Thanksgiving had passed. Tony was leaving Chem Class on the first day back from the holiday when he was called by name. Looking around, he saw Pete walking towards him.
“Hey, Tony…I gotta talk to you", Pete said. "Can you come up to my Office ?”
“Umm…Sure”, Tony said, following Pete towards the stairs. “You get everything straightened out with the Head, then ?”
“Yeah”, Pete said. “All fixed up. That’s what I need to talk to you about.”
Tony went up the stairs with Pete and then down the hall. Stopping at the setback door, Pete produced a set of keys, and unlocked not one, but three locks set in the door that looked brand-new. Entering the small room, Pete closed and re-locked the door, and motioned Tony into the chair, now near the desk.
The place was all cleaned up from the last time Tony had been there. There was no papers scattered on the floor, the desk was clear, with all the drawers put back in, and the huge file cabinet in the corner, Tony noticed, had some extra hardware on it….Sliding bars and several tough-looking padlocks now adorned the front of it. The desk lamp had been fixed and now sat in one corner of the top of the desk.
Pete sat down behind the desk. “I wanted to see you Tony, and let you know that I have my Mediator job back, thanks to you. I went to see Crabblesnich, and explained it all to him. Showed him that I.D. Card that was found here.”
“And he believed you, just like that ?”, Tony questioned.
“Well….I had help”, Pete said. “I didn’t go in there alone.”
“Help ? What Help ?”, Tony Asked.
“I can’t tell you that”, Pete said. Tony opened his mouth to say something, but Pete waved him to silence. “No…You got to understand, Tony…There’s things I can’t talk about. Dangerous things. Things that have to be kept quiet.”
“What do you mean ?”, Tony asked.
Pete sighed. “Look, Crabblesnich knows that I know things. He doesn’t know how much I know, I’m quite sure, but he realizes that I know enough to cause him…And the School…A lot of trouble. Plus, I think he’s smart enough to figure out that this whole thing against me was bogus…I mean, what idiot would leave panties scattered in easy-to-find places in his work office, just as a mysterious note suddenly appears on his secretary’s desk out of nowhere ? This was obviously a set-up, and Crabblesnich is no dummy -- He had to suspend me at first, really didn’t have a choice…But now the facts are out there, so….” He indicated the Office with a sweep of his arm…”Here I am.”
“Yeah, But…” Tony began.
“But Nothing”, Pete said. “The last thing Crabblesnich wants is for me to turn up in a Federal Prosecutor’s Office somewhere. I’m sure the Harringtons wouldn’t like that either. This whole place operates on secrecy. As they used to say in the Dorm, ‘This Place Is Rotten To The Core’…They just didn’t know how right they were.”
“If that’s so…”, Tony said slowly, “Why not just…Whack you ?”
“They’re not gonna chance killing a kid, even an older kid like me…That’s too risky. Besides, they don’t think that I’m that big of a threat to them. That I know enough to really hurt them.”
“But…”, Tony said slowly, “You Do ?”
Pete didn’t say anything.
Tony slumped back in his chair. “Woah…”
Both boys sat there in silence. After a minute, Tony asked, “Why do you go along with this ?”
“Because…If this School goes down, we all go down”, Pete replied.
“Whadda Mean ?’, Tony asked. “How does that affect us ?”
“I want to get out of here”, Pete said. “I want to graduate. If the school is brought down, all of the academics will be worthless. All the Credits will be lost. Yours…Mine…Everybodys….All the classes you ever went to here won’t count. The state will pull accreditation, and every course will be tarnished. Not so bad for you maybe, you haven’t been here very long. But for me, and others like me, who have been here for years, it would totally screw our chances of ever getting into a decent College. Like I said, I want out…And I’m not gonna hang around here and be a Prefect.”
Tony sat stunned. Again, for the second time in as many weeks, he was seeing much more than maybe he should be knowing.
“There’s another thing”, Pete said. “I convinced Crabblesnich that I needed an assistant….You.”
Here Pete reached into the desk drawer, and threw a set of keys across the desk. Tony looked at him questionly.
“I could really use the help. You’re a good kid, about the only one in this place I can trust. Besides, you know too much to back out now.” Pete paused. “Whadda Say ?”
Slowly Tony reached over and picked up the keys. “OK….I’m In”
“Good”, Pete said. “Oh, and Tony…I’m gonna need those files back. Those papers you took. You may think they’re safe, but unless you buried them….” Here Pete looked at Tony, who shook his head No, he continued….”Then they’re not safe. Anyone can find them. Look at the stuff you’ve found.”
Tony was remembering. It DID seem like hiding places eventually got discovered…He had sure come across places himself that he thought were secure…But…
“Bet you have them stashed in one of the caves around here, don’t you…”, Pete said, and here Tony just looked at him with a look of surprise…”Oh, yeah, I know about those places, and so do lots of others who have been around here awhile. It’s only natural to want to get away and explore. Once you’re around here for a couple or three years, you pretty much know where all those spots are.”
Tony got to thinking. Pete was right. Nowhere out there was really safe. So where was safe ? Tony looked over at the now-heavily fortified file cabinet. For the first time he noticed that it was now also bolted to the floor. Pete pointed to the cabinet. “Nobody’s getting in there now. Short of an acetylene torch, that is. Probably the safest place in the whole School now.”
Tony agreed. “I’ll get the papers back here tonight”, he said. “I can sneak them back in without getting busted.”
“I think you’ll find that’s not a problem for you anymore”, Pete said. “Perks of the job from now on -- The Prefects have to leave us alone. All you have to tell them is you’re on School Business. They have to back off. They’re not allowed in here, either. That’s kind of funny, having something that’s off-limits to those fuckers.”
“Sounds sweet…I think I’m liking this job a whole lot more now.” Tony rose to leave. “Oh, um, Pete…Something I gotta tell you. Remember when we talked the last time, about the Bombings ?”
Pete nodded. “What did you find out ?”
“I had just remembered something that happened that night. Trent was keeping anyone from going in the Boy’s dorm right before the bomb in there went off. When I asked him about it, he finally let out that Jake had told him to keep everyone out that night.”
Pete leaned back. “That means Jake…Knew something…”
“Yeah, I think he was in on it somehow, or knew it was coming…..”, Tony agreed.
“And Jake’s been missing now for….What, a couple months ?”, Pete asked.
“Just about…Except for his contacts with Trent…..I’m gonna have to talk to that boy alone somewhere private. He knows something….I’ll get it outta him”, Tony said.
“Get them papers back here first. That’s most important right now”, Pete said.
“Will Do”, said Tony, heading for the door. “See you later.”
Tony exited the small office, and stood in the hallway, considering. It became clear to him that it was urgent to get those papers back into Pete’s newly-fortified file cabinet. This was now a very important mission. Thinking, Tony decided to take along Laurent and Constantinos for lookouts and backup. He couldn’t afford to take any chances on this one.
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