Her first few weeks in school, Anne reflected, had not been too bad.
Apart from the mad dash between the school campus and the Academy, which seemed to be a regular feature of her life nowadays, there wasn’t much to complain about. Nine hours at school and the Academy combined left her free after six, and there were hardly any chores at home, thanks to Dad splurging and buying a new robo-chef.
Admittedly, that had been more of a demand from her side, since Andrew was off in Mumbai a lot and the alternative was to her father’s cooking.
Between the robo-chef, the automated vacuum-bot, the advanced washing machine with built-in folding attachment, the clothes stacking trolley, the smart refrigerator which ordered whatever they were running low on, and the cleaning lady who came in twice a week, that left her with - strangely - very little by way of chores. Which freed up time to study the massive textbooks that the Academy kept handing her.
Which would be more of an imposition, except for Multi-tasking.
Reading, analyzing, and understanding multiple threads of information at the same time had become old hat, after two years of managing tens of thousands of nanobots at a time. Which meant that she could read six textbooks in parallel, via her nanobots, and absorb the information simultaneously.
That left her with that rarest of commodities - free time.
Time to rest, to relax, and to bond with friends.
That was the other surprise. Somehow, despite being the outsider, she had fit snugly into the little group of students who made up Form Twelve A.
Which was why, on a chilly October afternoon, they were basking in the warmth of the students’ lounge.
“Chestnuts by the fire,” quipped Reg. “We should totally do that.”
“No starting fires in the common room, Reg,” Nicholas intoned. “I don’t want another detention.”
“If he starts the fire, why do you get detention?” asked Sally.
“Last time, we all got detention,” grumbled Flavia. “Just because Reg thought it would be a good idea to test if the sprinkler system worked.”
“That was three years ago,” protested Reg.
“And you haven’t changed,” muttered Charlotte. “Just shut up, Reg.”
“Why do you all keep saying that?” asked Anne. “It seems rude.”
Reg beamed. “See? She gets it!”
“Shut up, Reg,” Nick sighed. “It goes back to the original detention three years ago, Anne. Before Sally and you joined the class. Whenever we get a detention, they also send a detailed note to our parents explaining what happened, why we were punished, and what the penalties for a further infraction of the same type would be. It’s quite detailed.”
“That seems sensible enough,” Sally said. “It was the same at my last school.”
“This genius here thought it would be a good idea to try to hack into the school records and disable sending the notifications. So that we wouldn’t get in trouble with our parents.”
Anne raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t they have noticed that you were late returning from school?”
“Most of us get home well before our parents do. My mum’s usually home after nine, and Charlotte’s parents are usually travelling to different continents.”
“What about Reg’s parents?”
The room went very still for a moment.
“My dad was an RAF pilot,” Reg spoke up. “So was mum. Fought at London.”
Memories flashed through Anne’s mind.
The Roar of the Carnotaur, shockwaves reverberating through the air. Fighter jets tumbling and crashing like skittles.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Reg shrugged. “It’s been a year. Had time. Gran’s taking good care of us, though she still doesn’t like the castle.”
“You live in a castle?”
“Only during vacations. We have a place in London. Anyway, back at the castle we have these massive fireplaces which let you roast chestnuts over a nice flame.”
“Anyway, back to Reg’s original dunderhead idea,” continued Nicholas. “Like I said, he wanted us to hack the school records.”
“Could you have done it?” asked Sally.
Nick fixed her with a stare. “You do realize that most of us are barely making the grade in Programming, and that’s today. Think about how much we understood three years ago.”
Sally chuckled. “Got it. So what happened after that?”
“Reg wanted to hire a hacker to do the job. He suggested exploring the ‘dark web’ to find one. At which point Charlotte got fed up and yelled ‘Shut up, Reg’.”
“Charlotte?” Sally giggled. “Saint Charlotte came up with that one?”
“Don’t call me that,” grumbled Charlotte. “But yeah, that was me.”
“Well, it stuck,” Nicholas explained. “And we got to saying it whenever Reg has a bad idea. Which is roughly three times an hour.”
“I object!”
“Shut up, Reg. Or when he makes a randomly stupid remark.”
“You say it too, Sally,” Anne pointed out.
“That’s true, I picked it up from these guys. Never knew why it started, though.”
