𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔈𝔩𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫

"My father tells me many things." Theo's hands found their way into his pockets, and he dug them as far as they would go. "He tells me stuff about his job, about his coworkers, about the top pier people he meets...and about things he's not supposed to discuss with outsiders. It's the kind of relationship we have. We see each other as equals, so we trade equal information."

Sounds more like a business deal than a relationship between a father and son.

"My mom has a similar job in the government, but she's a lower level so doesn't get the kind of information my dad does. A few months ago I caught her spying on my dad. My mom's a master hacker, but she can be a bit messy with her coverups so it can be easy to spot trails she leaves."

"Are you a hacker, too?" I asked.

"It's just a hobby," he replied casually. "When I approached her, she told me her suspicions about my dad and some of his other co-workers. When I helped her look further into it, we realized it was deeper and stretched further than we imagined.

"Time went by, but we couldn't find anything worth bringing to light. Mother pushed it to the back of her mind, but I made sure to keep tabs on my dad just in case. If he's noticed, he hasn't said a word. We still have our evening meetings to talk about his work and mine—although he's definitely holding lots of information back. Information that I find in his computer later."

I grinned and said, "I never knew you were such a naughty child, Chippy."

"Chippy?"

"Short for Chipmunk."

"I see," he grumbled.

His eyes closed, his lashes barely brushing against his cheeks as he sighed. "I just admitted to doing things that could put me in prison for longer than I'm going to live. I expect you to all keep this secret. Do you understand?" He opened his eyes and gave every person in the room a hard stare.

Everyone nodded silently.

The knock that pierced through the silence made Theo and me jump. Elio and Wren acted as though they had somehow heard the footsteps before the knock and just turned to face the door calmly.

"Pizza delivery," a low voice said through the door. Then a thump sounded and footsteps receded.

We all remained tense for a few minutes.

I walked over to the door and opened it, my eyes drifting to both sides of the hallway outside. The lights flickered, but I saw no other movement. Looking down I saw a large pizza box resting on the floor against the wall. I brought it inside, kicked the door closed, and set the box on my desk.

Minutes passed, but no one moved to open the box.

"Are seriously none of us brave enough to open it?" I questioned the silent room. Before any of them could reply, I leaned over and flipped the top back. It hit the wall with a soft thud.

There, lying on top of a normal-looking pizza covered in nothing but vegetables, was a small slip of paper.

'Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast'.

Be careful, young rash Romeo.

—Flambard

I looked over at Theo whose eyes were shifting over the words, reading them over and over. "Isn't that the name of that creepy-looking sword you picked for our duel?" I questioned him.

"Yeah..." he murmured.

"What an odd code name," I stated. My hand reached out to grab the paper, but Theo slapped a hand on my wrist and yanked me back. In a flash, he himself had grabbed it and brought it to his other hand, tearing the page in half once, twice, three times—over and over until it was nothing but small specks of white. He let it fall to the floor like snow.