No Test for the Wicked: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Five (14 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Brandon eased the door shut just as the footsteps entered the corridor.

My eyes widened as he held a finger to his lips. I nodded and froze. The footsteps passed and then all fell quiet.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed when I felt sure it was safe.

He glared at me and then whispered back, “What am
I
doing? What are
you
doing sneaking down the hall? You’re lucky I heard you.”

“You heard me?”

“Well, yeah. The thump of your back along the lockers was a dead giveaway. Were you trying to be loud?”

“I was
not
being loud.”

“You were, too. You’re lucky I peeked to see who it was. I knew the guards didn’t walk like that.”

“Stop arguing, you guys.” Piper stepped out from behind the teacher’s desk.

I gaped at her. “What are
you
doing here? Who else is here?”

Piper shook her head. “No one else. We’re the only three that eluded their net. Brandon, that was stupid. What if she’s with them?”

“She’s not with them, Pip.”

I shook my head. “I am definitely
not
with them.”

Piper crossed her arms. “There’s something off about you, Lara Carson. I don’t trust you.”

“The both of you shut up and follow me,” Brandon whispered, motioning us to the back of the classroom where we hid behind the lab desks and some chairs.

My heart still thundered. “Jeez, Brandon. You do realize you took about five years off my life with that grab-and-pull.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Sorry. There was no time for a fancy meet and greet.”

“I actually wanted to say I appreciate it. Thanks for saving me.”

“You’re welcome. Again.”

My eyes widened. “It was you who knocked.”

“Yep. We knew someone was hiding in the Weather Lab. We could hear you moving around. When I heard them go in there, I figured you might need a distraction.”

“Wow. You don’t know how close it was. But it was a really big risk.”

Brandon grinned. “I’m fast and they didn’t discover you, did they? Besides, this whole situation is one big risk. How did you elude the initial roundup?”

“I was in Computer Central. I heard them and changed the access code so I had time to hide. After a bit, I managed to get out of there and have been next door in the Weather Lab. What about you guys? How did you hide from them?”

Brandon glanced at Piper. “We, ah, were skipping. We were in the empty Chem lab next to the cafeteria. We hid in the air-conditioning/heating ventilation in the lab when they came through hunting students and staff. I unscrewed the intake grill with this.” He held up a Swiss army knife. “Thank God the staff doesn’t know I carry it around or I’d be suspended. Again. But it goes everywhere with me. My grandpa gave it to me.”

“Good thinking, Brandon. How did you guys get up here?”

“Heard them rounding up kids in the cafeteria and figured the Chem lab was too close for comfort. We waited for a while and then made a run for it up here.”

“Made a run for it? That wasn’t very good planning.”

“That’s prime coming from someone who almost bought it in the hallway moments ago.”

“Fair enough.”

Piper put a hand on Brandon’s shoulder. “Look, we’re all scared. But we’re alive and safe, so far at least.”

I nodded. “You were lucky and so was I. Apparently I’m going to have to revisit my calculations on guard rotations.”

Piper looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Where were you going?”

“I’ll tell you if you first update me on everything you know about the situation.”

Brandon sighed. “Well, it’s not a student with a grudge shooting up the place. There are dozens of soldier types and they are all heavily armed. They’re speaking a foreign language and seem well organized. Terrorists of some kind, I think. They’ve put bombs everywhere. We saw one in the stairwell when we ran up here.”

“That’s not good.”

Piper twisted her green sweater between her fingers. “This was all planned in advance. Very organized. They already had a list of everyone who was in school today. They read the list aloud in the cafeteria and checked them off as people were accounted for, even the teachers. We heard all of it. That’s how we knew you were still on the loose somewhere. There were only three students unaccounted for—the three of us. I don’t think they’re looking too hard for us, though. We’re just three scared kids. After all, what could we do against an army?”

“What about Headmistress Swanson?”

“They have her, and Ms. Eder, too.”

I considered. “Visitors?”

“Only one—a parent who was in the office to pick up her daughter for a dentist’s appointment. She’s in the cafeteria, too, or at least she was. It’s been hours since we’ve been down there.”

