9 Boyfriends

Chapter 39

Monday afternoon…

This day is dragging by. After I showed North and Silas my new unlocking skills last night North shooed me off to bed. He said he didn’t want to spend the next day constantly waking me up and i wouldn’t have time for a nap before our date. After my morning hike with Nathan and cooking with Luke I was pretty tired, so I didn't argue.

When I woke up only Nathan was in the house so I guessed everyone else went home last night. Kota picked us up for school and the morning has gone pretty much as scheduled. That is until we were told to go to Owen and Dr. Sean’s office for a lunch meeting. Owen was half sitting on his desk, one foot on the ground. The rest of us were sitting around on the floor, eating our lunch.

“Alright Owen, get on with it. I have things to do.” Sean was sitting in his desk chair turning it back and forth.

“Patience is a virtue Dr. Green. I was waiting for the elder Mr. Taylor to finish his bag of chips so I wouldn’t need to compete with the crinkling of the bag.” With that everyone turned to look at Luke, who had paused with a chip half way to his mouth. He put the chip back into the bag and set it on the ground next to him. “Sorry about that Mr. B. I’m done.” Gabriel laughed and slapped Luke on the back of the head.
“Ok, settle down. This is a quick meeting to get everyone up to date on where we are with our investigation into Volto. We have gone through our reports and found a few things to follow up on.”

Kota held his hand up and asked “Sir, what does that mean exactly?”

Owen nodded once at Kota to acknowledge his question, before continuing. “It means that we have a few people that we have encountered in the past that might hold a grudge. Mr. Morgan, I sent the list of names to the private account. I want you to see what you can find on them. Where they are living, working, anything and everything.” Victor nodded his head.

“Shouldn’t we be looking at people inside the Academy?” I asked it before I had really formed the thought in my head. It would make sense though, Volto seemed to know a lot about the guys and how the Academy functioned. When I looked up at Owen and around at the guys though, they did not seem to share my feelings.

Owen stood up and smoothed his tie down. “I understand where that thought is coming from Miss Sorenson, however I am certain that someone like Volto would have never made it into the Academy. He would have never made it through the vetting process.”

“What if he had a change of heart? What if something happened that made him rethink his feelings about the Academy?”

Owen was about to say something, but Victor beat him to it. “Maybe we shouldn’t totally rule it out Mr. Blackbourne. He had insight into how we would handle situations.” He paused and furrowed his brow, as if thinking it through.

While he was thinking, Luke sat up straighter and said “What about someone that wanted in, but didn’t pass? Hell I would probably hold a grudge if I really thought I deserved in but I didn’t make it.”

“That doesn’t fucking explain why he would be targeting our team though Luke.” Gabe stood up as he spoke and started pacing around the room. I had turned to watch Gabe walk, but instead caught the look that Sean was passing to Owen. He had stopped spinning his chair and sat straight. Did he think of something? Nobody else seemed to have noticed their exchange. “What?” Everyone looked at me, but I kept my eyes on Dr. Sean. “Have you thought of something?” I don’t care if it was rude to call him out in front of everyone. I didn’t want to risk him and Owen not sharing what they were thinking. Everyone turned their attention to Dr. Sean.

“Right. Well, I was just thinking…” he stopped looking at Owen as if he needed an okay to continue. Owen must have given him what he needed because he said “I was thinking that a few of us have served on selection committees over the last few years.” He left it at that. What was a selection committee? I wanted to ask more, but Kota tried to fill in the blanks for me.

“What he is saying Sang, is that if someone, like Volto, really did apply for membership but was denied, he might hold that against someone on the selection committee. A committee is assigned to follow every person as they apply for membership.” Kota looked up at Owen. “Do we have access to see those records? To go back and see which committees we were on when someone was denied membership?”

Owen had been nodding along as Kota was talking. “Yes, we do. I’ll take care of that, the list shouldn’t be that long. Mr. Coleman, do you have the face sketch of Volto?” Gabriel nodded, and said “Victor has it on his laptop.”

“I can send it out to everyone’s personal accounts.”

Owen shook his head. “Just send it to me for now. I’ll compare it to the list of denied applicants.” The bell sounded to signal the end of lunch. “That’s all for now. Everyone finish the day and I will keep you updated when I get a list together.”

Gabriel came up behind me as I stood up and swung an arm around neck. “We are going to get this fucker Trouble.”