Ultraviolet

Chapter One: Smoke Before Fire

Ronald Reagan National Airport

Arlington, Virginia

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The adults were talking in hushed voices again.

They'd been doing so since before the twenty students and six adults on the trip had boarded their first plane in Geneva, and now, once they'd all gathered their luggage and gone out to wait for the bus that would bring them to their hotel, the adults had come together to discuss once more. And Elisabeta Tseldottir was starting to get a little worried.

She didn't know all the chaperones for the trip. The only one she really recognized was Doctor Prescott, the American History teacher who led the group, but Isi didn't know her well enough to guess at her thoughts from her expression. She'd only been in class with the doctor since August.

Isi, keeping her gaze fixed on the knot of chaperones as they conversed a few yards from their charges, spotted an interloper: Tucker Grayson, who was hovering nearby, trying to eavesdrop. It appeared he was specifically targeting his mother, who, as a chaperone, was with the other adults. He was noticed almost immediately, though.

Flapping her hands at her son, Mrs. Grayson cried in Chinese, "Get away! This isn't for you." She turned back to the conversation as Tucker slouched back to join his friends, scowling.

"What's she saying?" asked Saffron. She and Emma were pacing above where Isi and Marta were sitting on the curb. The four girls had been friends since sixth grade, when Isi had come to ALB.

Despite the fact that she knew full well what Mrs. Grayson had said, Isi didn't answer Saffron. It was a strict rule that she didn't reveal to anyone that she was good at languages.

Emma scowled. "I'm Japanese. And I don't even speak Japanese."

"I wasn't talking to you," Saffron said with a frown of her own. "It was a general question of incomprehension."

"Don't be pretentious," Emma shot back.

Isi exchanged a glance with Marta, who shook her head fondly. Emma and Saffron were constantly fighting, and Isi was of the opinion that they enjoyed it as much as any other hobby. Marta was always encouraging them to join the debate team so that they'd let off some steam in a more constructive way, but neither of them had particularly wanted to.

Marta, by contrast, was calm and quiet by nature and typically took the peacemaker role with Isi. She was the prettiest of the four of them, too, with perfectly symmetrical features, a straight nose, full mouth, and glossy dark hair. Her brown eyes always had a spark of humor or mischief in them, and her smile was easy and infectious.

"Probably they're talking about the fires," Isi said in a quiet enough voice that it lured Emma and Saffron out of their argument to listen to her. "My dad told me. Most people are thinking it's arson, even though the police haven't made any statements yet."

Emma hopped off the sidewalk to stand in front of Isi and Marta. She was a tall girl, and cut an intimidating figure when she propped her hands on her hips. "Really? Why didn't we know about this?"

"Probably they didn't want us to worry," Marta said reasonably.

Emma opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when she spotted Mrs. Grayson, Tucker's mother and their group's chaperone, coming to make sure they were all set. The bus was pulling in next to the curb near where the adults had been talking.