“Okay.” I digested the information for a minute. That meant the terrorists didn’t know about Elvis. Ms. Eder hadn’t signed him in, thank goodness. I briefly considered telling the kids about Elvis, and then decided against it. If we were captured, it would work in Elvis’s favor to have fewer people know.

“There’s more,” Piper continued. “They locked us out of the school’s network. Changed all the passwords and limited our access. All the phones are dead. We are completely isolated.”

I shook my head. “Not completely. I created a back door into the system before I got out of Computer Central. We can’t do anything but look at this point because they’ve got internal monitoring software in play, but it works in our favor.”

Piper frowned. “How did you gain access to Computer Central? You need a special badge to get in there.”

“I...I lifted it from the office.”

Brandon leaned forward and I could see the white of his eyes gleaming in the dark. “Well, that was awesome thinking under pressure. You rock it, Lara.”

“I have my moments.”

Piper looked at me. “So where
were
you going just now?”

I didn’t want to involve them, but now I had no choice. They needed to know, at least in a peripheral way, in case something happened to me. “To Mr. Jouret’s office. He’s in on this.”

Piper gasped. “He’s
what
?”

“He’s running the tech end of this operation for the terrorists.”

“No way. You’ve got to be kidding me.” I could hear the shock in Brandon’s voice. “He’s our teacher, for God’s sake.”

“He’s also working for these guys. Trust me. He was the one who came into the computer room to take control of things while I was hiding in there.”

“Where did you hide?”

“I squeezed into the cable closet.”

“How did you fit?”

“Very carefully.”

Brandon began to pace. “Look, I want to believe you, but are you sure about Jouret?”

“I’m positive.”

Piper gasped. “That’s just not possible. They have to be making him do it.”

“They weren’t. You have to trust me on this. He’s a full participant.”

“But why? And how would he get away with it?”

I shrugged. “Presumably he’s working on the assumption that no one in the school knows. I’d guess he’d work it so he’d be released as part of a prisoner exchange or something. I heard him say he was wearing a mask. No one would know if I hadn’t been hiding there and heard him.”

Brandon snorted. “I always knew the guy was a jerk.”

Brandon and Piper fell silent and I knew they were considering what I’d said. I had to tell them more.

“You guys asked me where I was going. I was heading to toward Jouret’s office because I think it’s empty. He’s most likely still in Computer Central managing the system from there, but his account is still logged in via his office terminal. If I can get in there, I can see exactly what he’s up to without having to waste time on decryption or triggering any of the internal monitors they’ve set up.”

Brandon whistled. “Brilliant. We’ll help you get there.”

Piper leapt to her feet. “Are you crazy, Brandon? Go back out there? There are guys with guns out there.” There was a waver in her voice.

Her palpable terror reminded me just how young they were. As much as I needed them, I couldn’t risk them.

“She’s right, Brandon. I should go alone.”

“No way.” Brandon was adamant. “If you can get into the system through Jouret, we can get you to the security system. You
need
us to do this.”

“Wrong. You can’t get me into the security system. It’s not integrated with either the school system or the phone system. As it stands now, there is no way to access it even if we manage to get in undetected through Jouret’s account.”

Both kids went silent and I realized my mistake too late.

“Just how do you know so much about the system, Lara?” Piper’s voice was quiet and for the first time I heard the Irish in her speech. “You’re new here...just a few days. You mysteriously gain access to Computer Central and now you’ve an expert on the school’s system?”

Sometimes the best defense was offense. “So what? Aren’t you?”

She crossed her arms against her chest. “It’s too much for a new student.”

“Look, I don’t care how or what she knows, Piper.” Brandon had a hint of impatience in his voice. “This isn’t the time for that. We either trust her, or we don’t. I’m on the side of trusting her. Right now, she needs our help.”

Piper pressed her lips together and stared at me.