“Why’d you start, anyway?” Reg asked.
“Because you asked me to get you a date with Dianne Walsh.”
“Hey, that was a perfectly fair ask!”
“Dianne Walsh is twenty-nine and a world-famous movie star. You didn’t think you were reaching?”
“Some women like younger guys, don’t they? Look at Agni and Belessar.”
Anne flinched.
“Reg,” Nicholas hissed. “That crossed a line.”
“It’s all right,” Anne said. “We’ve all lost people. Reg - I’m sorry about your parents.”
Reg shrugged. “It’s life. I saw your interview, by the way. You had those friends of yours? The ones who conked it on the museum roof?”
“Reg, just… shut up,” Flavia said, exasperated. “Let’s talk about something else, people. All this stuff is making me gutted.”
“Gutted?” Anne asked.
“You know, gutted, blue, sad. Seriously people, can’t we pick a nicer topic? I demand cheeriness!”
“We can’t have Flavia gutted,” intoned Charlotte sombrely. “Last time, she wouldn’t shut up about it for weeks.”
“You try surviving with your phone seized by the paternals. Honestly, it took weeks of persuasion to get it back.”
Anne was curious. “What did you do, Flavia?”
The girl twirled her hair. “I might have crank called a couple of our neighbours. Just a couple.”
“She left out the part where she broke into her dad’s bar cabinet and finished a bottle of port,” added Reg. “Was quite the scene.”
Anne’s eyebrows climbed. “How did you convince them to give you back the phone?”
“Months of good behaviour, and a whole lot of grovelling.”
“Sounds about normal,” added Charlotte. “We’ve all done our share of begging and grovelling. Except Nick, he’s the responsible one.”
Nicholas rolled his eyes. “It’s not me, you lot are positively barmy most of the time. Anyway, who’s taking what extra-curriculars this year?”
“We already know Anne’s,” Sally said. “Fighting giant aliens.”
“They’re not all giants,” Anne replied. “I plan on signing up for the Combined Cadet Force, once they open the registrations, but otherwise there’s no point in dragging up coursework.”
“Weren’t you planning on the CCF too, Nick?” asked Sally.
“Not this year,” replied the boy. “I’m taking karate instead.”
“You want to be all Bruce Lee, huh?” Reg quipped.
“Please. I’ll be happy if I don’t trip over my own feet.”
“I’m sure you’ll be excellent at it,” Anne added. “I mean, your dad was an unarmed combat champion.”
Nick turned to her. “You knew my dad?”
“Yeah. He saved my life in London, actually.” She swallowed. “We got ambushed by Lynxian commandos at the Tower, and he took them on. Saved my life, and Molly’s - bought us time to get away.” Belatedly, she realized that the group had stopped talking. “Sorry, guys, I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories again.”
Nick swallowed. “Anne. What was his name?”
Anne blinked.
Memories raced through her. The conversation, relayed through her nanobots, where she’d seen Molly Pemberley at Avi Goldman’s grave. The words she’d whispered to it, promising that their son would be safe.
It had been a private, personal moment for the two of them, the living and the dead. She’d watched it and filed it away for information.
She hadn’t realized that Molly might not have told her son.
“Anne,” Nicholas was staring at her. “Please. What was his name? How do you know him?”
She stumbled to her feet. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Hey - I need to know?”
She ran.
Away. That was the only thing that came to mind. Far away from here.
Behind her, she could hear Nicholas calling her. “Anne, come back!”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The school had nice bathrooms. Calming decor, quiet stalls.
Right now, Anne was grateful for the quiet. It gave her time with her thoughts.
What could she do?
She’d hurt Nick, for sure. And … she couldn’t tell him more.
Not when his own mother hadn’t.
She saw the bathroom door open through her nanobots. Sally Keaton walked in.
“Anne? Are you there?”
She stayed quiet.
“Anne, please. I’m worried about you.” A pause. “Nick went home, by the way.”
… that was a relief.
She sighed. “I’m coming out.”
“Okay.”
Sally waited while she washed her face.
“Where are the others?” Anne asked.
“They went home. It’s late, you know.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Y’know, Reg wanted to search the school for you. I convinced him it would be a bad idea.”
“Thanks. How did you find me, anyway?”
“Figured you’d want to go somewhere Nick couldn’t follow. Girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms were the obvious choice. After that, I just checked all of them.”
