“The following students should accompany me to the Destruction classroom,” one said, and read off a list of names Fort had never heard before. There seemed to be more girls than boys overall left in the cafeteria, and ten girls and five boys followed the first soldier out. That left about a dozen girls and ten boys, but instead of reading names, the second soldier just shrugged and told the remaining students to come with him.

Gabriel was also in the second group, which Fort figured would be the case, since Colonel Charles said Fort would be tutoring his roommate. After their talk just now, though, that seemed less of a pain than it had when he’d first heard about it.

As they exited, one of the agents who’d escorted Fort to Agent Cole stopped him for a moment. “Cole wanted me to tell you that your room is clean,” she said. “And that she knows the books are around somewhere, so she won’t stop looking until she finds them. In case you hear anything.”

- SEVENTEEN -

THE SOLDIER LED THEM THROUGH the halls, pointing out markers here and there to help them find their way toward what would be their Healing classroom. Each of the hallways was labeled with a number and letter, which Fort had noticed during his weeks here but hadn’t really taken into account every time he got lost. But now that they were getting farther away from the area he knew, he welcomed finding out that the base was built in a sort of grid, so at least he could find his way around better in the future. Hopefully.

Finally, the soldier stopped at a large theaterlike room with American flags surrounding the walls. Here and there a seat or two remained bolted to the floor, but it looked like most of those had been removed, and the room was now filled with familiar-looking steel tables.

Up onstage, right next to a podium, Dr. Ambrose sat at a desk covered in papers. She didn’t look up as the students filed in, each of the kids making their way through the tables to gather in front of her desk. When they had all arrived, and Dr. Ambrose still didn’t say anything, a few of the students began to talk quietly to each other.

Dr. Ambrose’s head immediately shot up. “Who said you could speak?”

The crowd went silent.

She narrowed her eyes. “So no one’s going to answer me? And here I had hope for you new kids. Assistant!” She clapped her hands.

Someone sighed heavily from offstage, and then Sebastian strode out from behind a curtain, looking no happier to be here than Fort was to see him. “Yes, Dr. Ambrose?” he said.

“Your students are here,” she told him, nodding at the assembled kids below the stage. “Get to it. I have things to do.”