The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Explosions, And the Lack Thereof

Previously: "Gone to Heaven" 

"You don't have decide right away," Mr. Sagansky says while you're still hesitating. "Tomorrow's soon enough. Just stop by the office on your way in tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, sir," you say. The principal nods, and he and your dad shake hands and murmur small pleasantries before parting.

* * * * *

You're so surprised by the calm way your dad takes your suspension that you have almost forgotten to be afraid. But you do feel a hard, internal flinch when he says that he'll drive you in to Salopek, then bring you back to the school after work to pick up your truck.

He's parked out front in the visitor's lot, so the silence on the walk to his car isn't awkward for very long. But it's awkward enough that you feel relief when your dad speaks as you're buckling yourselves in. "So how did you get in a fight?" he asks. He only sounds curious, and there's no anger in his voice.

"You'd know if you knew the guy," you reply after a moment's hesitation. "He— Well, he doesn't go around stealing people's lunch money. But he's the kind that used to."

Your dad gives you a sidelong look. "Okay," he says. "Now tell me how you got in a fight."

You suck on your lip. "Well, I guess it started because I was getting in fights with another guy."

"What?"

"There's this other guy, he's always hassling me and Caleb and my friends. Getting in our faces, calling us names, pushing us around."

"Uh huh?"

"Well, for the last ... two or three weeks, I've been hitting him back."

You're on the street now, but your dad looks over at you from under raised eyebrows. "Hitting him back?" he says.

"Yeah. First time"—these are the memories you got from Gordon—"he shoved me against the wall and called me a name, so I hit him. And I didn't, uh, stop. 'Cos I knew if I stopped he'd just whomp me. He's big, Dad. Football-player big."

"I see."

"And he went away, actually. I think he saw a teacher coming."

"And you didn't get suspended for this?"

"No one saw. No one ever sees. Dad, this goes on at school all the time!"

He looks surprised, but also very grave.

"Well, after that, this guy, his name's Lester, he tried coming at me a few more times, but I just—" You sigh. "I happened to have a talk with one of the basketball players. He knew I was having a problem with ass— With guys like Lester and David Kirkham and all the rest, and he told me, Look, just make yourself more trouble than you're worth. Even if you can't win a fight, make 'em hurt so much every time they hassle you that they just stop."

The blood is draining from your father's face. "And this is what you did?"

"Started doing."

"And how many times did you get in a fight?"

"I dunno. Seven, eight times."

"And this is the first time you got caught?" He sounds incredulous.

"Yeah."

Your dad looks like he's sucking on a lemon. He's silent for a couple of blocks. Then he says, "Well, we'll talk about it later." There's no hint in his voice that you're storing up trouble, but also no hint that he's going to be understanding.

* * * * *

But it wasn't just to talk to Mr. Sagansky that your dad came out to get you. As he tells you on your way in to work, they need you.

Salopek is a large facility covering many acres with warehouses, manufacturing buildings, assembly huts, and a small office, and there's hardly a straight alley between the closely set buildings. He tells you that he himself hasn't seen the problem yet, for he was handling another problem—and wondering about your fight at school—when word came down about the explosion. He only knew that this was not a day to be shorthanded at work, and came straight over to the school to get you out of detention.

It's a small storage facility he leads you to, one that you recognize (from Gordon's time there) as one of the secure units where Salopek keeps its most valuable materials. High up under the eaves of the roof, a glass window has been blown out, and the steel shutters that covered it have been peeled back like the skin off a banana. A half-dozen Salopek employees are squinting up at it when you and your dad join them.

"Whew!" a lumpy, balding guy in glasses says to your dad, and shakes his head. "Someone wanted in bad, didn't they?"

Andy Keyes, your and Sean's immediate supervisor nods at you. "When Sean gets here, I'll set you two to cleaning up," he says.

"Hang on," your dad says. "We're going to want to look this whole thing over before anything gets touched. Has anyone checked inside?"

"Just to look," says another man.

