Chapter 8

The storm had passed, but the fog was thicker than usual the next morning as I stood alone on the train platform. The tracks seemed to disappear into a blanket of white on both sides. It was so cold that my breath came out in steamy puffs that merged into the swirling mist.

This early on a weekend, only a couple of other people waited alongside me. Henry was nowhere to be seen. I doubted he’d show up at the dig site, either. He’d be sulking. That was fine with me. If I saw his face again before next annum, it would be too soon.

I’d barely slept the night before. When I wasn’t stewing over the argument with Henry, I was having anxiety attacks that crazy Emil was going to show up in my bedroom in the middle of the night, wielding an ax and demanding that I hand over the mysterious key. How was I supposed to give him something if I didn’t even know what it was? Had my dad left a key in the lunch box? I didn’t remember seeing one, but I couldn’t exactly check, now that Mom had confiscated it. And how was I supposed to ask her for it? “Hey, Mom, I know you told me to let it go, but I didn’t, and now there’s a serial killer after me. Help?”

I was relieved when the train rumbled up to the platform, and even more so when I found no one waiting for me onboard. But I didn’t relax entirely until I reached the Sparta Island stop and met Tamara at the maglev station.

“Where’s Henry?” she asked, looking around. “Not detention again?”

“Who knows? He’s probably out defacing GSAF headquarters or recording a new manifesto to stick up in his precious anarchist chatspace. Probably a better use of his time.”

Tamara furrowed her brows, but didn’t say anything.

Scylla was waiting for us when we pulled into the Curiosity Bay station. I could see her as the maglev slowed, perched atop the university’s entrance sign, swinging her legs. She was wearing a neon-yellow t-shirt that said Eat People, Not Animals in black letters huge enough to be legible from the passenger window. She stared at the train with such intense ferocity that Tamara laughed out loud and waved, though Scylla couldn’t have seen her through the reflective glass of the window.

As soon as she spotted us crossing the pedestrian bridge leading from the station to the school, she pounced.

“Where were you guys yesterday?” she demanded. “The rain scare you off? The dig actually did get canceled, but not until we were all already on the shuttle and halfway out to the crater.”