Episode 10 – Quin

“Hold on. Slow down,” Quin said, holding up her hands. “What do you mean she’s gone?”

Erin was hysterical at this point. “Sh—she wasn’t in my room. I checked the cafeteria, the library, and the student hangout. She wasn’t even in class. Something’s wrong.”

“Okay, take a deep breath.” She stared at Erin, holding her gaze. 

“I can’t—”

“Take a deep breath, Erin.” Quin took a deep breath herself, partly to give Erin a model, though also partly to calm herself. This isn’t the first time. It’s probably not as bad as you think.

Erin finally took a shaky breath, then another slower one.

“Alright. I’ll go talk to my mom. And Erin,” she placed her hands on Erin’s shoulders, “we’re going to find her. It probably isn’t as bad as you think.”

Erin nodded, and Quin felt a small bit better.

She gave Erin one last reassuring smile before turning and heading down the hallway. As she walked, her mind raced. Emma was nothing if not punctual. The fact that she had missed a class was disconcerting. It wasn’t like her. She was never late and followed a schedule for everything.

What if they found her? She quickly shook the thought away. The Academy’s defenses were too strong. And it wasn’t like she could leave the island. The only way off the island was the boat, which would have sounded alarms. The only logical explanation was that she was hiding, but where and why?

She steeled herself as she turned the corner and walked up to her mom’s office. She didn’t bother knocking, instead opening the door softly, then shutting it behind her.

“Hey, Quin.” Her mom looked up from a document, shaking her long brown hair out of her eyes and taking off her glasses, her brows furrowing. “What is it?”

“Emma’s missing.” Quin swore she saw her mom blanche, though she quickly recovered.

“What do you mean ‘missing?’”

“Her friend couldn’t find her and she hasn’t shown up for class. You don’t think they—”

“No,” her mom said way too quickly. “No, it’s probably nothing. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll figure it out. Now,” she turned to Quin, shielding whatever was going on in her head, “don’t you have class to get to?”

Quin hesitated, then stepped outside, shutting the door behind her. Something was up. Her mom wouldn’t have blanched if it was “probably nothing.” The question was what? If they had really broken in, she was sure her mom would have told her. Her mom was secretive, but she wasn’t that secretive, right? 

Not for the first time, she wondered just how much her mom really did trust her. She wasn’t allowed to leave the island without an adult, wasn’t allowed to know what Mom was working on, and wasn’t even allowed to talk about them.

She sighed, starting down the hall toward her class. Why wouldn’t her parents let her in on whatever they were doing? She could take care of herself. She just had to show them that she wasn’t a kid anymore, but how? They never even gave her a chance!

She blinked out of her thoughts as a familiar figure in the hallway caught her eye. She looked up, and her eyes met Jack’s, then the boy looked down, turned around, and headed in the opposite direction. Quin’s heart went out to him, a lost, broken soul trying to run from the light. She longed to go after him and wrap him in a hug, but judging by the way he reacted last time, that probably wasn’t the smartest idea. Instead, she watched as he rounded a hallway and disappeared.

“Quin, can you help me?”

A small hand pulled at her jeans, and she turned around to see Cora, a little eight-year-old, trying to tie her shoe. Inwardly, she sighed, but she put on a smile anyway.

“Naughty shoes,” she scolded. “You’re going to make Lucy trip! Now I’m going to have to put you in time-out.” Deftly, she grabbed the two shoelaces and tied a stiff bow, then tied those into another bow.

“It’s a butterfly! Can you do that on the other one!”

Quin gave her a wink, then quickly tied the other one. “There! Now you have your own butterfly collection.” Just don’t be coming to me every time they come undone.

“Thank you!” Cora’s little pudgy arms wrapped around Quin’s leg, and Quin found herself grinning.

“Alright. You’ve got to let go. I’ve got super secret spy business to get to.”

“You’re a spy?” Cora’s eyes grew wide.

“Of course not, or if I was, I couldn’t tell you. Now go on. Now your mission is to get to class on time.”

“Okay.” With a look of pure determination, the little girl marched away, then ducked behind a plant as a boy walked by.

Letting her breath out, Quin turned and started back down the corridor. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to use a bit of stealth to stay away from any more stray kids.

“Quin?”

Quin resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall as she turned to the boy who apparently wasn’t just walking by. “Niko, right?” she said as she recognized his tall dark frame.

“Yeah, I just—you know, normally—” Niko stammered.

“Okay, just tell me what happened.”

“It’s Emma. She wasn’t in class. She’s never been late before, ever. Something just doesn’t feel right. First she was called into the principal’s office—or your mom’s office—and then she—”

Two people looking for the same person. Suddenly, getting to class didn’t seem that important. Something was definitely up. “So what? You’re thinking maybe she ran away?”

