Justice by Jeffrey Salane Read Free Book Online

Cal. She wouldn’t let herself forget it because that underwater dead end had been her fault. She had led Cal to the painting. And while his own mother drove him into the frigid waters, M was the one who’d tried to save him and came up empty-handed.
    In fact, just before the ice had cracked open to spit themback out into the breathable night air, M had let go of herself, too. It was a disturbingly tender experience that she and Cal shared, the letting go. It was a feeling she was determined to never feel again.
    ‘Cal!’ exclaimed Merlyn. ‘You’re all right!’
    ‘Better than that,’ said Cal. ‘And I have you to thank for it, M. I’m told that if you hadn’t come after me, I would have been frozen fish food.’
    ‘We both got lucky,’ M said as she carefully held her arms out and gave Cal a hug. This time she did not miss her mark. ‘The Fulbrights probably would have let us drown if not for my necklace – it was the only thing important enough for them to save.’
    ‘It was more than the necklace,’ said Cal. ‘Give yourself a little credit. The Fulbrights came back for you later, didn’t they?’
    As she pulled away from Cal, M’s hand absently rose to her chest, searching for the phantom necklace that was no longer there. It was a hard habit to break. Again, she was transported back to that fateful night in Hamburg, Germany, when Devon, in full Fulbright gear, had snatched her necklace, and Cal’s unresponsive body had been dragged away like a lifeless bag of bones.
    ‘What happened to you after Hamburg?’ asked Jules.
    ‘Switched sides like you, I guess,’ said Cal with a wry smile. ‘Which is to say the Fulbrights brought me here, nursed me back to health, then asked me if I wanted to help them defeat my mother. As you can imagine, I couldn’t resist.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Merlyn. ‘I definitely get that. Ms Watts tried to do us in, too, you know.’
    ‘Makes sense,’ said Cal. ‘She never liked you guys all that much.’
    ‘The feeling is mutual,’ said Jules. ‘No offense, but your mom is the worst.’
    ‘Wait,’ interrupted M. ‘If you’re here, did Foley make it, too?’ Cal hadn’t been the only member of M’s crew captured that night. As far as she knew, there had been no sign of Foley, an older Lawless student and Cal’s guardian, since their heist had gone wrong.
    Cal frowned and looked toward the ground. ‘He’s here, but he’s under heavy surveillance – like, the locked-up kind. He’s Lawless through and through. Even after he learned what my mom had been up to, there was no breaking through his criminal convictions. As far as he’s concerned, we’re in the belly of the beast. It didn’t matter that the Fulbrights saved him from the fire.’
    ‘The fire that they started,’ said M. ‘That’s mighty caring of them, isn’t it?’
    ‘Careful,’ Keyshawn piped up from outside the reunion circle. ‘If Ben or Vivian hear you talking like that, they’ll lock you up alongside this friend of yours. Doe doesn’t like bugs in his program, if you catch my drift.’
    ‘And just who is this John Doe, other than the guy behind the Fulbrights?’ asked M.
    ‘He’s the unseen guy behind the Fulbrights,’ said Cal.
    ‘And the less we talk about him, the better,’ added Keyshawn.
    ‘Because if we keep this up, we’ll endanger your suit tests,’ guessed M.
    Keyshawn paced nervously through the stacks of books.‘Yes,’ he said begrudgingly, ‘and no. It’s been my experience that avoiding John Doe makes for a much easier time at the academy. If you do catch his eye, it doesn’t matter if you’re the class pet or the class pest. Either way, you’ll be led down a path best left untraveled.’
    ‘You do realize that just by having us here,’ said M, ‘just by having us take part in your experiment, that we’re all on John Doe’s radar?’
    Keyshawn grumbled and tapped angrily at his tablet.
    ‘How do you know about John Doe?’ Jules asked Cal.
    ‘His