Chapter 5
“Cabernet, please,” Nicky said. The bartender, a meek little guy with bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks, gave the slightest of nods, a sophisticated, well-rehearsed motion, and retrieved a bottle of ’92 Amandi from the rack behind him. Nicky guessed this bartender was fifteen years old. Fifteen. Two years younger than the students he was serving tonight. Should have been a sophomore in high school somewhere. Should have been learning to drive, working a first job, playing video games.
Should have had parents who loved him, who looked out for him, who would die before letting him end up here.
The boy had black hair, buzzed short, and wore the same white jacket and black pants as the fifty-some other slaves in the mansion. Nicky watched him pour the wine into a crystal goblet, wondering what was in his mind as he did so. Did some part of him wish he were elsewhere? Was his conscious mind as enslaved as his subconscious?
Did he feel as miserable as he looked?
This was the third slave she had seen tonight. The first was in the driveway, coordinating all the limousine traffic. The second had opened the front door for her. Those two were both middle-aged men, the sorts of slaves an immortal kept around for continuity’s sake. The older slaves taught the younger ones what to do, a job that was continuous since younger slaves were constantly being replaced. Those older slaves were the exception. Most of the prisoners in Renata’s mansion were like this bartender. Kids. Brought in from the Farm to work until Renata decided they were ripe.
Nicky leaned against the bar and took a sip of the wine. Deep and dry, the wine was an absurd choice of drink for this crowd. Seniors at Thorndike were sure to become wine snobs one day, but on this night, they gulped down the expensive vintages like two-dollar tequila. Sure, these students liked to pretend they recognized “blueberry and tropical notes” or “hints of oak and chocolate”—the sort of claptrap their parents were teaching them to talk about—but it was all for show. The masquerade ball would last only two hours, during which time everyone here had to be sophisticated and coy. Then everyone would hop in their limo and go to the after-parties, where they would get thoroughly wasted.
Nicky stood alone, her back to the party, her eyes looking down at the bar. As she listened to the chatter all around her, she wondered what sort of perversion allowed these people to party and play while so many suffered. She wondered how they justified it in their minds. The immortals used mind control to trap young people in their mansions, holding them as slaves until they smelled just right, at which point they ate them. All these students just looked away from this madness, choosing not to see it for the evil it was. They chose to ignore the evil because their families were a part of it. The immortals relied on the wealthy and powerful to hold the system together. The families of Thorndike Academy protected, defended, and enabled the immortals in exchange for their piece of the pie.
Nicky waited for the conversation to reach its peak, then she turned away from the bar and re-entered the party. Keeping her ears open for her own name, she heard someone talking about being in Nicky’s second period class but never noticing her. Someone else said, “Every time I saw that girl last week she was all dumpy clothes and glasses and shit,” which made Nicky smile. She had put together an understated look during those first days at school, but she hardly would have called her clothes “dumpy.”
She overheard Jill working a small crowd with her own script. Nicky Bloom made it all the way to Homecoming in a black dress and Kim Renwick never saw it coming. It sounded like she was doing well with it. In a way, Jill’s job tonight was more difficult than Nicky’s. Jill Wentworth was the best hacker in the Network, maybe in the world, but she wasn’t a great field operative, even if she fancied herself as one.
Nicky knew this because of the briefing book, a thousand-page document prepared by the Network for Nicky to study. The briefing book began with a history of the immortals and Thorndike, then went on to give descriptions of everyone and everything Nicky might encounter while on assignment. It was a collection of all the Network’s intel on every student, every family, every teacher…
The authors of the briefing book were uncredited, but for the most part, Nicky could tell which Network operatives had written which parts. The historical research was the work of Phillip and Helena Fischer, the wealthy benefactors from Colorado who were playing the roles of Nicky’s parents in this assignment. The section about the wider connections, the way the immortals and power players in Washington interacted with the larger world, was the work of Nicky’s mentor and trainer, Gia Rossi.
The student descriptions belonged to Jill, who was a master of keeping her ears open, both on campus and on the Internet. At times, these were the most informative parts of the book. At other times, they were downright useless.
A section about Art Tremblay, for instance, was spot on.
Eldest son of property magnate Merv Tremblay, Art has a chip on his shoulder that undoubtedly comes from being a disappointment to his macho father. He became a gym rat when he hit puberty, but even his big muscles can’t hide the truth about him. Art wants everyone to think he is the manly type, but the truth is he is about as macho as a goldfish.
The section about Ryan Jenson, in contrast, was a mess.
Listless and without a moral compass, Ryan Jenson is a true product of Washington. He can be kind and approachable, but it’s all fraudulent. Ryan has his own agenda and it’s only about him.
Ryan Jenson, the richest member of the senior class, was Nicky’s primary target in this assignment. She’d been working on him since the first day of school. In the first minutes of her first meeting with him, when she “accidentally” ran into him in the hallway, Nicky could tell that Jill’s description of Ryan was way off. Hardly the “listless product of Washington” Jill had called him, Ryan Jenson was the only student at Thorndike with a true sense of self. He was a kind, decent person, who understood right and wrong. He didn’t belong in Washington’s upper crust and he knew it. He was trying to find a way out.
When Nicky had pressed Jill for more about Ryan, Jill said, “He’s a flirt who likes to use people.”
That told Nicky all she needed to know. Jill, who’d had a thing with Ryan during their freshman year, was still hung up on this guy, and her feelings had found their way into the briefing book. They had disrupted Jill’s work, and they made Nicky wonder what other parts of the briefing book were inaccurate.
Still, for whatever shortcomings Jill had as an operative, she more than made up for them with her brilliant mind and her courageous spirit. And the things she could do with a computer bordered on the miraculous.
Nicky glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. Five minutes before nine. People were already lining up for the first dance. Nicky needed to find a place. She took stock of the entire room once more, trying to place all three of her competitors, the other girls wearing black.
Samantha Kwan was in the far corner, talking to Josh Manson.
Kim and her minions were in the middle of the party, the largest clique in the ballroom.
Mary…well, Mary was just standing where everyone could see her, acting aloof and oblivious.
Was there anyone else? No, Nicky was the only surprise entrant this night. Everything was on schedule. The clock would chime in a few minutes. The dance would begin, and Nicky would get to work on the next part of the plan.