“... thanks.”
“You didn’t know Nick went home?”
“I promised myself I wouldn’t stalk you guys with nanbots.”
Sally chuckled. “I wouldn’t have minded. Word is, girls are safer in London when you’re around.”
Anne frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, everyone thinks you have a massive surveillance network across the city. So people go out in the middle of the night, absolutely sure that if something happens to them, Nanocloud will contact the authorities.”
“That’s absurd. I don’t have nearly enough nanobots to watch nine million people.”
Sally raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t say you don’t have enough time.”
“Well, that too.” Anne paused. “Actually, that’s not true. I can multitask.”
“There’s no such thing as multitasking. People simply switch their attention between different tasks and do each one suboptimally. At least, that’s what my drama coach says.”
“I can multitask.”
“How does that work, exactly?”
“I can see everything my nanobots see in parallel. It’s like … a number of tiny movies playing in my head, each with its own sound and colour, and I can watch them all at the same time.”
“Eh, you’re ultrahuman, you get a pass. Honestly, between the invisible flying robots and being able to watch infinite movies, it’s clear which power is cooler.” Sally checked outside the bathroom door. “All clear, no lurking Nicks or Regs.”
“Thanks. I already saw that through my nanobots.”
“Spoilsport. So, could you watch over the entire population of London if you had enough bots?”
“I guess I could. Doesn’t mean I should.”
“Ooh, that’s a cool line. Mind if I steal it for Starwing?”
Anne giggled. “Sure. Knock yourself out.”
“Rather knock the bad guys out. So, you want to talk about it?”
Did she?
Anne swallowed nervously. “I didn’t know about Nick not knowing his dad.”
“That was kind of obvious. Honestly, when you mentioned his dad, all our brains sort of short-circuited. I was going ‘wait, what?’ half the time.”
“You all knew?”
“Duh, it’s sort of a big thing with Nick. He’s been obsessed with finding his biological dad. Was planning to sign up for one of those DNA genealogy things when he turned eighteen.”
Anne thought about her own grandmother, Sangeetha Quentin, and her obsession with her own father’s identity. “I get that. Is he mad at me?”
“Not at you, actually. He’s just mad about the whole situation. Did you know his mum told him he was a test tube baby?”
“I didn’t.”
“He mostly wants to know the name though.”
Anne swallowed. “That’s … not my secret to tell.”
“Right. That might get him a bit sulky.”
“... Sulky?”
“You haven’t known Nick long enough. When he gets mad, he sulks. Like a toddler. Makes all these funny faces, too.” Sally grinned. “On the bright side, you’re about to get an introduction to his full range.”
“I don’t want him angry.”
Sally’s grin turned wicked. “Got some special feelings for Nicky-boy, have we?”
“It’s not like that! I have to work with his mom. And go to class with him.”
Sally shrugged. “Eh, he’s cute enough. You should try to persuade him to ignore this tiny detail. Maybe while wearing a low-cut top.”
“Sally!”
“What? It’s a perfectly legitimate tactic for getting boys to forget stuff. Just don’t try it on Reg.”
“I don’t think flirting is a great idea. Remember, I have to work with his mom?”
“Yeah, but unlike other girls, I bet you’re not scared of her attack helicopters.”
Anne rolled her eyes. “Honestly, are boys all you think about?”
“When you spend three days a week on a set with drop-dead gorgeous guys, it’s a very different vibe. Hey, why don’t you come down to the set next week? I’ll introduce you to Dean Haskins and Toby Marmett.”
“Why would I want to meet them? And why would they want to meet me?”
“To question number one, they’re the hottest teen stars in England right now. To question number two, you’re Nanocloud. They’ll be tripping over themselves for an autograph. Or to get into your pants.”
“... Uh, I’m not interested in dating. And they can’t be that bad.”
“Honestly, Dean will bang anything that moves, and Toby’s just a few steps behind. Don’t hesitate to decline any offers for dinner dates, cakes, booze, or little blue pills - they won’t mind. So, next weekend?”
“Can I take a rain check?”
“Suit yourself, offer’s open anytime. Here we are - I do believe that’s your autocar.” Sally pointed to the vehicle in the parking lot as they exited the building. “See you tomorrow, Anne.”