“I don’t know. She’s just always on time to the millisecond. If she’s gone, then… I just have this terrible feeling that something’s happened to her.”

“Okay…” Quin’s mind was racing. Emma was missing enough that her mother thought it was a problem. That much she had read on her face. Too bad she has to keep all the information away from me. No. Now wasn’t the time to think about that. “Okay, when did you last see her, and where?”

“I don’t know. I think I saw her in class yesterday. What’s weird is that the teachers don’t seem to have noticed she’s gone.” It looked like he was about to say more, but instead he just bit his lip.

Quin pursed her own lips as she thought. “And if you happened to know something about why she disappeared?”

Niko quickly glanced down the hallway, then without warning grabbed her wrist and pulled her through a door into darkness.

She tensed, not sure what to expect.

“She would kill me if she knew I told you, but she’s like a sister to me. She’s been running from a group of people—”

“Yeah, I know that, but they couldn’t have gotten through the security.” Reaching inside her pocket, she pulled out her tactical defence pen and clicked on the small flashlight. In the faint glow, she could see that Niko was scared.

“She’s been going to the city every Thursday. I go with her. She was meeting with…” he trailed off. “I shouldn’t have told you. She’s going to kill me.”

Unless she’s already dead. She pushed the morbid thought out of her mind. “I’m not going to tell anyone. Trust me, it’s my turn to have a few secrets.”

Niko swallowed, then continued in a quiet whisper, “She was meeting her sister. I didn’t know until a few days ago. We met her, and Emma was really upset. I thought everything was forgiven, though. I thought she still trusted us.” He grew quiet again.

“Us?”

“I shouldn’t say any more. But—when I couldn’t find her I checked for the boat, and it was gone.”

“So she’s still in the city? You could have led with that.” Opening the door, she stalked out into the hallway, headed for the nearest exit.

“Wait, where are you going?” Niko called after her.

“To go find Emma.” This was finally her chance to prove that she wasn’t a little kid anymore. She was going to find Emma and bring her back.

“But you don’t even know where she meets up!”

Quin stopped in her tracks. Her cheeks flushed as she realized that Niko was right. Slowly, she turned around. “Okay, so where do they meet up?”

“I’ll show you,” the boy responded, already heading in the opposite direction.

“What about your class?” Quin said, jogging to catch up to him. “You can’t just skip school.”

“Don’t worry. We’re going to do this the right way.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

Niko suddenly spun around, and his normally lazy gaze turned serious. “You first have to promise that you’re not going to tell anyone about this. Not even your parents. Especially not your parents.”

Quin felt her face flush. “Don’t worry. They have plenty of secrets. I’m sure they won’t notice if I have one too.”

Niko nodded, then turned and walked into a cleaning closet. When she hesitated, he motioned for her to join him.

Seriously? What was it with Niko and dark closets? Steeling herself, she followed him in, then shut the door behind her. Flicking on her flashlight pen, she aimed it at Niko’s face. “Alright, now out with it. What’s your brilliant plan?”

A smirk tugged on his lips, as he turned and unlatched a vent, then crawled inside.

Quin didn’t hesitate as she squeezed in after him, emerging a second later into an old dilapidated hallway. Staying close to Niko, to light his way of course, she headed down the hallway until they passed through a doorway and emerged into a large room.

For a second, she was caught off guard by the unexpected sight. In the beam of the flashlight, she could make out a small kitchen, a table, bean-bags, and a large bulletin board filled with papers and maps.

Immediately, she headed to the board, her reflexes kicking in. The first thing to do when encountering a new situation was to learn everything about it, and the best way to do that was to find some sort of documents.

“So, what exactly is this place?” she asked, shining her beam on a picture of a group of teens standing in front of the Academy. Light suddenly flooded the room, and she spun around, shielding her eyes. “Who’s there?!”

“Sorry. Thought you might like to see the place.”

Blinking away the spots in her vision, Quin took in the whole room again. Now that it was lit, she noticed the books and random objects lining the walls in bookcases. The whole place looked like it had been renovated from an old study from the 1900s. How long exactly had this room been blocked off? And did her parents know about it too? Just one more secret they were keeping from her?

“So, yeah. This is it, the former base of the Children of Light, and now our base.”

“Okay, so why are you showing me this?” Quin asked, taking a seat at the small table. So many questions were whirling around in her head. “And what do you mean by ‘us’ and ‘our’ base?”

“He means us,” a low voice said from the doorway. A tall dark-haired boy stepped out of the shadows, glowering at Niko. “What’s she doing here? I thought this group was supposed to be secret.”

“It’s still a secret. Quin’s not going to tell anyone. I just thought she could help us.”

“Well she can’t.”

Quin found her face heating up, and she bit her lip to stop herself from saying something she would regret. She’d tried so hard to get Thomas to feel accepted, but he seemed determined to drive everyone away. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. “Look, you may not want me here, but Emma needs me.”

