got to have one-on-one classes even though you already attend the second best high school in the United Regions.” There was a hint of taunting in Bruno’s tone. “Only the best for—”

“Bruno,” Troop said. He kept his voice even.

Bruno immediately realized he was walking on a fine line. “Sorry.” He didn’t sound the least bit apologetic.

Troop let it slide, but decided to keep a close eye on Bruno’s behavior over the next few days. Bruno would be more than happy to stab him in the back given the chance; it was common knowledge at school that Bruno hungered after Troop’s power at Ludus.

“I see five watchtowers. How about you?”

Kristi replied to Chelsa, “Same.”

Her left leg was going numb from crouching behind a bush.

“Stay here and count how many guards there are for each entrance and watchtower. I’ll go check out the patrols, alarms, cameras, trip wires, lasers, heat sensors, droids, pressure pads—”

Kristi interrupted Chelsa, ”I get the point.”

With that, Chelsa was gone in a blink. Kristi hunkered in the bushes, tallying the guards while Ghost drifted around nearby in case she needed help. She tripled checked to make sure she had counted right: two per entrance and three per watchtower. This equaled to nineteen guards in total and two droid German shepherd watchdogs (one per entrance).

Hopefully Chelsa would be back soon. She was eager to start moving and find Jaiden. Both of her legs were seriously going numb now.

“One little stretch won’t hurt anyone,” Kristi said.

She straightened her back. Ghost hissed.

“Okay, okay. Keep your hair on.”

The droid-leopard didn’t stop the threatening sounds until Kristi lowered herself back behind the shrub.

“Did Ghost see something?” Chelsa returned from her brief scout.

“No. He just started hissing all of a sudden.” Kristi failed to mention chances were that Ghost was trying to stop her from standing up and potentially end up being seen by the guards. “So, find any useful information?”

“Breaking in shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Breaking out once we’re in is the bigger issue. I checked out the perimeter and found a couple of options on getting into the building. We can either go through the window on the north side of the building, through the delivery chute or through the fire escape that leads to the exit on the roof.

“Patrols of five guards pass every ten minutes or so. There are some cameras and lasers though, so we’ll have to watch out for those. I don’t know what the security is like inside, which may pose a problem later on. On the bright side, I found out your brother is being held in cell three, which saves us a lot of time from having to check every cell.”

“How did you get all of that information so fast?”

Chelsa smirked. “Practice. Lots of it.”

Ghost padded over and rumbled his chest.

“We’re getting off track,” Chelsa said. “We better start moving. So here’s the plan: we’re going to sneak in by means of the window I mentioned. The north side window is the only one that isn’t locked; I guess one of the workers here wanted to have a smoke without setting off the fire alarm, but forgot to close the window properly.

“There are four cameras and one laser that we have to watch out for. Ghost will take care of the cameras, which leaves only the guards and laser for you and me to deal with. The laser shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid; it seems like the standard model all local jails use. As for the guards, if we time our moves right after a patrol passes, then we have about ten minutes to get in, which is more than enough.”

“Ghost will take care of the cameras?” Kristi asked to make sure she heard Chelsa right. She tried to imagine how a droid-cat could disable four security cameras.

“You’ll see.”

Kristi took a deep breath in. She had spent less than forty-eight hours with Chelsa and was already breaking laws. Chelsa was not a good influence; but she was a good friend. “Let’s do this.”

Kristi closely followed Chelsa as they skirted the edges of the jailhouse by keeping in the shadows, ducking behind foliage and running low to the ground. Just when she was getting the hang of it, Chelsa stopped; Kristi stopped herself from crashing into Chelsa. The window that was to be their entrance was about half a football field’s length away.

“Ghost, go take care of that camera.” Chelsa pointed to a surveillance camera mounted on a tree.

Ghost climbed up the tree and using his paws, turned the camera so that it was facing the trunk. Then Ghost leapt down, purring with satisfaction of a job well done.

“Come on, we’re going to make a dash for the trash bins,” Chelsa said.

They dashed for their temporary cover and waited for a patrol to pass. Shiny, polished boots marched by in unison. The guards swung their flashlight around, searching for anything out of the norm. They didn’t spot Chelsa and Kristi hidden behind the bins.