Zachary Rawlins - The Academy

Alex nodded slowly.

“I guess so,” he said, his brow furrowed. “But, why here?”

He gestured at their surroundings: a low place in between two small hills, surrounded by brush and blackberry bushes and a handful of eucalyptus trees, a half-fallen chain link fence, and a crumbling concrete building frame. It was little more than a bare concrete pad and three walls, perforated where there had once been windows and doors, wrapped in a blanket of multicolored, indecipherable graffiti.

“Because I’ve been setting this place up all day. I have mines and shaped charges strung along the only approach. We’ll have some options, here,” Mitsuru said, sitting down next to him them, and taking a long drink from a bottle of mineral water. She looked tired, and Anastasia was a little surprised that she would show, and wondered exactly how exhausted she was. In all probability, Mitsuru had been working another assignment when she had been called here. Anastasia could only hope that she had enough left in her to bring them all home.

Well, she amended, she could hope, and make contingency plans.

“Once the beacon is activated, Central will need about thirty minutes to lock on to us and prepare the transfer. I’m not certain how long it will take before the Witches find us — the precognitive pool says that most of their forces are arrayed in the urban core, or along the periphery, to keep us from leaving the city,” Mitsuru paused to drink again, and then frowned. “Assuming they know what they’re talking about, then they shouldn’t have time to come down heavy on us before we’re out of here.”

“I still don’t see why they didn’t just send Alice Gallow to retrieve us all…”

Mitsuru glared at Anastasia bitterly.

“Think she might have something better to do?”

Anastasia shook her head.

“I doubt it very much.”

For a long moment, Mitsuru looked like she might lose her temper, and Anastasia wondered if her needling had been a little too effective. Then she shook her head, and the tension dissipated.

“It is what it is,” Mitsuru said levelly. “No other way for all of us to get home.”

Anastasia looked at her dress unhappily.

“Well, this is fucked,” she said quietly. Mitsuru and Alex both gave her looks, clearly uncertain whether she meant the plan or her dress. Anastasia decided to let them wonder.

“That place has a basement,” Mitsuru said, inclining her head in the direction of the ramshackle structure. “The noncombatants can stay inside there, up until the transfer is ready.”

Anastasia saw Alex stiffen, and then sit up straight, and she had to suppress a smile.

“Who, exactly, are you talking about?”

Alex faced Mitsuru as defiantly as he could manage. She met his stare with her impassive red eyes.

“Eerie and you,” Mitsuru said, with a hint of a shrug. “Anastasia can take care of herself, whatever she decides to do.”

Anastasia turned and smiled at Alex, who was staring at Mitsuru in shock at her totally understandable disregard.

“Maybe you could hide underneath Eerie’s skirt,” Anastasia suggested helpfully. “Kill two birds with one stone.”

Alex barely acknowledged Anastasia, or her jibe. He just lowered his head, balled his fists, and stood there, his eyes still locked on Mitsuru as if they were locked in epic combat.

“I am not hiding,” he said quietly, with a determined voice that made it very difficult for Anastasia not to laugh. “I’m going to stay up here and fight.”

“You don’t know how to fight, Alex. Renton, Margot, Edward and I are all combat veterans,” Mitsuru reminded, looking a bit annoyed. “If you want to help, then stay out of the way, and let us do our jobs.”

Alex shook his head slowly, glaring definitely at Mitsuru.

“I am not hiding in that hole,” he said firmly, pointing at the dilapidated ruins.

Mitsuru stood up, brushing the dead grass from her jeans, and then walked over to stand close to Alex. Though she had to look up at him, she wasn’t any less intimidating for it.

“It is my job to bring all of you home. All of you. And you and Eerie can’t even defend yourselves, Alex, much less help the rest of us. So the two of you are going in the basement,” she insisted, raising her voice slightly, “and that is final.”

Mitsuru stopped and then shook her head in disbelief when Eerie cleared her throat politely, from right behind her. She had been curled, asleep or pretending to be asleep, underneath a nearby tree since they had arrived in the valley. Anastasia couldn’t understand how she managed to cross the clearing and walk up behind Mitsuru without her noticing — frankly, she hadn’t even seen her get up from under the tree — and Anastasia felt a trace of annoyance over it.

Then she went back to being just a touch amused. It always made her feel upbeat, watching a plan come together, even if it didn’t all go exactly the way that she had expected.

“I am not going in the basement if Alex isn’t,” Eerie said shyly, her hands clenched in front of her, her eyes downcast.

Mitsuru turned around, looking more surprised than angry.

“You too, Eerie? Look, both of you, this isn’t up for debate. I’m not asking you to do it, understand? I’m telling you.”

Renton and Edward entered the valley from the south, moving briskly over the damp ground, looking unhappy. Renton ran over to Anastasia and whispered his report to her. Anastasia listened for a moment, then nodded and turned back to Mitsuru, who was moving quickly from impatient to infuriated.

“We may not have time for discussion, Miss Aoki,” Anastasia said brightly. “Renton says that he discovered a number of large, feral Etheric signatures nearby, approaching rapidly.”

Mitsuru turned from Eerie to Anastasia, and then threw up her hands, looking exasperated.

“How could they have found us so quickly? We haven’t activated the beacon, yet.”

Anastasia shrugged half-heartedly. What could she have said? It wouldn’t have helped anything, to have answered Mitsuru’s question.

“Okay, no choice. Eerie, do you know how to activate a beacon?”

Eerie got all tongue-tied, but eventually she managed to nod at Mitsuru.

“Then do it, there’s one over there,” Mitsuru ordered, pointing to the pile of mostly empty bags leaning against one wall of the concrete building. “And keep your head down. Renton, you and Edward know what to do. Where is Margot?”

“She’s already in place,” Renton said, a little out of breath, “and waiting.”

Mitsuru nodded gravely, pulling the belt that held her guns from the bag at her feet. She clicked the buckle into place, one hand absently confirming the presence of the twin pistols, strapped to the small of her back.

“Alright, then you do the same,” she said, nodding at Renton and Edward, as she added a sheathed knife to her belt. “Let me know as soon as you know which way they are going to come, especially the big one.”

Alex grabbed Mitsuru’s arm, and everyone froze in shock, midway through their preparations, Renton holding a forgotten assault rifle only partially removed his bag, even Anastasia standing wide-eyed and staring.

“That’s the silver one, right? That Weir?”

Everyone was surprised. Mitsuru simply nodded, instead of exploding. After a moment, she brushed his hand distastefully off her arm. Anastasia was disappointed by her restraint.

“Yes, I would imagine so,” Mitsuru said grimly, turning away from Alex and walking toward the edge of the valley. “But, if this works, you won’t ever see him.”

“So, what do I do?”

Mitsuru shrugged and kept walking.

“I don’t know,” she said, without looking back. “What can you do?”