He turned to me. “Lara, I’m going to tell you straight-up. Piper and I built an invisible bridge between all three systems—the phone, the security and the computer system. We connected them because it helped us move around the system faster and unnoticed. No one knows about it except for us. So, I’m telling you again, you
need
us. If we can access the system via Jouret’s account, we can use the bridge to get straight to the security system and see what they see. We might even be able to manipulate some of the data to our advantage. But most importantly, we’ll have options.”

My heart soared. I’d never been so freaking happy in my entire life for the brilliant hacking skills of a couple of kids. I almost hugged them before I remembered the whole reason I was at the school in the first place was to dissuade them from such activities. I’d have to worry about that later,
if
we survived.

“That’s prime, Brandon. Really,
really
prime. Where’s the bridge? How can I find it?”

Piper blew out a breath, her voice heavy. “Brandon is right. You won’t be able to find it easily without our help. We designed it that way on purpose. We’ll have to go with you and help you find it.”

“No. It’s too dangerous. Besides three is a crowd.”

Brandon lifted a hand in protest. “Trust me. We are
way
better poised to do this than you. You haven’t been here as long as we have.”

“It’s my back door. I know what to do.”

“It’s our bridge.”

We were at an impasse. I tried to dissuade them. “Look, be sensible. We can’t all three go down the hallway and expect to make it to Jouret’s office undetected. We’ll be as loud and obvious as a herd of elephants.”

Brandon would not give up. “Then we’ll go separately. It increases the odds that at least one of us should make it. Even only if one of us makes it, we’re all good enough to take care of the basics. Now that you know about our bridge, you’ll find it if you look hard enough, right? It might take time, but you’re that good, aren’t you, Lara?”

I felt my resolve weaken and realized I was feeling just like Elvis had—protective. Thinking of him made me smile
and
worry that all of this discussion was taking way too long.

“Yes, I’m good. In turn, I presume you’re both capable enough to find my back door, if I give you a starting point.”

The two exchanged a glance. “Yes.”

My mind raced through scenarios and possibilities for ways I could lessen the danger, but I couldn’t think of anything. The brutal truth was I
did
need them and it
was
a dangerous situation. If we didn’t find a way to get the police in, it was highly likely we’d all be roasted if the bombs detonated. Statistically, the three of us heading out, at different times with different routes, had a better chance of making it to Jouret’s office than just one. Plus there was Elvis, who was waiting for the signal that I had made it.

Four people.

Four chances.

The odds for success had been raised exponentially.

A decision had to be made. I didn’t have any more time to dawdle.

“Okay, you’re in. But only if we do it my way.”

It took me less than five minutes to bring them up to speed with my plan. I included a brief description of my back door and they told me more or less how to find the bridge. It wouldn’t be easy if only one of us made it, but it wouldn’t be impossible either. Just like that, we were armed with the knowledge we needed. Now all we had to do was to make it to Jouret’s office in one piece.

Piper started pacing in the back of the room. “How can we be sure Mr. Jouret is not in his office?”

“We can’t. It’s just a logical best guess based on the fact that he doesn’t have access to the security system from his terminal. He’d have to be in Computer Central to do that, and I’m ninety-nine percent certain he’ll be wanting to monitor the security cameras.”

Brandon stood and stretched his legs. “Lara is right. He’s
got
to be there. It just makes sense.”

Piper stopped. “Okay. Then let’s do it.”

I glanced at my watch. “I estimated the patrols to be at intervals of eleven minutes. Clearly that was a miscalculation. Based on my original estimate, I should have had five more minutes to get to the stairwell and down the stairs. If I adjust the times accordingly, we only have a window of seven minutes. We have to wait for the next patrol to pass. Let’s listen and then I’ll go first.”

Brandon spoke up. “No, I’ll go first, and I do not say this out of a misguided need to be macho either.”

I could barely see his silhouette in the dark classroom, but he stepped up next to me and pressed something into my hand. My hand closed around it.

“The Swiss Army knife?”

He took it back. “Yes. In case Jouret’s office is locked. I can pick the lock in about fifteen seconds. I’ve done it before. Well, not on Jouret’s office exactly, but let’s just say I know what I’m doing.”