Something flickered in Thomas’ expression. “What are you talking about?”

Niko answered before she could. “Emma’s gone. She hasn’t been at class and she’s not in her room, and the boat’s gone.”

Thomas’ expression grew hard again. “And how is telling everything to the daughter of the principal going to help? Maybe I shouldn’t have ever shown you this room!” With that, Thomas spun and disappeared back into the shadows.

Niko started after him, and Quin put a hand on his arm.

“I think he just needs some time. He probably feels like I’m invading his secret.”

“He didn’t even seem to care.” Niko looked down, expressionless.

“We still need to find her, with or without his help. So what’s this great plan of yours?” Quin hoped none of her annoyance at Thomas carried into her voice.

“I was thinking that the only time we get to go to the city was during a field trip. If we can convince a teacher to make a field trip, no one will be suspicious of us going to the city.” Niko seemed genuinely excited about his plan, and Quin felt a stab of embarrassment for him.

“There are three things wrong with your plan. First, it would take days to organize it, second, the boat isn’t even here, and third, if you haven’t noticed, my parents won’t let me go on the field trips.”

Niko looked like she had just kicked his puppy, if he had had one.

Closing her, she took a deep breath. “Look, it’s a great idea, and if we had more time, it might just work, but we don’t know how much time Emma has. If they have her, she might not even have a day.”

“So what? You have a better plan?”

Quin let a smirk escape her lips. “I might. But before I tell you, I want to know how much you want to help Emma.”

Niko looked straight at Quin. “She’s like a sister to me. If I have to swim the river to find her, I will.”

“Great, but I don’t think you’ll have to get wet. I have a better plan.”

***

“Oh man. I’m going to die.” Niko’s eyes were squeezed together as he grabbed onto the zip line trolley, wind whipping around them making the tree they were in sway to and fro.

“The sooner you jump, the sooner you’ll be on the ground!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could take them back. Not exactly the best choice of words. “I can push you if you want!” Okay, just shut up, Quin.

Niko took a deep breath and jumped, letting out something in between a squeak and a hiss. Quin watched, muscles tensed as he soared over the water. Somehow, it had actually worked. She hadn’t expected the grappling hook she had spotted amongst the junk in the secret lair to shoot, much less hold, but somehow it had done both. The thing looked like it was cobbled together from an auto-body shop, but at least it did its job.

She waited until Niko had made it to the other side, dropped to the ground, and collapsed before she took out another makeshift trolley, fitted it on the wire, and leapt.

The cold wind whipped in her face as she soared over the water, and even though she could barely keep her eyes open, it felt like she was flying. She had to bite her lip to stop from letting out a whoop as she coasted to a stop on the other side of the river.

“To be honest,” she said, dropping to the ground beside Niko, “this seems like a much better way across the river than a boat.”

Niko just glared at her, then started up the bank toward the forest in front of them, and Quin followed suit, feeling an energy she had never felt before. Something about the air was different, or maybe it was the forest. I’m on the other side. She looked back at the island she had called her home for as long as she could remember. Sure, she vaguely remembered a time when they lived in the city, but mostly she had spent her entire life on that island. Now that she was off it, it felt like a weight had been lifted off her; like a chain she had always worn had been broken. Finally, she was free.

“Hold up!”

Niko’s sharp voice cut through her thoughts, and instinctively, she dropped to the ground, scanning the woods for danger. Other than the rustling of leaves, nothing seemed out of place. “What is it?”

“I thought I heard something.”

Quin’s mind started racing as pieces flew together. First, a classmate had vanished, someone enough people knew that it would raise concern, but not enough that it would cause a scene. The boat was gone, which meant the only way off the island left them trapped here. And the only person who would go off on a mission like this… was her. She scanned the woods for an escape route, but everywhere she looked were dense trees that would make it impossible to sprint and easy to attack from above. There was only one thing to do. “We know you’re there!”

Nothing.

“You know, setting a trap for me? You really think that would work? Pretty soon, the woods will be crawling with agents!” Still, nothing happened. Maybe it was nothing. Her face flushed as she realized how ridiculous she sounded.

“Really, I don’t think your mommy’s going to save you, Quin,” a female voice came from behind her

Quin spun around. Nothing.

“My, haven’t your parents taught you anything?”

Quin looked up just in time to see the gun pointed at her. Her arm exploded into pain, and she dropped to the ground. Somewhere beside her, someone grunted in pain. Niko. 

“I suppose you did find what you were looking for after all. You’ll find Lucy and her sister very very soon.”

Stars danced across her vision, and she tried to stand back up. She had to fight it, had to get them out of there. She managed to get to her knees before fatigue washed over her. Her mind slowed, and everything faded away.