Doctor Heckman studied Yesu. One hand stroking his mustache.
Thinking.
Contemplating.
His eyes wandered across the cramped laboratory.
The machinery. The samples. The scans. The mountains of paperwork.
It took a while.
Yesu waited patiently. Not a trace of anxiety showed on her face.
Instead, she was studying him too.
Eventually, Doctor Heckman looked back at her.
He leaned against a nearby desk.
"I don't really have any say in the matter." He said flatly. "The State assigned you to for study."
He gestured vaguely around the small laboratory.
"So I study you."
He seed totally uninterested in the discussion. The twinkle in his eyes had dimd from boredom.
Yesu gave a devious smile.
"You really don't believe that, do you?"
Doctor Heckman's serious deanor vanished instantly.
"Of course not." He said, letting out a short laugh.
He waved a hand dismissively.
"But they pay the bills, you know."
"I see." Yesu nodded thoughtfully. "That does seem like enough reaison."
"It can be frustrating, I admit." Doctor Heckman said with a scowl.
Then began talking to himself as usual.
"Science and politics were never made to mix. But what do we have here? Governnt policies prying at my precious work…"
Yesu wasn't even pretending to be listening.
There had to be a way to get back to the squad before seventeen hundred.
"...I'd rather work in a hell hole if I had the opportunity…"
The mumblings went on.
Yesu's eyes suddenly lit up.
"What about Arrow?" She asked eagerly. "He's my Keeper. If he says I can return, then can I?"
The Doctor was back to the present. He stroked his moustache again.
"Unfortunately, Mr Arrow isn't authorized to disrupt State objectives. Even if you are his ward."
Yesu almost groaned.
"Can I at least give him a call?"
"No."
Yesu slumped.
"Give a break, would you?"
Doctor Heckman returned to his reports.
Papers rustled.
Machines humd.
A minute passed.
Then—
"What if," ca Yesu. "I return the Scales to the squad and co back?" She suggested.
Doctor Heckman didn't even look up.
"Not an option."
Yesu sank deeper into the chair with a sigh. "Can't say I expected anything better from you anyway."
That made him glance over.
"How so?"
"Back at Foundation Camp. I almost got wiped out, and you let them."
Doctor Heckman returned his attention to the report.
He considered it for a mont.
"I rely allowed the necessary course of action to take place."
"It didn't seem necessary to ."
A smile appeared beneath his mustache.
"Did you feel betrayed?" He asked, intrigued. "And now hold a grudge?"
Yesu shrugged.
"I don't know about either."
Doctor Heckman looked amused. "Then what exactly is the problem?"
Yesu didn't hesitate.
"Well, based on the virtue of trust, don't you think you owe ?"
Doctor Heckman leaned forward, entertained.
"Really now?"
***
Back at the vault area, Squad 11-D were putting the finishing touches on their traps.
The forest around Vault Three had beco a maze of hidden dangers.
Trip wires. Concealed pits. Alarm lines. Obstacles.
Everywhere students moved with purpose.
Finch tied another length of string between two trees.
His eyes drifted toward the forest.
Again.
The exact direction Yesu had disappeared into.
He forced himself to focus.
A few monts later, he looked again.
Across the clearing, Soraya was making another round of inspections.
Her gaze flickered toward the sa stretch of trees.
And Finch noticed.
Just as he noticed she had noticed him.
Soraya looked away.
Suddenly, Reggie stopped working. His forehead wrinkled in thought.
"Wait a minute."
The squad paused.
He looked at Soraya. "Sothing just occurred to ."
Nobody liked the sound of that.
"Why hasn't 12-B shown up yet?"
The question seed to snap everyone out of a trance.
Soraya didn't answer.
"What do you an?" soone asked.
Reggie gestured around the trap-filled clearing.
"We all got the sa Directive."
His voice grew sharper.
"12-B knows about the claiming rights. They know only one class can submit. They know about the one-hour vault window…. So why aren't they here?"
Silence followed.
The squad thought about it.
Isaiah slowly looked up from his computer.
"He's making a point."
Everyone turned.
"If they had received the Directive, there's no way they would've stayed away for this long."
His eyes moved across the traps.
"We've had enough ti to secure the area and set all this up… That's not right."
A knot ford in several stomachs.
It all had been easy.
Far too easy.
"Maybe they're mocking us." Carrots suggested. "Maybe they think we're so weak they can crush us inside the submission window."
Reggie imdiately shook his head. "No one is that confident." He folded his arms. "At least nobody is smart."
Farida suddenly gasped. "Unless..."
The squad looked at her.
"Unless 12-B hasn't been inford yet."
The clearing went quiet.
Dead quiet.
"How would that even be possible?"
Only the sounds of swaying trees replied.
"Hey, Soraya," soone called out suddenly. "You said you got summoned this morning. Was the vault location all that was said?"
Slowly, every head turned toward Soraya.
She had been silently watching.
And for the first ti all day, sothing unmistakable appeared on her face.
Dread.
Reggie imdiately started toward her.
"You've been acting really weird ever since you ca back from that summon. Is there sothing you're hiding from us?"
Soraya's expression hardened. "What exactly do you an by that?"
"Don't play dumb."
Farida frowned. "Reggie, that's enough. You can't speak to her like that."
Reggie barely glanced at her. "Why? Because she's Prefect? Aren't prefects supposed to be accountable?"
He stepped closer to Soraya. "You'd better tell us what's going on."
Soraya t his stare. "Or what?"
The tension exploded.
Reggie was moving dangerously closer to her.
Grover hurried over and stepped between them. With his good arm, he pushed Reggie back.
"Enough."
The squad imdiately split.
So sided with Soraya.
Others sided with Reggie.
"Can we even trust what she's saying?"
"Maybe we're not even at the right vault."
"What if it doesn't open at seventeen hundred?"
"Then how do we submit the Scales?"
At the ntion of Scales, Isaiah froze.
Scales.
His blood ran cold. He shoved both hands into his pockets, searching frantically.
Nothing.
His eyes widened.
Then he rembered.
The pit. Farida falling.
The pouch.
He had handed it to Yesu.
Slowly, he looked around.
No Yesu.
His stomach dropped.
Co to think of it… He hadn't seen her for a long ti.
The argunt continued around him.
Soraya simply watched, she didn't seem like soone willing to clear things up.
Isaiah swallowed.
"Guys..." he called weakly.
Nobody heard him.
"Guys!"
The shouting continued.
Finally he yelled.
"THE SCALES ARE GONE!"
The clearing fell silent.
Every head turned.
"What?" soone whispered.
Isaiah looked sick. "The Scales are gone."
Soraya's eyes narrowed. "How?"
"I gave them to Yesu." He blurted, breathless.
The words hit the squad like a punch.
"And Yesu isn't here."
Everyone instinctively looked around.
The clearing. The vault. The traps.
The forest.
No Yesu.
Only then did they realize it.
She had been absent this entire ti.
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