Dying to Know You » Chapter 2

The rest of Andrew’s first day at the academy went by quickly and, all things considered, it was rather uneventful. The majority of his classmates remained the same in each class, as he had been placed in the top level courses. Most of his attention was occupied by studying the people around him, students and facility alike, as well as memorizing every detail of the rooms and hallways of the buildings. He had studied the schematics of the school before arriving, but not all blueprints were accurate, especially with old structures.

After the soccer try-out at the lower field and dinner at the main hall, he finally managed to escape Jay and Nick and return to the dormitory. His was a single occupant room on the third floor. It was located at the far end of the east wing directly across from an old, secondary stairwell that was locked and, from the little bit he saw through the small, dirty window on the door, used for storage. The room itself was not a bad size, and in addition to typical dorm furniture, it had a small kitchenette and a private bathroom.

Andrew locked the door behind him and removed a bag from the closet. Inside was a small laptop. He set the computer on the desk, opened it, and pushed his thumb against the power button, making certain to hold it there for the ten seconds necessary for the computer to conduct a scan of his thumbprint and verify his identity.

As the screen came to life, he removed a micro wireless headset from his pocket. He secured the tiny piece in his ear just as the video feed finished loading. A young man in his late-twenties appeared on the monitor. The tiredness in his eyes and his disheveled clothes indicated that he had not slept recently, and he ran his hand absent-mindedly over the two-day-old stubble on his chin.

“About bloody time,” he snapped in an irritated British accent. “You’re an hour overdue for the first check-in. When you’re late, who do you think gets their arse chewed out? Me, that’s who.”

Andrew ignored his handler’s rant as he leaned against the desk. Dax had not changed since the first day they had met, nearly a year ago, and he had grown accustom to the man’s tendency to micro-manage.

“Cavalier reporting in at...” Andrew glanced at his watch. “...1913 hours. Status: on schedule. Made contact with the targets, solidified cover, confirmed identities of a fourth of the senior class and professors, and analyzed campus security.”

“And security?”

“High end wireless system with receivers at security stations in the Arts and Sciences building, Student Center, and Technical building.”

“As we suspected,” Dax replied seriously. “I’m sending over updated schematics of the Administration building.”

The video of Dax shrunk to half of the screen as a new window opened, displaying the building schematics. He quickly scanned over the familiar plans until he located the change. He magnified the document to study the area in more detail.

“What’s this?”

“We’ve noticed that this section of the building uses higher than average amounts of power, which indicates a possible site for the security headquarters.”

“Any secondary locations?”

“The only other hot spot is the Chairman’s private estate on the north side of campus.” Dax tapped his keyboard and a new diagram appeared on the computer screen. “Definitely worth looking into... who knows what the multimillionaire is hiding behind his philanthropy.”

Andrew did not bother to reply as he studied the plans. When he finished, he closed the window and directed his attention back to his handler.

“I’ll continue with the next phase of infiltration at 2200 hours,” the youth said. “The sooner I have access to the security cameras, the sooner the real mission begins.”

“Don’t get cocky on me, kid,” Dax warned. “It has taken the organization five years to get someone into that elitist school, and we can’t afford you blowing it.”

“I know that,” Andrew replied nonchalantly. Without another word, he hit a key on the computer and the connection was immediately severed.

The young man spent the rest of the evening setting up a perimeter around his dorm room. Micro cameras were mounted in the corners of his windows to survey the outside while another was skillfully hidden in the hallway outside the room’s door. All three transmitted live video feed to his laptop computer as well as the small device disgusted as a wrist watch.

When the hallway was empty, he stepped outside and picked the lock securing the old, unused stairwell. He pushed open the old door and inspected it. He would have to rearrange the furniture and boxes stored on the landings, but it would provide an excellent escape route should he need to leave quickly.

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