Your dad makes a face. "Well, let's get Mike Salazar and his team to look everything over"—he points at the glass scattered over the asphalt—"before we clean it up. Andy, you can set Will and Sean to making an inventory of what's in that room. Get 'em a manifest so we can find out what was taken."

"Okay," Andy says, and crooks a finger at you. You follow.

"What's all the excitement?" you ask. "An explosion?"

"That's for Mike Salazar to figure out. But it looks like a burglary to me." He winces. "I shouldn't say anything in front of you. But if it is a burglary, it's the second in two months."

You follow him back over to his office, where he starts pulling out files. Sean Mitchell shows up while he's still pulling stuff together for you.

It gives you a queer turn to have him walk in. He is at once a doubly familiar sight while being a total stranger.

The last time you saw Sean was while looking in a mirror. You impersonated him yesterday while distracting Cameron Huber, so seeing him now—barrel-chested, with strong arms and shaggy blonde hair—is a bit of an out-of-body experience for you.

Then you remember why else it would be "out of body." Sean had a twin brother (now deceased), and you've still got enough of his memories staining the inside of your brain that looking at him gives you a slightly nauseating "uncanny valley" feeling: that you are looking at your own twin, who should be dead.

He catches you looking at him, but he just jerks his chin at you and says, "Hey Will."

"How are you coming on disassembling that unit in, what is it? Assembly B?" Andy asks.

"Should be able to finish it off pretty quick today," Sean says.

"Well, go change into coveralls, and grab you some gloves and goggles too, then go work on that till I come get you."

"Goggles and gloves?" Sean asks.

"Will'll explain on your way. Hopefully I'll be along in only about thirty minutes to get you."

"So what's going on?" Sean asks as you lead him back outside.

"There was some kind of explosion or something at one of the storage rooms. Over in the 'X' complex."

Sean whistles. "And they want us cleaning that up?"

"I dunno. They've got some guys looking at it now, but I think the plan is for us just to check the inventory. So I guess we need some kind of protective gear just in case."

"We better change into boots too, then," Sean says.

And it's while changing clothes that you get another look at that tattoo on his arm. The one with the symbols that look those in the sigils that the book contains.

"Oh, speaking of explosions," Sean says while you're changing. He grins slyly at you. "Heard you was in the middle of one today at school."

You tense. "Yeah."

"You and Kirkham?"

"Uh huh."

"How much did you hurt him?"

"He needed an ice pack."

"That's pretty good, man." He catches your bicep and squeezes it curiously. "Pretty damn good, I'd say."

"Thanks."

He doesn't ask you to elaborate, and you don't volunteer.

You think about asking him about Cameron Huber, and the "apology" that is circulating around school. You wonder what Cameron has had to say about it, and what he and Sean have said to each other about him supposedly being with Sean while he was helping craft fliers and making a video. But you don't actually recall seeing any of those fliers around, so you're not sure you've got a hook to hang a question on, and so you don't ask it.

* * * * *

"So it's all pretty weird," you're telling Caleb later that night, when you go over to his house after supper. You're sitting in his room, telling him about your day (both at school and at work), and wondering if you really do want to wait around until Gordon gets home from wherever, or if that would just be more weirdness between the two of you on top of the time you spent in the loft.

But it's right then that Gordon puts his head into the room. "What's weird?" he asks. "Hey man," he adds.

"Work." Briefly you tell him of the excitement: How a window with reinforced shutters was torn off of a storage unit in an apparent explosion without causing so much as a scratch on the inside. And how nothing in the unit was missing, and no other units were touched by the apparent burglars. "Huh," Gordon says when you're done.

"Hey, you hear anything about Cameron and his 'apology'?" Caleb asks Gordon. "Will'n me were talking how we didn't see any of those fliers in the hall, or anything about it."

"That's 'cos you hang out with the wrong crowd," Gordon says. "Cameron had his guys tearing the fliers down before classes even started, and he's squealing like a little girl over it all, from what I heard." He chucks his chin at you. "Think you could get a thing onto Mitchell, so we can find out what's going on with them?"

Next: "Pain Management" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"